From March 2005, UNESCO Bangkok’s Culture Unit began to distribute audio materials of its ethnic minority language radio soap operas for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, trafficking and drug abuse across the Upper Mekong Sub-region.

Funded by an Asian Development Bank technical assistance grant to UNESCO, UNESCO and its research and broadcasting partners in China, Lao PDR and Thailand began the research-based productions of the Hmong, Lahu and Jingpo radio soap operas in April 2003. Broadcasting of all the dramas began in fall 2004.

The reproduction and distribution of cassettes and CDs of the radio soap operas in the Hmong, Jingpo and Lahu languages is in response to requests from minority communities and organizations, who want to use the materials in preventive education and awareness raising campaigns.

UNESCO supported the reproduction of 200 sets of five tapes of the 300-minute soap opera in the Lahu language, A nyi hta ve hpa vaw ve (“Yesterday’s Sweet Flower”). New Life Center Foundation (NLCF), a key UNESCO partner in the Lahu radio soap opera project, is responsible for the distribution of the audio cassettes across northern Thailand, in China, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. Radio Thailand Chiang Mai broadcast the original programmes.

At a Lahu annual gathering on 22 March 2005 in Chiang Rai, Thailand, NLCF gave away 100 sets of the drama programme to Lahu community leaders and individuals. Of the 200 sets, 30 are destined for Lahu villages in Yunnan Province, China, and 60 sets will go to Lahu communities in Myanmar. The remaining will be given to national radio stations and research institutes in China, Lao PDR, and Thailand, donors, UN and the diplomatic communities, and other project partners.

In China, UNESCO’s Adolescent and Reproductive Health Unit and Culture Unit, with funds from UNFPA, is supporting the Yunnan People’s Broadcasting Station in Kunming to reproduce and distribute around 1,000 sets of cassettes and CDs of the 330-minute radio drama in the Jingpo language, “Life of Tragedies”. The material will be distributed to 260 villages in Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province.  In addition, they will be given to local prefecture, county and township offices, including the local CDCs (Centers for Disease Control) to use as animation materials for prevention education.

In early March 2005, after a meeting with UNESCO, the Health Unlimited office in Kunming expressed the desire to use the Jingpo radio drama material for prevention activities in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State. The London-based NGO has been implementing  health-related programmes and campaigns in Kachin and Wa States for many years.

UNESCO is particularly pleased that during the China’s 10th National People’s Congress in Beijing on 5-14 March 2005, the Jingpo radio drama programme was cited as a model project by Professor Shi Rui, a Jingpo professor at the Yunnan Nationalities University and representative to the Congress.

In Lao PDR, the Lao National Radio in Vientiane informed UNESCO that it wanted to reproduce CDs of the two Hmong radio soap operas, “Poison and Mistakes” and “Kindness and Tears” for distribution in Hmong communities across northern Laos.

The scripts of the two dramas were written by Hmong authors of the radio station. They also participated in the research carried out by the Institute for Cultural Research in both towns with a large Hmong population and remote Hmong villages. Hmong is the second largest ethnic minority in the country after ethnic Lao.

In response to high individual demands for the post-broadcast audio material, UNESCO is seeking funds to reproduce more cassettes and CDs of the three radio soap operas. The Yunnan People’s Broadcasting Station already re-broadcast the Jingpo drama in February 2005, and the other stations are also considering a re-broadcast. UNESCO and the three broadcasting stations in the three countries are also considering sharing the materials with other local and national radio stations, which have the capacity to broadcast in these minority languages.

For more information about the radio soap opera project, please contact
Dr. David Feingold on +66 2 391 0577 ext 504
d.feingold[at]unescobkk.org

For a copy of the cassette or CD, please contact
Dr. Heather Peters on +66 2 391 0577 ext 506
h.peters[at]unescobkk.org or 

Chotika Khruemanee on  +66 2 391 0577 ext 510
k.chotika[at]unescobkk.org