Talking Shop

Rose owns a shop in Omugo 4 refugee settlement village in Northern Uganda. It’s always been a place where people gather and exchange information or bits of news. But her ‘talking shop’ has just had an upgrade with a new, super-size speakerbox for playing the latest Soot Semee podcasts.

Rose is part of a listener group made up mostly of women which gathered to listen to Soot Semee podcasts on a standard-sized speakerbox (see picture). Members of this group are also regular contributors to the podcast content. Rose is the main voice speaking in a recent community service announcement (CSA), giving Covid-19 health advice in the South Sudanese dialect of the Omugo 4 residents. With a recent resurgence of Covid cases in Uganda, and new lockdown restrictions, these CSAs are vital and timely.

The ’talking shop’ speakerbox listener group have also created CSAs to pass on advice about the importance of clean water for health, produced features about living in peace with neighbours from different ethnic backgrounds, and recorded discussions on other issues that are particularly important to women in Omugo 4.

Rose’s shop is situated close to the food distribution point where villagers come to get monthly food packages provided by relief organisations, so other people were stopping so they could listen to the podcasts coming from the speakerbox in her shop. The Soot Semee team and Rose saw an opportunity to help more people engage with the podcasts, and her speakerbox got upgraded to a big loudspeaker that can be heard by many more people as they visit the food distribution point, or stand around the shop to discuss the latest news from South Sudan. A larger speaker also allows people to stand further apart as they listen.

This happened as part of a recent extension of the Soot Semee project. In the last month, Amplifying Voices supported our partner, Community Development Centre (CDC), to purchase an additional 140 speakerboxes which were distributed among more vulnerable families in Omugo 4 settlement. 10 speakerboxes were also given to Ugandan families from the host community that live around and among the Omugo zone villages.

CDC worked in partnership with local community leaders and international NGOs, such as IRC, to assess which households were most vulnerable due to lack of access to reliable information and would most benefit from having speakerboxes. People like Rose also help to extend the reach of the podcasts and get more people involved. Others come and download copies of the podcast on to their phones.

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