Women Making Airwaves for Peace - Mysore, India

Details

A cross cultural seminar on women's participation in climate change adaptation, disaster mitigation and peace building through community radio

by Bianca Miglioretto, Isis International

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Thirty women community radio broadcasters from nine countries from mainly South and Central Asia have gathered in Mysore, Karnataka, India to participate in the 6-day Women Making Airwaves for Peace (WMAP) seminar from February 13 – 18 2010. Women Making Airwaves for Peace is composed of experience sharing, skills sharing and radio productions. The participants are resource persons, trainers, trainees and radio journalists at the same time.

The themes shared include among others:

  • Community Radio and Climate Change Adaptation
  • Engendered Disaster Mitigation
  • Engendered Peace Journalism
  • Feminist Broadcasting
  • Gender Equality Policy for Community Radio
  • Digital Editing
  • Interview techniques
  • Radio Feature Production
  • Radio Drama
“After a young girl from an ethnic minority started to do radio programmes at Radio Purbanchal the people of her community started idolising her and to date bring her fruits and other gifts,“ explained Kamala Kadel from the first women's radio in Nepal. “Radiomost builds a bridge between the government and the villagers,“ Nazira Djuzupova from Kyrgystan.

Among the topics presented by the participants of WMAP were:wmap3b

  • Women Community Radio Journalists in post conflict Nepal
  • The Response of Tribal women to Climate Change in North East India
  • Radio Sahar's Role in Women's Empowerment in Herat, Afghanistan
  • Integrating Women Citizen Journalists in radio programming
"This seminar was an excellent exposure to community radio. I got energized to do more live broadcasts." said Preeti Candrasekar from India. For Shahla Saiq from Afghanistan the seminar "... was a women friendly environment where we learned a lot, such as interview techniques.“ For Parul Gupta from India “It was also a space to interact and communicate with other non-english speaking participants"

The radio programmes produced during the seminar consisted of a variety of creative radio formats such as radio features, story telling, radio drama, studio discussion ande feature the experiences of women broadcasters from Afghanistan, Fiji, India, Kyrgystan, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka.

This was the third WMAP project organised by Isis International. While the pilot project took place in the Philippines the second and third WMAP seminar were organised in collaboration with AMARC-WIN Asia Pacific. The local host organisation for this seminar was IT for Change in Mysore.

More information about WMAP including the broadcasts will soon be available on the Isis International website. Tune in to Women Making Airwaves for Peace on www.isisinternational.org !!!

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Mysore India, 19 February 2010

 

Radio Programmes

  • Hina Radio Cafe
    A production of Women Making Airwaves for Peace Seminar 3 held in Mysore, India from 13-18th Feb, 2010. The seminar saw a group of thirty women from different regions Asia Pacific getting together for skills and experience sharing. The women worked in smaller groups of up to ten people to produce three programs based on issues faced by women in the region.
    Focuses on land mines in war stricken countries of Asia
  • Gaea Radio Cafe
    • A production of Women Making Airwaves for Peace Seminar 3 held in Mysore, India from 13-18th Feb, 2010. The seminar saw a group of thirty women from different regions Asia Pacific getting together for skills and experience sharing. The women worked in smaller groups of upto ten people to produce three programs based on issues faced by women in the region.
    Radio Gaea brings you stories of women from different part of the world and communicating overcoming the barriers of languages.
  • Kuan-Yin Radio Cafe
    • A production of Women Making Airwaves for Peace Seminar 3 held in Mysore, India from 13-18th Feb, 2010. The seminar saw a group of thirty women from different regions Asia Pacific getting together for skills and experience sharing. The women worked in smaller groups of upto ten people to produce three programs based on issues faced by women in the region.
    Kuan Yin Cafe is an interview series with various women journalists and activists at forefront of peace building initiatives in their countries.

Other links

See also Photo Gallery and AMARC Asia Pacific.

WMAP 2 (October 16-20, 2009) Manila, Philippines

WMAP Pilot Project and Training Materials