Picture this: a village with around 120 households; men, women, children and elderly all living together in conditions very few would dare to live. As the night falls the world beyond the village illuminates with lights glowing from house windows and on the streets. Cool air wafts from air conditioners and fans are blowing. But this village in KPK looks like a campsite with candle lights getting dimmer and dimmer as night get deeper.
Using Technology to Tackle Teen Pregnancies
By Jon Hargreaves
HCR partner station Amani FM in eastern Kenya’s Tana River, has launched a major campaign to tackle underage pregnancy. According to Station Manager, Harriet Atyang, “Tana River County is among the four worst hit counties with this menace and is one of the major reasons it performs so poorly in the national exams.”
Over the next three months Amani FM will be promoting awareness of underage pregnancy through discussion programmes, road shows, street theatre and visiting schools across the region. In addition to this, the station is teaming up with Una Hakika to use technology to protect vulnerable children. Using Una Hakika’s SMS text reporting system, listeners will be given a short code, which they will be able to use free-of-charge, to report any incidents where they feel threatened or at risk.
“Every text will be followed up and in the case of a rescue being required, we will involve the police,” says Harriet. “I have spoken to the OCS of the area and he is ready to offer us all the support we need.”
HCR set up Amani FM in partnership with the Sentinel Project to promote peace and social development ahead of the elections in 2017 and an evaluation last year showed it had had a significant impact on promoting dialogue between different ethnic groups.
For more information contact hcruk@h-c-r.org
Harriet Atyang and Esther Dalano interview a community member during an Amani FM Road Show
Let's start a business, to end poverty
“Tuanze Biashara” is Swahili for “Let's Start a Business”, a poverty alleviation project integrating a community radio station, social media, training workshops and a savings and loan association. See how this innovative micro-enterprise project is lifting people in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County out of poverty.
A talented bunch...?
In the Mid West, HCR works primarily with community radio stations and partners who rely on community radio for communication support. HCR has had dealings with the community radio broadcast sector over a number of years because we greatly support the role of community-run radio stations, such as the Mid West Aboriginal Media Association (Radio MAMA). Stations such as these are an important cultural and social asset in regional and remote areas. And so we are happy to offer our support to the sector in another way. Our own Ross James has been appointed to the assessor pool of the Community Broadcast Foundation. The assessors voluntarily commit some time to independently consider and provide advice on grant applications from community radio stations. Thanks go to Radio MAMA for sponsoring Ross in his appointment as their representative.
(Cheeky note from Editor: The CBF announcement stated, “This talented bunch will start in their new roles on 1 July”. We note they didn’t mention Ross hee hee).
Innovative Advocacy in Kenya
While HCR's partner in Kenya works hard to obtain a community radio licence for the conflict-torn Tana River, the team on the ground have been continuing the work we began in June by meeting community groups, lobbying local government and vociferously advocating to bring pressure for the release of a licence. In a touch of amazing ingenuity, the Tana FM team were invited to have a stand to celebrate World Food Day (WFD) in the Tana River capital, Hola, recently.
Improvised broadcasting to prove the value of radio to promote peace, health and social development in Tana River
Using the content they made during the HCR workshop in June, they demonstrated how FM radio works through an improvised transmitter and antenna (above), going live on air. People all around tuned their FM pocket radios and mobile phones to listen and contributed to the broadcasts. The WFD organisers were so impressed that they said the Tana FM stand was the best in using technology to improve food security and invited them to participate in future county occasions with radio broadcasting.
We remain hopeful that the licence will soon be released so that work can begin on installing the equipment and HCR can continue training and building capacity on the ground.
A guest has his say at the Tana FM stand on World Food Day