This child-participatory project, which began in January 2005, enables young children in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to use the power of radio and storytelling to describe and explore their lives and circumstances for a South African and – via the Internet – global audience.

The project is designed to enable children to learn useful life-skills as well as to contribute to broader public awareness of issues facing South African children in the context of poverty and the HIV epidemic.

To date, 30 children have been involved. They have named themselves Abaqophi basOkhayeni Abaqinile – the Strong Recorders from Okhayeni.

Children aged between nine and 16 years old are facilitated in ongoing child-participatory processes that take place once a week after school and during school holidays. Through a carefully constructed foundation phase, followed by radio skills training workshops, children acquire the means to talk about their lives, to understand the process of making radio, how to conduct interviews, how to operate digital recording equipment and how to structure a radio programme.

The result is the production of personal radio-diary programmes, as well as programmes which document and explore local issues of their choice.

Programmes are aired by the project’s broadcast partner, Maputaland Community Radio, as well as by other interested radio stations. In addition, a pilot project has been initiated to explore the use of the completed children’s radio programmes as the materials for local life-skills club activities.

Programmes are available for public non-profit use, provided the source and copyright is acknowledged. Programmes may not be edited. Read the guidelines for media use of the children’s programmes here.

The project is a collaboration between the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, Zisize Educational Trust and Okhayeni Primary School in Ingwavuma, and from the beginning of 2008, the Radio Workshop.