BBC Media Action Feed

With Her: breaking barriers to education for girls in South Sudan

2018-10-11T09:41:26+00:00

On International Day of the Girl, find out how a radio programme helped a schoolgirl in South Sudan avoid early marriage and return to school by changing the attitude of her grandfather.

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan has increased dangers for girls attending school in recent years and social norms play a significant role in the prevalence for boys over girls to attend (and remain) in education. Girls are usually expected to be responsible for the household chores, which affects their time for studying when they are at school, and early marriage is commonplace.

Mary was 16 when she dropped out of school to get married.

Mary’s grandfather, Giban Koka, is 80 years old, an elder and chief of his community. After listening to radio programme Our School in a group in Kenyangoyo village, South Sudan, Giban took action to stop his granddaughter’s planned early marriage and put her back in school.

"Girls do drop out from schools for earlier marriage, but after I listened to the good advice from the radio and listener club meetings, I am now trying my best to educate our girls," he said.

Giban told us the programme inspired him to make sure all the girls in his community go to school - equally with boys - and are protected whilst they are there. And his granddaughter became a role model in the community, demonstrating that girls can go back to school and succeed.

South Sudan has the highest levels of out of school children in the world, with around 2.4 million children missing out on an education. Traditional attitudes in the country mean that girls are more likely than boys to not receive an education – and in some parts of the country over 75% of primary aged girls are not in school.

For the last six years, BBC Media Action has produced Our School, a 15-minute magazine-style radio programme targeted at girls, their parents, community leaders and teachers. The programme aims to build awareness about the many barriers that girls face in achieving a proper education and encourage change. Our School episodes aired on radio and I’ve visited and set up events and listener clubs for the programme in villages – like the one Giban attended - across the country.

Influencing the influencers

Despite the ongoing challenges with conflict in South Sudan, our survey of adults across the country showed that Our School is having a strong, positive impact on girls’ education. The programme reached nearly a third of the adult population (31%) – an estimated 1.8 million people. Advanced data analysis showed that audiences were more knowledgeable about the education system; discussed education more with friends, family and community members; and took a more active interest in their child’s education by, for instance, talking to them about the importance of education and helping them with their homework.

Although more than 1.5 million people left South Sudan to flee violence and seek refuge in neighbouring countries between July 2016 and August 2018, Our School has a loyal and engaged audience, with 93% of listeners tuning into every other episode in 2018.

However, deep-seated attitudes around prioritising boys’ education over girls’ in times of economic hardship remain, with 42% of respondents agreeing that ‘if there is a limited amount of money it should be spent on boys first’.

“Previously, our people used not to send their daughters to school, they only send boys, but when I started attending the listening club meetings with the community, I learnt that I have to send all the children to school equally.” said Giban.

Mary and her grandfather are exactly the type of people we wanted to reach through the Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) project and highlight why it’s so important to use media to engage in dialogue with community groups. I’m pleased that Our School and our community mobilisation efforts have improved household and community awareness and helped increase support for girls.

Reaching millions, transforming lives

We know that radio has great power to help us reach girls like Mary – and the millions like her – who are struggling to receive an education. When combined with community mobilisation efforts, media and communication can help change deeply entrenched attitudes of parents and communities which hold girls back – just like we’ve seen with Mary’s grandfather.

Now 17 years-old, Mary says "I am hoping to finish my secondary education. If I pass well, I would like to go to university. I am hoping to become a teacher in future so that I will be able to teach other children."

Girls are our future leaders and participate in building our nation. Today, on International Day of the Girl, I’m pleased that the Girls’ Education South Sudan project continues to stand with, and support, role models such as Mary – empowering girls across the country and helping them build a better future.

As Mary adds, "If I stay here with my grandfather, nothing will stop me in meeting my hopes."

--
Samuel Komakech
Community Mobilisation Manager
BBC Media Action in South Sudan

Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) is a DFID-funded programme that aims to transform the lives of a generation of children in South Sudan – especially girls – through education. For more information see here or read our research about the project.

Coping with conflict: making media to support children in Syria

2017-11-19T16:51:52+00:00

As the world marks Universal Children’s Day, Julie Boutros describes how we’re helping children in Syria survive and cope with the conflict. By supporting media based in the country to make tailored ‘lifeline’ content – animations, radio dramas, discussion programmes and a documentary – we’re tackling issues around child rights, development and survival.

Children in Syria have paid the heaviest price in a conflict that has affected their daily lives for more than six years. Going to school, playing outdoors, or enjoying a healthy and safe life has become difficult for many children living in areas affected by conflict.

The media has an important role to play in reaching children - and their parents – and helping them to survive, cope and recover.

So we set a new challenge for local independent journalists and producers still working inside Syria to come up with innovative ideas for Lifeline content to help improve the well-being of children in their communities.

We received 97 applications for 6 opportunities and here is some of the content produced by those we mentored.

Animations to help children with PTSD

During war, children are exposed to violent acts: they may witness killing, have lost a family member or experienced a very difficult journey fleeing from one city to another. This may increase the chances of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) developing.

Radio Rosana – an independent media outlet in Syria – wanted to help parents identify the warning signs of PTSD among children, what to do and how they could support their children at home. We mentored them to create a series of four animations.

Mais Katt from Radio Rosana, said: "We did a lot of research on the subject matter and I had to re-write the script on several occasions. I consulted with psychosocial experts and worked with a great team at the BBC who advised on the creative, dramatic and technical part of the production, as well as editorially."

Danger of walking into a minefield

Explosive weapons have dramatically affected the lives of more than 5 million Syrians, of which 2.2 million are children who are directly exposed to its dangers. This affects their daily lives – exposing them to risks while simply walking to school, or playing outdoors in places where there has been intensive fighting.

We supported an independent producer make a cartoon to help children identify explosive devices – including devices disguised as toys that tempt children to pick them up.

We also coached a radio station that created a series of discussion programmes. One episode on explosive remnants of war (ERW) featured experts talking about how to identify explosive remains and what listeners should do if they find one.

Livelihoods destroyed

"The war has destroyed families’ livelihoods meaning it is common for children to drop out of school to earn money" says Nisrine Alaa Deen – an independent Syrian producer - who was also mentored to produce her first documentary on this subject.

"I found Ahmad after months of researching a story for my documentary on child labour. He is one of the lucky children who didn’t endure family separation", she says.

But he and his brother lost two years of their education after their parents lost their business and all of their savings and ended up working with their father selling street food to earn a living.

Nisrine captured the realities of child labour on film but took a solutions-focused approach. The documentary captured how Ahmad’s mother enrolled him on a new curriculum for children who have missed years of schools. Ahmad’s mother was very cooperative because she wanted other parents to see that it is still possible for children to catch up on the years they have missed.

Mothers’ meeting – a radio drama

Radio station Arta FM in North-East Syria wanted to make a radio drama targeted at mothers and pregnant women in Jazeera but they had no experience of how to make one, so we connected them with the producer from Hay el Matar – a BBC Media Action radio drama for Syrians living inside and outside of the country.

The Arta FM producers also spoke to local women about their experiences and maternal health experts to shape the drama.

The result? Characters Layla and Salma – two women who meet every week for coffee to discuss, and debunk, the myths and common misconceptions held by women about pregnancy.

"Talking about contraception, abortion, pregnancy, periods and so on in conservative or rural communities can be tricky. But the women we encountered wanted to know about their children’s health; to know how they could help themselves in the difficult circumstances that Syria is going through today." says Shiar Youssef from Arta FM.

For children at all ages

Life remains incredibly difficult for children across Syria but it is so important that these producers get the help they need to improve their programming for children and parents. This helps reduce the mental and physical risks faced whether as a newborn baby or a child missing out on school. Our partners use their own language: they know best what is happening in their community and how to speak to their audience to make an impact.

About Julie:
I’ve been working to support the humanitarian response for Syria over several years. Initially I was producing films for refugee centres in Lebanon and Jordan – helping to give Syrian families safe and accurate information after they’d fled their homes. We then produced radio drama – Hay el Matar – helping Syrians living inside and outside of the country to cope.

This online mentoring programme called Community voices: child rights, development and survival is a BBC Media Action and UNICEF project.

“In my next life I want to be a boy”

2016-10-10T15:49:16+00:00

The lead actors in new drama AdhaFULL

“In my next life I want to be a boy because they can do anything they like”, said the 15-year-old girl.

Then, looking at me, she added: “I too want to own a mobile phone, have short hair and wear jeans. Tell me how I can become like you.”

It was a poignant cry for voice and a self-determined identity which opened my eyes to a world full of opportunities for boys, where elder brothers are the disciplinarians of sisters and a girl owning a mobile phone is something to be ashamed of.

I met this teenager, and many others like her, while carrying out research for our new78-episode television show, AdhaFULL (Half Full in Hinglish) and radio show Full on Nikki – a UNICEF-funded multimedia project using drama and discussion to help people break the silence surrounding sensitive issues affecting young people, challenge traditions that perpetuate gender stereotypes and boost the ability of teenagers to take action to improve their lives.

After mining all the existing academic research and policy documents about our key audiences - girls and boys aged 10-19 and their parents – we had the key themes for our programme: child marriage, education, nutrition, gender roles, peer pressure and bullying, body image, violence and abuse.

Connecting with teenagers

But to really understand how we could make storylines resonate with audiences and be truly transformative we wanted to connect with teenagers and their parents to hear, in their own words, about their lives, dreams and the barriers they face.

So the team got into a bus that trundled off to a school in the town of Siwalkhas, a semi-urban settlement three hours away from Delhi.

It was immediately clear that a difference between girls and boys was ingrained early. Although the school was co-educational, the boys’ classrooms were on the left and the girls’ on the right with the teachers seated in the sun at a desk in the middle to ensure that no one crossed the gender divide. The head teacher met us, wooden ruler in hand, saying it was his duty to ensure that “no accidents occur”. By “accidents” he meant romantic liaisons between students that would bring the school into disrepute in the eyes of parents and potentially force its closure.

We came back and wove the experience into our show. Revealing the invisible force-field that surrounds many Indian women and girls, pushing them to live up to the expectations of others - be it family or society - is a major goal of the programme. I hope that it will encourage people to question a culture of quiet compromise that can lead to an acceptance of discrimination.

“We want our daughters to be brave”

We tested the pilot episodes with mothers, fathers, boys and girls. They all sat riveted, cracking up at the jokes, but it was the comments from the mothers in the audience that were the most striking. “Yes, the town in the show is like our town”. “Yes. Girls get married at 15 in our community”. “We want our daughters to be brave like the show’s heroine”, they said.

The programme launches later this month and I’m optimistic it will mark the beginning of a journey of change.

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