South Africa

The Life Channel has launched in South Africa with the full support of the Gauteng Department of Health.

TLC Africa delivers pertinent health, social and well-being education into the waiting rooms of health clinics and hospitals. Whilst targeted at all nine million South Africans that populate Gauteng, the television channel aims to communicate directly to patients of all ages who are most at risk from avoidable dangers and disease.

"We are excited to introduce The Life Channel community-based network as a medium to communicate important health care messages to the citizens of Gauteng," said MEC Brian Hlongwa.

Despite excellent treatment available for Tuberculosis (TB) across Gauteng, this "silent killer" is still responsible for high instances of death in the region. Similarly, due to lack of road safety awareness, road traffic accidents are the fourth biggest killer of girls under the age of fourteen in Gauteng. Treatable and avoidable dangers such as these will be TLC Africa's primary focus, as well as practical help and information about HIV/AIDS, and STI's.

"The Gauteng Department of Health has seen the advantage of using TLC Africa as a powerful communication medium," said Phil Austin, Managing Director of The Life Channel. "Through the screens the DoH will be able to provide genuine help to its people in an accessible, easy to understand, and sometimes entertaining way. TLC Africa is really proud to be a part of Gauteng's initiatives in this important area."

TLC Africa's content will be divided into recognisable programme strands which are designed to support individuals helping their own health.

These include:

Health Matters

A series of programs focusing on specific conditions, featuring tips from professionals and simple explanations of how you can take better care of yourself.

Good Food

Working with Garden Africa, The Life Channel has developed and produced a series of programs looking at gardening and cooking. The programs feature TV star Fezile Mpela and experts from the Garden Africa team who offer advice and encouragement in growing and eating healthy food.

Get Active

Focuses on living a more active life. From the benefits of walking, to a series of mini-documentaries on the Whizzkids United soccer program, these items are designed to showcase some of the ways that people are incorporating exercise into their lives and highlight the benefits and rewards that come with it.

Baby Talk

Midwife Sister Lillian, together with her team and real mothers with babies, offer tips, advice and encouragement for all new mums. From coping with serious conditions like HIV, TB and malnutrition to some of the challenges facing new mums the world over including advice on teething, crying and breastfeeding

Our Life

The 'Our Life' series of programmes are uplifting films which tackle personal and community stories and issues. Children who are going the extra mile at school to improve their lives, groups set up by locals to improve conditions or offer support to those in need anything else that offers encouragement and ideas for people who want to better their lives and the lives of others.

Life Matters

The Life Matters strand deals with some of the serious issues that South Africa faces - both from a health and social perspective. Working together with charities and NPO's, The Life Channel is creating programmes to highlight issues such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Child abuse, Sexual abuse and Rape, Drug and Alcohol abuse and racism. Each programme offers advice and concludes with direction towards help and resources. The Life Matters strand also includes a series featuring St John's Ambulance of Johannesburg. Each short programme offers advice on dealing with specific emergency situations from burns to falls.

Local news, initiatives, weather and information RSS feeds are featured and the serious health items are supplemented with some entertainment programmes sourced from South African and international programme makers.

The Life Channel will continue to identify new ways of communicating with the people of South Africa about the things that matter most to them.

Related Links:

• Whizzkids United
• Garden Africa