Chanukah was a project by MFA to increase awareness and access of information to girls in Nairobi slum areas. This project used a combination of radio, outreach, and social networking tools, to organize relevant information and make it more accessible to girls. “Chanukah” is Nairobi street lingo for empowerment.
The radio programs are available online. Listen here.
‘’It’s Your Vote, Your Voice” Voter Mobilization Campaign: Together with Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) and supported by Deepening Democrary Programme (DDP), MFA implemented a national media campaign on voter mobilization and sensitization across Uganda, ahead of the country’s 2011 general elections. The project covered two phases of the electoral cycle –Voter Registration and Voter display period. MFA developed messaging during the voter registration period, as well as the voter display campaign periods.
MFA also organised training sessions for talk show hosts, media practitioners and CCEDU members and staff on media skills and influencing the media agenda setting. The media skills trainings were conducted by a team of Channel 4 media trainers and in specific targeting spokespersons of CCEDU member organisations (in specific Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP) who were likely to engage with the media in
the months prior to the elections.
In response to the post-election violence in Kenya in December 2007, Search for Common Ground (SFCG) and Media Focus on Africa (MFA) developed and produced a TV and radio drama, The Team – an episodic series which asks a central question: can Kenyans find ways to put the past behind them in order to have a better future?
It aired on Citizen Television and KBC and ranked in the country’s top-ten. An average of 2,775,000 viewers watched the show every week. The Team received an award for Best Film in the ‘Human Security’ category on the ‘We the People’ Film Festival in London.
The series presents a microcosm of Kenyan society in which members of a fictional football team, who come from different ethnic groups and social classes, are challenged to overcome their fears and biases so that they can see one another as individuals not as members of “the other.” The central metaphor for the players – and for Kenya – is: If they do not cooperate, they will not score goals, and they will lose. The series sends a strong message that the sins of the past cannot be rectified by retributive violence today.
Season 1: WATCH
Season 2: WATCH
Season 3: WATCH
Apart from the series , a large outreach program was organised in places most affected by the PEV, a DVD with viewer guide, a theme song, and a website were created.
Violence against children in schools affects approximately one million children worldwide every day. Girls are especially vulnerable to rape, exploitation, coercion and discrimination. In October 2008, Plan International launched a global campaign to eliminate violence against children in schools, called Learn Without Fear. As of August 2010, the campaign was operating in 44 countries worldwide. MFA implemented Learn without Fear in cooperation with Plan Kenya
Key anti-violence campaign messages were created to reach millions of adults and children through radio and television shows, leaflets, training sessions and workshops. MFA helped in creating these messages including production of a short documentary film.
Children were involved in all aspects of the campaign. In working with schools, local communities and national governments across the world, the Learn Without Fear campaign demonstrated that stopping violence against children in schools – by engaging and educating those who are able to prevent violence from ever taking place – is possible.
Find the campaign progress report here, showing its successes and more.
MFA produced a television talk show on Citizen TV titled ‘Fist to Five for Change’ in response to the PEV and the National Accord that led to the secession of violence in 2008. 19 TV shows of “Fist to Five for Change” were aired reaching more than 2 million people per episode. The television shows were supported by 48 Mobile Cinema screenings in locations mostly affected by the violence and combined with 48 workshops in the same locations which brought together community leaders, police, civil society as well as victims and perpetrators to engage in dialogues sessions with a similar structure/process as the talk shows. The locations were Mathare and Kibera in Nairobi, Naivasha, Nakuru and Eldoret in the Rift Valley Province, Mumias and Kisumu in Western Kenya and Mombasa at the coast.
Participants shared their experiences during the PEV while discussing the root causes of the post election conflict in an effort to find a way forward. During the talk show and the community dialogues sessions, it was emphasized that political reforms were key to solving deep seated root causes of ethnic mistrust and violence.
Building Bridges was a peace campaign and award to encourage and map peace initiatives in Kenya. The campaign’s aim was to recognise and reward peacemakers and peace projects across Kenya as a way of strengthening the peace-building capacity of Kenyan citizens. Building Bridges aimed to stimulate peace initiatives, which contribute to preventing or overcoming conflict within or between communities e.g. villages, neighbourhoods, faith groups, families, and businesses. Conflicts could be related to land issues, ethnicity, and corruption amongst others issues.
Building Bridges aimed to motivate individuals to take action and register their peace initiative, activities or organization on the Building Bridges website.
Multi-Media Strategy supporting Free and Fair Elections. With the support of the UNDP Elections Assistance Programme and development partners MFA conducted a ‘harmonised and issue-based’ media campaign with specific focus on the 2007 General Election in Kenya between September 19th and December 22nd of 2007.
The aim of this media campaign was to convey objective, unbiased and impartial information via the media on selected and thoroughly researched electoral topics, thus supporting the realisation of increased voter turnout and ‘free and fair elections’.
The campaign promoted the election agenda and gave the public an opportunity to express their views on topical issues that were relevant during this election year such as: equitable allocation of resources; unemployment; ethnicity; security and human rights. Target groups: the population in both urban and rural areas with special focus on the youth, woman and people with disabilities.
Objectives:
The media strategy complimented the efforts of several media houses coverage of the elections and civil society organizations that conducted civic education through formal and informal meetings countrywide by providing a forum for discourse in a manner that reinforces these efforts. The strategy was firmly issue based and therefore – implicitly – worked as a civic education program promoting responsible citizen participation in the electoral process.
Thematic issues included: The role of the youth in politics; Women in electoral politics; Enacting a new constitution; Political parties and their respective manifestos; Poverty and inequality and Unemployment; Ethnicity, incitement and hate speeches by the political aspirants; Public service delivery; Resource allocation and the issues around devolved funds; Political accountability; Election Act and Election malpractices; Political campaign financing; Performance of the ECK; Role of the Executive (Provincial administration/Office of the president and Insecurity.
Together with European Parliamentarians in Africa (AWEPA), MFA organised six national workshops on ‘Media and Politics’ to promote greater access to information with regard to parliamentary procedures, debates and coverage and to improve mutual understanding and respect between the media and parliamentarians through sustained dialogue. The workshops took place in Tanzania, Uganda, RC, DR Congo, and Kenya.
The Workshops were a follow up to the African News Media Conference held in Nairobi in August 2006. The African News Media Conference organised by Awepa, the Nation Media Group Kenya and the United Nations – affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE), examined the challenges facing Africa’s news media – as a watchdog and educator, while promoting transparent governance, preventing conflict and building peace. The final document of the Conference listed a number of recommendations, which can be summarised as follows:
The objectives of the regional workshops organized by MFA were:
Vioja Mahakamani is Swahili for Drama in the Courtroom. This show is played out in a courtroom complete with witnesses, a magistrate, the prosecution and the accused. This courtroom drama provides social commentary on the Kenyan social and criminal system and puts the realities of Kenyan culture on trial. Vioja Mahakamani is an avenue through which many Kenyans learn about their rights, their entitlements and the rule of law in Kenya.
This Project is part of the “Election Media Strategy” that incorporates many projects and activities. HERE.
Vitimbi is a KBC TV sitcom played out around the family of Mr. Ojwang Hatari and his wife Mama Kayai (mother-of-Kayai) and focuses on the challenges they face as a family. This show has been on air for more than three decades in Kenya, has elevated the use of cultural collision and ethnic accents to captivate viewers. As a result of its huge following, the show explores serious issues which are presented in a more humorous manner and deals with issues such as intermarriages, tribalism and ethnicity, girl-child education and women in leadership. MFA produced 4 thematic episodes focusing on elections.
This Project is part of the “Election Media Strategy” that incorporates many projects and activities. Visit Here.
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