The Communication Initiative Network

The public viewing areas were mounted using inflatable air screens and satellite dishes, often in locations with no electricity, in football pitches, open fields, community schools, and refugee settlements. In Zambia, the screens were moved around each night and, according to organisers, viewings attracted 12,000 people. Earlier viewings took place in community schools and later screenings took place at a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) refugee settlement 8 hours away from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. The public viewing spaces were also used for community events such as youth football games and educational activities on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. According to UNICEF, 20,000 people in Rwanda who are living in isolated communities and are cut off from mainstream sources of information, made use of the public viewing areas in their communities.

As part of this initiative, the Children's Radio Foundation trained groups of young people in each country as youth journalists. In the radio and video workshops, young people learned about interviewing techniques, how to express their opinion clearly, and production of media pieces. Using audio recorders, cameras, and flip video cameras, young people were encouraged to report on issues affecting young people in their communities and to share their experiences and concerns with the rest of the world.

The youth-produced pieces were broadcast and live talk shows held during half-time at the public viewings, complemented by public service announcements on education, child rights, health, and other issues. Programmes were also broadcast on local, national, and international radio stations, and content was posted on the CRF website and disseminated via other social media platforms.

Following the conclusion of the World Cup, the young journalists in Zambia have arranged to work with reporters at a local community radio station to create regular youth programming and to host a talk show for young people in their communities. Acting as peer leaders, they are engaging young people from their communities in the programme. Many of the young journalists have also taken on the role of climate ambassadors, advocating for responsible environmental behaviour in their communities.

The inflatable screens and projectors will also be used by UNICEF Country Offices for future community activities. The project's community partner in Rwanda, Vision Jeunesse Nouvelle, is discussing the possibility of starting a youth radio station based on the philosophy "radio for young people, by young people" with the core group of newly trained youth reporters.

Children, Education, Environment, HIV/AIDS, Rights.

World Cup in My Village was created as a part of UNICEF's support of the 1 Goal campaign, which is designed to get every child into primary school by 2015. The majority of media pieces produced by young people were about how education or the lack of it had affected their lives.

Many young people in Zambia who were interviewed by the youth journalists remarked that they had only ever heard football games on the radio and that it was the first time they had actually seen the players they had heard so much about.

This 60-minute live phone-in talk show for youth is simulcast on five radio stations in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo every Saturday afternoon. Each week the show addresses a different theme, such as identity, manipulation by leaders, gender, violence, youth participation in political life, and issues of ethnicity and nationality.

The format includes invited studio guests, pre-recorded interviews, voice-on-the-street interviews, music, and audience call-ins. Listeners participate by calling in, sending short message service (SMS)/text messages, or by sending emails. In collaboration with the Great Lakes Inter-University and Youth Forum, listening sessions are organised in universities and secondary schools each week during the broadcasts, followed by a facilitated discussion. Forum members then gather ideas and concerns from the listeners and feed these into joint planning sessions with the programme journalists from the partner radio stations.

Each week the place of broadcast rotates between Kigali, Bujumbura, and Kinshasa. The radio station webstreams the live broadcast, which is then picked up by the other four stations who broadcast it on FM. Young journalists from the partner radio stations host the programme, and invite callers to phone in - in any of the six major languages of the region.

Peace, Youth, Reconciliation

According to a recent SFCG survey, the programme is listened to by more than 90% of university students in Kigali, Butare, Ngozi (Burundi), and 86% of students in Bujumbura, as well as 57% of students in Bukavu (DRC). Of these listeners, 20% listen regularly in Bukavu, 36% listen regularly in Kigali, and 60% listen "every week" or "almost every week" in Butare, Ngozi, and Bujumbura. Similarly, the programme reaches between 30% and 60% of non-university youth at the survey sites. Survey findings show a strong correlation between listenership and reduced prejudices and positive attitudes.

Rural Internet Kiosks produces kiosks that are independent, freestanding booths functioning on solar power and other forms of renewable energy. Each kiosk houses 3 energy-efficient personal computers. The kiosks are modelled on user-friendly software and hardware and are manufactured and assembled in a "knock-down" format, enabling them to be easily transported and set up in even very rugged regions.

The kiosks have been designed to give access to all users, including children and the disabled. According to RIK, they are also working on ways to use portable USB pen screen readers and accessible websites, which will help the visually impaired access information. Screen readers could also help people who can understand, but not necessarily read, English.

The kiosks are designed to promote entrepreneurship and electronic service delivery within rural and urban settings and, in turn, facilitate e-commerce, e-education, e-health, and e-governance. The organisers say that the kiosks have helped farmers obtain regular updates on weather patterns and produce prices, thereby expanding their revenue. Business start-ups have been able to exploit digital multimedia advertising. The internet kiosks are helping government agencies to create awareness concerning health and environment and reach out to local communities. Through the use of multimedia information outlets, communities can also access information about infectious diseases such as malaria, polio, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. The kiosks also create platforms for the promotion of tele-medicine, which is still in its infancy in most African countries.

The kiosks use the open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system, as well as other open-source software. This virtualisation technology allows up to 10 uses to share a single personal computer (PC).

Information and Communication Technology, Economic Development, Agriculture.

The RIK project was developed by Jitu Patani, also project manager at Rural Internet Kiosk, who has a vision of bridging the digital divide by providing the last mile access to rural or remote communities. RIK is working to help Africa move towards the Millennium Development Goal of Bridging the Digital Divide by year 2015.

Radio Salus broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and organisers say its programming reaches the entire population of Rwanda, as well as neighbouring communities in DRC and Burundi.

The radio station team, which includes professional journalists and journalism students, produces a variety of news, educational, and entertainment programming broadcast in Kinyarwanda, Swahili, English, and French. According to organisers, each week more than 25 different programmes are broadcast on a broad range of topics including education, agriculture, health, HIV/AIDS, Rwandan history, news, conflict management, sports, and coffee (a long-established, but not well understood industry in the country).

In advance of the August 2009 elections, journalists from the station received training specific to election coverage, including election laws and rules, understanding the Rwandan journalists' code of conduct during elections, the professional standards of free and fair elections, and covering elections independently and professionally.

According to the radio station, the training of students and professionals at the radio station has become a key determinant in diversifying media programming in Rwanda and in building confidence in private radio as a viable means of mass media. Radio Salus has reportedly also managed to empower Rwandan youth, women, and disabled people. Through its educational programmes on economy, environment, HIV/AIDS, health and history, organisers say that it has become a socio-economic development tool for many Rwandans. For example, Radio Salus has contributed to educating local small businessmen and women on how to advertise their products and services. In addition, it has supported and promoted young artists by giving them the opportunity to publicise their new songs.

Democracy, Media Development.

As of November 2008, more than 100 young journalists had received training through Radio Salus, and many students continue to work there as trainee journalists. The station's sports programme has been rated the top radio programme in the country.

Using mapping, participatory video, visual arts, and performing arts as a means of investigation and expression, youth, aged 12-18, work in small teams to identify resources and challenges in their communities, understand more about causes and effects of key issues impacting on youth, and learn about different viewpoints held by community members and community leaders around those issues. They then produce arts and media about the issues and develop an action plan to raise awareness and community support to begin resolving the issues. By developing youths’ communication and leadership skills, coupled with technology education and practice with information and communication technologies (ICTs), YETAM seeks to open new possibilities for youth so that they are more able to engage using 21st century skills. The importance of ownership and commitment to local development is emphasised, and the methodology is designed to form capable and positive community leadership for the future.

The arts and media are also used as a starting point to raise issues and youth viewpoints with district and national leaders and the public, and to advocate for change. At the same time, the youths’ materials are posted on the web so that the public can learn more about issues and get involved. Rather than hearing about youths' viewpoints via foreign and/or adult journalists, the YETAM project allows youth to claim their own place and directly debate and discuss the issues they care about. Curricula based on the youth’s key issues and video/arts materials are developed and used to engage additional groups in the 6 African focus countries, and an on-line curriculum for the "Global North" allows youth not living in Africa to better understand the issues and learn how to get involved. The web allows cross-country and global interaction among youth, building confidence and motivating them to continue moving forward.

In each country, the YETAM programme involves youth, teachers, local media, and arts organisations in a 1-week training of trainers, followed by a 2-week training programme with secondary school youth. A local follow-up plan is created by the youth, teachers, and local partners for organisation and continued advocacy by the youth, refresher training, and additional arts and media work around the identified issues.

Some 350 youth (according to the 2008 annual report) participated in direct skills training workshops on arts and media, including new media tools, such as mobile phone technology and applications, internet, search engines, social media, 'Flip' cameras, mobile internet, and mobile video production and editing.

According to YETAM, collectively the youth have produced around 100 short videos, 100 art works, several theatre pieces, hundreds of photographs about their lives, newspapers, and community murals on themes pertinent to them. Sixty staff, teachers, and partner organisations have been trained on child rights, child participatory facilitation methodologies, arts and media as tools for development and advocacy, and social media/new technology. About 1500 community members in 25 communities have attended events and discussions related to these materials.

Click here to view these materials on YouTube. (To turn on the captions option to see subtitles, click on the triangle at the bottom right corner of the video player. A red ‘cc’ button will appear. Click on the small triangle to the left to select language options). Some of the materials are also available on the Plan Virtual Villages website. The current redesign of the YETAM website will additionally provide a space for school-school communication and joint projects and learning across Africa and between African countries and the "Global North".

Youth, Gender, Education, Rights

According to YETAM, children and youth in Africa, in general, are not expected to speak up or speak out in their families or communities; nor do they have an equal seat at the table in national and global dialogue about issues that impact them. In order to be effective in local, national, and global dialogue, children and youth need to have access to skills and tools to develop analytical abilities and leadership behaviours, and to be effective communicators. They also need access to the places where these discussions are taking place. YETEM therefore seeks to address these issues at a local and global level.

The first message of the campaign was "Gifts don't equal sex. You always have the right to say no!". With this message, the campaign sought to empower youth to say "NO" to cross-generational sex by increasing their awareness of their fundamental right to say "NO" to sugar daddies and sugar mommies, regardless of what gifts or money they are promised or have already received. In this first phase of the campaign, 85 billboards were placed across the country to remind young people of their right to say no to "Shuga Dadis" and "Shuga Mamis".

The second phase of the campaign sought to combat peer pressure as a key driver of cross-generational sex. The message "True Friends Don't Put Me at Risk!" draws upon studies conducted in 2008 in Kigali and all four Rwandan provinces that showed that peer pressure is a key factor encouraging young girls and boys to engage in cross-generational sex. Some young girls are even acting as "pimps" - making connections between their friends and older men, often in exchange for money or gifts. Sinigurisha urges young people to resist and challenge peer pressure, emphasising that true friends would never put their friends at risk.

The third phase of the Sinigurisha campaign urged youth to stand together against cross-generational sex and to focus on achieving their future hopes and dreams. The message was "There is NO price that will buy my future!". This phase of the campaign is based on research that indicated that low self-esteem influences youth to engage in cross-generational sex. Young people feel pressured to have material goods such as fashionable clothes, jewellery, and cell phones, which leads them to accept short-term gifts given by sugar daddies or sugar mommies and puts them at increased pressure for cross-generational sex.

The campaign called on all Rwandans - not just youth - to engage in the fight against cross-generational sex. The campaign also reached out to opinion leaders, teachers, parents, and communities with the message that sugar daddies and sugar mommies should be considered "Enemies of Rwanda's Bright Future." According to the organisers, the commitment of political, religious, and other opinion leaders to sensitise and mobilise communities is especially important. They can play an important role in encouraging society as a whole to first acknowledge that cross-generational sex is wrong, shameful, and risky, and then to stop it.

In addition to appearing on billboards, the campaign's messages were broadcast in television and radio spots, and publicised via print materials and community events. Orange wristbands were distributed which announced that the wearer is not for sale.

Three films were also produced to support the campaign and were broadcast on Rwanda TV. The films were produced with the help of a theatre competition carried out in 60 schools (in 14 districts) as part of the Abajene! youth movement. A local non-governmental organisation (NGO) called RAPP (Rwandans Allied for Peace and Progress) trained teachers and students in forum theatre techniques. Following that, two rounds of competitions were held where schools wrote and performed their own plays. The three winning plays were made into short films by RAPP together with the student actors who wrote and performed the original plays.

HIV/AIDS

Cross-generational sex refers to sexual relationships between girls and older men (sugar daddies), and boys and older women (sugar mommies) - often in exchange for gifts and money. Evidence suggests that cross-generational sex happens in Rwanda.

• Girls aged 20-24 are five times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys of same age (Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 2005);
• One out of 10 girls has her first sexual experience with a man who is 10 or more years older (Rwanda Behaviour Surveillance Survey (BSS), 2006);
• Since older men are much more likely to be infected with HIV than younger boys, young girls appear to be getting infected by older men, rather than by boys of their own age (Rwanda DHS, 2005).

According to organisers, cross-generational sex increases the risk for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and for unwanted pregnancies - all of which can lead to school drop-out and family conflict. As a result, cross-generational sex can cause girls to be less productive in schools and at the work place.

Some of the factors that lead to cross-generational sex include the following:

• "Permissive" environments that make cross-generational sex "easier". These include: (a) homes: where "trusted" family members or friends target domestic workers or younger family members. (b)schools: where sugar daddies and mommies target students by pretending to be family members to pick up students during breaks or weekends. (c) hotels: where sugar daddies and mommies believe they won't be caught. (d) cars: where sugar daddies and mommies give lifts to boys and girls in need.
• Peer pressure within an urban network of girls who act as "pimps" - making connections between their friends and older men - often in exchange for money or gifts.
• Economic need among youth who seek out older partners with money to buy material goods that make them more "cool", to pay for their school fees, or to get a job.
• Loneliness and the desire for sexual gratification among older men and women lead to them seeking younger partners.

Internews Europe worked with local journalists to produce the 12 documentaries, which were filmed in both countries and tell stories of everyday life involving music, sport, and village events. The films seek to familiarise communities on both sides of the conflict-affected border with each other and to show how they can live together in peace. The productions were also broadcast on local television and radio stations in both countries and were broadcast daily on public buses and a ferryboat in the DRC.

The following 4 films are being shown in screenings in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and on the "Hillywood Country Tour" (nicknamed for Rwanda's hilly countryside):

• Les Enfants de Dieu (Children of God): The film examines the various activities of family planning organisations in internally displaced persons camps. It describes family planning options and how women can access these methods, and discusses the new, more open attitude of the Catholic Church regarding family planning.
• Special Koffi: This movie features Congolese music star Koffi Olomide. Olomide once performed at a stadium in Kigali, Rwanda, where he explained how natural it is for music and musicians to cross borders.
• A Letter to My Daughter: This film was produced in French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles. A young Congolese journalist is shocked when she interviews victims of domestic violence in Rwanda and Congo.
• 24h in Mutubo Camp: This film shows the Hutus ex-combatants in a transit camp in Rwanda. Click here to watch this film.

Conflict.

According to the organisers, since November 2008, public screenings of the documentaries by Internews' office in Rwanda have led to nearly 20,000 people returning from all parts of the country and Eastern Congo.

A Letter to My Daughter was nominated for an Award in the international documentary category of the International Film Festival South Africa, which took place in November 2009, and was selected for the Radar Hamburg Film Festival that same month in Hamburg, Germany.

Internews is an international media development organisation whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect, and the means to make their voices heard.

Each week, the hosts of the show conduct all the interviews as well as plan and lead the show. The girls typically begin their programme with a teenage chat and then work their way into discussions of such issues as underage marriage and child labour. Throughout the weekly programme, they move the conversation toward understanding how they, the next generation of Rwandan women, can empower themselves to build a better future. Designed to ensure that girls get their fair share of time on air, the team is designed to represent the diversity of youth in the capital, with a range of backgrounds and life experiences.

The first edition of Urungano focused on the subject of rural-urban migration. SFCG reports that Kigali is the world's fastest growing city and that the government is trying to remove its slums, while more and more people flood to the city. Rural-urban migration is therefore a subject about which people have an opinion. In addition to featuring the voices of youth from the countryside and the capital, the young journalists also interviewed a representative of the Ministry of Youth to ask him about the government's response to the situation. Between popular songs, sound clips, and jingles, the show also featured a studio discussion between two teenagers - one from the countryside and one from the city - who shared their perspectives on this trend and how it affects their lives.

The 2008 season ended with a 2-part series on the issue of street children. The segments looked at the realities of life on the street, including the challenges encountered during ordinary daily tasks like eating and sleeping. The coordinator of one of Kigali's centres for street children spoke on the show to share his perspectives on the realities faced by kids living on the streets. In the second programme, the young journalists spoke directly to former street children who are now living in rehabilitation and care centres. The programme highlighted services available to children looking to leave the streets, including education and housing. The kids interviewed told of their life in the streets, their battles with drug and alcohol abuse, and their lives away from family and friends. One former street child who has returned to his family told SFCG how proud he is that he left the streets.

In 2009, in commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda, Urungano focused on reconciliation. The reporters went into the countryside and found a mutual support group of genocide victims and perpetrators who, despite their tragic past of conflict, travel together from village to village to teach and model reconciliation. By selecting this topic, the girls sought to explain their vision of the Rwanda in which they want to live.

Urungano is broadcast on both Kigali's Contact FM and Radio Salus in Butare on Saturdays at 5pm (GMT+2), and can be heard online at the same time on the Contact FM website.

Youth

SFCG uses media, including both radio and television, across its 19 programmes around the world, including in the Great Lakes region.