Media Matters for Women - Sierra Leone
Digitally Connecting Rural Women and Girls
Rural women and girls in Sierra Leone lack information about their rights and
possibilities, resulting in the world’s highest rates of maternal post-partum complications
and mortality, teenage pregnancy, female genital mutilation, and gender-based violence.
Media Matters for Women in Sierra Leone (MMW-SL) has an innovative pilot
project underway, funded by the Oak Foundation of Switzerland, which is building
an effective and reliable women’s communication network using only consumer
electronics and solar rechargers.
We are at the forefront of testing Bluetooth for innovative uses in connecting women and
girls. Bluetooth exchanges of audio files are a growing phenomenon, especially among
young people. Bluetooth is standard on even the most basic cell phones now, and it is free
to use. The sound quality of audio files transferred via Bluetooth is excellent.
Our journalists are presently using Bluetooth to transfer a ten-minute audio file every
week with original, women-oriented programming to each of the fifteen Listening Centres
we have established in the region. Their audio files can be played repeatedly using solar
speakers and solar rechargers at the Listening Centres, and the files are also shared
between listeners via Bluetooth.
This means that our journalists are creating original programming on women’s issues in
multi-languages that can reach the most impovershed communities on a weekly basis and
at a very low cost. We envision a very large horizontally structured peer-to-peer system
of content distribution.
Our MMW-SL Team (left to right): Project Coordinator Victoria Nicol and
Journalists Alinah Kallon, Ndeamoh Mansaray, and Victoria Bernard
We had 4,195 listener-visits in our first 90 days of broadcasting. Our strategy to locate our
Listening Centers in Sierra Leone’s hospitals, health care clinics, schools and youth
centers has indeed proven effective in attracting large numbers of listeners. Of our
15 Listening Centers in our pilot project, the most successful is a youth drop-in center in
Makeni with an average of 750 listener-visits a week. Some of the weekly topics covered
so far have been: Teenage Marriage, Wife Abandonment, Agriculture and Business, the
Importance of Education for Girls, HIV and AIDS, and Corruption in Schools.
Our MMW-SL staff are paid to work part-time on our pilot project, about 20 hours a
week. Our journalists have the possibility to earn extra income using their Mobile
Production Unit (MPU) provided to them through the project. The MPU is a portable set
of durable digital equipment for creating professional radio-styled programming which is
solar-powered.
Our MMW-SL information network encourages the dispersal of more democratic and
people-centered media content, enables a path for culturally sensitive women’s issues to
emerge, and offers livelihoods and professional training to female freelance journalists
who would otherwise not have such opportunities.
In addition to providing our listeners with weekly information on human rights, health,
participatory democracy and income generation, we place Zoom H1 digital recorders at
all our Listening Centers which serves to create an effective feedback loop. After women
and girls listen to our original programming they are encouraged to express their views
and suggest other topics to their journalist. For many, this offers an unprecedented chance
to create positive change in their communities, and to participate in the development of
the political and cultural vision of their country.
Our MMW-SL concept is sustainable because our equipment costs are low and incomegenerating activities are built into the network. Our journalists grow their own audiences
and showcase their skills as freelance reporters. Our Listening Centers benefit from
increased customer visits. Most importantly, our on-going operational costs are
commensurate with local price and wage rates.
MMW-SL is partnered with a small U.S.-based Section 501(c)3 NGO called Media
Matters for Women (MMW). It is our belief that this innovative public service radio
network can be key to peace and reform in Sierra Leone. We adapted cellphones, solar
energy and Bluetooth technology to prove that the production and transmission of highquality, radio-styled programming can meet the information needs of women and girls at
a very low cost and without electricity, generators, or the Internet.
Summary:
Media Matters for Women (MMW) digitally connects Sierra Leonean women and girls so
they can share information, learn from each other, entertain each other, hear crucial
health messages, give feedback, and join in a network that begins in their village and
extends across their country. We broaden and deepen the conversation among women and
girls in Sierra Leone and make their voices heard.
Metatags:
Women, Media, Sierra Leone, Mobile phones, Solar rechargers, Innovation, Journalist
support, Community-based networks, Listening Centres, Leapfrog FM radio technology.
Website:
www.mediamattersforwomen.org
Programs: https://soundcloud.com/mediamattersforwomen
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKt8AbCWtQ
Email:
mediamattersforwomen@gmail.com