Media Matters for Women and our two partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and Women@TheTable — received a grant from Millicom Foundation to create a pilot podcast called Wamama Tujenge (“Women Building Peace”). It was first broadcast across the DRC on 25 November, 2017 as part of the global “16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women” campaign. It reached over 700,000 listeners on a network of community radio stations organised by Foundation Hirondelle.
Julienne Lusenge, globally celebrated women’s rights activist, hosts the Wamama Tujenge podcast which tells the stories of ordinary Congolese women who do extraordinary things. The podcasts explore amazingly personal journeys of women leaders throughout the DRC and they all begin with a single question: “Why do things have to be this way?”
From courageous women in rural villages to those working as judges, chiefs, and ministers, Julienne Lusenge brings solutions to key problems being applied by women change makers across the DRC and the Great Lakes Region.
Wamama Tujenge is easy to find on our Soundcloud account and is offered in French, Lingala and Swahili.
Our MMW journalists in the DRC share Wamama Tujenge episodes with the Listening Centres they establish in their regions. The ten-minute podcasts are stored on cell phones and are easily and freely shared via Bluetooth transfer, creating a “peer-to-peer” public service broadcasting network which facilitates communication for and among women. In the next phase of the project, our DRC journalists will begin to create new versions of the Wamama Tujenge pilot shows using Mobile Production Units (MPUs) provided through the project.