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Cellule Norbert Zongo (CENOZO) (Burkina Faso)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

CENOZO will offer courses and editorial support to 15 investigative journalists who will produce in-depth stories on three themes: the impact of COVID-19, the way authorities take measures to mitigate further outbreak of the crisis, and the perception of the population. Criteria for selection will be the relevance, the public interest and the feasibility of the story. CENOZO will also offer screenings of the articles on respect of ethical standards and legal, security and confidentiality issues. The impact of the stories will be amplified by publication by the different media outlets that are connected to CENOZO.

Association des Femmes des Médias du Sud-Kivu (AFEM) (DRC)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

AFEM’s project in South Kivu province aims to increase awareness on COVID-19 and on the importance of preventative measures and the consequences of non-compliance. It plans to do so through different media formats and communication channels. AFEM´s project strategy is based on mass information, community awareness and capacity building for the production of COVID-19 programmes, as well as on advocacy to urge authorities to take vulnerable groups into account in the coronavirus responses in South Kivu. Listening clubs and young reporters, trained by AFEM, will be used as freelancers to help spreading information in their communities. The activities that AFEM will implement range from informative magazines in Swahili, to training sessions directed at young and female journalists, both related to the coronavirus and preventative measures. Both men and women will be actively involved in all activities.

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Collectif des Radios et Télévisions Communautaires du Nord-Kivu (CORACON) (DRC)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

North Kivu is one of the provinces in DR Congo that is most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. A high population density in cities like Goma, combined with daily survival, poverty, huge numbers of IDPs and refugees and poor health systems make the population in this province highly vulnerable. The objective of this intervention is to disseminate reliable information on COVID through community radios and social media, with audience engagement by especially women and youth, in order to give them sufficient knowledge about the pandemic and about the prevention of infection. The intervention strategy consists of setting up a network of ten producers, training them to develop interactive COVID-19-related content in various formats (e.g. debates), and using radio and Facebook for dissemination and audience engagement.

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Fédération des Radios de Proximité du Congo (FRPC) (DRC)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

FRPC will produce and distribute radio content about hygiene rules recommended by the country’s health authorities and by the WHO, for the prevention of COVID-19. FRPC will use different formats: 5 awareness-raising spots, 6 longer broadcasts (‘magazines’), and one drama of 4 episodes. The themes of the spots are social distancing; how and when to wash hands; how to wear masks; voluntary screening; the non-stigmatisation of people sick with or cured of COVID-19. The themes of the magazines are the economic impact of COVID-19; the awareness of COVID-19 in schools and universities; the consumption of plants against COVID-19; how parents warn their children against COVID-19; respect for social distancing in markets and churches; life after having recovered from COVID-19; the work of health staff in the treatment centers for COVID-19. The content of the radio drama will touch on stigmatisation, preconceived ideas and rumours about the pandemic.

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Participatory Communication for Gender Development (PAGED) (Nigeria)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

This project is a media enlightenment campaign that informs and educates Nigerians on the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of preventive measures. The project will target both the general public and the Nigerian government. Media content aimed at the general public will focus on the dangers of the pandemic, recommendations on how to protect oneself, and how to identify symptoms. The Nigerian government will be informed about the needs of the Nigerian people in times of the pandemic and thus about its responsibilities. Activities will include a workshop for journalists on media advocacy and bottom-up reporting, at least 60 media articles on COVID-19 from a bottom-up perspective, at least 2000 pamplhets and 500 posters showing the dangers of COVID-19 and at least 5 advocacy screenings of PAGED’s Initiatives COVID-19 film.

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Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) (Nigeria)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

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GroundUp (South Africa)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

GroundUp has become a trusted source for factual, easy-to-read and unsensational reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. Its productions in the framework of the COVID-19 Response in Africa project have several components: 12 productions of a COVID-19 Q&A article (interview with a medical expert) or a detailed scientific COVID-19 report; production of 18 COVID-19 stories per month; production of 6 COVID-19 videos. All reports produced are gender-sensitive.

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Vuselela Media (South Africa)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

As part of this project, Vuselela Media will conduct 10 virtual ‘media skills’ workshops with a group of about 20 youth (13- to 15-year olds), to train them to become ‘cellphone community journalists’ (CCJs) who use their mobile phones to produce and share their won short video stories on the topic of COVID-19 and the impact it has had on their lives and communities. Moreover, Vusulela Media will produce a special COVID-19 cross-media series of Bona Retsang 2.0 with productions created by the CCJs. The long-term outcome of this project is to empower youth in terms of critical thinking and assessment of their society, so they can lead the narrative of the future they want for themselves in South Africa post-COVID-19.

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Amalna (South Sudan)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

This project aims to produce and transmit radio magazines to spread awareness about COVID-19, as well as promote policy change in South Sudan in times of the pandemic. Each radio magazine will combine short radio dramas, voxpop and recorded interviews/debates with COVID-19 experts, community leaders, women, youth, authorities and people with disabilities on issues. The target audiences of the radio magazine are marginalised groups including women, the elderly and people with disabilities; in short: those that are most vulnerable in the light of the pandemic.The radio magazine will be broadcast on selected FM radio stations in South Sudan as well as on shortwave.

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Radio Dabanga (Sudan)

Partner organisation of: Free Press Unlimited

This project seeks to address COVID-19 related problems in Sudan, that are linked to communication and information limitations. Radio Dabanga’s main intervention strategy for this project will be journalism and media content production. Via accurate and engaging news and information, Radio Dabanga aims to educate and connect Sudanese communities, increase their knowledge and thereby also their capacity to respond to the pandemic, and keep the authorities accountable. This will be done through a weekly magazine format radio show, daily news coverage, special COVID-19 editions of key Radio Dabanga shows, the development of a dedicated web page and a database of contacts for the newsroom, social media news sharing and engagement, and the support of stringers.

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Réseau d’Initiatives de Journalistes (RIJ) (Burkina Faso)

Partner organisation of: Deutsche Welle Akademie

In their project ‘Résilience contre la COVID-19 par les médias’, the Réseau d’Initiative de Journalistes (RIJ) aims to participate in the information and sensitisation of the population on the COVID-19 pandemic and its prevention and handling measures. To do so, RIJ will produce interactive programs on issues related to the coronavirus crisis. These programs will give the people in areas reached by RIJ the opportunity to express themselves on the subject and its effects on their daily lives. Twelve partner radios of RIJ will be chosen, taking into account the areas most affected by the pandemic.

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Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) (Ghana)

Partner organisation of: Deutsche Welle Akademie

The mission of the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) is it to grow participatory Community Radio for All. In its project GCRN aims at providing reliable information on COVID-19 to the community members that are served by GCRN’s 21 participating member Community Radio Stations, focusing on communal, national and global developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. This way, GCRN aims to facilitate the community’s acceptance and adoption of preventive behaviours that minimise community transmission and also to help enable them to cope with, and build better lives out of, the ‘new normal’. In addition, GCRN wants to enhance the capacity and resources of the 21 Community Radio Stations to provide necessary information on an ongoing and timely basis to predominantly rural communities or, in a few cases, disadvantaged peri-urban communities.

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Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) (Ghana)

Partner organisation of: Deutsche Welle Akademie

Like many other countries Ghana as a developing country is not spared as the world continues to suffer the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak in Ghana is adversely impacting the economy and livelihoods as well as exposing the fragility and weaknesses of the country’s health and social protection system. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) aims to increase public education and access to factual information about COVID-19 among members of the public, especially the less literate or illiterates and rural dwellers through public education programming and fact-checking by a network of seven media partners spread across the country. MFWA wants to increase public demand for transparency and accountability in the utilisation of COVID-19 related resources by authorities through data analysis and investigative reporting on the utilisation of COVID-19 related resources.

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Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE)

Partner organisation of: Deutsche Welle Akademie

A lot of Kenyans have been impacted by the crisis in Kenya with many being out of work and others also losing their jobs. There is also a lot of uncertainty about the disease with the government struggling to provide information to the public. The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) is aiming to have a pool of information available online both on the disease itself, the crisis it has created, and government efforts in controlling the effects of the pandemic in the country. BAKE will fact check information in the public domain to ensure they are true and accurate, and wants to act as a conduit for the public to ask the government, private sector and civil society questions about their work around the crisis. BAKE focuses on quality content creation on COVID-19 related issues and the aggregation of said content, editorial support for bloggers, as well as fact-checking and the engagement of the public and relevant key stakeholders.

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Africa Check Kenya Chapter (Kenya)

Partner organisation of: Deutsche Welle Akademie

The Africa Check Trust Kenya, like other fact-checkers, has been flooded by viral WhatsApp messages, Facebook posts, tweets and news articles to fact-check in recent months. COVID-19 misinformation is a problem with multiple tentacles: it is a problem of false information, and it is a problem of a lack of access to reliable information. Low-quality information in mainstream media also exacerbates misinformation and reduces public trust in journalism. A multifaceted problem requires a multifaceted solution. That’s why Africa Check is proposing fighting the problem of misinformation in multiple ways. Africa Check will fact-check harmful COVID-19 misinformation, extend the reach and impact of their work through conducting radio interviews and strengthen the fact-checking skills of journalists.

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Fédération des Radios Communautaires et Assimilées du Bénin (FERCAB) (Benin)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

The objective of this project is to provide the population with better information regarding a range of topics linked to the coronavirus emergency (health, economy, society, politics, etc.) Through the Fédération des Radios Communautaires et Assimilées du Bénin (FERCAB), reliable information and professional journalistic content will be produced and broadcast to the Beninese population, via a network of local community radios and in the 13 main languages of the country. FERCAB will produce more than 150 spots in 13 different languages, aiming to raise awareness regarding COVID-19 health protective measures. FERCAB will also produce more than 200 roundtable discussions on a range of topics related to the coronavirus crisis in the country. It will broadcast all the content through its network of 39 local community radios.

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Centre d’Education pour une Société Durable (Centre ESD) (Côte d’Ivoire)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

The objective of this project is to provide to the Ivorian population with reliable information on the COVID-19 crisis. This intervention will be implemented by producing and broadcasting – through local community radios – information that will improve knowledge regarding the pandemic, including how to prevent the disease’s spread and the socio-economics aspects of the crisis. Centre d’Education pour une Société Durable (Centre ESD) will produce different video and audio content, such as magazine shows, voxpops, interviews, population testimony, sketches, etc. All those contents will be around and will cover COVID-19 related topics. Centre ESD will also broadcasts the contents they will produce through the Observatoire Citoyen, their social media platform.

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Union des Radios de Proximité de Côte d’Ivoire (URPCI) (Côte d’Ivoire)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

The Union des Radios de Proximité de Côte d’Ivoire (URPCI) will broadcast all the programs produced by Centre d’Education pour une Société Durable, through their network of 34 local community radios. All the content will also be shared through the URPCI online platform, Radio Synergie.

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Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de Guinée (AJSG) (Guinea)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

Through the activities that the Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de Guinée (AJSG) will implement, we aim to produce content that will provide a reliable information about different aspects of the coronavirus crisis. Reliable, useful and objective information will be produced in order to raise awareness of coronavirus-related issues among the Guinean population. The Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de Guinée will mainly produce a magazine show including interviews, reports, audience interaction and experts’ interventions on fake news, socio-economic and sanitary aspects of the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to that, AJSG will produce web content (video, audio, infographics) and spots on health issues linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Radio Rurale de Guinée (Guinea)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

All the radios in the network of the Radio Rurale de Guinée will broadcast the magazine produced by the Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de Guinée two times a week (one rerun).

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Union des Radios Associatives et Communautaires du Sénégal (URAC) (Senegal)

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle

The objective of this intervention is to produce and broadcast reliable information on COVID-19 through community radios, with a focus on the three most affected regions (Dakar, Thiès and Diourbel), in order to keep populations informed around the coronavirus crisis, including the prevention of infection and socio-economics issues. The three regions targeted were chosen due to the population density in those areas, and the coming important religious events that will take place in those regions. The Union des Radios Associatives et Communautaires du Sénégal (URAC) will be in charge of production and broadcasting of different content: magazine shows (which will cover various topics such as fake news, economic resilience, socio-economic impact on women, etc.) and spots aiming to raise awareness in the Senegalese population on COVID-19. In addition, URAC will broadcast mini-dramas created by a local producer.

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Radiodiffusion Television Senegalaise (RTS) (Senegal)

Radiodiffusion Television Senegalaise (RTS) will broadcast programs (mini-dramas, spots and interviews addressing COVID-19 related issues) created by a local producer.

Partner organisation of: Fondation Hirondelle