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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:
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 net.edu!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
>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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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--
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