The Premiere of “Echo”
A Radio Program Supporting the
Youth Struggle for Sex Health Awareness in Belize

August 24, 2009: Belize – Media Impact is partnering with UNICEF Belize and Red Cross Belize to produce Echo, the first radio magazine show to discuss HIV/AIDS and healthy sex practices in this underserved nation. Echo’s highlight is the 20-episode radio soap opera Dah Alla Wah Bizniz (All of Our Business). Written by a team of young, Media Impact-trained volunteers under the supervision of a professional writer and UNICEF Belize staff, Dah Alla Wah Bizniz targets local youth, ten to eighteen years old. The series is receiving great praise from the community, shows extremely high levels of audience participation and is widely known and enjoyed among the community.

Since its initial airing, Echo’s impact has reverberated throughout Belize City and Stan Creek. The region is largely silent when it comes to discussing sex, reproduction, and HIV—these topics are considered taboo. Because of this attitude, sexual and reproductive health education for the region’s youth is extremely limited, leading young and old Belizeans alike to label HIV a “gay disease.” Moreover, the stigma of HIV is so prevalent and effective testing and treatment are so difficult for youth to obtain, that a fatalistic attitude has taken root—currently, the young people of Belize actually prefer to remain ignorant about HIV. As a result of these cultural conditions and prevailing attitudes, 2.2% of Belize's 308,000 inhabitants’ live with HIV, and 60% of women have no comprehensive knowledge of the disease. Alyssa Noble, Acting Director of the Belize National AIDS Commission, describes Echo as a completely new and innovative approach. She says it has “created a target audience” for a larger national campaign to combat the rising rates of HIV among youth.

Listener feedback has shown that the most popular episodes of Echo are If You No Beat Me, You No Love Me, and It's Not Easy Being Young, which deal with teen pregnancy, sugar daddies, HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and homophobia. Media Impact’s innovative radio magazine approach, which includes ‘vox pop’ on-the-street interviews, listener call-in, and segments with experts, allows youth to discuss important issues affecting their everyday lives. One poignant, telling reaction came via a simple text message from a listener to the station's free hotline: "Funny how few people die from swine flu and everyone is wearing dust mask and millions are dying from aids and no one is using condom.”

On July 14, Media Impact assisted in a radio scriptwriting workshop for young volunteers. The workshop was led by the popular local Belizean TV personality, journalist and former child rights worker William Neil, and hosted by Red Cross Belize. All participants were inspired by the show and wanted to be more involved. To this end, the workshop trained sixteen new young volunteers in the essentials of scriptwriting, entertainment education, and sexual health issues. At the end of the three days, all participants were eager to help write the remaining scripts, take part in listener discussion groups, or become actors and hosts on the show.

“This radio magazine program has become a great success. Watching the youths’ enthusiasm and energy increase as they made the program their own was truly inspiring. Only when the producers, writers, actors, and audience members begin to feel collective ownership of the program’s message does it successfully generate social change in the community. This show has reached that level, and we expect to see real impact very soon,” said Lindsey Wahlstrom, Media Impact Program Associate, who participated in the most recent creative workshop in Belize

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