Actors in a radio studio, Afghanistan

It comprises several key projects, including:

• “New Home, New Life” – an Educational soap opera, which was launched in April 1994. Afghanistan’s first ever radio soap opera is broadcast by the BBC World Service three times a week in Pashto and Dari.
• Radio Educational Features (REF) – a series of programmes that address developmental and health issues, among other themes.
• Afghan Publishing House (APH) – a provider of entertaining reading material for teaching basic literacy skills to both adults and children.
• Radio Education for Afghan Children (REACH) - an exciting initiative to help address the educational needs of Afghan children, both inside and outside school.

Experience & skills

Building on more than nine years experience of highly successful educational broadcasting from its previous headquarters in Peshawar, BBC AEP is the only production base in Afghanistan with the skills to lead the development of educational programming essential for the reconstruction of the country.

The team is overwhelmingly made up of Afghans. It has already trained a generation of Afghan broadcasters who are beginning to take up key roles in the burgeoning media scene in Afghanistan.

BBC AEP’s main strength is its closeness to its audience. Through sophisticated techniques of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) it has been able to build up a picture of the commonly experienced problems of daily life and how ordinary people respond to them.

Needs analysis also reveals the kinds of misinformation that can be countered by educational messages with the help of technical experts from donor agencies.

Operating out of BBC World Service Trust, BBC AEP is also able to draw on the skills, experience and technical expertise of the wider BBC and can offer comprehensive support to the development of a robust and independent media in Afghanistan.

Audiences

Through the use of different programme genres, BBC AEP has learned to work with a variety of audiences, both rural and urban, and age groups.