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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Break the Silence: Rwandans Speak Out About AIDSA one-week series of radio and television programming in Rwanda aimed at raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in that African nation and offering solutions to the crisis begins at the end of January. From January 29 through February 3, Radio Rwanda and Rwanda Television will present programming seeking to educate Rwandans about AIDS. The week will culminate with a live broadcast of a town hall meeting from Kigali, the capital, on February 3. As one of the countries most devastated by AIDS, Rwanda is seeking to change community noms and slow the epidemic, to educate its population about the risky behaviors related to HIV transmission, and to exchange experience combating HIV/AIDS. Currently Rwanda ranks among the top twelve African sub-Saharan countries most hit by the AIDS epidemic. Among adults, the HIV/AIDS prevalence is 11.21 percent according to the joint UN program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); within the youth population, the prevalence is 6.9 percent. More than 400 people are expected to participate in the first nationally broadcast town meeting ever held in Rwanda at the Meriden Hotel on the final day of the campaign, February 3rd. Thousands of people in rural areas will be linked live via telephone hotlines to the public discussion. The Rwandan National AIDS Commission, the Rwandan Ministry of Health, the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health's Population Communication Services Project in Rwanda are supporting the event. Rwandan health experts, young people, government officials, educators, musicians, religious leaders, and business leaders will participate. The week will feature one-hour evening programs on both radio and television. Each evening's programming will highlight a different aspect of the AIDS crisis—reaching out to youth with AIDS prevention messages, encouraging dialogue, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS, influencing policy makers, care of AIDS orphans, and dispelling misinformation about the epidemic. "We are hoping to build on the success in Uganda, where the rate of new HIV infections is beginning to fall after the government there launched a similar campaign to speak out about AIDS," says Dr. Awasum, Senior Program Officer at the Johns Hopkins Population Communication Services project. "Government support along with public education is one of the most important elements in fighting the epidemic," he says. George Murphy, Senior Director at ABC News "Nightline" and Dr. Steven Pasternack, professor of journalism at New Mexico State University, will serve as editorial and technical consultants to the project. Murphy and Pasternack will work with Rwandan journalists to produce the week of programming. For more information contact Ergibe Boyd, U.S. Embassy, Kigali, tel. 250-75601 or Dr. David Awasum, JHU/PCS, Kigali, tel. 250-541136 or Susan Krenn, JHU/CCP, Baltimore, tel. 410-659-6300 |
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