Hey Mum, that's Me on the Radio!

This booklet discusses ABC Ulwazi's production and distribution of educational programmes for and by children and young people to community radio stations. According to the booklet, ABC Ulwazi believes that community radio has a unique role in allowing children to express themselves and to show that they can be active participants in their own communities. It is working to get more children's programmes on air, and to encourage communities to give children a space too. Apart from addressing children, its programmes are also designed to talk to caregivers about children's rights and to motivate them in their work with children.

Through the Khuluma uKhululeke - Speak Free project, ABC Ulwazi aims to help teenagers in local communities to develop the skills necessary to speak to and interview children under 9 about their views on early childhood development and on children's rights issues. Much of this is through working with stories upon which young children comment. Comments are edited into short pieces for broadcasting. Comments are used by writers for ideas and case studies, or to illustrate an issue.

The materials gathered from young children contribute to a 30-minute weekly radio programme which is scheduled to run for six months - a total of 24 programmes. To add to the local materials, ABC Ulwazi contributes a maximum of 10 minutes per programme. This draws heavily on oral tradition and - given that it is broadcast in KwaZulu Natal - on Zulu folklore to present the sometimes abstract topics in accessible ways. The idea is to help the local presenters of the radio shows to stimulate debate and discussion with listeners on specific early childhood development topics.

The first phase of the project - essentially a pilot project - focussed on the development of a methodology for involving under-9s and culminated in the production of the first Khuluma uKhululeke - Speak Free programmes to test the techniques. This was a series of ten radio programmes that included the voices of children recorded at ABC Ulwazi's workshops, a three-minute children's radio drama, and a social worker giving expert advice on topics raised in the episode.