UNESCO calls local radio scribes to uplift voices for the voiceless

Community media practitioners have been called to use their professions to uplift voices of underprivileged or those sidelined within development sphere for them to be at par with the rest.

Mr. Tirso Dos Santos, UNESCO Head of Office and Representative made the call in Zanzibar on July 15, 2019 while officiating a workshop to enhance capacities of local radios journalists in preparing gender sensitive and cultural appropriate radio programmes and news bulletins.

He said community radios journalists play a very important role in helping women to be at par with their male counterpart.

“The way you communicate might enforce their position depending on the quality of the information that you provide often as news for their development and contribution, “said Mr. Dos Santos.

Apart from officiating the workshop, Mr. Dos Santos, and the Project Coordinator with the SDC Project as well as a team from the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) will conduct a monitoring visit to Mtegani and Tumbatu community radios in the Zanzibar Archipelago.

In Tanzania, UNESCO through funding from SDC supports 25 community radios and the community media network – TADIO.

The support is meant to ensure that people in Tanzania, especially the poor, women and girls, have the capacity to make informed decisions on issues that affect their daily lives based on access to relevant, culturally appropriate, gender responsive accurate information and knowledge.