Let's Celebrate more 5th Birthdays in Mozambique

I am excited to announce that PCI Media's highly popular Ouro Negro radio drama will complete its sixth season in 2018, after 254 episodes! So what’s next for Ouro Negro? We are now developing two dynamic new dramas-- FC MAFE and Os Intxunaveis—through which we will more directly target adolescents whose behavior and attitude change are so critical to improving the health and social outcomes of Mozambicans.

Set in a hair salon, FC MAFE will use soccer terminology to communicate key concepts and be broadcast in a time slot to capture the massive audiences of young people, especially men, who tune into National Football Matches on the radio. Os Intxunaveis will be set in a fishing community called Nguva. The key location of the drama is a boarding school called the Polytechnic Institute of the Future, which will allow our writers to explore many themes of significance to younger adolescents, from sexual and reproductive health to nutrition, while also following the lives of their teachers (our secondary target audience of women ages 20-35).   

So why change such a popular program? After analyzing our audience demographics and preferences, and the episode storylines, we saw an opportune time to introduce new characters, new formats and more closely target specific listener groups.   For example, we will now use a 1 story-1episode format rather than a longer-term story arc to ensure that our listeners do not miss invaluable messages communicated through characters’ mistakes, learnings and new decisions if they fail to tune in one week. And we think the dramas can be an even more powerful vehicle for inspiring positive changes by more closely addressing young men and adolescents. What won’t change is our continued commitment to using this creative medium to engage communities in seeing their own struggles in the characters and finding motivation for making positive behavior changes when it comes to nutrition, staying in school, waiting to get married and the many other choices that ultimately lead to better futures for young people and children. We invite our Global Giving Donors to join Ouro Negro as we transition into this new and exciting programming!