Check out the Trendsetters website at www.trendsetters.org.zm. The text below has been taken from their website.
Trendsetters is a monthly sexual reproductive health newspaper written and published by young people for young Zambian people aged between 15-25. It recruits young people to ensure relevance and provides the highest standards of quality and entertaining information. It runs as an independent organisation completely run by seven active youth. It is designed with the knowledge that young people can work together and achieve something. It encourages young writers and gives them a chance to get their work published by accepting contributions and paying for those contributions.
Trendsetters' concept is that:
[It operates in] A medium that is dedicated to ensuring that the problem's that young people face have adequate coverage, that their views and aspirations reach the widest possible audience. [It is] A tool that can be used to educate young people on sexual reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. A bridge between knowledge on sexual reproductive health/HIV/AIDS and available health services. A media that discusses sexuality in the confines of the social context of young peoples lives. [And] A voice that offers the means for young people to express themselves through the experiences of other youth and their own.
It's impact has been such that:
It improves the knowledge of young people on how to protect themselves in order to avoid HIV/AIDS, STDs and unwanted pregnancies. In turn this will impact on the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the population growth rate and the nation's economy. [And] It promotes the concept that each individual must take responsibility for their actions, if they don't no one else will.
Trendsetters has won the following awards:
- The Population Institutes Global Media Award 1997 - For Best Team Reporting Effort in fostering support to solve the World's population crisis through a demonstrated commitment towards the ultimate objective of reducing excessive population growth and creating a better life for the World's people.
- Radio Phoenix Millennium Pacestters Award 2000 - In the Category of leading youth NGO contributing to the development of young people.
In the future we need help to:
- Maintain our existing program
- Plan new community and schools outreach activities
- Develop and run a three-week yearly training course in journalism, layout and design and photography for young people aged 15-25.
- Develop a curriculum for how Trendsetters can be used by teachers and health care providers to impact information about HIV/AIDS.
- Make Trendsetters a long term initiative that will continue providing HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health information, as well as any other information relevant to the lives of young people.
- Increase the number of pages and special inserts in order to cover specialized topics such as alcohol and drug abuse, violence etc.
- Increase the print run to reach more young people
- Secure our long term financial base by concentrating efforts on generating additional income from advertising and sales.
Trendsetters also receives support from John Hopkins University / Center for Communication Programs and USAID.
Check out the Bush Radio website at www.bushradio.co.za/. The text below has been taken from their website.
Bush Radio's mission is to ensure that communities who have been denied access to resources, take part in producing ethical, creative and responsible radio that encourages them to communicate with each other, to take part in decisions that affect their lives, and to celebrate their own cultures.
Through such radio, communities will affirm their own dignity and identity, and promote social responsibility and critical thinking.
During the monthly open forums, the community is invited to give their input into the running of Bush Radio. Community control is assured through this transparent process. All members of the community are eligible for membership, for training and are entitled to vote on any issue that comes before the organisation.
Some Achievements
Bush Radio's accomplishments include pressuring the former government to open up the airwaves and the establishment of the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF), a lobby group servicing the needs of the sector dedicated to serving the needs of the community through the medium of radio.
Over the last eight years, we've trained approximately 500 people to operate a radio station. Almost every one of the nearly 90 stations in existence in South Africa today employs at least one person trained at Bush Radio.
The Bush Radio representative at the USAID conference on Child Survival was recently elected President. Zane Ibrahim is the ambassador of the over 400 000 broadcasters who are committed to Child Survival in the developing world. The Association of Broadcasters for Child Survival is presently headquartered at Bush.
We brokered a peace between the gangs that control the taxi services in the region. Our Taxi talk programme has proved to be able to get the gangs talking to each other. At the moment, several groups are using our gender programme for discussion. Because all our programmes are tied together as a social service, it is hard to measure what impact each programme has on the listeners. What we do know is that reference is made to what was heard on the radio, at town meetings, in parliament and even on other radio stations.
During a crisis between the gangs, the police and the vigilante group PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs) Bush Radio hosted a debate. This was done in the spirit of trying to bring peace to the region and was unprecedented. It was mentioned in the local papers the next day.
Finally, Bush Radio has been nominated by a German Organisation to participate at EXPO 2000 in Hanover. This, we believe, is in recognition of our past efforts to free the airwaves and empower the people of South Africa.
Observations
We see ourselves in the forefront of community media in South Africa, and Africa. What makes Bush Radio unique is that it is entirely member driven. We are careful not to allow ourselves to be used by advertisers to fill our communities with products that are harmful to our communities.
We recently completed a paper for UNESCO. Our mandate was to provide a guide to other communities who wish to set up a community radio station in their area. We were told that the station was regarded as a good example of what can be done by a group of people who are committed to serving their community.
Bush Radio can best be described as a station using the following as its guide:
- "Distinction must be made between state media, those of the private sector and those having a community mandate. In many impoverished African countries, liberation of the airwaves often involves many risks such as media access by groups with substantial financial resources, wishing to influence public opinion by manipulating programme and news. State media are not always prepared to assume the role of inspiring change and creativity, and contribute very little to the interaction between vocation of the media, and more specifically, of community radio: and profound aspirations of its potential listeners. Community Radio stations offers new hope and can open new horizons for freedom. They can instil to act and above all, to organise for change".
- Amadou Mahtar, former Director-General of UNESCO
Because Bush Radio is rooted in the community it isn't difficult to attract hundreds of people willing to give their time to make sure that that the voiceless can finally have a voice. Bush Radio was expected, by its membership, to service a wide range of people speaking several different languages but finally a decision was made to broadcast in only three of the country's eleven official languages, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.
Bush Radio targets a diverse audience of persons united by a common desire to build themselves and their communities. A group of progressive minded new South Africans intent on moving beyond the restrictions of the past, to a new openness in thinking and broadcasting. An audience not prepared to be limited by their age, gender, race or social standing.
Professor Noam Chomsky, internationally acclaimed political activist on a recent visit to Bush Radio: "Bush Radio is arguably the most dynamic radio station that I've worked with." Professor Chomsky came for a half-hour interview and stayed for four hours. We too believe that Bush Radio is the only station on the continent that has made the great strides that it has to safeguard democracy. Because of the winds of change that blow through this region, we're not sure how long we can continue to serve. One thing is certain: we are committed to providing our communities with the finest service we're capable of. We aim to help answer the questions asked by Eugenie Aw, former President of Amarc, in Dakar in 1995,
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" How can it become possible for populations, in all their diversity, to determine their future and the type of development they wish for themselves? How can community radio participate in creating a democratic culture that enables the population to take responsibility for political, economic and national management?"
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