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30-year-old Yahaya and 22-year-old Salamatu and their two daughters live in Rido village in the state of Kaduna in northern Nigeria.

The bustling village is dwarfed by the towering gas flares of the Kaduna oil refinery where Yahaya works. Flaring of gas like this can damage the health of people living nearby, causing respiratory problems and skin rashes.

But it was something even closer to home that the family learned was also harmful – the water in their well.

Practical health advice

It was only after listening to radio programme Ya Take Ne Arewa â€“ which means 'What's Happening in the North?' in Hausa – that they found out what to do.

"We used to drink water regardless of whether it was clean or not," Salamatu says, while washing up her family's dishes in the small, high-walled family compound.

Drinking untreated water, she says, gave their children diarrhoea and once they had to take their daughter Zainab, who's now four, to hospital.

"But from listening to Ya Take Ne Arewa, we learned to treat our drinking water," she says, "And now we do not drink water unless we're sure it is clean."

Life-changing information

It's not just how to treat water which the family have learned from the show.

"The programme also told us about the dangers of stopping women from going to antenatal appointments," Yahaya says. During Salamatu’s first pregnancy, Yahaya did not allow her to travel to the hospital to attend any antenatal check-ups.

But during her second pregnancy, he allowed her to go for check-ups and much to Salamatu's joy, she had a healthy baby girl, called Khadija.

Salamatu also says that she particularly liked a programme about child spacing. "The episode was fantastic. I now know that you should wait until your baby is strong to get pregnant and that if a woman rests after delivery, her life will be better."

Her husband, meanwhile, particularly likes how the programme travels far and wide to gather stories. "One thing that thrills me about the programme is how it enters the nooks and crannies of northern Nigeria to find out what the actual situation is and to enlighten the public about what is good or otherwise."

"I make sure that I listen wherever I am - in the bush or anywhere - to make sure that I benefit from what’s discussed."

Ya Take Ne Arewa is produced with funding from USAID.