Cape Town - Parow-based organisation Partners in Sexual Health (PSH) has launched the community’s first radio station focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
PSH chief executive Patricia de Lora said although the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in many plans and events ending in their initial stages, it had also allowed the youth-orientated organisation to make the move from in-person interventions to online.
“When Covid-19 hit last year, we ran a bit behind, but I’m happy to say we didn’t stay down for very long. We were able to adapt and move onto the online medium.
“We wanted to keep our connections with our audience even whilst in lockdown. We thought a radio station would be just the wave we needed,” De Lora said.
PSH spend the better half of last year organising and mobilising resources to build the SRHR radio station.
“With the support of our funders and partners, AmplifyChange.org, we were able to make the goal a reality. We now have a station that will reach young people internationally, to speak about issues that matter to them and gives them access to essential sexual and reproductive health and rights information.
“The beautiful part is that the station will be run and manned by young people, truly allowing them to participate in conversations that are about them, and also work as a platform where they can be trained, promoted and exposed to even more opportunities,” De Lora said.
PSH member Tracey Fredericks said: “For me, this is a dream come true. A platform that was designed for me and will allow me to participate wholly and be able to also reach out to my peers and pull them into conversations we should be having unreservedly.”
Several young PSH members are undergoing training at the facility in Parow, preparing for the radio’s online debut in mid-April. All programming related to the new initiative will be soon made accessible to the public on the organisation’s website.
Cape Argus