The Pacific’s own HIV prevention TV series

Nicole Gooch
In the amber colours of the afternoon, scenes flash—ugly ones—in front of Elizabeth. What if? she keeps pondering.

Nasty memories of the past months haunt her to the depths of her being, and her stomach tightens as she thinks the worst.

Her husband’s extramarital affairs have left her on the darkest side of midnight. Not only is she pregnant, she is also possibly infected with HIV.

Her mother thinks that she is a good Christian girl, she MUST go back to her husband.

Elizabeth is one of the main characters in ‘Love Patrol’, the Pacific’s own 10-part TV series, which premiered in Vanuatu and Fiji in April and is already proving immensely popular with TV viewers in both countries.

‘Love Patrol’ is the product of an innovative approach to HIV prevention that has recently arrived on our shores.

The idea is to have a popular TV series made by and for Pacific people that will draw viewers into the story and keep them entertained while providing important information on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The stories raise topics that stimulate dialogue in the community and encourage individuals to examine and change their behaviours.

During a random street poll in the streets of Port Vila, Vanuatu, a number of people empathised with Elizabeth, including one interviewee who said Elizabeth played a part which showed the life of many women in Vanuatu today: ‘It is good for men to see “Love Patrol” so that they can see the pain that women go through when their husbands cheat on them all the time.’

Unlike one-off productions, the series allows viewers to identify more closely with characters and themes across time and opens the way for the material on HIV and other development issues to become part of the conversational fabric of a community.

Tapping into these advantages, ‘Love Patrol’ portrays strong characters with whom the audience can identify.

Many of the respondents to the poll stated that ‘Love Patrol’ mirrored ‘real life and real people’ and showed ‘what is actually happening in Vanuatu today’.

A police officer said that he felt that the depiction of the police in ‘Love Patrol’ was indicative of the police in Vanuatu and ‘police officers should watch it so they can learn from it’.

Another respondent said the series raised issues that were hard for people to talk about, but ‘when it comes out on TV, we don’t blame anyone for raising those issues and it becomes an avenue to begin talking about important issues’.

This approach to HIV prevention is called ‘edutainment’ and has been developed over the last few years in a growing number of countries around the world. Its positive impacts have been documented in detail; the most well-known example is the ‘Soul City’ TV series in South Africa.

As a result, the Pacific Regional HIV/AIDS Project (PRHP), the HIV & STI Section of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the well-known Vanuatu theatre company Wan Smolbag thought the time was ripe for the Pacific to have its own TV soap opera, with characters, storylines and scenes that are relevant to the region.

In addition to being screened on TV, all episodes will be distributed widely on DVD across the region along with back-up print materials relating to the episodes.

Initially they will be an important source of information, education and communication (IEC) materials for the region’s schools, with plans for support materials for the non-school environment (non-governmental organisations, clinics and village communities) further down the track.

The impact of the series will be closely monitored and documented to inform any future HIV-related video projects in the region, including a second series planned for 2008.

Indeed, there were many calls for a continuation of the series during the street poll, with some respondents comparing it with Wan Smolbag’s radio soap opera ‘Famili Blong Serah’, which has now been running for seven years.

To-date, ‘Love Patrol’ has been shown in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu, as well as in Samoa during the South Pacific Games. In all these places, it has been met with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Vanuatu’s random street poll showed that over 85 percent of people were watching every episode (even the repeats).

‘Love Patrol’ started on Fiji One TV on October 15. You can follow the lives and loves of Elizabeth, Mark and the cops of the Love Patrol at 8pm on Fridays.

Viewers in the Cook Islands will be able to see Love Patrol from January 2008. Stay tuned to the Patrol—it’s coming your way!

For more information, please contact one of the following:

• Robyn Drysdale, Behaviour Change Communication Specialist, HIV & STI Section, SPC, ph: (687) 26 20 00, email: RobynD@spc.int
• Tamara Kwarteng, Team Leader, Pacific Regional HIV/AIDS Project, ph: (679) 3317 945, email: tamara.kwarteng@prhp.org.fj
• Joanne Dorras, Scriptwriter and Co-Founder, Wan Smolbag,  ph: (678) 27119, email: jopet@vanuatu.com.vu