A scene from the favored Ethiopian cleaning soap opera Yegna, which sends messages about well being and well-being to its teen viewers. Subjects vary from baby marriage to menstrual pads.
@yegnaplayer through YouTube/ Screengrab by NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
@yegnaplayer through YouTube/ Screengrab by NPR
A scene from the favored Ethiopian cleaning soap opera Yegna, which sends messages about well being and well-being to its teen viewers. Subjects vary from baby marriage to menstrual pads.
@yegnaplayer through YouTube/ Screengrab by NPR
Tsega is a young person who needs to be a physician. However the excessive schooler’s mother and father need her to marry an older man who’s well-off – and will help her mother and father, who’re previous and never wealthy.
That is the most recent plotline within the groundbreaking cleaning soap opera Yegna, which launched its fifth season this spring in Ethiopia.
Little one marriage is considered one of many urgent points for teenagers that the present has addressed. Previous plotlines have taken on cervical most cancers vaccines, menstrual pads and feminine genital mutilation. It is also a present that seeks to create gender fairness in its workers – this season nearly all of its writers and administrators are ladies.
The cleaning soap opera was created by the charity Lady Impact, as a follow-up to {a magazine} and radio present launched a decade in the past. Yegna is Amharic for “ours.” The objective has at all times been to offer useful content material for teen women. The weekly present has an viewers of 9.8 million, with 44% of the viewers women age 13 to fifteen. Presently, Yegna is attempting to achieve teenagers in distant areas the place TV is probably not accessible, working with UNICEF to arrange screenings in colleges in 22 villages adopted by discussions.
It is at all times exhausting to show that TV can change minds and attitudes. Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), a accomplice in growing storylines concerning the cervical most cancers vaccines, employed an impartial evaluator, Swiss TPH, to interview women who watched the present and women who did not. The viewers have been educated about cervical most cancers than the non-viewers (67 % vs. 36%) and the HPV vaccine (76% vs. 47%) and have been additionally extra prone to wish to take the vaccine (70% vs. 43%).
Eden Tigabu, 25, at all times wished to be a author, and that is what she started to do on season 5 of Yegna, the Ethiopian cleaning soap opera with a social conscience — together with being a manufacturing supervisor and assistant director. Writing for the present, she says, has taught her “to face up for myself in my profession and in addition in my private life.”
Yetenayet Taye
disguise caption
toggle caption
Yetenayet Taye
Eden Tigabu, 25, at all times wished to be a author, and that is what she started to do on season 5 of Yegna, the Ethiopian cleaning soap opera with a social conscience — together with being a manufacturing supervisor and assistant director. Writing for the present, she says, has taught her “to face up for myself in my profession and in addition in my private life.”
Yetenayet Taye
To study extra concerning the new season, we interviewed
Eden (pronounce Ayden) Tigabu, 25, is a script author for the fifth season of Yegna in addition to a manufacturing supervisor and second assistant director. We spoke (in English) on Zoom from Addis Ababa, the place she moved from Harar (a small city within the jap Ethiopia) together with her mom and brother after eighth grade to have a greater schooling.
How did you change into concerned with Yegna?
I at all times wished to be a author, however I studied city and regional planning at college as a result of my mother and father wished me to get a level and went by so much to get me there. By likelihood, I met the top author of Yegna and obtained the chance to work in manufacturing. In season 5, Lady Impact was on the lookout for new abilities. They took younger feminine interns and educated them in writing, producing and directing. I educated as a author and managed the season 5 crew, which had greater than 35 crew members.
How do you write the scripts?
We sit collectively, seven younger writers and the top author and government producer, Emmy-nominated Mehret Mandefro. Each season, Lady Impact provides us a sequence of subjects to handle, based mostly on points confronted by youngsters in our nation and what has occurred within the earlier sequence. We talk about the weather we wish to embrace, the story arcs, the construction, the cliff-hangers. Then we resolve which characters will carry the primary story line and the sub story strains, and we write the script. Yegna has 5 fundamental characters – three women and two boys – every with their very own backstory and traits.
Which storyline was most significant to you?
It needs to be the one about baby marriage. Ladies in rural space usually marry younger as a result of their mother and father are poor and struggling to make a residing. The character we selected for this subject is Tsega. Like me, she got here from a rural space to the town to be educated. She lives together with her aunt. She is shy, clever and devoted to her research. She needs to be a physician when she grows up, however her household are making her marry an older man. I’m not going to let you know the way it ends as a result of season 5 continues to be being aired!
I used to be stunned to see you had a storyline about betting. What prompted that?
A lot of younger males guess. They assume it is easy cash. And older individuals watching soccer guess too and get in hassle and it is inflicting issues of their marriage. It is such an enormous downside in our nation that our authorities is speaking of banning soccer betting.
How did you deal with betting?
This story begins in season 4 with Haile. He’s in highschool, however his mother and father usually are not effectively off, so he must get a job. He obtained one as a mechanic. In season 5, he begins to earn good cash whereas nonetheless in highschool, however he does not know the right way to handle it and underneath peer strain, he begins betting. At first, he wins and thinks it is a simple strategy to make cash. Then he loses all of it.
At first Lady Impact did not approve of that story: they did not need individuals to assume [betting] was a simple strategy to make cash, however we used that story to indicate younger individuals the significance of studying the right way to take care of their cash.
The present gives a unique picture of women and girls.
Most individuals in our nation assume that women usually are not adequate. Within the media, when women are represented, it’s as moms, doing house responsibilities. If ladies wish to have a job, they aren’t seen as bosses. Individuals would somewhat take orders from a male than a feminine.
Yegna addresses this in most seasons. In a single, Hana and her brother are going to the identical faculty, however when she goes dwelling, she has to take care of her youthful brother and sisters, prepare dinner, clear the home and assist her mom. However her brother simply has to go to high school. When he comes again, he eats and goes out to play soccer. On the finish of the episode, he understands: he gives to assist his sister, in order that she will get the time to check.
What sorts of reactions are you listening to concerning the present?
I used to be in one other metropolis and noticed individuals watching Yegna. They mentioned: “You guys are actually making modifications. You level out issues which might be occurring, however that we did not give consideration to, like menstruation.” Many individuals know that ladies have cycles, however not what is definitely occurring, the place to seek out sanitary pads or have good hygiene. In rural space, many individuals do not even know what a sanitary pad is! So, lots of women miss faculty as a result of they do not know what’s occurring to them. On this season, Tsega comforted a brand new woman at college, who was crying within the rest room as a result of her uniform was stained from having her durations. And he or she confirmed her the right way to make DIY sanitary pads as a result of she will’t afford to purchase them. We’re additionally attempting so as to add male involvement on this sequence as a result of going by menstruation isn’t just about ladies.
Has writing these storylines modified your views on any issues, had any influence by yourself life?
Sure, it made me understand that there are lots of tales I might inform and the ability of the media. After writing season 5, I’ve began to face up for myself in my profession and in addition in my private life. Plus, it additionally gave me an concept that I might flip right into a script.
Earlier than season 5, I used to be at all times a follower. I would not let you know my opinion as a result of I used to really feel like my voice, my opinion does not matter. However having the expertise of writing an episode and seeing what women undergo, then being a manufacturing supervisor, helped me understand that I may lead a crew. And season 5 crew was successful!
The story I wish to inform is that, in our tradition, youngsters usually are not given lots of consideration when grown-ups are having a dialog. And when one solutions the incorrect reply in school, college students make enjoyable of that scholar. I wish to present people who shaming or telling others to maintain quiet would possibly have an effect on a toddler’s future profession. This tradition has even affected me. I’m engaged on overcoming my fears and dealing on this script is a primary step in growing my very own profession.
Veronique Mistiaen is a London-based award-winning journalist, writing about world improvement, human rights and social points for main media shops within the U.Okay. and internationally, together with The Guardian, The Instances, The Economist, BBC Information, Newsweek, Nationwide Geographic, Le Monde and The Chicago Tribune. @VeroMistiaen
