Youth Radio Show Motivates Teenage Mother to Return to School

It's 6:40 on a Saturday evening and Youth Alert! Mix, the most popular youth radio magazine program in Malawi, is blazing across the airwaves. In a remote area of the country, a young woman is listening. 

Carol Tambala, 18, comes from a poor family from Mtelera village in Southern Malawi.  At 16 she became pregnant and dropped out of school and, for the past two years, has been imploring her parents to let her return to no avail.  Carol has one ambition in her life — to become a nurse — and she knows school is the only way.  “During my antenatal visits I met a lot of nurses and they told me I had to complete my education if I wanted to pursue a career in nursing,” she says.  “That’s why it was paining me to see my fellow girls carrying books going to school every morning, knowing that staying at home would take me nowhere.” 
 
“One evening I was listening to Youth Alert Mix! with my parents, and the presenters were talking about the importance of returning to school after becoming pregnant,” she explained to Ricky Nyaleye, presenter of Youth Alert! Mix.  The young mothers featured on the Youth Alert! Mix program who managed to continue their studies and attain their goals gave Carol courage.  The program also moved her parents.  “The interview with a girl who had gone back to school was touching,” Carol’s mother recalls.  “Soon after the program, we made a decision to allow our daughter to go back to school.  I am very happy that our daughter has gone back to school. Maybe after completing her education, our daughter will get a good job and will take care of us … but am very happy that she is now back in school.”
Carol is elated about returning to school. “Now I am back at school, my goal is to become a nurse one day and I am working hard to achieve this goal.”  She has this message to her friends: “Fellow young people, please avoid having unprotected sex. Unprotected sex can lead to unintended pregnancies; you can contract sexually transmitted infections and even the HIV/AIDS virus.”  USAID funds Youth Alert!, a program about making good health and life decisions thereby promoting HIV prevention
among young people.  Operating in Malawi since 2001, USAID supports all four of Youth Alert’s key components:

Youth Alert! Schools Program — Targets secondary school youth with interactive methods like role playing and participative drama. The Program educates and motivates youth to adopt responsible sexual behaviors.

Youth Alert! Mix — This thrice weekly radio show promotes the importance of making good decisions and interpersonal communication.

Youth Alert! Listeners Clubs and Teacher Training— Two hundred youth Listeners Clubs congregate to listen to Youth Alert Mix! together and discuss issues of reproductive health raised in the radio show in a small group format.