Ruwan Dare (Midnight Rain)

The production of Ruwan Dare is based on the Sabido methodology, an entertainment-education technique which uses long-running serialised dramas, written and produced in participating countries in local languages, in order to create characters who gradually evolve into positive role models for the audience. Ruwane Dare will air a total of 234 episodes over two years, and is designed to encourage audiences to engage with the characters, to model positive life choices, and demonstrate how these impact on the individual, family, and community.

Ruwan Dare seeks to address issues related to reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, delayed marriage, and child spacing through two interwoven storylines. Jummai's story is about risky sexual behaviour and inappropriate role models. Jummai has a friend named Ummi, a film actress who spends her time partying and sleeping with producers and directors. Jummai becomes engrossed with Ummi's flashy lifestyle, Western dress, and material possessions. Jummai's mother sees the change in Jummai's behaviour and warns her about the risks. As time goes on Jummai and Ummi get involved in drugs, are almost raped, and even end up in jail. The story follows Jummai's struggle between her desire to have nice things and her awareness of the consequences.

Azumi's story begins with Azumi being pregnant while breastfeeding her four-month-old son. She is married to a man named Lawai. During her pregnancy Azumi becomes very sick and must be taken to hospital, where she nearly dies during the delivery of her son. After the terrifying delivery, the health worker tells Azumi and Lawai that Azumi needs to take time to recover after the pregnancy or she will die. The couple's story explores the need for birth spacing and contraception in the context of cultural and social demands to have many children quickly.

PMC has established Ruwan Dare Listeners' Clubs, which include both male and female audience members, to provide ongoing feedback to the creative team. The feedback from the listening clubs helps the writers and producers to better understand the impact of the programme on listeners and how they are identifying with different characters. Listener feedback helps to maintain the drama's usefulness, appropriateness, and realism.

At the encouragement of listeners in the Kano State, PMC has also started a talk show call-in programme, where people could phone in and talk about the issues addressed in Ruwan Dare.

Ruwan Dare will air through 2009 on four radio stations in northern Nigeria: FRCN (Kaduna), Companion FM (Katsina), Rima Radio (Sokoto), and Freedom Radio (Kano). Following the completion of broadcast in July 2009, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is funding a rebroadcast that is scheduled to run from July 2009 to November 2010.

Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Maternal Health, Population.

According to PMC's baseline household survey conducted in 2007, 95% of respondents across Nigeria own a radio. Ruwan Dare is broadcast in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, and Sokoto States in northern Nigeria. These states have been identified as having the lowest levels of knowledge about contraceptive methods and the lowest exposure to family planning messages in all of Nigeria. These states also have the highest fertility rates, largest desired family size (between 6 and 10 children), highest population growth rates, and highest rates of unmet need for contraception in all of Nigeria.

To monitor the effects of the programme on listeners, PMC has established 11 clinic research sites where exit interviews are being conducted to find out what is motivating clients to seek reproductive health and family planning services. Monitoring interviews conducted at reproductive health and family planning clinics with 220 clients in October-December 2007 showed that 55% of the clients reported that it was Ruwan Dare that had motivated their visit to the clinic. A second round of monitoring from the same group of clinics was conducted from January–March 2008, and it showed that 66% of clients reported that the programme motivated them to seek family planning and reproductive health services. This increase of 11 percentage points provides additional evidence that midway through the course of its two-year broadcast, Ruwan Dare is demonstrating a measurable impact on the lives of listeners in northern Nigeria.

A 26 year-old listener and mother of three from Katsina, named Zainab, said that the programme has opened her eyes to the importance of family planning. Zainab said the programme had taught her a lot and that she will be at the forefront of making sure others reap the many benefits of the programme.

A 30 year-old listener named Usman Aliu said that the programme has really enlightened him on health-related issues that before he knew little about.

In Sokoto, listeners talked about the importance of Ruwan Dare addressing the issue of girls' education because it was an issue largely ignored in the northern states.

A third round of monitoring from the same group of clinics was conducted from May-July 2008, and it showed that 64% of clients reported that the programme motivated them to seek family planning and reproductive health services. A fourth round of monitoring from the same group of clinics was conducted from September-December 2008, and it showed that 67% of clients reported that the programme motivated them to seek family planning and reproductive health services.

According to PMC, Ruwan Dare was created as a result of the success of PMC's programme titled Gugar Goge ("Tell it to Me Straight"), which was a highly popular radio serial drama that addressed issues relating to maternal health and obstetric fistula (a condition commonly resulting from obstructed labour that leaves victims incontinent). The evaluation of Gugar Goge pointed to widespread changes in behaviours and attitudes among audience members with regard to the issues addressed in the programme. It was this success that inspired the production of Ruwan Dare, which was created using the same methodology, but with new characters and storylines.