It’s 6:40 on a Saturday evening
and Youth Alert! Mix, the most popular youth radio magazine program
in Malawi, is blazing across the airwaves. In a remote area of
the country, a young woman is listening.
Carol Tambala, 18, comes from a poor family
from Mtelera village in Southern Malawi. At 16 she became pregnant
and dropped out of school and, for the past two years, has been
imploring her parents to let her return to no avail. Carol has
one ambition in her life — to become a nurse — and
she knows school is the only way.
“During my antenatal visits I met a lot
of nurses and they told me I had to complete my education if I
wanted to pursue a career in nursing,” she says. “That’s
why it was paining me to see my fellow girls carrying books going
to school every morning, knowing that staying at home would take
me nowhere.”
“One evening I was listening to Youth
Alert Mix! with my parents, and the presenters were talking about
the importance of returning to school after becoming pregnant,”
she explained to Ricky Nyaleye, presenter of Youth Alert! Mix.
The young mothers featured on the Youth Alert!
Mix program who managed to continue their studies and attain their
goals gave Carol courage. The program also moved her parents.
“The interview with a girl who had gone back to school was
touching,” Carol’s mother recalls. “Soon after
the program, we made a decision to allow our daughter to go back
to school.”
“I am very happy that our daughter has
gone back to school. Maybe after completing her education, our
daughter will get a good job and will take care of us …
but am very happy that she is now back in school.”
Carol is elated about returning to school.
“Now I am back at school, my goal is to become a nurse one
day and I am working hard to achieve this goal.”
She has this message to her friends: “Fellow
young people, please avoid having unprotected
sex. Unprotected sex can lead to unintended
pregnancies; you can contract sexually transmitted infections
and even the HIV/AIDS virus.”
USAID funds Youth Alert!, a program about making good health and
life decisions thereby promoting HIV prevention among young people.
Operating in Malawi since 2001, USAID supports all four of Youth
Alert’s key components:
Youth Alert! Schools Program — Targets
secondary school youth with interactive methods like role playing
and participative drama. The Program educates and motivates youth
to adopt responsible sexual behaviors.
Youth Alert! Mix — This thrice weekly
radio show promotes the importance of making good decisions and
interpersonal communication.
Youth Alert! Listeners Clubs and Teacher Training—
Two hundred youth Listeners Clubs congregate to listen to YAM!
together and discuss issues of reproductive health raised in the
radio show in a small group format.
Youth Alert! Peer Education — After a
peer education training, 160 exemplary youth leaders are now leading
discussions among their peers about HIV/AIDS and how to make difficult
decisions about their health and future goals.
