Africa

“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.

I’d like to introduce you to Flora and Hadiya, two budding Kenyan entrepreneurs who really mean business. In the absence of finding jobs and struggling to make ends meet, these two delightful ladies never thought they’d be able to start a business. That was until Amplifying Voices (then working as HCR) in collaboration with Aid…

Day 15 of #16DaysofActivism The Amplifying Voices Project was set up in 2015 as a collaborative venture between HCR (now known as Amplifying Voices), Feba UK and the Believers Broadcasting Network (BBN), a Christian radio station in Freetown.  BBN forms multi-stakeholder teams with partners including churches and local health clinics to visit people in their…

Day 14 of #16DaysofActivism Any form of abuse leaves scars. A few years ago I participated in some focus group meetings with street living children, aged from 6 years to 16 years, to explore starting a radio project for Feba UK for these children in Kinshasa, DR Congo. It was particularly difficult to get street living girls to participate but we where able to include a small group of teenage girls. I…

Day 13 of #16DaysofActivism Combatting gender-based violence can take courage, sensitivity and wisdom. I met Mary*, an ordained minister working in a rural area in Kenya, who showed all of these qualities in her work to help women and girls. In this particular area of Kenya, the challenges facing families include limited access to food and water, and high levels…

Day 9 of #16DaysofActivism I photographed the billboard above recently in a remote village in North Kivu in the DRC. It depicts two men molesting a woman with the words: “You wouldn’t do this if it was your mother, would you!” It is a stark reminder of the widespread use of rape and other forms…

Day 8 of #16DaysofActivism “Gender inequality exists throughout Kenya, but it’s particularly bad in this part of the country,” says Harriet Atyang, the manager of HCR partner station Amani FM in Tana River.   In many situations Harriet says women are subjected to abuse and violence, but it is rarely reported, as it seen as a cultural norm. Recounting…

Day 5 of #16DaysofActivism Radio Amani was launched in the conflict prone area of Tana Delta in the summer of 2017, ahead of the parliamentary elections in Kenya.  The purpose of the radio station is to promote peace and social development in Eastern Kenya’s conflict-affected Tana River (the northern region of Tana River County). The…

Day 4 of #16DaysofActivism I believe every person has a story to tell and it is often the people who have suffered the most whose stories can affect us the most deeply. I met Precious* in Kenya and she is a truly courageous and inspirational woman.  She was married at fourteen and had to stop attending…

Day 3 of #16DaysofActivism HCR is working with a large Christian Radio station and counselling centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the “Amplifying Voices” Project.  This project, which was launched by Feba UK, is increasing the engagement of local people in conversations with their communities, which are amplified by radio broadcasts that address the health and…