Media Matters for Women is rolling out our concept to rural areas of Central and East Africa following four years of successful programming in Sierra Leone.
Jeanne Kibuo Mbweki, an experienced broadcast journalist working with the Fund For Congolese Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was flown by Media Matters for Women to Sierra Leone to work for one month with our team and observe an international team of evaluators and leadership who visited at the same time. Jeanne was able to meet with all of our fifteen (15) Listening Centres spread across three districts — Northern Province, Eastern Province and Western Area Rural. She interviewed numerous listeners and worked alongside our journalists and Executive Director as they evaluated the success of their weekly audio programme distribution from January to June 2017 for the AmplifyChange Opportunity grant provide by Mannion Daniels.
Jeanne said when she returned: “My journey to Sierra Leone in June 2017 for training and consultation was an excellent opportunity for me to discover the innovative approach of our organisation and consider its possible adaptation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I enjoyed every moment working with the Sierra Leone team, the evaluators, and Executive Director studying the project to better understand its effectiveness.”
Jeanne has completed a detailed implementation plan for testing our approach in DRC over the next nine months. In a first pilot phase, our Bluetooth distribution method will be tested in six listening centres outside of Kinshasa. In a second pilot project, we will test whether local journalists can replicate the Wamama Tujenge podcast format by creating weekly podcasts of their own using Mobile Production Units (MPUs) similar to those used by our journalists in Sierra Leone.