Service provider - Amplifying Voices

Building Trust – Saving Lives

Johnny Fisher — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:50:45 +0000

Soot Semee is helping refugee communities in Northern Uganda to protect children at risk. A large international NGO which is responsible for child protection in resettlement camps, has been working with Soot Semee volunteers to enhance their engagement with communities. The community volunteers help the NGO develop relevant and accessible messages for podcasts. The podcast content helps community members to recognise and deal with child protection issues, while also providing information on how to access the NGO services to protect vulnerable children.

In one location, a foster family was abusing a child refugee who had been placed with them. Some neighbours realised what was happening, and as a result of the Soot Semee podcasts, they knew how to report the situation. The NGO was able to remove the child from the abusive situation and place them with a new family.

In such sensitive situations, it is vital that community members know they can trust the NGO. By bringing community members and NGO workers together to develop podcast content, Soot Semee not only provides a channel for reliable information, but facilitates essential relationship building. As a result, people know they can trust the service providers as well as the information they provide. For children in Omugo zone, this is literally life-saving.

The post Building Trust – Saving Lives appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

School’s on air for summer

Jon Hargreaves — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 23:04:53 +0000

With Kenyan schools now unlikely to reopen until January 2021, radio has become an educational life-line for many families across the country. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amani FM, HCR’s partner station in Eastern Kenya, in collaboration with Zizi Afrique Foundation, has been delighting children and parents across Tana Delta, with a variety of education programmes. Nine hundred solar-powered radio sets were also distributed around different communities to enable group listening.

“The radio programmes, called “Elimika”, which means ‘educate yourself’, is now one of the most popular programmes on Amani FM,” says station manager Harriet Atyang. “We cater for children up to 17 years of age with different types of programmes, giving students an opportunity to interact and share their learning,” she added.

The radio programmes will become increasingly important in the coming months with uncertainty over the academic year for 2020. President Uhuru Kenyatta today instructed his Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, to notify Kenyas that primary and secondary schools will resume in January next year with a phased reopening of colleges and universities.

The initial plan was for schools to reopen in September, however Mr Magoha explained that the January reopening was due to medical advice because the spike of the infection was expected to occur in September.

(Browse HCR Covid-19 resources and communications advice)

The post School’s on air for summer appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

Buzi bounces back

Johnny Fisher — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:43:14 +0000

Empowering

Yesterday Cyclone Kenneth made landfall near Pemba in Mozambique, the second cyclone to hit Mozambique this season. Only one month ago, Jon and I traveled to Beira in central Mozambique in response to Cyclone Idai. Damage to road infrastructure meant that Beira was cut off from many parts of the country for several days, and some surrounding towns were cut off for several weeks. The fastest way to re-connect people was through restoring the mobile networks and through FM radio stations. We worked alongside enthusiastic and welcoming volunteers from the community of Buzi, one of the worst flood-affected districts 35km south of Beira. HCR is a member of the First Response Radio (FRR) network and we were there to set up a temporary FM station providing critical information and advice to empower community members

As far as we know, it is unprecedented in for 2 cyclones to hit Mozambique in the same season. However the people of Mozambique have not been caught off guard. Learning lessons from the disconnection experienced in Beira and the surrounding regions, the government disaster manageme nt agency, INGC, supported by the institute for social communication (ICS), have been quick to put preparations in place, connecting with people in advance using the national and community radio networks and instructing people to evacuate from high risk locations. So far (1 day after landfall) the storm has had much less effect than Cyclone Idai. There is still a risk from floods, but people are connected and getting vital information through radio.

Radio will continue to provide vital connections for people after the storm passes and the floods recede. In Beira, life is already getting ‘back to normal’. But we know from the stories we heard while we were in Beira and in Buzi, that below the surface, individuals and families will take a longer time to recover from loss of businesses, jobs, friends and colleagues. We met some really resilient people, but the need for psychosocial support continues.

Young people tell Buzi FM reporters their stories, Buzi district, March 2019. Photo credit: HCR

Advocacy

A young man told a Buzi FM community reporter in Guara Guara settlement camp that he had been separated from his parents and had not yet reconnected with them. Radio can provide information, such as family re-unification hotline numbers, which keep people connected with other. Other vulnerable people who have been displaced and are living in camps can also hear about ways to connect to authorities outside the camps to report abuse or unfair treatment.

Education

The day before we left Buzi, a psychologist from Médecins Sans Frontières came to the Buzi FM studio to help listeners understand the effects of trauma and to identify early symptoms of PTSD. Addressing mental health issues will be a key issue as communities rebuild and radio can play an important role.

MSF psychologist gives community advice in temporary Buzi FM studio. March 2019. (Photo credit: HCR)

Community Voices

In the days after Cyclone Idai, Buzi radio audiences were missing popular community voices while the station was off air. It was a privilege to play a part in reconnecting Buzi listeners to programme presenters like Luisa, who presents a programme for women.

Information

We are glad to hear that Buzi FM is continuing to broadcast vital information to support their community. But there are still barriers to connection for some who lost all their belongings in the floods so HCR has arranged for 1000 radios to be transported to Beira and distributed by an international NGO partner to those who need them most in the Buzi district.

Disaster Preparedness

We are hopeful that Cyclone Kenneth has been robbed of its potential to damage the people of northern Mozambique. I am convinced that the pre-emptive efforts of INGC/ ICS to keep people connected through radio services has played a big part in reducing the impact of the storm.

Storm damaged cultural centre provides temporary studio location for Buzi FM, March 2019.

Buzi FM antenna on water tower. Buzi. March 2019. (Photo credit: HCR)

The post Buzi bounces back appeared first on Amplifying Voices.