Colombia - Vamos a La Fija!

¡Vamos a La Fija ! (Let’s Go for It) is an entertainment-education (EE) radio drama and radio magazine program co-produced by PCI-Media Impact and The National System of Communications for Peace (SIPAZ).

The project in Colombia follows the successful model of the youth radio drama “Empezando a Vivir” (Beginning to Live), created and broadcasted by PCI-Media Impact and Calandria in Peru during 2006. SIPAZ, our partner in Colombia, received a grant from PCI-Media Impact to develop this radio project during 2007, addressing crucial issues that affect the population of the southern region of the country, specifically in the departments of Huila and Caqueta. The project ¡Vamos a La Fija! will be initially broadcast in these two departments, but it is designed to be implemented in the near future in other regions of the country through the radio network of SIPAZ.

Issues Covered:

The issues to be addressed in the program ¡Vamos a La Fija! were determined after a careful formative research carried out during the initial phase of the project. Furthermore, SIPAZ took into consideration the results of research coordinated by specialized organizations in order to determine the most pressing needs of the region where the drama would be broadcasted. SIPAZ and Calandria worked together in defining the values grid and the story line, tailoring the project to the specific needs of the Colombian southern region.

The following topics were selected as crucial for the potential audience, and are developed throughout ¡Vamos a La Fija!:

• sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• inter-generational communication;
• displaced population;
• youth political activism and participation.

Broadcast Details:

The project pursues community-led behavior change by involving the population in all its phases. Community members are engaged not only as writers, actors, hosts, and commentators, but also, as promoters in creative activities. The participants receive comprehensive training that allows them to contribute effectively with the project and with their community.

The Magazine Show

¡Vamos a La Fija! is designed in an entertaining radio magazine format including sections such as:

• interviews with experts;
• contests;
• on-air debates;
• calls-in;
• radio drama.

The Radio Drama

The radio drama is a crucial part of the program since it illustrates real-life situations and transmits the messages that induce debate and social change. The drama ¡Vamos a La Fija! tells the story of a group of youth in a Colombian town that struggle with social and personal issues such as little recognition from the adults, the lack of inclusion in social decisions, broken homes, and lost friendships, among others. It was written and produced by locals that received training in radio producing within the development of the project.

Project Impact

The phases of production, promotion and evaluation were successfully developed during the first part of 2007. The broadcasting is starting in August 2007 in the two initial sites ( Neiva and Belén de los Andaquíes), and a blog has been initiated as part of the pre-launching promotion plan. It can be seen at by clicking here.

The project’s potential for sustainability relies on SIPAZ’s existing capacity and its performance as an effective media network. Furthermore, this first project has been successful in training people not only in radio production and in the education-entertainment methodology, but also in human rights and skills that will be very helpful in the continuing of the project.

Excerpts from listener interviews:

Esper Zamora (Father of family): "It seems to me a little interesting to know, that at least there are young people, who if they take advantage of the time to make something good, are why I want to congratulate them by the excellent work that is carrying out, since I imagine that it is not easy to create something and much more one radionovela that manages to call the attention, of I publish that it understands very little, the form to think and to express of the young people."

Maira Alejandra Garzón (Mother of family): "Although truth is first radionovela that I listen, seems interesting me, because never it had imagined to listen one and to feel to be within her, since me it imagines personages, place and form as it were carried out this history, also I gave account that sometimes television is something amused, but not but that our imagination, which allows you to imagine that personage that finds behind that mystery, that we do not know that is but that with its voice, obtains us to captivate to continue listening this radionovela, so them desire all luck of world, so that they manage to fulfill this goal that has seted out, follow thus and they do not let by any reason let do what as much they like."

Juan Gabriel Marín: "I am a young person of only 17 years, but in the course of my life he had not arrived that is to say that was one radionovela, is why it is surprised when listening the first one I capitulate of this project, that carries out some young people of our commune, because it seemed to me that that was super boring, so that if I am not mistaken that single one listened to my breast and my grandmas, is why I am realistic, so that like not if all those who distinguish to me, know that I like the metal, I generate musical comedy that some, I do not say all, but certain parents of family think that that is music for crazy people, but good every one with its tastes, for that reason to my to me becomes difficult to think that this makes the young people, but by the sight thus it is, also I give them but sincere congratulations and that follows ahead with this work, so that in us are representing us the young people, to our form to be with the society, that the only thing that does is to discriminate to us for being what we are young."

Partnerships

Partnering with local service providers is another key aspect in this project. SIPAZ has included PROFAMILIA (the largest national planning institution, and a member association of International Planned Parenthood Federation) in the development of ¡Vamos a La Fija!. Service providers not only get their services promoted through the radio program, but they also provide support in the monitoring and evaluation phases by measuring the variation of users before, during and after the implementation of the program.

ABOUT SIPAZ : The National System of Communications for Peace (SIPAZ) www.SIPAZ.net integrates television, radio and digital social programs through a network of 370 Colombian community radio stations and 38 TV channels. The main goal of this network is to cooperate with peace-building and development projects in Colombia, and provide an effective communications bridge between such projects and the population in every region of the country.

CALANDRIA is PCI-Media Impact’s main partner in Peru, which has successfully developed several communications projects in that country .