Cooh Odette Behn Joins Cameroon Link Team

By James Achanyi-Fontem, camlink99@gmail.com Farm Radio International (FRI) has engaged the Services of COOH Odette Behn as Media and Broadcasters Liaison Officer to join the Cameroon Link team in Bonaberi-Douala. Odette has a BSc in Social Communication. This job position was created to support Cameroon Link, acting as the FRI Focal Point and strategic partner in Cameroon. The engagement got into effect on the 15th May 2013 and covers a period of 12 months. It is valued at US $ 7000. The Responsibilities of Cooh Odette Behn, Media and Broadcasters Liaison Officer include to : Gather stories, images and sounds from our work with broadcasters and farmers for use in our social media and communication materials •Expand the number of radio practitioners that make regular use of FRI’s resources for broadcasters. This will involve identifying, contacting and sometimes meeting with hundreds of radio producers, hosts, reporters, presenters etc and encouraging them to join FRI’s Farm Radio Resource Packs program, Farm Radio Weekly and Barza. •Support radio practitioners in making regular, productive use of resources for broadcasters by contacting them, orienting them to the resources, assisting them in adapting, using and sharing the resources, and contributing their own resources to the network •Provide feedback to FRI team on how resources can be improved/enhanced so they better meet the day-to-day needs of rural broadcasters. •Strengthening and Follow up relationships with partner Radio stations in the usage of Farm Radio Resource Packs, Barza training and E-learning courses. •To measure impact and make a continuous assessment in Cameroon on Farm Radio Resource Packs (FRRPs). The skills required for this job include: •Strong media skills, including photography, video, interviewing and writing short stories about farming, rural families, and radio broadcasters that serve them •Excellent networking and communication skills •Regular, reliable, documentation of activities and communication with central office •Able to manage time and meet deadlines •Excellent coaching, mentoring and facilitation skills •Knowledge of rural radio and experience in development communications •Respect and appreciation of work of farming women and men. FRI is a non-profit corporation and a registered Canadian Charity (registration number 11 888 4808 RR001). Its mission is to support broadcasters in developing countries to strengthen small-scale farming and rural communities. FRI develops radio scripts, information packages, a weekly electronic news service, and an on-line community called Barza, and share them with hundreds of African broadcasters. They, in turn, use these resources to research, produce and present relevant and engaging programs for their audience of millions of farmers. These resources are: •aimed at increasing food supplies and improving nutrition and health; •simple, safe, affordable and practical; •ecologically sound and environmentally sustainable; •suitable for communication by radio; •proven useful and transferable within the developing world; •appropriate to both female and male small-scale farmers. FRI intermediary and focal point, Cameroon Link is a national umbrella NGO of professional dialogue groups of communication specialists, journalists, agriculture, health and social welfare workers. It was put in place following a crucial lack of good circulation of information on self-help development policies, social welfare, infant and young child nutrition and food self-sufficiency in Cameroon. Cameroon’s target audience through community radio is 20,000,000 listeners, 65% of who are peasant farmers and breeders with very low income sources. Cameroon Link was broadcasting partner with Developing Countries Farm Radio Network Canada for over 20 years before becoming a strategic partner of Farm Radio International.