National Children's Radio Seminar

The purpose of the seminar, which used face-to-face exchanges, was to engage children in a participatory process to create a series of magazine-style radio programmes produced by and for young people. Organisers say that participants - representatives from community radio stations, as well as UNICEF/ Radio Mozambique's Child-to-Child radio programmes - gained knowledge in interviewing, creating spots, putting together reportage, and developing radio dramas.

During the course of the forum, children learned about their rights and responsibilities, as well as various production techniques. The priorities for what rights to address came from the children themselves, and they decided if/how the adults should help along the way. In the end, they produced three 15-minute magazine-style programmes that explored the rights to education and health without corruption, and the right to have safe places to play.

One of the project organisers, Community Media for Development (CMFD), provided two on-site recording and production facilities, which enabled the children to listen to a rough production of the magazine at the end of the seminar. The 3-part radio programme was distributed free of charge to stations across Mozambique in March 2005, along with resources that were designed to inspire producers to develop children's programming.

Children, Rights.