La Création et l’évaluation des Scripts et Programmes Radiophoniques

Par Jeanne Tchakoute, Cameroun
Email: jeannetchakoute@yahoo.fr
Un atelier de formation sur la création et l’évaluation des scripts et programmes radiophoniques à l’attention des responsables des radios rurales de l’Afrique Francophone de l’Ouest, du Centre et des grands lac, a eu lieu du 29 Novembre au 03 Décembre 2010 à Ouagadougou au Burkina Faso.
Au total 21 participants en service dans les radios se sont retrouvés à Ouagadougou du 29 Novembre au 03 Décembre 2010 au Burkina Faso, dans le cadre de cet atelier, organisé par JADE Production, grâce au soutien du CTA et de Farm Radio International (FRI).
La cérémonie d’ouverture qui précédait les travaux était présidée par Mme la Représentante du Ministre de la communication, du Tourisme et de la Culture. Cela s’est déroulé en présence du Directeur de JADE Production, M. SOULEYMANE, de la Représentante de Farm Radio, Nelly BASSILLY, de Samuel EBITENDA, chargé des programmes média CTA (Centre Technique de Coopération Agricole) et des 21 participants.
Après la cérémonie d’ouverture a suivi la présentation des participants, qui a permis aux uns et aux autres de coller les noms sur les visages, point de départ de sympathie et de solidarité. Chaque participant a ensuite présenté les 03 sujets choisis, et l’approche qui a guidé le choix.
Sylvain DEGARRDINS, journaliste à radio canal et aux radios rurales Internationales, a présenté un exposé sur le concept de l’idée centrale, et c’est l’idée centrale qui était la base des travaux. Les techniques d’entrevue, les simulations d’interviews et les techniques d’enregistrement de sons pour la radio ont été faites, avec la participation de tous.
La descente dans la communauté MOUTI village située à m’Est du Ouagadougou, a permis aux participants de réaliser en groupe de 03 des reportages sur 07 sujets différents. Le sujet traité par le groupe n°6 dont je faisais partie portait sur le SOSOAGA, travail champêtre en groupes d’agriculteurs, de la culture à la récolte, un héritage qui doit être sauvegardé, malgré l’exode rural qui vide les campagnes et réduit le nombre d’agriculteurs, et en même temps une pratique passionnante qui facilite les travaux champêtres et renforce la solidarité, non sans améliorer les conditions de vie des populations.
L’équipe n°6 constituée de YOUSSOUF NIAKATE PACOME TOMETISSI et Jeanne TCHAKOUTE a fait des interviews aux agriculteurs à ce sujet, et a réalisé un magazine de minutes, avec les sons enrobés. Comme les autres sujets, le reportage sur le SOSOAGA a été suivi en séance après l’enregistrement du magazine et le montage.
L’écoute des reportages de toutes les équipes a permis de critiquer, proposer, améliorer, échanger et de beaucoup apprendre. Au delà d’un exercice, la sortie du MOUTI a été une grande découverte pour moi, qui découvrait la savane. Je ne voyais ce paysage qu’à la télévision ou sur photos, avec des charrues tirés par des ânes.
Chaque soir, l’évaluation de la journée devait servir à améliorer le lendemain.
La remise des certificats aux participants, l’évaluation de l’atelier et la lecture et signature du contrat ont précédé la fête de clôture le vendredi 03 Décembre 2010.
Heureuse initiative de Farm radio, cet atelier est une émulation et un grand apport pour l’épanouissement des hommes de médias, chargés de faire parvenir les messages aux acteurs du monde rural. Je suis très sure que, comme moi, tous les participants sont ravis des travaux et se sont séparés, forts d’avoir beaucoup appris.
Les connaissances sont transmises dès le retour dans nos rédactions et appliquées sur le terrain. C’est l’occasion de remercier Farm Radio International, CTA et JADE Production pour l’initiative de regrouper les personnes de pays Francophone d’Afrique. Mon vœu est que cette expérience récidive.

E-Learning Course For Africa Broadcasters

Blythe McKay is Manager of Programmes & Partnerships of Farm Radio International, FRI, in Canada. She highlighted e-learning courses organized to support African broadcasters through the development of radio scripts on small holder farmer innovations during the Pan Commonwealth of Learning Forum in Kochi, India late in November 2010. Introducing the e-learning issue, Blythe described a script as a written version of a short radio programme. The FRI script writing competitions started in 2005 with 26 entries from 16 countries on the MDGs, In 2007, the competition focused on Climate Change Adaptation with 51 entries from 20 countries.
In 2009, the radio script competition was on smallholder farmers and this accumulated 82 scripts from 20 countries. The last competition is in the course of evaluation and this got 128 entries with over 500 subscribers. Four competitions have been organized since 2005.
She explained that the purpose of the competition is to strengthen the capacity of African broadcasters affiliated to the Farm Radio International network. Different topics have been treated, as far as the needs of communicators and smallholder farmers is concerned.
In 2009, Farm Radio International partnered with Community of Learning, COL, to offer an e-learning component and to provide training for participants in the competition. Since these activities started, the number of participants has continued to increased, reflecting the value and impact of the exercise. FRI covers over 250 radio stations on the Africa continent.
The process includes course development, marketing and sign up, online training and the use of CD-Rom, script submission, judging by international panel, revision of winning script, evaluation and distribution.
This process is organized in such a way that broadcasters are reached on time. Persons who do not have regular access to internet, receive the their packets of scripts by post. It takes a couple of months for some to receive materials from Farm radio international.
The FRI online training has a duration of 10 weeks or more. When the process is completed, the scripts are reviewed by an international panel of judges. 10 to 15 winners are selected and they receive a certificate and a mini recorder for producing more interactive programmes in their stations as a incentive. They are often advised to revise their scripts based on the feedback received from the judges, to make sure the content is balanced.
When it is packed and posted to the broadcasters, the scripts are adapted and used during local language broadcasts targeting the farmer and animal breeder. Between 300 and 500 packets are sent to sub Saharan Africa. As an organization, FRI learns by doing and this helps for the planning and organization of future competitions.
The web site of Farm radio International, FRI, can be consulted at, www.farmradio.org Over 1.000 scripts are have been lodged on the web site and people can download and use them free of any charge. Farm Radio International(www.farmradio.org) is a Canadian registered charity that is at the forefront of using radio combined with other ICTs to serve smallholder farmers. It sends information on low-cost ways to improve food security to 360 radio stations across 39 countries. The packages, in English and French, cover topics from improving soil fertility to coping with climate change. In the past 30 years, local broadcasters have valued the materials and translated them into over one hundred local African languages.Over 950 subscriptions receive electronic news service on weekly basis. Farm Radio International also privodes training to broadcasters to improve their skills in serving smallholders, more of them in rural communities.

Innovative Tool for Distance Learning
Jothi, Santhy & Valluvaparidasan are all of the directorate of the Open Distance Learning in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University of India. They presented a joint paper on the innovative tool for community development through distance education.
The government is requesting the agricultural sector to come up with innovations that can help farmers improve on their yields, especially in the dry regions of the country. E-Learning is used by the International Crop Research Institute for the semi arid tropics and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. In these institutions, instead for building course from the top down, the opposite is down building courses from the bottom upwards. This helps to locate the learning objects.
The two points on content with the consumers are the missing part of e-learning as a social network, who is reading the RLO and the automatic formation of the list, not forgetting the Meta Data with at least three taxonomies. Google relates documents to documents and it is the same system that is applied in the innovation to e-learning by the directorate.
User profiles have been conceive to facilitate interested persons to sign up for the course they want.

Innovations In ODL In Agriculture
Venkataraman Bataji, B.S. Hansra, Surya Gunjai, Valiuva Paridasan and Praveen S. Jain are of the ICRISAT in Patancheru, the School of Agriculture of IGNOU, School of Agriculture of YCMOU, the ODL Directorate and the school of agriculture, IGNOU. They made a joint presentation on innovations using the practices in re-usable Learning objects and semantic web technologies. In the picture above, Blythe is standing with James, focal point for FRI Cameroon. For more, visit the following web site at http://cameroonlink.info

Open Learning Resources and Community Development

Open Learning Resources and Community Development
By Cameroon Link
Email: camlink99@gmail.com

Presenjit Das works with the Institute of Distance and Open Learning of the University of Guahati in India. He explored new pathways of knowledge in the field of high education in Assam. There are over 40 open distance learning opportunities in India. The idea is about 15 years old. India is learning from all over the world and new initiatives are coming up throughout the country. Assam is a North East Indian state. Presenjit Das said, that as open distance learning is discussed, the word openness should be given consideration as a path way. Oral learning India is certainly different from oral learning in other parts of the world.
He said, in the last five years, there has been a remarkable development in the accessibility through the resources of open education. UNESCO chaired a vivid discussion on the use of OER through its International Institute of Educational Planning, IIEP, which affirms that Open Educational Resources,OER, can bring a remarkable change in community development.
According to Presenjit Das, learning in ODL must refer to cultural factors over and above psychological theories of learning. The design of materials must contain implicit references to institutional infrastructure like information channels which are important aspects of the learning process.
Open Distance Learning has to be contextualized. In Assam, in the north east of India, there are 5 major universities out of three offering higher education through open distance learning. The design of curriculum ordinarily refers to the tried and tested pedagogic methods of classroom teaching. Practice reveals that this consistently relegates ODL curriculum to the lower slot in the repertory of courses. The 11th five year development plan of the Indian government suggests an allocation of 600 million rupees for the integration of specifically ICT in school education.
As the government increases investment in ICT for education, continuous effeorts must be made to ensure that investments in technology positively impact on all aspects of education.such community development.
The Institute of Open and Distance Learning in Guahati university has taken a number of visionary initiativesby launching the first e-portal of the North East, notably www.bodhiroom.Idolgu.org on the 13th November 2009.
By providing more effective and efficient access to information, it improves collaboration and communication, integration of information and application, increased document flow and workflow, smarter decision making, increased productivity and integrated knowledge environment.
The e-portal offers an independent discussion forum and news forum for every programme, online interaction facility with fellow students, faculty members and even officials which include the administrative officer of G.U.
A Campus community radio station was launched at G.U. on the 20th November 2010 as another mew development. Addressing challenging issues, Presenjit Das said, the responsibility towards social needs of community development stands as a distinct markerof the ODL system, thus calling on practitioners to maintain practices reinforcing ideas of openness with reference to teacher-student relationship.

Community Development

PCF6 Discussions on Digital Content
By Cameroon Link
Email: camlink99@gmail.com
The session on digital content and community development was facilitated by Maria Protz of the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication and the rapporteur was James Achanyi-Fontem of Cameroon Link.This session was arranged by the COL Community Media Action International Coordinator, Ian Pringle.
Presenters were Lee Tan Luck, Prasenjit Das, Blythe McKay, Valluvaparidasan, Venkataraman, B.S, Hansra, Surye Gunjal, Valluva Paridasan and Praveen Jain.
Maria Protz to get resource persons on stage, started by refreshing the memories of the audience on the required content of the theme through a series of questions: What are the ways we can capture the body of knowledge about using community media in learning? So, how do we go about capturing the body of knowledge? Are there modules for using community media for facilitating learning? With all the new communication platforms and technologies that are coming to the front, do they really work? Or do they cause more problems than we think? Another question was on quality assurance. In community media, do we need some sort of quality assurance mechanisms for checks and balance? If so,do we have any modules that work for that? Who is the community we are talking about? Is community a myth? What is the role of technologies in addressing disparities? After this introduction that the first speaker was invited to the podium to address issues related to "Supporting Community Learning with Digital Technologies"
Lee Tan Luck is a lecturer of MARA University of technology in Malaysia. He spoke about supporting community learning with digital technologies and knowledge for societal development. He emphasized on Open Distance Learning, ODL, to educate rural farmers by enhanced blended learning management system through schools, while quoting the example of Malaysia. The scenario in the school system of Malaysia, is that all primary and secondary schools are well equipped with computer systems since 1986. In all the 2000 primary schools, 45 per cent are located in rural areas. Even in the rural areas, there is everything including electricity supply.
The Open Distance Learning operates on half day and mostly in the evening. This is part of the educational system. In Malaysia, the introduction of ICT has proven its worth as the foundation of the modern mode of education delivery system. This widen the scope of development on a collaborative, open and distance digital enhanced e-learning platform.
It has also paved the way for the bridging of digital divide as well as fostering advance education for the nation. For this to happen, a main server is located in one area, connections are linked to eight district servers at one time. These computer servers in the eight districts are connected to all primary and secondary schools. Even the indigenous areas with solar energy benefit from the same syatem.
Farmers are eager to learn through the system because ICT helps them to evacuate their products to the market. Without this system, the farmers will produce and not know where to sell their crops. Most of them are poor peasant farmers. The middle men who buy from the farmers to sell in the market, take a big share of the profits of the farmers. This system of open distance learning has come to give the farmers equal opportunities and some have become very rich.
Teaching is considered a social obligation for the development of the society. This helps the farmers to equip themselves and improve on their livelihoods. Farmers are discourage from the use of chemicals for producing their crops, because this is dangerous for human health. Lee Tan Luck said, he has a farm and practices what he teaches there. He acknowledged that farming pays more that a government job, even when he practices only on part time basis.
The off-hours education for rural farmers is part and parcel of school administrators and teachers’ social obligation because they also form part of the community. The blended methodology of teaching and learning process is not an easy one because the farmers need to be guided properly on the use of the sophisticated digital facilities and caution is the key issues in the transfer of knowledge.
It is important to note that the open distance learning, whether in the afternoon or night is free. Malaysia envisages through its system of using ICT for transformation of the well being of the farmers to attain the level of developed country by the year 2020.

Learning from Community Media

Participation, Education & Development
Perspective On Community Media & Education
By James Achanyi-Fontem,Cameroon
Email: camlink2001@gmail.com
In the context of Cameroon, Community media is beginning to be found as a tool for increasing participation in learning and development processes. This takes root from identifying learning needs to designing programming, creating content, talking about it and providing feedback.
Due to the fact that there is a lack of appropriate and effective learning opportunities in remote rual and resource-poor regions, while schools do not cater for non-formal or life-long needs of school drop outs and adults, the only way to change attitudes is through community media.
This makes community media a good strategy for educating the population and to deliver part of a conversation, a communication programme or a development project. Through the collaboration between different groups, we realize that participation helps to ensure relevance in planning and responsiveness in implementation development goals.
During the survey in Menji, Lebialem area of Cameroon, it was noted that the existence of local media, community development programmes, information and communication technology (ICT) centre and other localized services were not effectively structured for engaged learning.
This makes us feel that there remains untapped potential in collaboration among the different groups. To feel the gap, community radios go beyond the issue of connectivity since they cater for the interests of a certain area/community by broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience. Such broadcast material or information is usually based on the social, economic and political aspects of that very community.
During the recent story design workshop in Lebialem, it became visible that the main focus of community media is not just installing equipment and creating connections to entertain the publics, but rather to organize the community so that it can resolve its specific problems, which may vary from one setting to the next. In Cameroon, community radio stations are usually jointly owned by the community and NGOs or associations, that are not profit motivated and therefore their programming is not influenced by sponsors/advertisers It serve as a means by which to avoid self-marginalization while still adhering to the principles of community interests and social objectives. Community media is a means by which local news and information is disseminated. It allows citizens to inform themselves about the issues taking place around them.
Since they are gaining too much popularity today, those in management need tips on how to manage them, package information so that it is relevant and also, get ideas on how to sustain them; given the fact that they are not profit orientated.
Community media in all its various forms is inseparably linked to the enhancement of a civil society and civic participation. It is bound only by the limits of creativity and of course accessibility to resources and spectrum. The key characteristics of community media convey a more clear understanding of its definition as well as its depth and dimension in terms of how it takes shape in the civic landscape.It reflects their communities, and more importantly also become integral to the communities which they serve. Integration is achieved through ensuring their accountability to the particular community concerned .This takes the form of community ownership within a legally constituted non-profit distributing structure. Community Radio is a powerful tool for learning for development, especially informal learning for improving health and livelihoods. The role of community radio in providing non-formal educational opportunities, especially for non literate communities in Cameroon.
Community media outlets not only reflect their communities, more importantly they are integral to the communities which they serve. The integration is achieved through ensuring their independence from commercial interests, but also through ensuring their accountability to the particular community concerned. The accountability often takes the form of community ownership within a legally constituted non-profit distributing structure. Community Radio for example is a powerful tool for learning for development, especially informal learning for improving health and livelihoods. The scale of learning challenge is so overwhelming that all viable methods are harnessed to it. Several thousands of children between the ages of 12 and 14 are not in secondary school for various reasons and we have a first challenge of scale that must be addressed.
Community radio can play an important role in giving youngsters the skills that will lead to better livelihoods and getting them into employment or self-employment. It can also help to keep them healthy, which is the second challenge.There is clearly an urgent need for more learning about health. Community radio is a focal point for community driven learning, allowing learners to identify their own priorities based on participatory mechanisms of assessment . Radio Dramas, storytelling and interviews in particular, are effective and low cost ways of making community voices an integral part of the learning process.
Participatory tools used in the development of learning programs encourage networking and collaboration among key local actors, as well as effective advocacy for open distance learning. This helps to share knowledge about community-based learning programmes through networking possibilities.
To forge ahead positively, we should be able to build capacity in community groups for designing participatory educational programming, particularly bringing together radio with other groups in development, health, education, etc. in consultation and research about educational priorities, and educational programme development processes,
This will enable us to better experiment and demonstrate appropriate educational community radio programmes for example on maternal and child health care, HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Sickle Cell, etc, especially as it will increase participation in learning and development process, after identifying learning needs, designing programming, creating content, talking about it and providing feedback.
In conclusion, participation through joint efforts by the different groups and sectors in the community helps to ensure relevance in planning and responsiveness in implementation. It enables better collective, collaborative responses to development challenges such as maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, sickle cell, diabetes and other problems the people living within the community face regularly.

Story Design Workshop Is Golden Opportunity For Cameroon

COL Cameroon Link Partnership Liaison Person Describes Story Design Workshop As Golden Opportunity For Cameroon
By Lebialem Community Radio

Executive Director of Cameroon Link, James Achanyi-Fontem, who doubles as the Commonwealth of Learning Partnership Liaison, has described the first radio story design workshop organised in Lebialem as a golden opportunity for the transformation of communities.
Achanyi-Fontem was speaking during the launching of Commonwealth of Learning pilot programme in Lebialem Division of the south west region of Cameroon last November 2 at Mariapolis Centre in Menji.
He thanked the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), through Charles Simbi and Gladson Makowa, who travelled all the way from Lilongwe, Malawi in East Africa to Cameroon to deliver the radio story design workshop content on “Mother and Child Health Care”.
He appreciated the presence of the Senior Divisional Officer for Lebialem’s representative, Moni Innocent Nanje, who accepted to preside over the official launching ceremony, while congratulating the Management of Lebialem Community Radio for accepting the challenge to host the workshop for behavior change communication, which remains a challenge in Cameroon.
The COL Cameroon Link partnership liaison lauded the participants, for leaving other activities to concentrate in the learning process and to serve their communities as volunteers for the promotion of healthy communities within Lebialem, the take off point of Commonwealth Open Distance Learning activities through Lebialem Community Radio.
Achanyi-Fontem announced that the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) signed a Contribution Agreement to support Cameroon Link, to facilitate the development, design and operationalisation of a Community Learning Programme on “Maternal and Child Health Care” in the Lebialem Division of Cameroon on the 30th August 2010 after a field study and evaluation of delivery impact.
He added that, the results and evaluation of the Lebialem Community Learning model will be shared widely in Cameroon, as reminded participant that the COL is an intergovernmental organization created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education. The brain behind the media initiative in Vancouver, Canada is Ian Pringle, a Media Education Specialist, he revealed. He used the opportunity to extend the sincere thanks and gratitude of the entire staff of Cameroon Link to Ian Pringle and his collaborators in Vancouver, Canada for the trust, that led to the birth of the extension of Commonwealth of Learning to Cameroon.
Achanyi-Fontem told trainees, that COL’s Livelihoods and Health Sector aims at improving on the incomes, livelihoods and quality of life of communities and their members through new knowledge, skills and economic opportunities gained by the means of Open Distance Learning Tools and strategies.
The four initiatives, he went on, include Skills Development, Learning for Farming, Healthy Communities and e-Learning. As far as Healthy Communities is concerned, COL and Cameroon Link have a common interest in helping community organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and local public institutions to improve the health and well-being of their communities. The Healthy Communities approach focuses on health issues within a broader context of community development, dealing for example with issues such as “Maternal and Child Health Care, HIV/AIDS and Nutrition”.
Cameroon Link and Lebialem Community Radio, the two organizations concerned with the delivery of the programme will share information and promote cooperation, at both the activity level (interventions in the field) as well as with regard to policy, COL partnership liaison told the audience.
Areas of specific interest for collaboration in the Cameroon Link initiative include:
 Use of mobile technologies;
 Use of traditional media;
 Use of e-Health applications; and developing open and distance learning materials and programmes, both for healthcare intermediaries and citizens during a period of 12 months.
According to the statement of activities of Cameroon Link, COL's Healthy Communities initiative will demonstrate and document the use of media and other information and communication technologies for open and distance learning, and in particular, the use of community-based media by development groups for non-formal educational programming about livelihoods, health and other areas of community development; working closely with COL and designated partners and consultants like the Malawi Story Workshop specialists, in all aspects of the project.
Cameroon Link is guiding a range of local public, private and civil society stakeholders in the development of new participatory learning programmes about community health, one that reflects the key elements of COL's community learning model, namely a combination of educational radio content with face-to-face interactions and learner support, with a clear linkage to community mobilisation and action.
Cameroon Link has identified output and outcome indicators which assist in the collection of baseline data, establishing a consortium of partner groups working in media, maternal and child health care, and identifying at least 1,000 direct learners reached through complementary face-to-face means and 20,000 active listeners in Lebialem.
Cameroon Link worked closely with the COL-designated training facilitators and local partners to organize the five-day radio programmes design workshop that resulted to the production of our samples of episodes ready for broadcast at the end of the training.
Cameroon Link is continue to ensure the execution of the community learning programme, including at least 30-60 minutes of original weekly radio content, associated to face-to-face learning support for the next twelve months starting from November 2010.
Two key learning technologies, including using video shows for community support groups, mobile telephones to increase learner interactivity and to provide additional information to learners, computers to assess learning achievements, etc are integrated for execution of the programme.
Cameroon Link and Lebialem Community Radio are developing a case study of Lebialem radio programmes, including: An outline of the COL-Cameroon Link community learning programme model, reflecting both, the global approach and its specific application in Lebialem. The process followed in Lebialem includes:
 Twenty-five plus (25+) high-resolution, high-quality photographs reflecting the programme's participatory and educational nature;
 The outputs, outcomes and lessons learnt, including a comparative analysis of the baseline and end-of-project data from phase one of the programme;
 General considerations for policymakers in
a) Health education, especially maternal and child health care, and
b) Community media.
 A roadmap for scaling-up the Community Learning programme model in Cameroon.
COL Cameroon Link partnership will lead to sharing the case study and roadmap, widely through electronic media, and in specific fora, like community media or health conferences, and with specific groups concerned with maternal and child health care and so on, with a view to additional local and national programme development.
Groups and individuals trained or otherwise engaged in the programme development process are disaggregated by age, gender, location and livelihood, as well as Learners enrolled or directly engaged by the process.
Gender considerations will include: Involvement of and access by women and men, boys and girls; and Gender orientation of content produced; Partnerships established and maintained; Feedback from policy and programme decision makers; Prospective sustainability; and amount, quality, subject and origin of content created, with observations concerning local relevance, degree of community and learner participation, collaboration among groups and specific gender considerations; and
Impact on health and development indicators as identified at the outset of the project.
COL contact, Ian Pringle, who is International Program Coordinator and Media Education Specialist, is contributing resources towards the statement of activities; providing inputs and feedback throughout the project with the services of consultants leading in the radio programmes design and training.
Gender equality is integral to all of COL’s work and requires that both women's and men's views, interests and needs shape its work in learning for development. Cameroon Link agreed that gender considerations shall inform the activities to be undertaken under the agreement, in particular:
Consultation with both women and men and the inclusion of gender considerations, for example, the role of gender in maternal and child health, in planning activities;
Equitable participation of women and men in radio programmes development and training activities;
The inclusion in all workshops of at least one session focused on gender issues, like looking at the role of women and men in how radio programmes are developed and the gender implications for learning and action processes, and the inclusion in all learning programmes of specific gender considerations, the role of men in maternal and child health care, the roles of both women and men in preventing and treating malaria, diabetes, sickle cell, etc.
Project Strategy
The approach to programme development and content creation includes:
 Non-formal education approach to media, like identifying learning objectives and learning process
 Collaborative process involving media – ICT, health development authorities and experts and community networks.
 Participatory design and operation of learning programmes, Story-based approach to learning content alongside information from experts,
 Blended and multi-channel approach to learning that combines media content with face-to face interaction and other types of learner support using print, mobile, etc.
Issues dealing with Maternal Health tackled include:
HIV/AIDS
Sickle Cell
Nutrition
Smoking
Drinking
Family Planning
Malaria
Prenatal Care
Gender relations
Illiteracy
Poverty
Infrastructure
Information
Safe Delivery
Working conditions and
Abortion.
The above list remains incomplete and will be completed as the execution phase unfolds.
James Achanyi-Fontem used the opportunity to introduce the two national focal points of Commonwealth of Learning: Professor Ivo Leke Tambo, who is the Secretary General at the Ministry of Secondary Education in Yaounde and Dr. Daniel Akume Akume, who is the Head of the Computerised System for the Management of Staff and Salaries at the Ministry of Higher Education in Yaounde.
For more information, click on the following links-
http://camlinknews.blogspot.com/2010/11/asongah-leghung-emeh-boh-mwuah.html; http://camlinknews.blogspot.com/2010/11/lcr-welcomes-col-initiative.html

LCR WELCOMES COL INITIATIVE

By Cameroon Link
Email: camlink99@gmail.com
The President of Lebialem Community Radio (LCR), Atabong George Atemnkeng expressed thanks and gratitude to the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, Canada, Cameroon Link Health Development Organisation in Douala and the facilitators of the Story Design Workshop “on Mother and Child Health Care”, who come all the way from Malawi, East Africa to Menji, Cameroon.
Atabong George acknowledged that joys and challenges shared the space in the hearts of the staff of Lebialem Community Radio , as the station was chosen to launch the pilot phase of the media Commonwealth of Learning project in Cameroon.
He added that, it was the first time in the history of Lebialem that such a project on health development through the media is being offered to the population and listeners of the various communities in Cameroon.
This training offered by the Commonwealth of Nations is coming in to help Lebialem Community Radio to fulfil one of the primordial objectives, which is to disseminate correct information to more than 3,000.000 inhabitants of Cameroon from Menji, especially as the signals of the station reach neighbouring countries to Cameroon like Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, the LCR President emphasized.
He added, that with the support the station received from the Japanese embassy for the construction of a relay pylon of Lebialem Community Radio, the effect of COL Media Health Action programmes is going to extend to the populations of Upper Manyu Division in the South West region, Menoua Division in the West region and parts of the North West region of Cameroon.
Prior to the creation of Lebialem Community Radio in 2007, the division was virtually off from the rest of the country because of no access to CRTV signals or any other radio broadcast signals. Today, the population relies on LCR for news, information, education and entertainment on all issues.
Atabong George observed that the health story design workshop for Lebialem Community Radio will go a long way to empower the staff on healthy communities’ communication and related issues.
Through this in put, LCR will be able to:
 Give the microphone to the population, who normally have no access to the mass media an opportunity to express their views on community health development issues;
 Provide a development forum for healthy communities;
 Encourage self-help participatory community development;
 Promote active involvement of underprivileged groups such as the handicapped, women and young persons especially;
 Provide a forum for local cultural expression in relation to mother and child care;
 Improve on the population’s access to health information in local languages;
 Offer opportunities for individuals and groups to speak to each other, thus developing awareness of a common membership of community.
 The pilot Commonwealth of Learning initiative in Cameroon will reinforce some important Cameroon Radio Television network programmes already relayed in the official languages by the station.

The LCR President told the facilitators and participants, that the above mentioned objectives can be met with the kind of training offered by the Malawi Story Workshop team with the assistance of Cameroon Link, the negotiator organisation and Commonwealth of Learning.
On the part of the staff of Lebialem Community Radio, they promised to diligently use the training to educate and help reduce maternal and child health care problems in Lebialem and its environ, while reporting back to COL Cameroon regularly, accurately and on time about the effects of the training and the new programmes brought into the radio programmes schedule by COL.
During the closing and certificate handing over ceremony, Atabong George said, Lebialem Community Radio benefitted a lot through the Story Design Workshop and that the skills acquired will go a long way to solve the acute problems of broadcast materials and staffing. The volunteer staff , he added are capable of identifying vital community issues as well as designing and putting up quality programmes that will ameliorate the welfare of the communities.
Especially as “Mother and Child Health Care” was the core of the workshop, together they voted unanimously for a title of the programme to heard heard henceforth over Lebialem Community Radio : “Asongah Leghung Emeh boh Mwuah”.
At this initial stage of cooperation, he assured the trainers, the negotiator organisation and the Commonwealth of Learning of their total commitment to respect the terms of the agreement. Asongah leghung Emeh boh Muah will bring more life to the station and communities, he promised, because they have just gone through a very intensive and educative workshop. They have learned new skills. They have got new friends and learned how to take care of the health of the mothers, infants and children. The title of the programme, Atabong reiterated, calls for a greater sense of responsibility and awareness. He invited the staff of LCR to remain united and devoted to duty to win the confidence and trust of the donors and make Lebialem proud. For more, please click on the following link - http://camlinknews.blogspot.com/2010/11/asongah-leghung-emeh-boh-mwuah.html