🚀 go-pugleaf

Bruce Girard <vikram!resystom@web.apc.org> writes:

> From: plievrou@knooppt.hacktic.nl
> Subject: Re: MEDIA: RURAL WOMEN MAKING WAVES
> Conf: amarc.radio
> Date: 15 Jul 94 23:30 EDT
>
>
> From: plievrou@knooppt.hacktic.nl (Philippe Lievrouw)
> Subject: Re: MEDIA: RURAL WOMEN MAKING WAVES
>
> >Path: knooppunt!hacktic!sun4nl!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!news-fee
> >From: sgastete@u.washington.edu
> >Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
> >Subject: MEDIA: RURAL WOMEN MAKING WAVES
> >Message-ID: <1994Jul15.005240.2132@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
> >Date: Fri, 15 Jul 1994 00:52:40 GMT
>
> The Earth Times 14 July 1994
>
> MEDIA: RURAL WOMEN MAKING WAVES
> By Patricia A. Made
> Women's Feature Service
>
> Harare--Every week members of Women's Clubs in four out of Zimbabwe's nine
> provinces make their voices heard through radio.
>
> 	The Radio Listening Clubs have become powerful tools for rural
> women to reach their leaders and to effect some change in their small
> communities.
>
> 	At a recent UNESCO-sponsored seminar held at Club Mazvikadei in
> Banket women showed that not only have they become media-savvy, they are
> as equally adept with the technical language as the experts attending the
> forum.
>
> 	Senior officials of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
> and the Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, media,
> women and members of the Development Through Radio (DTR) Clubs discussed
> the introduction of community radio stations in Zimbabwe.
>
> 	In a country where politicians do not support opening the airwaves
> and ZBC is the sole broadcaster, community radio is a novel and somewhat
> revolutionary idea.
>
> 	President Robert Mugabe said his government welcomed private
> newspapers but has no plans to deregulate radio broadcasting.
>
> 	Nevertheless, the conference was a landmark event because it
> broached the issue of advancing from DTR to community broadcasting.
> Experts from Britain, Sri Lanka and the Philippines explored the
> introduction of community radio in Zimbabwe.
>
> 	The DTR began in 1988 as a partnership between the Federation of
> African Media Women-Zimbabwe (FAMWZ), ZBC and other organizations.
>
> 	It provided rural Zimbabweans access to national radio and
> encouraged them to participate in development activities in the rural
> areas of the four Zimbabwean provinces. Today there are 45 listening clubs
> in Zimbabwe and the majority of the members are rural women.
>
> 	"Radio is a wonderful medium if you can transform it from a one-way
> medium of information to one of communication, which is a two-way process.
> How to do this is the challenge," said Sri Lankan journalist M. David.
>
> 	In Zimbabwe DTR has already proved to be a two-way tool. Women
> have recorded programs on their marketing problems, transport and police
> needs and have exchanged ideas with other women in the country on
> income-generating projects.
>
> 	Besides airing their problems women turned their complaining into
> activism. For example, the Mgomeni DTR Club in Tsholotsho helped secure
> birth certificates which the government required for children to register
> for primary-school exams.
>
> 	For years the people in Mgomeni ran from pillar to post to acquire
> these documents but the authorities refused to oblige.
>
> 	The Mgomeni DTR Club presented a program on the issue and it was
> played for the then Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.  Within a short time
> the minister's directive to issue the certificates was broadcast on the
> DTR program and the children were able to take their exams.
>
> 	DTR has had several other success stories. Women managed to get
> cement to build pre-school toilets and tires to make swings for the
> children. They also networked to obtain food for their communities during
> and after the drought. Through a radio program one group even managed to
> secure land to build a community center.
>
> 	Building on the DTRs' ability to set up community broadcasting for
> development was one of the key objectives of the Banket workshop.
>
> 	Even though the Broadcasting Act of 1957 stipulates that ZBC is
> the sole broadcasting authority in the country, the case study from Sri
> Lanka shows that community broadcasting can still find a niche within a
> state monopoly. Community radio in Sri Lanka has existed for almost a
> decade and is considered a model for South Asian countries.
>
> 	At the two-day workshop the rural women from Zimbabwe refused to
> be alarmed by the sophisticated discussions among the experts.  They felt
> threatened by the new concept of community broadcasting and demanded to
> know all about it.
>
> 	"Is it the same as community radios?," many wondered. "Will we keep
> our radios? Will the DTR remain in its present form?"
>
> 	Women were also concerned with how community broadcasting would be
> introduced and even challenged the workshop to think of how rural
> communities could sustain community broadcast stations in their areas.
>
> 	"The women's challenge to the seminar is one of the most revealing
> signs that the DTR is a success," said Wilna Quarmyne, the workshop's
> coordinator who has worked closely with the project. "They felt empowered
> enough to tell us what their needs are and what they want."
>
> 	Women were adamant that the DTR project be strengthened and
> maintained in its present form. Even if community broadcasting is
> introduced women wanted to continue their radio listening clubs, which
> have given them the chance to exchange views and listen to stories from
> women throughout the country. The seminar also expressed the women's
> desire for the project to be expanded nationwide.
>
> 	A Task Force has been established to explore the possibility of
> introducing community radio stations in Zimbabwe. And among the broadcast,
> media and government officials appointed to the Task Force are the DTR
> women themselves.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> WFS's network of over 100 women journalists produces approximately 500
> articles  a year, written  from a  women's perspective  in English and
> Spanish, with a special focus on developing countries.  Every week all
> the WFS articles are compiled into a "Bulletin" and sent via e-mail to
> your Internet address.  WFS USA produces a bi-monthly printed Bulletin
> containing selected  features and  summaries  of all articles.  If you
> have  any  questions  about  WFS  or how to  subscribe to any of these
> services, please contact us at: Women's Feature Service,  20 West 20th
> Street, Suite 1103, New York, NY 10011  E-mail:  wfs@igc.apc.org
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> --
> Philippe Lievrouw			phone:+32-2-216.93.73
> 31 rue Fiers				fax:+32-2-732.14.45
> B-1030 Bruxelles			e-mail: radiopanik@gn.apc.org
> Belgium						plievrou@knooppunt.be
>
>
>