Youth Radio in Malawi

Training and production
Produced for youth by youth, the radio programmes are intended to support Malawi's National Youth-Friendly Health [YFH] Services Strategy, which was launched in 2015 to promote YFH services for young people ages ten to 25. Half of Malawi's 19 million citizens are 16 or younger, and 1 in 5 women begin childbearing while still in their teens. The initiative, therefore, gives priority to ensuring that young people complete their education, delay their sexual debut and first birth, and reduce HIV transmission.

Teams of up to 15 young journalists have been trained at each of the 9 community radio stations. They are between the ages of 13 and 19 and are chosen based on essays they submitted explaining why they would like to become journalists. The training conducted by DRP involves basic broadcasting and journalism skills, such as interviewing, editing, and fact-checking, and how to use these skills to advocate for more accessible and higher-quality YFH services. The journalists are also trained in creative personal storytelling, as behaviour change is more likely to occur when peers talk to other peers.

Training also includes how to use digital editing software, a desktop computer, and digital recorders. As part of their training, youth are sent on a field trip where they conduct real interviews. The trainer, who trains in the local language, observes the youth and makes suggestions and then helps them produce a story for the weekly radio magazine programme. Staff at the radio stations are also trained on supportive supervision and adolescent development so they can act as effective mentors to the youth following their initial training.

DRP also provides training on doing follow-up stories, as they have learned that this helps with the collection of measurable impact. For instance, in October 2020 and continuing through December 2020, the stations began doing stories within their weekly programme on what gender-based violence (GBV) is and where and how to report it. During a follow-up session, one of the partner stations, Nkhotakota Community Radio, received data from the district police showing an increase in the number of reported GBV cases across the entire district.

Radio programming
All stations are equipped with recorders and a desktop computer for the youth to use, and youth are given a small stipend for transportation and other expenses incurred to produce the programmes. The teams of reporters at each of the nine community-based radio stations are also provided with weekly tip sheets or bulletins that provide detailed information on a different youth-related health topic to help them develop programme themes and report stories accurately. The radio magazine programmes cover issues of concern to youth, including the need for parents to talk to their children about sex, the importance of girls staying in school, the issue of early marriage and harmful cultural practices, sexual harassment by teachers, and where young people can access counselling on family planning or treatment for sexually transmitted infections. To ensure the information is accurate and to prevent myths and misinformation from spreading, the programmes almost always have a local or district health or education expert on the show. The young reporters also produce PSAs that are broadcast daily, which have contained messages for girls about the right to say no to sex and to demand that their partners use a condom.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, youth reporters have also produced shows on the impact of COVID-19 on rural communities in Malawi. One impact is the exponential rise of teenage pregnancies, child marriage, and sexual violence. The youth reporters have focused on tackling these once-taboo topics head-on and have made a difference in many communities. In one case, in July 2020, Mudzi Wathu youth reporters interviewed a traditional authority about the increase in child marriages, and he immediately called all his village heads together and told them to do more to stop child marriages. District reports show that a number of marriages were dissolved, and DRP believes that at least some of those are the result of youth reporters' efforts to hold traditional authorities accountable for child marriage.

Radio listening clubs (RLCs)
In addition to training youth reporters, DRP has helped each radio station set up radio listening clubs (RLCs). There are 2 RLCs at each station, one of which is all-boys, and the other is all-girls (this is due to the fact that boys and girls feel more comfortable talking about sexual health issues within same-sex groups). There are about ten youth in each club. The clubs meet weekly to listen to the radio programmes, discuss the issues raised, provide feedback to the programme producers, and suggest future topics. The RLC members also do outreach in their communities - going door-to-door to talk about the importance of using YFH centres to access reproductive health services and, more recently, talking about COVID-19 prevention.

The RLCs have also spawned other, informal youth clubs around each of the nine radio stations. These groups focus on encouraging young people to visit YFH centres and have also, together with the RLC, been very active in letting authorities know about early marriages within their villages. Generally, members of the RLCs, some of whom are also helping to produce the weekly programmes, are making a significant difference in their communities. For example, one young person created and hung posters about YFH services in his school and around the community; a girls' listening club organised a rally and dance performance that attracted 2,000 young people; and a boys club is working with other youth clubs in the community to share information about YFH services at their local hospital and clinic. Also driven by the clubs, some teachers have added discussions around YFH services to their life skills classes.

Community involvement
Once a month, staff at the radio stations work with student reporters and RLCs to organise community gatherings of about 150-500 people from the local area, including tribal leaders, teachers, religious leaders, health officers, and parents. During these meetings, community members hear from district health officers, local members of parliament, and others about YFH services, and attendees discuss the issues brought up in the youth radio programmes. Occasionally, radio stations will do live broadcasts of these group discussions, or, alternatively, student reporters interview people at these gatherings on the topics being discussed to use in future radio programmes.

Since the start of the project, the nine stations have produced approximately 1,300 radio programmes and hundreds of PSAs and conducted dozens of community events.

Youth, Reproductive Health, Rights

Impact:
Here are a few examples of the impact the radio programmes have reportedly had on the reproductive health and futures of young people in the communities they serve:

• Following a radio programme that reported on the fact that 20 girls had dropped out of three local schools because of inappropriate sexual comments from teachers (some of the girls as well as school principals were interviewed), all 20 girls returned to school, and principals pledged to take all future complaints seriously. Youth reporters are also advocating for district education offices to make sure legitimate complaints become part of a teacher's permanent record - thus affecting their future employment.
• In Nkhotakota, Mchinji, and Monkey Bay districts, after eight months, 60% of youth and parents surveyed had heard of the government's YFH services policy, compared to none previously.
• At Monkey Bay Community Hospital, in the area where Dwimze Radio broadcasts, 228 youth sought condoms at the facility over a five-month period, whereas previously, none had sought them at the facility; youth seeking other family planning information and services rose from 33 to 191; and the number of young people receiving HIV testing and counselling services rose from 61 to 478.
• At the district hospital in Nkhotakota, over a five-month period, three times as many youth received condoms by the end of the period, and HIV counselling and testing services provided increased from 18 to 398.
• At the Mchinji district hospital, condom distribution nearly tripled over a nine-month period, from 428 to 1,273, and youth inquiries about services rose from 106 to 509.
• In the town of Nkhata Bay, a facility expanded its hours to accommodate students after hearing young people complain about the inconvenient clinic hours on Chirundu Community Radio.
• In Nkhotakota, five village chiefs put in place bylaws that penalise parents whose children marry before the legal age of 18. Religious leaders in the district are regularly speaking to their congregations about the need for parents to talk with their children about sex.