While the youth radio programmes are integral components of the ENR project, I have never had a chance to see the teams in action. I have participated in their script sessions as well as their listen-backs (the final feedback sessions), but only a few weeks ago did I get a chance to see how they actually create their content.

Interviewing Jesse JagzRecently a Nigerian artist named Jesse Jagz had an album release party. It took place in the Sheraton and nearly all my colleagues in Nigeria were fans of his – some took photos, some helped with the guests, and the two youth shows both recorded the event.

When I learned that both the youth teams (one in Hausa, the language of north Nigeria, and the other in Pidgin English) would both be recording, I immediately had two grave doubts: one, how does a hip-hop artist talking about how hot he is have anything to do with HIV and AIDS? Two, won’t the two youth production teams replicate each other’s shows?

What proceeded to happen blew my mind.
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Last week the TV training team travelled to Nasarawa state (adjacent to the capital). Here we were conducting a three day training workshop for broadcast TV trainers/ training managers and Community Service Organizations, followed directly by a three day HIV reporting workshop for producers and people living with HIV and Aids (PLWHA).

The goal is for the five training managers from the first workshop to lead the second workshop.  This workshop in Nasarawa will be the first of eight different states the team will reach as part of the ENR project – the next stop is Cross River state.

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Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.

An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.

Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.

* * *

In the last few months, the ENR TV training team has quickly become invested in the project. But, just as in any relationship, the more you put on the line, the quicker you are to get emotional.

I realised this when the team and I went to Nassarawa state to observe a focus group put together by the BBC WST Research team to gather feedback on our television pilot templates. The audience reacted enthusiastically to the programmes, and appeared to learn a lot as well as enjoy the shows. I was particularly flattered because they compared Swagger to Wetin Dey, a hugely popular WST Nigeria production dealing with issues of HIV and AIDS.

However Nasiru (one of the trainers) did not seem as thrilled with the feedback as I was.

(more…)

Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.

An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.

Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.

* * *

After the feedback we received from the research and internal reviews of our two original TV pilots, I began training Devaan and Nasiru in the techniques and styles of documentary TV production.

Documentary TV is not necessarily news, but real-life stories told through people who are not actors: character-driven, real life narratives. It is not only the direction where our templates were headed, but what audiences globally have been leaning towards.

I explained to them the two necessities of this style of production: interesting stories and engaging characters. I then asked them both to choose a topic they were deeply invested in and to find a story and character with whom they would shoot an interview with.

(more…)

Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.

An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.

Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.

* * *

One of the great things about working for an organisation like the Trust is that we believe in preparation. For our training at the stations we need to have a few pilot or template programmes to show to the stations.

These pilots go through a long process before they can be finalised and used as training tools. The aim of making the pilots is for local stations to consider using them in developing their programming on HIV and Aids. It was really important to get them right.

(more…)

Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is a new Pan-Nigerian, DfID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.

An aspect of this, which the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) is a part of, is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.

Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.

* * *

TV programmes in Nigeria can generally be quite dull. This is primarily due to a lack of creativity in approach, which is something I wanted to focus on during my training and really push Nigerian TV trainers to think outside of the box.

Nasiru and Devaan (the two Nigerian producers who are involved in the ENR project) embraced this concept hands on. As we planned our HIV content TV programmes, Nasiru came up with the idea of a short music-based dramatisation of a married man who has multiple partners. This idea is unheard of in the Nigerian TV landscape, even though music videos and Nigerian music are widely popular.

(more…)

Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is a new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.

An aspect of this, which the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) is a part of, is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.

Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.

* * *

I first saw Devaan on her reel which I watched at my desk in the WST Abuja offices. She is a very articulate presenter at the Nigerian Television Authority, but her show lacked production quality, creativity, and preparation.

As an international trainer on the ENR project, my task is quite a big one. My main goal is to build a training team that will go on to train and co-produce with stations around Nigeria. First I have to take current TV employees like Deevan, and ‘unteach’ them everything they think they know and inspire them to adopt new methods of conceptualization and production techniques.

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