2 January 2011Last updated at 00:33

In pictures: The Archers in Afghanistan

Actors rehearse and record an episode of New Home, New Life, in the studios of the Afghan education programme that is supported by the BBC Trust in Kabul

New Home, New Life is a bilingual radio drama in Afghanistan that was first broadcast by the BBC World Service in 1994.

The programme follows in the footsteps of The Archers which was first broadcast in England 60 years ago in order to convey important social and practical messages to the country.

The AEP (Afghan Education Projects) was initially set up to provide practical, informative programming to Afghans with a particular focus on refugees, IDPs and the rural population of Afghanistan that had little or no access to information.

The AEP is now the largest media development project for Afghans run by Afghans, with over 300 producers, reporters, writers, actors and technical staff involved.

The programme contains educational messages on key developmental themes such as health, gender equity, good governance, reconciliation and sustainable rural livelihoods other than poppy cultivation.

Broadcast in both Dari And Pashto, it is the most popular radio programme of its genre in Afghanistan with 14 million listeners on a weekly basis.

A full-time cartoonist is employed to hand paint educational books that run alongside episode.

A young girl and her grandmother, returnees from Pakistan, who are a target audience of the BBC radio drama

Though its primary audience is within the country it also caters for refugees and those living in other parts of the world. Photographs and text by Kate Holt

South Asia

In pictures: The Archers in Afghanistan

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