The Middle, The End, The Beginning

Sheila Chimphamba of Zodiak Broadcasting Services talks about her award for Best Farm Radio Program. Best Farm Radio Award is in recognition of the role that agriculture broadcasters play in improving the lives of smallholder farmers; realization of the need to uplift and motivate agricultural broadcasters and raising the standards and profile of farm radio programming in Malawi as a key driver in agriculture extension and advisory services. The award is given to a broadcaster who has produced a farm program that is relevant to the specific needs of farmers that meet specific VOICE standards developed by Farm Radio International. In the end of this clip is Rex Chapota, ED-Farm Radio Trust

Mental health communication strategy for youth: A radio based awareness raising campaign plus youth clubs and school integration plus capacity building of primary health care providers will lead to improved identification and treatment for youth.

The debate on ICT for agriculture is no longer about 'if' they can work for agricultural extension and advisory services but 'how' they can be integrated to ensure inclusivity of even the poorest of the poor. Countless development projects have tested the use of radio, mobile phones and even the internet in disseminating and facilitating the flow of agricultural information with varying degrees of success. The major observation that is common amongst these projects is that the choice of ICTs that could actually work for a specific audience is directly linked to socio-economic factors such as literacy, asset ownership, access to infrastructure such as mobile networks, and even age. The most common ICT that works for Malawi in as far as agricultural advisory services are concerned is radio. Radios are found to be owned by approximately 65% of the population. This wide radio ownership presents a great opportunity to a country that has a greatly strained extension force...

FRT Thembi Thadzi addressing the youth during the function Chinsapo Secondary School, one of the school working with Farm Radio Trust on a project Mental Health Integrated Innovations in Malawi which is aimed at addressing issues of mental health and depression among the youth, on Saturday June 07 made a major mental health awareness open day that attracted over two hundred in school and out of school youth within Lilongwe city. The aim was to raise awareness about mental health among the youth, focusing on promoting positive mental health and wellness in schools, enhance the communication between students in school and their teachers and parents at home. The function was part of a farewell ceremony with Form Four students at the school who have been part of the Mental Health club at the school. "It’s important to provide a resource specific to those that continue to make the move at their final years of secondary education as they will be moving over to colleges/universi...

Podcasting is a form of distributing audio files over the Internet, allowing users to access them by subscribing and downloading them. I am involved in radio broadcasting and have always been thinking about how to share my programs with followers out there. The facebook fun page for our program known as NkhawaNjee Yonse Bo which means no depression all is well has 10000 plus likes, but not all of these listen to our popular program on the local station. After going through the IMAC resources during the CTA-Web2fordev training in Malawi, now I have found a way of sharing our program with our on line followers. Through this I have learnt that in podcasting, anyone with internet access can create their own content, and people have more choices of types of content they can get. From this time on, am a Podcaster.

“Young people with mental disorders, of which Depression is the most common, face substantial barriers in receiving the support they require or the health care they need. There is increasing knowledge about and awareness of the need for governments, institutions and organizations to address this issue.  “In view of this growing threat to young people, Farm Radio Trust, and Farm Radio International (FRI) have teamed up with Dr. Stanley Kutcher in Halifax, Canada; the Guidance, Counselling and Youth Development Center in Africa (GCYDCA) in Lilongwe, Malawi to address the problem of depression among young people.  One of the approaches in place is the use of radio drama to characterise different situations and kinds of depression. Radio soap opera is a popular format among youth in Malawi, and has been used as an entertaining and educative format for behavior change communication.  Through a weekly radio program, teenagers are asked to give their feedback on t...

I Have found the Voice This  isn't  only about learning to say in all frankness , it's about being able to command attention of a room full of people willing to read, learn and stay informed, and talking to trainees without (at least in that moment) worrying about whether they will still like you. But it's also being able to talk with friends and mentors out there as an equal and feeling confident in taking part in larger discussions about training people who really matter in your projects, and all the various other decisions that come up over a year in your work. I also Admire people There several things I like, and many people I admire, from our own state president, to the president of the USA. I like talking, yes, speaking to the public. Overall, I feel lucky to be in this particular phase. It’s a place I fit well and feel supported. I feel lucky to have met really great people and have a  bona fide  social life and growing support network here. I’m...