Rokhan-e-Kore class, KPK, 2023

Sewing classes have been running now for several weeks and young girls who attend have told us that they have learned a lot. They can see how they will use these skills to earn money from their families. Some of the participants said they would be interested in learning computer and media skills. But there are challenges.

It started with a challenge to one of our own norms! We have a training mantra which you may have heard us say before: “Get your shoes dirty”. It’s a shorthand way of saying people should build trust and be relevant by getting out of their office or studio into the community to engage with people on the streets and in the markets. The women attending the sewing classes had picked up on this aspect of community-centred media, perhaps during discussion about community-centred media in the broader community during the AViD response to the floods last summer. When discussing the possibility of including media training in Rokhan-e-Kore, the participants said they couldn’t be involved if it meant going out to record interviews etc in the streets and markets of their own village and neighbouring places.  They said it has been a big thing for many of these women and girls to get permission from their families to attend Rokhan-e-Kore in a classroom outside their homes. They don’t want to jeopardise that.

Hazeen explained that they would be able to do all media learning, recording and other production within the classroom. The class teacher is very willing to learn how to teach the media skills, so eventually Hazeen would not need to be the one teaching. He also explained that the purpose of the “get your shoes dirty” principle is to persuade media people and service providers (eg clinics, religious groups) to leave their comfort zones to come and listen to people in community locations, like the women in the sewing class. The voices of local women making and taking new opportunities are the voices that media should amplify.

Hazeen also recognised that it could be a bit scary to talk on a radio programme, which could go out via a local FM station, about these new opportunities and the participants’ roles in creating them. It’s scary because it the people who traditionally make decisions and create income might feel threatened by the programme content. He encouraged the women that they could use pseudonyms whenever they create content, and that the name of their village needn’t be mentioned. This does create a challenge for one of our other norms – that of building trust and rapport with community members through familiar voices. However, listeners don’t need to identify the women speaking to be able to identify with them. The women have familiar accents and their stories or challenges are similar to what the listeners’ face.

Within minutes of Hazeen providing these reassurances, the participants asked him,

“will we able to talk about the womens’ issues that no-one ever talks about?”.

With an emphatic yes, Hazeen was delighted to say that this is one of the main reasons why we offer media training and ongoing support to create programmes. It’s what community-centred media should be all about.

Paraphrasing something I heard from Fred Bahnson, the frontlines of change are best led by those most disadvantaged by the status quo. In Rokhan-e-Kore contexts, we are equipping those disadvantaged by the status quo to take their first steps as agents of change by helping them to feel sufficiently safe to do so.

The arrival of some solar panels gave another indication that these culturally sensitive steps are bearing fruit. Hazeen and his local partner leave most of the engagement with class participants to a local woman so that there are only few occasions when a man is present and so the women can continue to observe “purdah” (or seclusion from men). Because the classes are in a public place outside their homes, and because a man may occasionally be present, the women do wear veils in the classroom. At this time of year, it gets very hot, and wearing a veil makes the heat even harder to bear. However, a local man has agreed to donate solar panels if Hazeen can provide pedestal fans. This reflects that some local men value the Bright Home activities and want to do something to support.

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So far audio production has been done using a voice recorder and a PC. With lots of effort by the local team and some support from Amplifying Voices Pakistan, a pile of insulating wool and sheets of plasterboard are taking shape as an audio room.

Meanwhile our partner has managed to work through contacts in the radio industry to get a great deal on equipment for a small scale recording studio.

The New Hope team belong to a minority community in a poor neighbourhood in Punjab. But they refuse to let their minority status control their identity or their destiny. Their enthusiasm and capacity is reflected in their audio recordings. Their determination is clear in the efforts to build and equip a studio. We are excited to see how this project will develop as they keep building local partnerships and keep producing new community-centred material.

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One of HCR’s core values is having a community focus. We see that, within communities there is huge potential for innovating and driving sustainable transformation. During the Covid19 crisis, we have seen this in Kenya, Uganda and Pakistan.

In Nairobi, Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers still had to work and earn a living, but this put them at risk due to close proximity with their passengers. Rather than fight the reality, community health workers and Mtaani FM found the opportunity to educate people more widely, and help the improve safety for the drivers in other ways. They clubbed together to create Covid-19 infection prevention stickers which the drivers wore on their helmets. They also had some hi-viz safety vests printed with the messages. Passengers would spend their journey reading about washing their hands and protecting others from infection.

In Uganda, a number of refugee-led organisations, including our partner CDC, found that the needs in the communities were changing rapidly and urgently. They worked with an innovative software company, ListNeeds, to develop something a bit like a ‘wedding present list’ of items that their communties need. Each organisation has their own page, and could present the immediate and rapidly changing needs to international donors directly. You can view CDC’s list here.

CDC’s Soot Semee team have worked hard to ensure community voices remain at the core of the media project, even with the limitations caused by Covid19. They don’t take their portable studio into the communities as it tends to attract a crowd, putting people at risk through lack of distancing. Instead, the team take small voice recorders into the community, set them up on a stand, then invite people to come forward and tell their story. Some community members also record their opinions or other contributions on their phones, send them by Bluetooth to a friend who has internet access, who then sends it by WhatsApp to the Soot Semee team. This is so important, as the community says “we feel like we are teaching other”, rather than being told what to do by outsiders.

In Pakistan, a church youth group felt despair at the social problems in their community caused by poverty. Lockdown and loss of livelihoods only seemed to make things worse. They invited Hazeen Latif from HCR Pakistan to teach them about community-centred media. They learned a method for breaking down these seemingly insurmountable problems and identifying realistic steps to address issues. They said “We felt we had a real way to address our own problems”. Straight away they started to create community service announcements (CSAs) using local voices to distribute into the community as MP3 files to be played on social media or speakerboxes.

We see our role as HCR to be that of catalysts. We constantly seek the right balance of providing input to equip and support community partners, while leaving space for emergent agency to thrive.

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• The main street leading into the village is being upgraded with a concrete surface. Until a few months ago it was a rough, soil track scarred with ditches and puddles.

• A new transformer is soon to be installed. This summer people can enjoy a cool breeze from their fans. Previously the low capacity in the electricity supply meant people suffered in the heat with fans running at tortoise speed.

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  Community volunteer sprays against dengue. KPK, Apr 2019

  The local administration has agreed to spray the community to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and spreading Dengue fever. Summer heat is on its way and with it the risk of Dengue increases.

Structural development like this doesn’t happen easily because of bureaucratic inertia. But something new has happened in the last year few months. Local authorities have started to release funds for development as they pay new attention to the community needs, and to the appetite for change.  Other are taking notice too. Nearby villages want to know how to bring similar changes to their own communities.

“It is all due to our radio program and WhatsApp group”

Zahid Ullah Zahid, who heads the Naway Saher Community Services Group

Naway Saher formed a small radio production team, trained by HCR Pakistan, and, since November 2018, they have been broadcasting a community radio programme in Pushto language on a local FM station. The village voice is getting louder and stronger through radio and it reached the ears of the district councillor.  He decided to support the new structural developments and even came to be interviewed in the radio studio.

“We didn’t realize that our voice was so effective and strong”

Quote from one of the newly trained production team members

So far the Majukay story has been one of gradual change. People have been coming together to discuss issues and establish unity. Less and less people have the mindset that nothing will happen and only the government should do everything. Naway Saher (New Dawn) Community Services Group, supported by HCR Pakistan, has held community workshops, village committees, and youth sports events. Village elders have given their support. Families have started boiling water for drinking to avoid illness from contaminated water sources. In 2016 HCR Pakistan supported the community to dig a well and the well has been giving clean water since. People come from far away to get the only clean drinking water and are claiming that it is a miracle as the water never stops giving odorless good water.

The Majukay story is spreading – upwards, outwards and inwards.

“More people are joining with us” says Zahid Ullah. Not only are surrounding villages wanting to see similar changes, but more people from within the community want to get involved.

HCR Pakistan is seeking funding to help Naway Saher become even more inclusive, with more media content created for and by women and girls.

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