RESOURCES: Positive Life: New DVD series on HIV and AIDS

26-11-2010 (Paris) - A new DVD series on HIV and AIDS, entitled Positive Life, has been issued by UNESCO’s Network of Young TV Producers on HIV and AIDS in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD).

The eight short films contained in the series were produced at the Workshop for a Regional Co-production on HIV, organized prior to the 2010 Asia Media Summit in Beijing last May. The participants came from India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Nepal and Vietnam. Their productions, in local languages with English subtitles, are about voluntary testing, safe sex, friendships and personal testimonies.

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NEWS / RADIO: Teen radio show breaks taboos in Nepal

In a Kathmandu recording studio, young workers sift through piles of letters from Nepalese teenagers seeking advice on everything from unrequited love and homosexuality to drug abuse and HIV.

Two presenters in their early twenties talk animatedly into microphones as they record the latest episode of "Chatting with my Best Friend" or Saathi Sanga Manka Kura (SSMK), one of Nepal's most listened-to radio shows.

The programme, a blend of discussion, drama and music, was launched nine years ago as part of a project funded by the UN children's agency UNICEF to spread awareness among Nepalese teenagers about the dangers of HIV and AIDS.

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PROJECTS: Unicef launches free SMS number for Nepalese youths

UNICEF Tuesday launched a free SMS number for youths in Nepal so they could text in their views and comments on issues that concern them to the global organisation.

The number 4400 is a toll-free mobile text message service that allows users to send messages directly to the UNICEF in Nepal, Xinhua reported.

The number is being launched in partnership with the popular radio show 'Saathi Sanga Manka Kura' (SSMK), a youth oriented radio programme run by Equal Access Nepal.

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NEWS / RADIO: Youth Speak on Climate Change

Youth Speak on Climate Change

October 23, 2009

We listen to four prominent Nepali youth vent out their views on climate change and the role their generation should play as the way forward for Nepal in view of the upcoming major climate change conference taking place in Copenhagen in December. Dawa Stephen Sherpa is a tourism entrepreneur and mountaineer who has scaled the world's tallest peak Everest twice and is now an ardent vocalist on the impact of climate change in the Himalayas; Gagan Thapa is a popular youth leader and the current Member of the Constituent Assembly; Nirvana Choudhary represents the younger generation of his widely successful family business that goes by the name Chaudhary Group in Nepal; and lastly, we listen to Shaliee Basnet who is a journalist turned mountaineer who was part of the First Inclusive Women Sagarmatha Expedition to scale Everest in Spring 2008.

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ARTICLES / TRAINING: Training local journalists to cover women’s and children’s issues in Nepal

Training local journalists to cover women's and children's issues in Nepal

By John Brittain

KATHMANDU, Nepal, 27 July 2009 – Remote and unspoiled wildernesses abounds in this unquestionably beautiful country. But such beauty comes with a price: Some villages are at least a week's walk from the nearest road, making it very difficult to get timely reports on conditions and developments in these areas.

UNICEF Nepal has been working to solve the problem of how to receive news – especially news about women's and children's issues – from remote regions on a regular basis. Its solution is taking shape in the form of a new initiative that was launched in June, in partnership with the Nepal Press Institute (NPI).

The initiative established a new network of journalists to cover remote areas, as well as some that are not so remote. Over 50 journalists from every region – most of them women – have taken part in a training programme designed to generate more reporting on women's and children's issues around the country.

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