30 Jul 2014 One-year projects promote communication rights

WACC partners with many different groups worldwide to promote communication rights by means of one-year-long initiatives under different programme areas.

A searchable online portal carries descriptions of the work organized by theme and by country for the most recent period, 2012-2016. Where relevant, it includes materials produced by the project such as booklets, study guides, audio and video clips, etc. The aim is to share information and knowledge with others working in participatory communication for development and/or for greater social justice.

A second portal contains an archive of projects for the period 2007-2011. In that period, WACC focused on a different set of programme themes.

Here are some examples of one-year projects for the period 2012-2016:

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, community radio is the communication lifeblood of the eastern part of the country, although the stations are also victims of the political instability that creates knowledge gaps between rural and urban journalists. Many journalists are poorly trained, especially in new information and communication technologies.

This project trained journalists in digital technologies, exchanging information and work experiences among themselves; organized technical exchange visits between community radio stations; and made expertise more widely available in order to mentor young journalists. The project also trained four young journalists in community radio reporting over a period of four months. It served to reinforce South Kivu’s network of community radio and television stations.

In Jordan, women are deprived of some of their basic rights. Empowering them to gain knowledge and skills in community radio is a means of bringing about social change. The project provided relevant content in Arabic by enabling audiovisual workshops, and making available information in Arabic that will empower marginalized women in the Jordan Valley to become active in community radio. An existing online radio station and networking website act as repositories of information and good practices shared by fellow practitioners.

The project translated manuals by women and people living with disabilities, disseminated a user-friendly manual, enabled online audiovisual workshops on community radio, conducted 10 hands-on workshops and placed all materials online for other users in the region.

In Mexico, Comunicadoras Populares por la Autonomía  COMPPA (Mexico) achieved the immediate aim of the project: the creation of an online digital platform to facilitate the exchange of information and productions between organizations that constitute the Mesoamerican Network of Garifuna and Indigenous Community Radio Stations. A second aim was to diversify and increase the diffusion of radio productions to local audiences and further afield. In addition, the platform serves not just as an archive of the group’s historical memory administered by the radio stations themselves, but also as a new digital mechanism to coordinate the network’s programme coverage, training and output.

The project’s results were: the creation of the first interactive web page designed in open code and taking into account the needs of the network’s members, at least two communicators from 16 radio stations trained in using the page, every community radio station published its productions via the page, the creation of a radio archive and the installation and use of local servers to record and locate live transmissions from the radio stations.

Before the project took place, most community radio stations had little Internet presence. Now, and thanks to the new platform, they have a site focused on their needs that is being used regularly and professionally. The page is located here.