Nomfundo Ndlovu and Michael Batch are among 12 boys and girls aged 18 to 23 who have come forward to discuss their dilemmas and ask the audience and experts for solutions on the government-financed interactive programme "Choice", which is broadcast every Tuesday on the television channel SABC 1 and then debated on radio Metro FM.

Nomfundo, a schoolgirl from KwaZulu Natal province, explains on the set how she met her boyfriend four years ago and had a baby with him before discovering she was HIV positive. The father of her child refuses to have himself tested for AIDS and refuses to use contraceptives.

"Should I insist on my boyfriend using a condom or not? Do I not risk losing him? He says he'll die before he get tested," she asks. Young people in the audience cry out their advice: "Start a new life", "Leave him", "It's like he's not interested in your life."

Doctors, social workers and experts, also on the set, give their opinions to try to help young people in the same situation understand what choices they have.

Michael, 21, from Western Cape in the southwest of the country, has a different problem. He has a degree, which makes him overqualified for entry-level jobs.

"Should I settle for any available job, go overseas or stay unemployed 'till I get the job I'm qualified for?"

As well as HIV-AIDS, which affects six million South Africans, and unemployment, which concerns 30 percent of the population, the young people discuss a whole range of problems from teenage pregnancy and career plans to relations with their parents and violence -- questions which are all the more topical given that 15-34 year-olds represent almost 38 percent of the country's population of 46.4 million.

"The programme is about life-changing choices. The participants are people who have not made their choices, it's young people who are faced with a dilemma, who need guidance, so that they can make an informed choice," says Paddy Nhalpo, campaign manager for Choice.

He believes the programme's popularity is down to the fact that "it's about real people, real stories, there are no actors".

The new series, which is being aired from July 4 to September 26, is back on public demand, after the previous series in 2005 reached an audience of more than six million young people.

Thami Skenjana, director of the Government AIDS Action Plan, which is involved in the programme's production, said audience response had exceeded expectations and showed that people understood that "the choice that you make today will either make you live or die in future".

"Your future is about the decision you make today," he said.

For Criselda Kanada, the presenter of the radio debates on Metro FM, being involved in Choice is more than just a job.

"Looking back in my own personal life, when I was faced with difficult choices, at the time there was no platform like Choice... Had I had the opportunities that young people are having today, some of the choices I made, I would not have made."

Married at 19, divorced and remarried at 24, she was widowed by AIDS and discovered she was HIV positive, with an HIV positive family to raise.

For her, Choice is about helping young people reach decisions using other people's stories as a reference.

"It is through that that we'll be able to allow young people to realise what a gift life is. And so many of them threw away that gift, just through making bad choices," she says.

She voices hope that the combination of the TV series and radio will help prevent some of those bad choices. She is also aiming to triple audience figures to maximise its impact.

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