Akha and Wa Minority Language Dramas
From Radio Dramas to Feature Films
The Human Trafficking and HIV/AIDS Project at UNESCO Bangkok has completed filming and is in the final stages of editing two video dramas targeting Wa and Akha ethnic minorities. To be implemented in China and Thailand, this regional project aims to reduce HIV vulnerability among ethnic minority youth through the production and dissemination of linguistically and culturally appropriate HIV prevention information.
Previous UNESCO research shows that Wa and Akha youth – both male and female – are disproportionately at risk for HIV, particularly via injecting drug-use, unsafe sex, and increasingly unsafe migration. This risk is caused in part by a lack of information in their native languages.
The scripts for the video dramas were based off previous radio dramas. Follow-up research with audiences and local partners identified a need for visual materials, especially video dramas, to complement the audio messages.
This project creates a new model for video production that produces programmes authored in ethnic languages, not simply back-translated. Partners in both China and Thailand have requested assistance to produce these videos.
All partners strongly argue that producing video materials authored in ethnic minority languages would be revolutionary, and also widely watched by the ethnic populations. Youth, in particular, prefer television to radio. Local partners state emphatically that these programmes would reach and influence a greater proportion of the target audience.
To find out more, or for a copy of our previous video and radio dramas, please email: trafficking@unescobkk.org.
