COL Healthy Communities Workshop

Highlights of CLP Content
By James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
Gail White Presents COL Workshop Programme
From: camlink99 | Oct 6, 2011 |
This video highlights Gail White's welcome and presentation of the week's programme of the Commonwealth of Learning Healthy Communities workshop. Gail White is the Executive Director of the Media Training Centre, MTC, for Health in Cape Town, South Africa. MTC was host of the COL workshop. Cameroon Link was there and made this video for sharing

Patrick Prendeergast of CARIMAC Jamaica on CLP sustainability
From: camlink99 | Oct 2, 2011 |
Patrick Prendergast of CARIMAC Jamaica in this video shares his experience on how to sustain a programme, emphasizing on the project design, increase of funding possibility and capacity building. Patrick added that there needs to be clarity at the planning stage of any Community of Learning Programme. The tool kit unit on sustainability was discussed and experiences shared with COL partners during the healthy community workshop. Cameroon Link produced video with the inclusion of power point project to facilitate understanding for the issue and for sharing. For more on the Commonwealth of Learning sustainability, visit the web site at - http://www.col.org

Blythe Mckay on FRI Networking Strategies
From: camlink99 | Oct 1, 2011
Blythe Mckay, the Farm Radio International Manager of Programs and Partnership addressed participants at the Commonwealth of Learning healthy communties partners' workshop on networking opportunities and impact in Cape Town, South Africa.Cameroon Link was there and produced this for sharing.

Franklin Huizies of AMARC
From: camlink99 | Oct 1, 2011 |
Franklin Huizies is the Vice President of AMARC Africa. In the video shared here, Franklin makes a contribution on CLP trends and how issues should or can be approached for greater outcomes in media development.

Discover Radio Atlantis in South Africa
From: camlink99 | Oct 1, 2011 |
Radio Atlantis first went on air on 1 September 1995. The station's mission statement is to act as a medium to empower the community in its broadcasting area, through education and information and providing a voice and entertainment to such communities and promotes the rights of those who have been denied their basic human rights in the past, in particular women and children's rights.
The radio, which broadcasts on the 107.9 FM Stereo frequency to Atlantis; Langebaan; Sea Point; Cape Town; Abbotsdale; Mamre; Philadelphia; Tableview; Malmesbury; Darling; and Klipheuwel, is registered as a section 21 company and broadcasts in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. Radio Atlantis reaches listeners in LSM groups one to eight of all ages. The station broadcasts 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
This video was made by Cameroon Link during a study visit to the station in September 2011 by Commonwealth of Learning Healthy Communities Partners, who attended a workshop in Cape Town hosted by the Media Training Centre for Health. The Executive Director of MTC, Gail white, made the arrangement since her centre is promoting a health education programme at Radio Atlantis.
During the session videoed here, COL partners learnt about how the station's listeners' club contributes in the design of story episodes. The programmed listened here concerns the fight against drug abuse amongst youths within the community. Since the programmes impact on the listeners, they are given an opportunity to tell their own story through testimonies. Cameroon Link produced this video for sharing.

Discover Radio Altantis, Cape Town, South Africa
From: camlink99 | Sep 30, 2011 |
During the last Commonwealth of Learning Healthy Community Partners Workshop in Cape Town, the host organisation, Media Training Centre for Health, MTC, planned a field to Radio Atlantis.
Radio Atlantis is one of the community radio stations authorised to operate in South Africa. After several years of existence, it is working towards autonomy and would be housed by its own permanent building shortly. The road was long, but because its activities impacted on the livelihood of the community, it survived through production of dedicated programmes on issues facing youths in the community like drug abuse.
During the trip to Atlantis, COL HC Partners were introduced to the station authority, who highlighted the struggle for survival of the station. It was a community radio put in place to fight Apartheid, but it is today, a promotion of livelihood tool. In the video presented her by Cameroon Link, COL partners intorduce themselves and the station manager tells a short story of Radio Atlantis

Zahir Koradia of Gram Vaani
From: camlink99 | Sep 30, 2011 |
In this video, Zahir Koradia from Gram Vanni in India talks about how to integrate mobiles into community learning programmes (CLPs). He exchanged with the 23 participants of the Commonwealth of Learning Healthy Communities Partners' workshop hosted by the Media Training Centre for Health in Cape Town from the 12th to 17th September, 2011. He shares through this video produced by Cameroon Link some experiences of case studies on the use of mobile applications, their strengths and weaknesses and how to use them most appropriately. He also mapped out a tool kit module which assists users to reach many people within communities at a time

Joke van Kampen on Story Design
From: camlink99 | Sep 29, 2011
This video shows an excerpt of the presentation by Joke van Kampen of Malawi Story workshop during the COL Healthy Community seminar organised at MTC Cape Town, South Africa from the 12th - 17th September, 2011. Joke emphasized that to master the issue and programme matrix, you have to go through all the steps yourself. This video was made by Cameroon Link for sharing.

Ian Pringle Presents CLP In Cape Town
From: camlink99 | Sep 28, 2011
During the COL Healthy Community Partners Workshop organised from the 12th - 18th September 2011 at the Media training Centre for Health in Cape Town, Ian Pringle, COL's Media Education Specialist and the key facilitator traced the path of Community Open Distance Learning and the policy of the Commonwealth of Learning. Cameroon Link was there and made this video for sharing. For more on the issue treated in this video, visit the COL web site at - http://www.col.org



Charles Simbi on the Bag of Life Programming in Malawi
From: camlink99 | Sep 26, 2011
Charles Simbi is one of the expert trainers of the Story Workshop Organisation in Malawi. Charles and Gladson facilitated the story design workshop which led to programming on mother and child health care on Lebialem Community Radio in Menji, in the south west region of Cameroon. The organisation of the COL Healthy Communities Partners workshop in Cape Town created room for a second come together for sharing of experiences on the impact of story design programmes on community radio stations in Africa. In this video, Charles Simbi shares the experience of the impact following broadcast of the "Bag of Life Programme" in Malawi. He emphasizes on the issue of the programme matrix to dig deep into the heart of issues facing any community, because this highlights shared responsibility in finding solutions to problems. For more on story design programming in Lebialem Community Radio, visit the web site at - http://cameroonlink.info or http://www.col.org

Blythe Mckay on M & E
From: camlink99 | Sep 23, 2011
Blythe Mckay is the Farm Radio International (FRI) Program and partnership manager. Farm Radio International is a Canadian-based, not-for-profit organisation working in direct partnership with over 325 radio broadcasters in 39 African countries to fight poverty and food insecurity. It is a strategic partner of Commonwealth of Learning and its mission is to support broadcasters in developing countries to strengthen smallholder farmers in rural communities. It was established over 30 years ago in response to the fact that farm radio broadcasters in the global south did not, for the most part, serve small-scale farmers.
Rather, they were geared toward large-scale commercial farmers - an audience with very different needs from the largely subsistence farmers that make up the large majority of the populations of these regions.
By producing and sharing radio scripts, a weekly news and information service, and other valuable resources with radio broadcasters, Farm Radio International is improving the relevance and quality and increases the quantity of farm radio programming of partner stations that, collectively, serve over 220 Million scale-scale farmers in Africa.
Blythe Mckay was invited to Cape Town, South Africa by the Commonwealth of Learning to share the FRI experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of its work with the African broadcasters during a COL Healthy Communities Partners workshop from 10th - 17th September 2011. FRI is serving over 51 community radio stations in Cameroon and this video was made for sharing by Cameroon Link. Cameroon Link is playing the role of FRI Focal Point in Cameroon. To get more about the work of Farm Radio International and Commonwealth of Learning, visit the following web sites - http://www.farmradio.org, http://www.col.org, http://cameroonlink.info

COL Healthy Communities Partners Workshop In Cape Town

23 participants drawn from 14 Commonwealth countries ended a workshop on the expansion of healthy communities in their various countries and organizations within the action plan designed from 2012 - 2015. The countries invited were South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Bangladesh, India, Jamaica, Fiji, Solomon islands, Canada, United Kingdom and Namibia.
The Director of Media Training Centre for Health, Gail White at the opening of deliberations told participants that it was an honour for her organization to receive and host people from all regions of the world in beautiful and historic Cape Town, South Africa. She wished that the exchanges of experiences were going to assist in the expansion of the work of the various organizations in their countries.
The workshop ran from the 11th – 17th September, 2011 was stimulating and productive because a remarkable group of people and organizations, new and existing COL partners, groups focused on media, health/development and resource people in areas from research to mobile contributed in various ways in sharing their work and experiences.
Ian Pringle, the key facilitator and COL Media Education Specialist focused on the use of media for non-formal education about health and development, specifically community learning programmes that are local, collaborative and participatory. The use of radio along with face-to-face methods and increasingly mobiles was very resourceful means of developing Community Learning Programme agenda for amelioration of livelihoods
From 2009 – 2012, knowledge sharing has been focused on seminars on educational media, community learning programmes, connecting with the COL newsletter and web site. In capacity building, over 700 individuals were engaged in training, of which 40 per cent were women. There has been increased use of community Open Distance Learning by 48 community groups in 10 nations at regional and national levels.
Community Learning Programmes (CLP) has been realized in Belize, Jamaica, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Solomon Island. These programmes have been produced locally blended and multichannel, collaborative, participatory, story-based and low cost effective.
Community Radio Programmes are beginning to have wide coverage, consistent message, creative, engaging with delivery through one-way and one to many people options, while the face-t-face approach is two ways, collective, links to mobilization and has limited scale.
With the introduction of mobile technologies, the programmes are more interactive, one-to- many, one-to-one, wherever and whenever they are realized. The participants before departure from Cape Town agreed that community various groups have to be involved in programming that include Community networks, experts, policy makers and media.
Elements of participation are feedback, action, discussion, content and decision making. It all starts with making decisions on the programme. Grassroots networks are supportive through story and experiences-based strategy. This means getting to use smart people, because smart people learn from experience and smarter people learn from other people’s experience, Ian Pringle observed.
He emphasized on the fact, that it is low cost when we have dedicated people involved in the programme, field based recording, collaborative management, inputs to community media outlets and promotions. The revenue resources should be varied for sustainability.
Addressing COL’s 2012 – 2015 Healthy Communities initiatives and a proposed framework, Ian Pringle shared with the partners an insight, which they built on during the week. Teams of small group work were established to reflect on the necessary additions for consolidating the action plan. Ekta Mittal of Maraa, India and Blythe Mckay of Farm Radio International Canada talked about developing capacity building materials, an Online CLP toolkit and Distance training course on educational programme development were presented.
The framework and template of the online toolkit were shared based on team assignments, while the framework of the Farm Radio international distance course to be developed over a week in 2012 was presented by Blythe Mckay.
This was followed by a workshop stream on learning the CLP model step by step by Ian Pringle and Joke van Kampen of the Story workshop in Malawi. The main outcomes were the awareness and skills developed in key CLP tools and processes through hands-on use of methods and brainstorming on different steps in the programme development process and new ideas and initiatives were proposed for the different CLPs by each team.
There field trips to Atlantis Radio, Wine Testing Vine Yard region of southern Cape and historic Rubben Island just to name a few tourism and learning attractions. At Atlantis Radio, Commonwealth of Learning Partners were shown how local community radio stations in South Africa operate, how issues are chosen for discussion during programming and the relevance of listeners’ clubs.
To live the realities of the Commonwealth of Learning Healthy Communities Partners’ stay in Cape Town, South Africa, please visit web page at – http://uk.youtube.com/camlink99