Radio Infantil

According to the organisers, participation was the core in this radio initiative which sought to give voice to children and youth. Local children and youth produced their own programmes and transmitted them via Community Radio Alto Molócuè. The programmes were in both Portuguese and the local language, Lomwé, and addressed various issues affecting children including child rights and HIV/AIDS. The slogan of Radio Infantil was "A voz da criana - a voz do futuro" (the voice of the child is the voice of the future.)

Radio Infantil provided participatory training to the children, sensitising them to issues of child rights and health, and helping them to create dialogues, interviews, testimonials, quizzes, and dramas. On Saturday mornings children were invited from different schools across the region to produce programmes which were transmitted directly from the amphitheatre outside the radio house. Twice a week about 50 children would gather for free English lessons in the amphitheatre.

The project also included the creation of a children's radio house where the children's producer groups met several times a week to plan their programmes and browse the library of the children's radio. The project also supported the development of new media initiatives by providing training to radio journalists from other parts of Mozambique to make children's programmes. In December 2004, Radio Infantil coordinated a national seminar on children's participatory media. One child and one adult representative from 42 community stations across the country attended the week-long forum. The goal of the seminar was to engage in a participatory process to create a series of magazine-style radio programmes produced by and for young people. This national seminar was also designed to provide an opportunity for capacity building for the children, and an opportunity for the adult facilitators to share experiences in creating children's programmes.

Click hereto listen to a programme produced by the children about education (in Portuguese).

Children, Rights

The Danish NGO, Ibis, has been working in Mozambique since 1976. According to Ibis, this project succeeded in building up a sustainable radio programme for and with children. Children’s rights were a focal point through all activities, and external reports conclude that Radio Infantil has changed the level of awareness amongst both children and adults, as well as changed the children’s involvement in their own lives and communities.