NEWS / PROJECTS: Youth Journalists Raise Awareness of Children’s Rights (ZAMBIA)

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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WORKSHOPS / RADIO: Media workshops empower youth to address climate change in Zambia (AFRICA)

By Nina Callaghan

LUSAKA, Zambia, 8 December 2011 – To 17-year-old Msonda Chibwana from Lusaka, climate change is not just a topic for debate; it is a reality that has affected his family’s livelihood and taken food from their table.

 AUDIO: Listen now

“We only depended on profit made from selling fish and farm produce,” Msonda said. “Then there was a sudden change in the climate patterns. As a result, we faced serious drought. The rivers lakes and dams in Central Province dried up. The land also lost its fertility and the plants died.”

Msonda recorded his story in a Children’s Radio Foundation training workshop held in Lusaka, part of a UNICEF project  that equips young people with skills they need to produce media about climate change.

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NEWS / TRAINING: Youth undergo climate change training

UNICEF Zambia has partnered with the Children Radio Foundation (CRF) of South Africa to train its youthful staff to be climate change ambassadors.

According to the terms of reference, the partnership and ambitious training of young climate ambassadors would enable them to not only learn critical thinking, communication and confidence, but would empower them with new skills to be able to share information and spread awareness through the media.

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NEWS: ZBC celebrates International Children's Day of Broadcasting 2011

Children from across Harare converged at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation in Highlands on Sunday, to mark the International Children's Day of Broadcasting amid excitement as some of the children went on air in a dream broadcast session.

It was all fun for the children when they graced the studios at the broadcasting centre to mark the International Children's Day of Broadcasting ICDB, sponsored by the United Nations International Children's Fund-UNICEF.

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ARTICLES / PROJECTS: EU, Save the Children plead for children's rights respect in SA, Zambia media,B

By: Issa Sikiti da Silva

The European Union (EU), Save the Children, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) , South Africa's Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and Zambia's Media Network on Child's Rights and Development (MNCRD) last week jointly launched a daring project, 'Children and Media: Championing Best Practice', which aims to work with 570 children and 500 journalists to ensure children's rights are respected in the media, and a more representative and ethical journalism is practised in both countries.

Critics continue to deplore the increasingly 'unethical' behaviour of most African media houses, which sensationalise children's stories to boost circulation, viewership and listenership in the view of making huge profits.

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NEWS: Media initiative brings Zambian youth to the front-line of climate crisis (AFRICA)

By Vanessa Njovu and Michal Rahfaldt

LUSAKA, Zambia, 27 August 2010 – When Daniel Sichinga, 16, recently gathered a group of young Zambian Climate Ambassadors to record a radio talk show, he asked one guest, 17-year-old Tendai Nyirenda, about a burning issue in her community: climate change.

“Zambia is the second-most deforested country in the world, and Livingstone is one of the cities that has been most affected,” explained Tendai. “As Climate Ambassadors, we have identified that problem and are coming up with possible solutions.”

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ARTICLES / PROJECTS: A chance to bring stories out of the rural areas (AFRICA)

Eight hours west of Lusaka in the rural town of Mongu, Zambia, about 2 500 children come together to watch World Cup soccer on huge screens while being intermittently interviewed by local student reporters.

Further north on the continent, in Gisenyi, Rwanda, young reporters put on "radio shows" -- during half-time in a field set up with TV screens -- to discuss the merits of a good education.

This all forms part of the "World Cup in My Village" programme, which brings youths together to not only enjoy the World Cup -- a luxury to most in these impoverished areas -- but more importantly to address pressing issues in their communities.

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ARTICLES: Zindaba Mwanzah - star of Kids TV in Zambia (AFRICA)

“Young people can achieve every goal they set for themselves as long as they are determined and focused on those goals”, these are the wise words of Muvi TV’s kids and teens presenter 16-year-old Zindabah Mwanzah.

Born to Priscilla and Tenthani Mwanzah, Zindabah is the first born in a family of six and is currently in Grade 11 at Lusaka’s Matero Boys Secondary School.

“I did my grade one to seven at Sacred heart of Jesus school and from there I went to Matero Boys in grade eight where I will be until my grade twelve,” says Zindabah.

Zindabah got his inspiration to get into TV from the people that surrounded him. “Growing up, I was told that I was not shy to do anything. And I remember people telling me that I could do well as a presenter, I also recall being active in Sunday school which made me realiSe that I really loved talking to people and I was not afraid or shy to do it,” he narrates.

His decision to finally do what he thought he really wanted (being a presenter) came when he was just 9-years-old.

“In 2004 I heard about the auditions that ZNBC was having, I immediately thought it was my chance to try it out just to see where it could take me. And a thousand of kids auditioned and to my surprise I was among the five kids that were picked from those auditions,” he says.

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TECHNOLOGY / SMS: UNICEF uses text messages to spread the word about polio in Zambia (AFRICA)

UNICEF uses text messages to spread the word about polio in Zambia

20 July 2009 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will be sending text messages to millions of Zambian parents this week as part of a new initiative to harness modern technology in the fight to prevent polio.

UNICEF has joined forces with the Zambian Health Ministry and two mobile phone companies, ZAIN and MTN, to encourage parents to bring their children under the age of five to the nearest health-care centre for free polio vaccinations.

“It is about time that we used modern technology to ensure child health and this year is particularly important because of the polio prevention campaign,” said UNICEF Zambia Representative, Lotta Sylwander.

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