Radio Soap Opera

SFCG, in partnership with local media NGO, The Antenna Foundation, is producing a radio soap opera, Nayaa Baato Nayaa Paailaa (Treading Upon a New Path) that started broadcasts in August 2006. The show, which is broadcast 3-times weekly on national and local radio stations, is targeted to reach approximately four million youth, from seventy-five districts, including those living in hills districts and other remote areas worst affected by the conflict. Nayaa Baato Nayaa Paailaa is about a group of young people from different ethnic and caste backgrounds living in a village in Rolpa District. Together, they live with the realities of life in the midst of war and seek to promote peace in their own communities.

The radio soap is a youth-orientated program that uses drama to address the root causes of conflict and equip the listeners with the necessary tools to manage the conflict's impact on their lives. Similar SFCG programs in Angola and Burundi, amongst others, have proven to shape listeners behaviour and attitudes, towards a non-violent, non-adversarial response to conflict. Through the characters in the story, the soap opera encourages youth to build relationships across ethnic and caste lines and to take on leadership roles in building peace in their communities.

Already established, multi-ethnicity and multi-caste youth listeners clubs, in Kathmandu and rural villages across the country, listen to the radio soap opera. SFCG then uses various activities to reiterate the co-ordinated messages from the radio soap, and shape these messages into behavioural and attitude changes. By consistently working within the community, SFCG is able to acquire feedback and various stories from the listeners, which are considered by the scriptwriters, to ensure that the plot is always relative to the targeted audience.

Click here to listen to Naya Bato Naya Paila

Please click here if you would like to make a donation to support our projects.