Kenya - Ushikwapo Shikamana
 Ushikwapo Shikamana (If Assisted, Assist Yourself)
completed five years of broadcasting at the end of June 2004. Ushikwapo  dramatized
life in three typical Kenyan settings: an urban center, a
city's outskirts, and a rural area where opportunities for
education and gainful employment are few. HIV/AIDS prevention,
compassion for people living with AIDS, and the plight of
AIDS orphans are important ongoing themes of the program.
Other social and cultural issues addressed include teen sexuality,
women's low status, domestic violence, female circumcision,
substance abuse, and rural-to-urban migration.
Beginning at the end of April 2005, PCI sponsored the rebroadcast
of Ushikwapo through a partnership with First Voice
International (FVI) on FVI’s community and satellite
radio platform. FVI owns 5 percent of the capacity on the
WorldSpace satellite system and is responsible for establishing
the first-ever pan-African satellite radio service dedicated
exclusively to open access, non-commercial, educational and
social development programs. The broadcast runs over twenty-six
weeks, with four episodes airing per week.
 In addition to two community radio stations in Kenya, FVI
has fourteen community radio stations in Uganda and five
community radio stations in Tanzania, all of which broadcast
in Kiswahili. Ushikwapo is now being broadcast in
all of those countries and throughout Africa to those with
access to satellite radio.
The PCI/FVI partnership is following the serial drama broadcasts
with on-the-ground interventions to assess and reinforce
the messages in Ushikwapo. Currently, the program
is being assessed in Kenya by Relief and Environmental Care
Africa (RECA). RECA organized focus groups with thirty-three
listener groups, representing over 1500 people, mostly women
and children, predominantly from rural western and central
Kenya after the first broadcast. Nearly everyone who participated
in the focus groups was a first-time listener and unfamiliar
with the original broadcast.
 The first feedback on the listening groups is exciting.
Since the program began, there has been a steady increase
in the number of listeners within various listening groups,
and more people are aware of the causes of diseases such
as HIV/AIDS. Additionally, listeners, especially young girls,
are now aware of their rights regarding the disease and other
abuses, and more reticent members of the listening groups
are now actively involved in public debate regarding issues
highlighted in Ushikwapo. At the school level, in
Mayenya ( Western Kenya ), the primary and secondary school
created their own soap opera drama clubs to perform Ushikwapo in
their local language.
 The original broadcast reinforced its key messages using
a comic strip of the same name, Ushikwapo
Shikamana, that
appeared three times a week in Kenya 's leading Kiswahili
newspaper, Taifa Leo. The weekly comics was also
adapted into a comic book format and the first book—of
what will be an ongoing series—was printed in December
2001. The second was published in 2003. Distribution of the
comic book through bookstores; adult literacy programs; youth,
women’s and church groups; and other outlets in Kenya
is under way.
In September 2001, Ushikwapo Shikamana won the Population Institute’s
Global Media Award in the category of Best Radio Program for
an episode on HIV/AIDS. The awards honor individuals and programs
that contribute to “creating awareness of population
problems through journalistic endeavors.”
 Related links:
Listen to an audio sample
of Ushikwapo Shikamana
News links:
Eastern Africa: Ushikwapo Shikamana on World Space Satellite
PCI Hosts Soap Summit in Nairobi
A Conversation with Kimani Njogu
Ushikwapo's a Winner
Action in Africa
Kenya Show Excerpt: If Assisted, Assist Yourself
Kenya: One Year and Counting
Kenya Show Excerpt: Sex, Lies, and Kangas
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