COL'S MEDIA EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME (COLME)
Building community and human capacity and contributing to poverty alleviation includes raising awareness of current community and cultural events, news and health information. Mass media is a powerful tool that can be used to inform and educate those who would otherwise remain unaware of issues that directly affect them. Until now, such capacity has been too expensive for people living in rural conditions throughout much of the developing world. COL's Media Empowerment programme, however, is demonstrating how communities can benefit from low-cost media applications.
The programme has developed media models that stress both local participation and transfer of knowledge and skills. I t has also created a core of skilled personnel that COL and other development organisations can draw upon for in-country training, and it has provided opportunities for disadvantaged groups to participate and benefit from new technology and media-based initiatives. The main areas of focus have been on gender and HIV/AIDS (The Gambia, South Africa), teacher education (Cameroon, India, Nigeria), agriculture (Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis) forestry/environment (Trinidad & Tobago), vocational skills development (Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa) and empowering rural communities to address gender, poverty alleviation, and food security (Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda).
Examples include:
. Community radio - Papua New Guinea: In partnership with the PNG Ministry of Education, COL has established a solar-powered community radio station in Mountain Brown, a remote village high up in the mountains in a largely inaccessible region of Papua New Guinea. The community-run radio station broadcasts national and local news, development information, community education and topical issues to 2000 citizens living in 10 neighbouring villages. For the very first time, these people are being exposed to mass media production facilities that enable them to communicate among themselves in their own language. Models such as this throughout the Commonwealth demonstrate to policy-makers within government and international donors how local communities can empower themselves through radio.
The PNG Ministry of Education views this initiative as especially appropriate in their country, which is home to roughly one-fifth of the world's languages. An initiative examining the feasibility of replicating the programme throughout the country is being discussed with the Government of Australia.
. Addressing agricultural training through media models in the Caribbean: The activities in the Caribbean have addressed agribusiness opportunities and environmental sustainability issues by employing mass media delivery of training and information from scientist to extension officer to farmer. Countries and key players within each ministry were selected in consultation with the regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This focus in agribusiness opportunities and environment has been to aid governments in the region in their efforts to move towards crop diversification among farmers who have been sidelined by mass-produced food products from developed countries. COL has added value to agricultural/environmental training by employing distance education methods to reach farmers using locally produced digital video and audio productions distributed via radio, television, workshops and field days. Agricultural officers who have been taught camera and video editing skills are able to record and train farmers on new techniques and issues that consider the climatic, soil and growing conditions of the specific region.
