The Quality Education Services Through Technology (QUESTT) project is an educational program

designed to improve the quality of education and provide education to children who do not have access to

formal schools. It assists the Ministry of Education (MOE) to produce interactive radio instruction (IRI)

broadcasts for children in community and government schools. Communities adopt IRI by appointing an

adult to organize children around the interactive broadcasts, and facilitate their learning. In government

schools the broadcasts are used to supplement the normal teaching. It is a high quality, versatile learning

system that is easily adapted to low resource learning conditions and which penetrates into even the most

disadvantaged communities. In FY 2006 with support from PEPFAR, QUESTT initiated HIV/AIDS

broadcasts for OVC on HIV/AIDS life skills through two community radio stations in addition to the regular

basic education interactive radio programs. More than one third of the children in the community schools

are HIV/AIDS affected and orphaned while others are vulnerable, coming from disadvantaged communities

that are deprived of education through the conventional school system. These children are often exploited

and suffer other forms of abuse. Many girls are forced into marriage before they have completed their

education and orphans suffer harassment and stigmatization from their peers.

The comprehensive HIV/AIDS life skills curriculum empowers OVC with knowledge, attitudes and skills to

set goals for themselves and make better choices in challenging situations. The radio programs build on

the existing MOE life skills materials for basic education, using drama in the local languages and interactive

radio methodology to provide basic HIV/AIDS life skills to OVC and their caregivers. Curriculum and

training is in areas such as self-awareness, decision making, coping with stress and emotions and

interpersonal skills, as well as reproductive health and other health issues. HIV/AIDS related life skills

curriculum and training will help create a positive social environment by promoting abstinence, as well as

mitigating stigma, child abuse and gender violence, and by promoting VCT for adults. The caregivers will

learn how to acquire and practice good nutrition, seek healthcare, and provide psycho-social counseling

support through appropriate social and health services. These programs will link the OVC to other support

programs in their area.

The children listen to a fifteen-minute drama with their families once a week. Each drama illustrates a life

skills topic, followed by questions for the whole community, adults and children, to discuss. The next day

the children listen to a fifteen-minute broadcast with their teacher. The broadcast provides follow-up to the

drama and deals with the issues highlighted in the drama and the questions for discussion. The teacher

guides the children through the broadcast and the follow-up activities with the help of a printed guide,

including homework to complete with their caregivers. This makes the children active agents in family-

based behavior change. The community listening groups provide feedback to the community radio station

through completing printed feedback forms each week, which provide the basis for a third broadcast, in

which a local expert answers questions and gives advice to the communities. Some communities which

have cell phone coverage will be provided with cell phones to enable them to participate actively in the

broadcast. The communities which receive cell phones will also be able to use the phones as a means of

generating income to support the community school. The community-based discussion groups enhance

the support given to OVC, providing a forum to reinforce and reflect upon both the OVC issues and the

network of support services available to them. The project will conduct workshops in the communities to

establish these groups and train the members, and they will receive follow-up visits and monitoring from the

producers in the community radio stations to ensure that they are working effectively. The teachers in the

schools will receive training before the broadcasts start and the producers and other MOE officials will visit

them regularly to collect feedback on the impact of the program.

In FY 2007 this program targeted OVC in community and government schools and their caregivers in 16

districts through four community radio stations in Livingstone, Chipata, Petauke, and Kasama. In FY 2008

the program will continue to target the teachers, community members and children and children reached in

2007 and will extend coverage to three districts in Luapula Province, three more districts in Southern

Province, four districts in Central Province and five districts in Western Province. Producers in the

community radio stations will receive training in the production of dramas and feedback programs to enable

them to continue to provide similar programs after the end of the project.

In FY 2006 the program reached 2,000 teachers, 3,000 community members and 50,000 children. In FY

2007, the program reached an additional 1,000 teachers, 2,000 community members and 30,000 children.

In FY 2008 the program will provide essential OVC care skills to 4,500 teachers, 8,500 community members

and 100,000 children in 32 districts in Central, Eastern, Luapula, Northern, Southern and Western Province.

In order to monitor the impact of the radio programs, data will be collected from the listening groups and the

teachers. Records will be kept of the number of caregivers and OVC in each community and the number of

listeners each week. Each month the community listening groups will submit reports to the community radio

stations, which will be analyzed to provide ongoing feedback for the producers.

As part of the sustainability strategy, QUESTT will develop the capacity of communities and community

radio stations to provide comprehensive life skills support for OVC by creating a network of caregivers

consisting of teachers, parents and guardians and other community members associated with the

community schools.

All FY 2008 targets will be reached by September 30, 2009.