There was a time when Sirak Tesfaye’s whereabouts were unknown even by his own family members but today Sirak has unexpectedly become a radio icon recognized everywhere by people who have heard his story on Betegna. Sirak ran away from his aunt’s care at a young age looking fora better life but instead found a life full of complications, struggle, and unfulfilled desires. Years later Sirak finds himself talking about his experiences to Addis Abebans on FM 97.1 and thousands of other Ethiopians across the world through the internet. Sirak tells his story with candidness, which is a story of someone who has learned to derive the best from life and who is living positively with HIV.

Betengna Radio Diaries has featured the real life stories of people living with HIV(PLWH) for over one year now. In that time, Sirak and five other diarists have succeeded in capturing the hearts of Ethiopians through 20-minute programs that air twice a week. The diaries in each program focus on a single event in the diarist’s life and are followed by feature segments that further explore related issues such as voluntary counseling and testing, prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission, abstinence, etc. Listeners continuously call in to tell Betengna producers how they have been personally affected by the stories and motivated them to reconsider their lifestyles. Due to the programs popularity, Betengna is now also being produced in Oromigna as ‘Aantee’ and in Tigrigna as ‘Me’munay’ to be aired on Radio Ethiopia and Voice of Radio Tigray respectively.

Betengna is a project run by the AIDS Resource Center designed to reduce stigma and discrimination of individuals infected and affected by HIV in a nation where approximately 1.3 million people are living with HIV in Ethiopian and the prevalence rate is estimated to be 2.7%.

The National AIDS Resource Center works in partnership with the HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control Office (HAPCO) and with funding from PEPFAR through CDC.

*Name has been changed to protect the anonymity of the diarist