Radio Programs

For the last few months, I have been working with some colleagues on writing radio programs in Fulfulde about health – the radio waves reaching a far wider audience than any of us workers in Niger could hope to reach!

Each radio series will teach about a health topic that greatly impacts the Fulani and their lives in Niger.  The programs also contain a moral component to teach about heart health at the same time the listener hears about body health.  Each lesson talks about God or our hearts before God in a way that ties back to the health topic of the lesson plan.

The first radio program series is about malaria – and it started on the radio waves this weekend!  The lessons are split into four categories: cause, prevention, symptoms, and treatment.
Every program is centered in a Fulani village – and a doctor who comes to teach the villagers about health.  There is a narrator who tells of the doctor’s teachings and there is a Fulani family who discuss what they have learned at the meetings.  The family contains three voices: Oumaru, the father; Aissa the mother; and Fatima, the younger sister of Oumaru. 

Each lesson, Oumaru and Aissa tell Fatima about what they have learned.  And as a family they discuss the doctor’s teaching in light of their Fulani culture and practices.  That which they have learned is put into practice in lesson three, when their cousin arrives from another village along with her infant son.  As the family has just learned about the symptoms of malaria, they discuss the illness of these cousins while she is off at the clinic.  Oumaru and Aissa conclude that their cousin Maimouna and her son have malaria – and once she returns from the clinic, she reports that she does indeed have malaria.  Oumaru teaches Maimona all that they have learned and Maimouna returns to her village with mosquito nets and to teach others there about malaria.

The recording of the radio programs was a fun undertaking!  With some of the voice characters, I read the words aloud, phrase by phrase as they repeated after me.  But one recording in the village was the most fun.  The narrator for Oumaru has good reading skills and he has done some recording in the past.  So, myself and another worker read the parts of Fatima and Aissa – while he read his parts of the skit.  The end result was a lively and expressive recording as Oumaru’s words were read in the context of the entire conversation.

Here is a short video clip as I read Fatima's lines and the narrator reads Oumaru's lines:

I am currently working on the second radio program series about diarrhea – a health problem in Niger that is prevalent and if untreated can quickly bring death, especially among children.

This radio series is divided into three sections: cause, prevention and treatment.  Throughout each lesson, the listeners will learn about how to prevent diarrhea with: clean homes, clean bodies, clean food and clean water.  Aspects of the Fulani culture in respect to cleanliness is woven into the programs during the family discussions.

The listeners also learn that their bodies are like this water jug, which spills water on the ground, while they are sick.
 


In the villages, it takes a long time for the women to fetch water from the well – enough for their family for the day, thus water is precious and that which spills on the ground is a great loss.  In the same way is the water in our bodies – precious, we need water to live.  So, when our bodies spill water on the ground when we are sick, then our bodies will have a problem with dehydration.  The doctor teaches the villagers how to treat diarrhea with an Oral Rehydration Solution: making water with sugar and salt.

All of the items in this photo are common items in a Fulani hut: sugar, salt, water, stirring spoon and drinking cup.

With these items, the Fulani can make Oral Rehydration Solution for those who are sick to drink – replacing the lost water, salt and strength.   The family in the skit put this knowledge into practice when Oumaru and Aissa return from the meeting to learn that diarrhea has caught their son Soumana since the morning – after they left for the meeting.  So, they teach Fatima how to make the Oral Rehydration Solution and they begin to treat Soumana.

This second series of health topics will hit the radio waves later this year, after my colleagues return from their home assignment and are ready to begin recording again.

It is our desire that as the Fulani listen to other Fulani talk about and discuss healthy bodies, that the teachings will be accepted and put into practice, so that those who listen will become healthier, their families will be healthier and that their children will lead healthier lives. 

The statistics of Niger are that 1 in 4 children will die before the age of 5 – we pray that as these medical teachings are put  into practice, this statistic will begin to break among the Fulani!