RADIJOJO! NEWSLETTER - On the International Children's Day
Berlin, September 20, 2009
Our present on this day was brought to you by children that are on-the-air and online making radio from 100 countries around the globe!
RADIJOJO!'s latest contributions originating from our partners from all the way in Afghanistan, Canada, New Zealand, Sudan and Uganda have made the sum of our collaborations and projects around the world to tally well over 100 countries. RADIJOJO's World Children's Radio Network offers a great platform for our radio partners, in that our network is constantly being enriched with content from all over the world and our partners also benefit from our productions which they can broadcast on their national radio frequencies.
Radijojo's Founder Thomas Röhlinger notes, "This is truly a historic moment for us, and a cause for joy. A couple of years ago, we could not have ever conceived of such dimensions. But now we can affirm that there are very few comparable projects dealing with strategies in global education and cultural exchange in media. And we still have alot ahead of us to accomplish because the demand is so great. We are now being bombarded with inquiries for cooperation from schools, community radios and organizations for children in Germany and around the world.“
Here a brief summary of the radio bridges between Berlin and Sofia, Berlin and Irkutsk as well as the conclusion of the big children's event „SpieloFEZien" in Berlin's Wuhlheide.
OUR NEW PARTNERSHIPS, COOPERATIONS AND PROJECTS
RADIJOJO!/AFGHANISTAN
The Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC), is a non-for-profit NGO which was founded in July 2002 in Kabul. The MMCC supports a wide spectrum of activities for the advancement and creative development of children and youth with various projects. Their activities range from the promotionof new pedagogical principles, to the creation of youth internships,. as well as supporting creative projects and furtherance in media-based activities. The Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children has only just recently started collaborative projects with RADIJOJO!with the presentation of their first radio program on our airwaves.
RADIJOJO!/UGANDA
Sometimes life leads us unto unconventional paths and sometimes an e-mail doesn't make it to the person it was intended for. That's how a sollicitation for cooperation which was intended for the USA ended up at Radio Kitara FM (Masindi Distrikt) in Uganda. Da Kitara FM is currently collaborating with RADIJOJO! in the creation of a children's editorial staff for their station. In a network collaboration with six other radio stations they reach a targeted audience of almost 12 million listeners nationwide.
RAINBOW HOUSE OF HOPE
Besides working with Radio KITARA in Uganda, RADIJOJO! is now also working in conjunction with the Rainbow House of Hope in Kampala. The project is a support group to lessen the sufferings of children as well as giving them a public voice which is devoted to the betterment of the conditions of needy children and youth in that country. Additionally, the kids of the Rainbow House of Hope will be producing their very own audio contributions which they will be exchanging with RADIJOJO! on a regular basis. The initial stages were made by the House of Hope Brass Band with their wonderful music. Followed then by the voice of a young child reporter as she goes through a presentation about her country and then posing some questions to her audience. Questions such as, are children also beaten in Germany?
RADIJOJO!/SUDAN
This past June our UNICEF Radio partner hosted a radio workshop for youths stemming from Juba, Sudan with the UNICEF Back on Track Program and the Southern Sudan Radio. Juba, is the capital city of the autonomous region of Southern Sudan. The young people from Juba taking part in the workshop were dealing with questions and issues, such as; How to find subjects which are relevant to kids? What are some of the stories that can be shared? Most importantly, how does one do research on a story? How do you make a script? How to produce an adequate radio piece?
Four of these stories are being presented by RADIJOJO!'s World Children's Radio Network.
A young reporter named Alfred Malish (14) reports on the practice of marriage among underage girls with older men. These „Child Marriages“ result in very early pregnancies which damage the bodily development of these very young girls, at the tender age of ten, eleven or twelve. These practices seem to further consolidate traditional gender roles and serve to further the exclusion of women and girls in educational matters, where girls and women are deprived of a college education.
Peter Yel (16) asks himself and his fellow countrymen why the prices for food are so high? In his report, he goes to the well-known Konya Market place in Juba and interviews some of the market women, shop-owners and buyers and inquires into the origins of the famine and the high food prices.
Dorothy Lurit (15) grew up in Uganda as a child refugee. It was just last year that she returned to her native Sudan with her parents. She was particularly shocked by the hygenic conditions with which so many people have to live with in Sudan. .In order to find out more, she went and visited the local hospitals, and spoke to mothers that were being treated for serious skin diseases or had been getting treatment for their children who had had been suffering of typhus.
Michael Lual (17) happens to be one of the best students attending the Juba Day School.. Michael is concerned because the 2009 school year could be his last because he and his family can no longer afford the cost of sending him to school. It all too often seems that the right to an education is an antagonism and clashes with the realities of poverty and hunger. Like Michael, many families have to make the critical decision whether to spend on an education or to just to spend on the the items essential to their survival.
The Sudanese Hip-Hop Star Emmanuel Jal! Emmanuel was recruited by force at the age of seven by the Sudan People's Army. He was one of tens of thousands of child soldiers violently forced to serve in the ranks in the army. Many of these children did not survive the civil war in that country. Today, Emmanuel is an internationally known and celebrated musician. His music is his medium in which he can incorporate all of his experiences. On his album War Child he tries to convey to other child soldiers that he is one of them, that he knows very well of their plight, and that there is a chance to be able to escape all the horrors and misery of war and to be able start to live a new life in peace. Emmanuel founded the non-profit organisation called Gua (Peace). Gua has built schools in the South where the instance of child soldiers is the highest.
A WORLD OF DIVERSITY
RADIO BRIDGES IN BERLIN – SOFIA / BERLIN – IRKUTSK
At the Berliner Brandenburger Gate Europa Elementary School, the students made their own texts and pictures with scenes which depict tradions and elements characteristic of their cultural backrounds. This very material became the stuff for future interviews with students in Sofia/Bulgaria and in Irkutsk/Russia via Skype . The exchanges were conducted in their native Bulgarian and Russian languages. Two radio bridges and a one hour radio program resulted.. These bridges are an exciting part of RADIJOJO! 's EUCHIRA The European Children's Radio project. These audios are an interesting journey through two countries and their cultures, but also offer insight into childhood fantasy and curiosity. A World of Diversity, a fitting title which offers just that.
Radiobridge Berlin / Irkutsk
Radiobridge Berlin / Sofia
PARTNER PROJECTS WITH NAMIBIA AND TANSANIA
We make history / Programs concerning the colonial past
What exactly do the children know in Tansania, Namibia and in Germany about the colonial times? Why are there still streets in Germany named after some of the most infamous colonial perpetrators and what can be done about it? What is it that the unites these kids in our respective countries one hundred years after these barbarous events? The answer to this question and many more are the topic of discussion in the first radio bridge between the children of all three countries. Most of the children interviewed are predominantly from socially challenging backrounds.
Berlin / Namibia
Berlin / Tansania
Both partnerships (such as the Uitani Children's Radio in Windhoek and the Dar es Salaam Independent School) are being presently continued. Many thanks to the UNESCO Southern Africa, the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), Förderband Berlin, the Senate of Berlin and the Foundation Nord/Südbrücken for their generous support.
The first Radio Bridge between EUROPE and CANADA
Kootenay Coop Radio in British Columbia, Canada, made child media history together with Radijojo. For the very first time children from Germany and Canada prepared a radio program together and they did it three times too! The Transatlantic Radio Kids (aged from 6 to 16) spoke on a conference call about climate change, minority rights in both countries, about what their life is like at school on a daily basis, about animals and their favorite music.
Across the Ocean contains more than one hundred segments and pieces about and with children from Europe and North America. Radijojo is a member of the Public Radio Exchange (PRX). This project was made possible with the support of the German Government as well as the German Marshall Fund.
CONCLUSION OF THE SUMMER SEASON OF „SPIELOFEZIEN“
The FEZ-Berlin is Europe's largest non-profit children, youth and family center. Every year in the Summer months of July and August a large array of fun events and activities are offered. This years motto was „SpieloFEZien“ 2009 and it was to commemorate the 100th Birthday of the great Pippi Langstrumpf and her creator Astrid Lindgreen. RADIJOJO! Was of course there, as every year, and for the whole of six weeks we made with some 650 kids more than 150 radio broadcasts ( Podcasts), innumerable music compositions, hundreds of comic strips as well as animated films. A big selection of these are to be seen and heard on RADOJOJO!'s SpieloFEZien page on the website.
