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Governance Area: Influencing public discourse

Giving a voice to young people with HIV and AIDS

Issue

Stigma has been identified as the most significant challenge for people living with HIV and AIDS, stopping many from accessing health services early.

Project

Children’s Radio Foundation are training mentors and young people in Cape Town to use radio as a tool to get young people talking about HIV/AIDS in their community. A project entitled ‘Future Positive‘ will train 12 facilitators to lead radio training workshops for 70 young people, increasing airtime allocated to discussions about HIV/AIDS by 200% and creating over 200 hours of relevant content directed at young people.

Through radio training and broadcast, stories will be shared, fostering dialogue within the wider community. Young people at clinics and community centres will be trained to host talk shows and facilitate events within the community, involving decision makers, policy stakeholders and other young people.

This initiative will create more airtime for programming on HIV and AIDS and train radio staff and youth mentors to engage with audiences more effectively.

It will also create platforms for young people living with HIV/AIDS to speak openly about their experiences. The project will facilitate feedback by involving decision makers and policy stakeholders. A curriculum for community radio stations and pop-up stations to engage audiences around HIV and AIDS will be developed and shared widely with other civil society organisations in Africa. The content will be distributed to local and national stakeholders via outreach activities, contributing to the learning component of the project. It will be delivered as part of a joint work plan with the government of Cape Town.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMFIFgh7GFc?rel=0]

Children’s Radio Foundation – South Africa

Children’s Radio Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organisation in South Africa, the UK and the USA, providing young people with the skills to make their voices heard. It uses radio to create opportunities for dialogue, participation, leadership and active citizenship. Through radio broadcasts, young people can speak about their concerns and reach out to others, sparking important conversations in their communities.

www.childrensradiofoundation.org

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Promoting awareness of the media’s role

Issue

Promoting awareness of the role the media can play to ensure citizens are better informed about political and economic decision-making is a priority for Tonga.

Project

With this grant from the Commonwealth Foundation, the Centre for Citizenship Education is promoting the principles of development journalism, illustrating models of good practice, developing the skills of media professionals and building the capacity of the media and government to develop good working relationships. Lending his authority to the initiative is Lord Fakafanua, pictured, Speaker of the Tongan Legislative Assembly.

A website (www.tonganz.net) will provide a focal point for information sharing, where briefings, profiles and case studies on political and economic issues will be published.

This project demonstrates the potential collaboration and learning between civil society organisations and institutions in governance. It will help to familiarise citizens of Tonga with the recently introduced Freedom of Information policy, as well as establish a two-way dialogue to improve development. This project builds on the citizenship education programme carried out by the Centre for Citizenship Education prior to the 2010 Tongan election, and is supported by the office of the Clerk in Tonga.

Centre for Citizenship Education

The Centre for Citizenship Education is a New Zealand charitable trust, established to give a focus to citizenship education at a national and local government level in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

The organisation works primarily in the information sector, to ensure that citizens understand their rights, responsibilities and opportunities within a democracy, and are motivated to participate actively at all levels of society. It achieves its aims through professional and institutional development, as well as the production of resources and policy advocacy.

www.citizenshipeducation.net