On Monday a brand new weekly radio show hit the airwaves at Radio Grahamstown. Masincedane (Let’s talk about it) was created to reduce the social stigma that surrounds the global HIV/Aids epidemic and made its debut at 10.30am.
On Monday a brand new weekly radio show hit the airwaves at Radio Grahamstown. Masincedane (Let’s talk about it) was created to reduce the social stigma that surrounds the global HIV/Aids epidemic and made its debut at 10.30am.
The show will be hosted by Ntosh Mgcuwe and will be seeing guests from local NGOs and clinics each week. The focus of the show is to address the stigma that is clearly evident when it comes to HIV/Aids. The show will also have a segment where people can call in and ask the guests questions. This international Global Pact student programme was organised by students from the USA who also helped put the show together. The team of students went out into the Grahamstown community to conduct HIV/Aids research and in so doing, they were challenged to identify an issue that affected the community.
The students have been living in Grahamstown and attended Rhodes University for three weeks. However they said that the most valuable time that they had was when the ventured out into the township. The goal was to address the stigma so firmly rooted within the epidemic, explaining how they wanted the show "to continue after they left" and that it was a long term project.
One of the group members, Chelsei Ouellette, said she only started learning about HIV/Aids at the start of high school. However as she learnt more and more about the virus she learnt that it’s a big problem that affects everybody. Since then she has participated in HIV/Aids campaigns such as the Boston HIV/Aids walk. "Everybody needs to know, communication is the key. Our aim is to get community support, if people will drive their friends or family to get HIV/Aids testing or if people can sit down together and talk about it we will have gone some way to achieving our goal,” says Ouellette.
“Masincedane in Xhosa means ‘let’s come together to talk about it’, let’s support each other,” explains show host Ntosh Mgcuwe of Grahamstown. “We hope that everyone can learn something from this programme.
"We applaud Radio Grahamstown’s efforts to serve the community by making our show a reality,” said Jay Carbonneau, member of the Masincedane Radio project. “With their support, this programme will allow the conversation to continue for a long time to come." So far feedback and support for the show has been good with station Pamela Zondani manager at Radio Grhamstown calling it “Very good, now all we need to do is expand it and make it longer.” Masincedane airs on Mondays from 10.30 to 11.00am on Radio Grahamstown, 102.1 FM.
