Did you know that in the Bolivian countryside 60% of all children are malnourished, and the main cause of death in children under the age of five is diarrhoea and pneumonia? Much of the high incidence of early mortality among Quechua children is caused by poor diet and lack of proper understanding about basic nutrition and food preparation.
At Radio Mosoj Chaski, a Christian radio that broadcasts entirely in the Quechua language, we want to produce culturally appropriate health programmes using Quechua, rather than Spanish, terminology.
To accompany the broadcasts, we want to write, print and distribute booklets in Quechua that cover three important areas:
- basic health issues
- human rights
- community development
Programmes will be researched, written and produced by a staff of two full-time personnel with the aid of the current personnel of Radio Station 'Mosoj Chaski'. The material will then be put into booklet form and distributed through networks of literacy training centres, public school districts, clinics, health posts, churches and NGO's working in related fields.
Recently we produced and broadcast a radio drama that highlighted the problems of HIV and AIDS, which is spreading in Bolivia. At the moment, we are working on a programme on the nutritional values of different vegetables including recipes using those vegetables. It is our hope that this type of radio programming will improve the daily diet and health of our Quechua listeners, especially the children.
