Four dedicated Sudanese aid workers became IRIN Radio's latest journalism trainees on a short radio skills course in September 2003.

The three men and one woman, all from a local Sudanese NGO known as MASS, (standing for Mobilisation of AIDS Awareness in Southern Sudan), are developing HIV/AIDS awareness messages for broadcast to Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda.

A small radio station based just inside Uganda's border with Sudan, Koboko FM, has given MASS two 30-minute slots on air each week. Koboko FM is heard in the heavily populated Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda, and across the border in parts of southern Sudan.

With support from UNICEF-Sudan, the MASS group travelled to Nairobi for an introductory workshop on radio reporting and production at IRIN Radio's studios.

They learned how to use Minidisk recorders to gather interviews, and gained an insight into methods of producing effective radio programmes on the theme of HIV/AIDS awareness.

In the coming weeks and months, the MASS group - all of them quick "converts" to radio journalism - will produce and broadcast features, interviews and studio discussions for Sudanese listeners to Koboko FM.

The programmes will be in Juba Arabic, a language widely spoken among Sudanese from all parts of southern Sudan. MASS will focus on giving a voice to ordinary people, both in the refuge camps and inside southern Sudan, and on encouraging open discussion on the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS that are still very much "taboo."

IRIN Radio, in collaboration with UNICEF-Sudan, hopes to welcome the MASS group back in the near future for further radio training.

[Ends]

?