(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-10 07:45

Ignoring social taboos in this conservative nation, a Nepali radio program on safe sex is spreading awareness against HIV/AIDS and offers life-saving advice to young people who are vulnerable to the disease.

Confined only to a few towns six years ago, "Chatting with my best friend", a youth-friendly program about serious day-to-day issues like sexual health and HIV/AIDS, has expanded to cover much of this mountainous nation.

Many Nepalis are now glued to the weekly, hour-long program. "Initially we got letters complaining against the discussions on use of condoms, sex or sexual organs," Binayak Aryal, a producer for the program, said.

He said social attitudes had now changed since the program began in 2001 and it is now aired through 35 hugely popular FM stations as well as the state-run Radio Nepal. "Now there is a change. Even parents and school teachers advise the young people to listen to the program about sexual health."

Nepal, where millions live in remote villages, has long had a conservative attitude to sex. For example, homosexuality is taboo and "unnatural sex", as it is termed by the law, can fetch up to one year in jail.

Hosts of the hour-long program chat about how injecting drugs and unsafe sex cause HIV and seek to promote the use of condoms for safety in a youth-friendly language.

"It also imparts life skills to the youth dealing with emotion, stress and communicating issues that can't be discussed with parents," said Nirmal Rijal, Nepal unit chief of the San Francisco-based aid group, Equal Access, which produces the program with UNICEF support.

According to official estimates about 70,000 of the Himalayan nation's 26.4 m people are living with HIV.

Many of them have no access to information about the disease and do not talk about their problems openly in families for fear of being stigmatized in the majority-Hindu nation.