Water Conservation Radio Makes a Splash in Honduras
Radio novella attracts listeners
to drama on the environment
By Lindsey Wahlstrom

January 2, 2010 - Rosita is on a perilous mission: raging forest fires caused by illegal slash-burning threaten to consume the forests surrounding her highland village. She must find a way to stop these devastating fires, because if the forests go up in smoke, so too will the livelihood of her people.

If five year-old Rosita does not accomplish her imperative mission before the angel of water fades from the façade of the town’s quaint chapel – as the angels of land and fauna have already done – the village’s last vestiges of hope will vanish forever.

Realistic? Maybe. Dramatic? Definitely. Did it get your attention? Absolutely.

Rosita is one of several characters in the Honduran radio soap opera, Angel Water, written and produced by Red de Desarrollo Sostenible (RDS) - Honduras (Sustainable Development Network – Honduras). RDS is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable development through information sharing technology and project development. This year, RDS adopted a new strategy to disseminate their message in Valle de Ángeles, Honduras when, in May, they employed drama to creatively address threats to the local eco-system and way of life in the country’s first environmentally-focused radionovela and radio magazine, From the River Basin.

According to RDS Project Coordinator, Victor Avila, the initiative was born out of the organization’s desire to inform and engage local residents in the campaign to end destructive behaviors such as agricultural forest burning and dumping household waste into the local river.

“People from the city come here to relax and don’t realize they are a part of this system,” he said. “We are doing this program so that the people take responsibility [for the environment].”

RDS and a team of local partners use over-the-top drama, colorful characters and intriguing plot twists to captivate 1.5 million listeners and keep them tuning in each week, providing RDS regular opportunities to inform and excite the audience about local conservation efforts.

Every Friday night, a pair of volunteer hosts puts the soap opera in context by interviewing local environmental experts, discussing the issues with listeners via phone calls and text messages and by interacting with the program’s mascots, who have become local celebrities themselves. The team has also sponsored a variety of community events from listener groups to street theater to grab listener attention.

According to Balbina Olivera, of Concejo de Cuenca, a Honduran organization working to conserve, protect and recuperate natural resources, more than 10,000 people participated in events at a recent street fair, including a recycled-materials fashion show, tasty traditional foods and exaggerated characters that towered over guests on stilts. The project team hosted the two-day fair as one of several events associated to promote the radio show and its messages.

A number of local organizations including Focuencas, La Casa de Cultura, the Secretary of Natural Resources and Radio Nacional de Honduras provide technical and financial support for Angel Water. Local volunteers between the ages of 12 and 70 (including Olivera) write, record, produce and host the show.

“People identify with the stories since they have been taken from problems and situations that are common not only in Valle de Ángeles but in all of Honduras,” said Olivera. “It’s interesting to hear the voice of someone you know, and even better when it’s about a topic that interests us.”

The team has also corresponded with an organization that wants to rebroadcast the program in Panama.

It is still too early to know the exact effect Angel Water is having (impact will be measured through baseline and final assessments, and focus groups throughout the program), but it has quickly become the talk of the town, said Olivera. “People are learning very difficult concepts through the show,” she added.

Michael Castlen , Executive Director of PCI-Media Impact, the primary organization providing technical assistance and financing for the project, said it is extremely important to create a project that involves community members and that refers to the local context. As he explained, this means listeners “can identify the service providers used in the storyline or know the actor portraying their favorite character, and not only is listenership higher, but demand for services and overall impact is significantly greater.”

He also noted that radio drama is effective in mobilizing community members because the audience connects and sympathizes with the characters. “When listeners tune in to find out what will happen with their favorite character, they also hear the educational messages repeated over and over and, after a while, those messages begin to influence their attitudes and behavior. The trick to getting them hooked is creating dramatic tension in each episode.”

RDS succeeded in creating this tension in the last episode when Rosita became trapped in the middle of a forest fire and no one could find her.

So what happened? You, just like everyone in Valle de Ángeles, will have to tune in next week to find out.

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