Our recent AmplifyChange grant allowed us to explore what would happen if we expanded beyond Listening Centres to include training young women to become Youth Advocates. That resulted in a massive increase in listeners–over 28,000 during the grant period. We are now very fortunate to be operating under a grant from the Oak Foundation (which ends in February 2021), and we have taken that concept farther due to COVID-19 restrictions that prevent us from having Listening Centres. We are now using both Youth Advocates and Town Criers–wearing masks and social distancing–to broadcast our messaging. The program has skyrocketed.
In our first quarter operating under this model, we have reached over 115,000 rural men, women and children with female-forward COVID-19 messaging. MMW is now the de facto entertainment for many communities. Men, women and children are coming out to listen to MMW’s daily podcasts and our flagship program Mamie & Omo is considered by many to be the “entertainment of the day.”
Here is a short list of topics our journalists have been reporting on:
- A Look Into the Cause for the Increase in Rape
- Market Women Call for Security Support to Enforce COVID measures in Market Places
- Women’s Rights Activists Call for a Forensic Lab
- One Stop Centre for Rape Victims
- COVID Survivors Share Experience
This would never have been possible without the generous support from AmplifyChange to allow us to explore a model where we focus on outreach. And it would never have been possible for us without the timely and generous COVID-19 support from Oak Foundation.