The Drum Beat 182 - Communication and Change News and Issues

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PROGRAMMES

1. Nekolera Gyange (I Run My Own Business) - Uganda - uses radio to provide marginalised businesspeople - especially the self-employed - with a voice to influence environment and policy decisions, a platform for discussion, and a channel to receive information for their businesses. Broadcast in the evening 2x weekly for 30 minutes, the magasine format features business news; talk shows; interviews with self-employed persons, technical experts, and policy makers; and live call-in. Focus listener clubs have been established to increase participation and relevance of content. A CD Rom and video describing the programme have been produced.
Contact Gavin Anderson [email protected]

2. Australian National Tobacco Campaign - Australia - a collaborative quit-smoking health initiative involving federal, state, and territory governments and NGOs. The campaign combines advertising with a nationally coordinated Quitline service for smokers, a campaign website, and national media promotions. It addresses smokers who are between the ages of 18 and 40. The campaign's Quit Now site provides information sheets, scripts, audio, and images from the radio and televison campaign and offers free quit-smoking-related screensavers for download.
Contact Tom Carroll [email protected]

3. Diogel?/Safe? - UK - a drama-based project performed in secondary schools to encourage host communities to support refugees. The initial stimulus in each participating school is a performance using puppets. Introduced by a refugee mentor, the story follows a young boy’s journey from West Africa to a playground in Wales. The play combines elements of different people’s recent experience seeking asylum in Wales, including those of the current mentor’s own family that have been researched during the planning of the project. After the performance there is an opportunity for audience members to discuss issues raised. Follow-up activities include workshops using drama to explore issues highlighted in the performance, children’s rights workshops, and participatory monitoring and evaluation of the process.
Contact [email protected]

4. Projet Video Sabou et Nafa - Guinea - a participatory video project to help combat Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and promote the welfare of women and girls. Local-language programmes, ranging from mini-dramas to documentaries, convey anti-FGM messages delivered by respected individuals from within the community. Video "playback" sessions spark discussions about girls' and women's well-being and the sharing of personal stories. After each screening, the video teams also invite community members' ideas for future videotapes and outreach activities. Follow-up activities, including a Training of Trainers, are planned for early 2003.
Contact Sara Stuart [email protected] OR Lauren Goodsmith [email protected]

5. Kalyani Television and Club Campaign - India - a television-based campaign to create awareness of diseases like tuberculosis (TB), cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, iodine deficiency, and tobacco-related and water-borne diseases. The half-hour health magazine programmes are aired in the capital cities of 9 highly populated Indian states. Health (Kalyani) Clubs also foster communication among citizens, especially young people.
Contact Usha Bhasin [email protected] or [email protected]

6. Farmer to Farmer - Tajikistan - a radio series (Az Dekhon ba Dekhon) that aims to respond to the concerns and questions of farmers through interviews with farmers and a range of agricultural experts. The 20- to 25-minute programme is broadcast each week as part of Tajik Radio's lunchtime programme for rural listeners, and then repeated in the evening. The programme reaches out to a group of private farmers called 'dekhon farmers' - those that have a measure of leasehold security - and to small-scale and subsistence farmers who farm household plots. Though initially these programmes were pre-packaged and somewhat technical, future programmes will aim to focus more on the farmer's perspectives, incorporate listener feedback, and provide supporting print materials for specific topics discussed.
Contact Riccardo Del Castello [email protected]

7. Youth Development and Outreach Program - Latin America and the Caribbean - to promote the participation and leadership of young people in building a region with stable democracies, sustainable economies, and equitable societies. Activities include: training initiatives and projects that develop the managerial, technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills of youth; facilitation of communication through a regional network of more than 8,000 youth leaders and social entrepreneurs; development of communication tools and promotion of best practices and model programmes of youth development through conferences, audiovisual materials, publications, television programming, press articles, a quarterly newsletter, and The Youth Development & Outreach Program website.
Contact [email protected]

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NEW Pulse Poll

Mass media campaigns have to be linked to communities and local community action to be effective.

Do you agree or disagree?

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RESULTS from our most recent poll:

Development focused organisations should never pay for radio or television air time.

Total # of respondents: 125
40.00 % Agree
49.60 % Disagree
10.40 % Unsure

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STRATEGIC THINKING

8. Global Congress for Community Networking in the Digital Era - by Steve Cisler
This web log provides a personal view of the 3rd Congress of the Global Community Network Partnership and some of the issues and topics raised from open source to broadband and organisational structure to language.

9. Using Men as Community-based Distributors of Condoms - by Cynthia P. Green, Stephanie Joyce, and James R. Foreit
Community-based condom distribution programmes have traditionally used female agents to target female clients. Relatively few studies have addressed men’s effectiveness as community-based distributor agents or as providers of condoms. This Summary highlights the key findings of some 20 reports from 13 countries that discuss the effectiveness of male agents.

10. Oxford professor invents self-focusing glasses - by Meg Kociemba & Jonathan Thompson
"An Oxford physics professor is selling 10 million pairs of revolutionary new spectacles to Africa which enable the users to wear them for a lifetime without ever going to an optician.... Joshua Silver's simple invention could in theory help to eradicate adult illiteracy in developing countries...."

AWARDS

11. The Kids For Kids Film Festival Competition - this independent festival of films made by and for children includes a competition involving films of up to 30 minutes in length, made entirely by children from 2 age groups: 6-12 years old, or 13-16 years old. Deadline Feb 15 2003.

12. Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism - recognises independent and professional reporting that sheds new light on controversial issues. 2 prizes: one to a freelance journalist covering foreign news and one to a reporter in a developing nation or country in transition. Deadline May 1 2003

13. International Green Pen Award - for environmental journalists who have made a significant contribution in promoting environmental journalism. Deadline May 15 2003.

MATERIALS

14. Rural Women in Africa: Ideas for Earning Money (CD-ROM) - offering direct access to poor women with limited reading ability, this interactive CD-ROM is intended for rural African women entrepreneurs who have access to a computer through a telecentre but no experience in using one.

15. Teaching Sustainability: Towards Curriculum Greening - descriptions of approaches, methods, and projects, with a focus on the work of different universities in countries including Brazil, Germany, Latvia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, The Netherlands, UK, Canada, and the United States.

16. Helping the News Media Cover Family Planning - available in English, French, and Spanish, includes the following chapters: The News Media & Family Planning Programmes; Building a News Media Relations Programme; Developing a Strategy; How to Tell the Family Planning Story; Tools for Analysis; Matching Your Message to the Medium; Developing Materials that Interest Journalists; Making News; and, Dealing with Controversy.

LINKS

17. AfricanPuppet.com - site details the results of work on the part of Gary Friedman Productions to help Kenyans overcome prejudices and find ways to connect with each other. Descriptions of live puppetry performances that educate people of all ages about health- and development-related issues such as immunisation, drug abuse, gender issues, refugees, street children, conservation, and corruption.

18. APDIME Toolkit - offered by the Synergy Project, in collaboration with the University of Washington, to support programme designers and managers in HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support in the developing world. 5 modules outline methods and include links in the areas of Assessment, Planning, Design, Implementation Monitoring, and Evaluation (APDIME); a database of more than 800 technically reviewed documents, tools, and materials is provided.

19. The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) - UK charity committed to poverty reduction that works with poor communities in Latin America, East & Southern Africa, and South Asia to develop technologies in food production, agroprocessing, energy, transport, small enterprise development, shelter, small-scale mining, and disaster mitigation. An emphasis is placed on fostering the shaping and control of technology by local people.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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