Last week, after months of relative silence, Pastor George Kalamo stepped into a Lusaka courtroom to stand trial for allegedly murdering his teenage niece, Ruth Mbandu. As the news media churns out headlines related to the case, 16-year-old Kanengo Nakamba will be watching – and possibly producing some media of her own.
"It's just this case that has been looked at with attention," she says, lamenting the mainstream media's patchy coverage of defilement in Zambia.
Nakamba is one of 72 young Zambians working with the Children News Agency, a national news crew based in the Chilenje South offices of Media Network on Child Right's and Development (MNCRD). Trained under the aegis of Prisca Sikana – affectionately known as Coach P – school children between 12 and 16 years old dabble in all media streams, producing online content and partnering with mainstream entities like Radio Phoenix, Muvi TV and, most recently, the Times of Zambia. The agency has been in full swing since 2009, and Sikana envisions some form of at least minor partnership with all of Zambia's media outlets by the end of 2013.
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