The Characters

This landmark health educational radio drama series is set in a small village in Bago Province in lower Burma. Thabyegone Ywa uses drama to explore issues of poverty-related diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Competition

As part of the 100th episode celebrations, the listeners have been invited to take part in a competition to write a poem that may win the heart of young village man Moe Lay’s ‘angel’ nurse.

While languishing in a bed at the market town hospital with malaria -- after an abortive trip to the gold mines, Moe Lay awoke to see a new young nurse leaning over him…and he fell instantly in love! Moe Lay does not have the gift of words, but what he does have is a full and warm heart; he tries to woo his ‘angel’ nurse with his poems. Unfortunately to date, his attempts have been risible.

READ AND LISTEN Episode 1 (Burmese) Episode 2 (Burmese) Teazer (Burmese) Series Preview Episode 1 script (English) (PDF 23K) Information leaflet for voluntary sector. (PDF 38K)

Hundreds of entries have been sent in by the listeners and the winning entry will be read out on air in Episode 100 by young Moe Lay – and, if it is good enough, perhaps ‘angel’ nurse will say ‘yes’ and make Moe Lay the happiest young man in Thabyegone Ywa.

Production

Thabyegone Ywa is produced by BBC World Service Trust with the assistance of a team of talented and BBC trained locally based Burmese writers, producers and performers. Thabyegone Ywa is supported by the UK government’s Department for International Development.

Broadcasts are from London [on Fridays and Saturdays at 20.40 Burmese Time; 14.10 GMT and in an Omnibus version on Sundays] on the shortwave frequencies of the BBC Burmese Service [frequencies: 7135 (41m); 9540 (31m); 11685 (25m); 15295 (19m)].

An estimated 10-16 million people listen to the BBC Burmese Service every week. The target audience is the rural population.

The objective of the project is to raise awareness about health including HIV/Aids to people living in Burma and to provide information and practical solutions, where they exist, to their everyday healthcare problems.

The radio series encourages home-based care as the option for how the country cares for its People Living with Aids. The drama promotes tolerance and understanding. Associated leaflets support health messages.

The story so far…

The fictional village of Thabyegone lies at the foot of the Bago range. There are 80 households. When you cross the rickety bridge over the river you will arrive at the market town. In this town is the small hospital (30 beds) where newly arrived and very newly qualified Dr Kyaw Kyaw Htet begins to serve the health needs of the local community.

The villagers of Thabyaygone - and of the remoter villages that surround it - are more likely to seek medical attention from their own village medics that include the traditional doctor (herbal) and dubious village Quack: Ko Pauq Sa. There is also a Spirit Medium. Dr Kyaw Kyaw Htet supplements his income by opening a small private clinic in the village. (He can’t open one in the market town because that is where his senior Doctor has hers).

Rangoon born Dr Kyaw Kyaw Htet is not happy with his lot when he arrives; he never wanted to be sent to a ‘backward’ village; he hates the dirt, the dust, the smells. Perhaps a love interest will help him to settle. And despite the many complications (that include his vanity, his girlfriend’s pride and his mother’s ambitions) his eyes are opened to rural health needs. He begins to understand the community he is serving.

Educational Storyline Approach

The storylines and characters in the drama examine the knowledge, attitudes, practice and beliefs (KAPBs) currently held in Burma in regard to HIV/AIDS and in regard to people living with Aids (PLWAs).

Through the reactions of the villagers to one character living with HIV and his family, the misconceptions are exposed, the stigmatisation will be challenged, and the fears allayed. Just as the villagers are educated regarding prevention, transmission, counselling, community care, living positively with AIDS, and a dignified preparations for death, and for the dependants that live on - so the audience to whom the drama is being broadcast will receive education. The drama aims to tell and show the story as it is, in the language of the people it affects.

Follow–up to the Albanian Soap Opera

Thabyegone Ywa follows in the footsteps of four previous BBC WS Trust soap opera projects around the globe. The latest Trust soap was ‘Rruga me Pisha’ in Albania, where one in two radio listeners regularly tune into the programme. In 2001 the BBC handed the running of Rruga me Pisha over to an Albanian management team. The programmes continue to be broadcast on the Albanian national broadcaster, Radio Tirana.