Positive vibes in the AIR.

              They spoke from the heart, overcoming social prejudice, their voices laced with bashful Tremor and fear . But they recounted their innocuous tales nevertheless in a 22 minute  programme that won the hearts of all .

               Janile Jiniba (Know and win), a programme aired on All India Radio, Jeypore, featuring HIV positive persons, has won the prestigious Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union prize 2009 under the category HIV/AIDS. 

              This was announced at a ceremony held at the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, recently. "The audio-docu was selected among 200 entries from 58 countries," said the producer of the programme and senior announcer, Ashok Kumar Mishra. The prize carries a medal, citation and a cash prize of US $1,000. 
 
            The 14 HIV positive people, including seven women of different age groups, who were featured, felt strongly that the virus which has taken away many beautiful things from their lives, has not succeeded in taking away their right to live with dignity. "Generally HIV positive people feel ashamed to talk about their misery and choose to live in seclusion. The idea of the programme was to make them shed their inhibitions and talk," said Mishra. 

           The anchor, who is also an HIV positive, did a wonderful job in making the guests bear their hearts. "Two positive things emerged from the programme. One, they are doing their regular health check-ups. Second, they are supporting themselves and their families," said Mishra, recalling the difficulties he faced scouting for the people and convincing them to speak. 

        "Usually, HIV patients surrender to their fate. Only a few fight it out and talk about it in public. It took me over a year to compile the docu. Initially, the recording was for more than 14 hours. We edited it and brought it down to a little less than 22 minutes," said Mishra, who was assisted by Narendranath Patnaik, programme executive, AIR, Jeypore.