I recently spent a week away from my home in Bradford, in the north of England, working with a team in London on scripts for a new 主播大秀 Media Action radio drama for West Africa called . Our focus is Ebola and our aim is to use familiar characters and situations to help people feel confident about getting early treatment for Ebola Virus Disease (known as just “Ebola”) and ensuring safe burials when someone dies.

It was an international effort – I’m Liberian, and I worked alongside colleagues from Guinea and Sierra Leone, and a creative team from India helped us with storylines. The scripts were produced in both French and Liberian English in order to reach as many people in the region as possible.

These new mini-dramas bring together three strands in my own life: I’ve studied nutrition and public health, I’m a nurse and midwife by profession, and I’ve also been broadcasting health related programmes for sub-Saharan Africa for some years in my show Calls to My Sister.

Calls to My Sister is based on the telephone conversations I really have with my own sister in Liberia where, in addition to chatting, I share advice about nutrition and hygiene. I realised this kind of information could be helpful for others, and so turned our conversations into scripted dialogue that I record with another actor. Our weekly show is sent to radio stations across West Africa. One time I was talking to my real sister on the phone when she suddenly stopped talking and held her radio to the receiver. I could hear Calls to My Sister in the background!

I know how well drama works – it enables you to bring up topics that might be taboo and the listener isn’t being “told” what to do. So I was delighted to be invited to take part in this new 主播大秀 Media Action project on Ebola response. Radio is terribly important in sub-Saharan Africa. Young people do increasingly have mobile phones but radio is how people get their information and news.

Before I got the call to help out I was getting very frustrated that I wasn’t doing enough to help tackle the problem back home (with a Guinean ancestry, a Sierra Leone name and a Liberian nationality, I’m rooted in the region). There is sometimes friction between the need to stop the spread of Ebola and observing age-old customs. For instance I heard that members of an official burial team [a team recruited by local officials to dispose of the bodies of people suspected of dying of Ebola] in Guinea had been attacked by the relatives of the deceased.

The people grieving didn’t understand what the team needed to do in order to ensure Ebola was not transmitted to anyone else. The bodily fluids of someone who has died as a result of Ebola are very infectious – but not to be able to spend time with the corpse and to touch it goes against local tradition. Without access to information people just don’t understand what to do or why to do it.

Liberia was only just starting to recover from the civil war when Ebola struck. I’m glad to be able to play a small part in helping the country beat this latest threat and to take part in these new Ebola response dramas as both an actress and scriptwriter. I thank God that my real sister and her family are ok so far and I pray that with the help of these programmes and good practices they, and many more, will stay well.

• Listen to a  episode on Soundcloud.
• Read another about Mr Plan-Plan and the Pepo-oh on the .
• .
• Follow 主播大秀 Media Action on and .

In the three countries most affected by Ebola, information and communication play an important role in curtailing its spread. There is a lot of information out there, from posters displaying symptoms, to celebrity-featured public service announcements and Ebola songs. In the early phases of the crisis, communication focused on the fact that Ebola is real was important when denial was a barrier. Now, there is a much needed emphasis on providing two-way communication and highlighting survival stories to address misinformation, hopelessness, fear and stigma.

But what other gaps exist in people’s knowledge or what else can communication do? How can communication motivate people to take action? Besides advising people on hand washing, much of the communication to date hasn’t been action-oriented, especially for those who haven’t directly been affected by Ebola. We wanted to change that. It was important to us that what we communicate is practical and actionable.

Much of the communication to date has focused on what not to do: don’t come into contact with sick people’s bodily fluids, don’t wash the bodies of your deceased loved ones and so on. It’s difficult to see what action you can take if you aren’t currently facing that exact situation. What should I do if no one in my family is sick, besides washing my hands constantly whenever I’m in public? Is there anything else I can do to prevent the spread of Ebola to protect myself and my family?

Ebola has created an emergency-like situation for communities at higher risk. In the event of an emergency, what are we always told to do? Whether we are airline passengers or live near an earthquake fault line, we are told to be prepared. To be aware of what we can do should something go wrong. To have a plan. Having an emergency plan helps people deal with difficult decisions that have to be made in the heat of the moment, decisions that are often made in the presence of fear and panic.

Our task was to build a convincing case for "having a plan" that could stop the spread of Ebola. Experts currently agree that at this time, communication efforts need to focus on two broad goals: promote the need to seek treatment as soon as an individual experiences Ebola-like symptoms and practice safe funeral and burial rituals. We want to encourage our audiences to have an emergency plan for their family where they know what to do should a loved one fall ill or die. We know these are difficult and often taboo discussions. Having a plan, we hope, will encourage families to feel more prepared and in control in these scary and uncertain times.

We decided to use the power of drama, because drama can portray the conflicts and challenges people are confronting when faced with Ebola. This was the genesis of Mr Plan-Plan, our main character. Mr Plan-Plan is an itinerant trader, a wise fool, who champions "having a plan". He presents stories of what he sees around him: families torn over what to do when someone falls sick, friends misunderstanding each other, relationships being threatened, emotions boiling over, communities fighting to hold on to tradition and rituals. In Mr Plan-Plan and The People, a series of six mini dramas, we see how a plan helps people navigate their way through Ebola.

Mr Plan-Plan and The People has been produced in three languages: French (Guinea), Liberian English (Liberia) and Krio (Sierra Leone) and will be aired over our network of partner radio stations across the three countries over the Christmas and New Year period. This is a particularly salient time given Sierra Leone has cancelled holiday celebrations to avoid further spread of Ebola. The drama is part of a 主播大秀 Media Action initiative to use media to reduce the spread of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and to prepare ten neighbouring countries with training on media and communications.

The work is funded by the Paul G Allen Foundation.

Follow 主播大秀 Media Action on and .