Syed Kamrul Hasan :
I was born and brought up in such a family, where there was no scope to even think of being a journalist. Now I can dream of becoming a full-time professional journalist and prove that one can go a far; I believe that everyone has power and potential to grow and the identity like “women” is not an obstacle for that” told 20-year old Shahrina Sultana Jui, a fellow from Community Radio Borendro of Naogaon district, who has just completed her fellowship tenure. Community media can strengthen participatory decision-making process by creating opportunities for expression of opinion from people of different class and profession of the society. Community media can contribute in community empowerment process by being the direct media for exchange and access to information for all. In particular, participation of women in media is an agenda for today aiming women empowerment, reduction of social inequality, capacity development and ensure easy their access to information. The program:”Youth women in Media and Journalism” has been launched with these theoretical aspects into consideration. The program has been started in community radio station areas in 2013, with the objectives:- i) to facilitate in creating an enabling environment for the young women to be enrolled in the media and journalism to develop as professional community media journalists and ii) to encourage more young skilled women to be enrolled in the media to work for the development of rural communities.
Set up under the policy approved by the Government in 2008, 15 community radio stations are now on air in different locations of the country. They are broadcasting altogether 125 hours program per day covering 5.5 millions rural listeners in 70 Upazila under 14 districts of the country. Around 1000 youth women and youth are now working with those stations as rural broadcasters. Out of them, 344 are young women. This fellowship will help them to work more skillfully for the larger groups of women and children community.
Recently 12 fellows have successfully completed their six-month tenure of fellowship. This is the 2nd batch of this program. There were 12 youth women fellows in the 1st batch, who worked with 11 Community Radio stations located in 10 districts of the country. More 40 selected women fellows are waiting to join in the 3rd batch. While as criteria, the poor young women (of HSC education level) are preferred in selection process, all 40 fellows in 3rd batch are being recruited from the dalits community (the lower strata of the Hindu society).
“Call for application” from the interested local youth women is the initial step of fellowship program. The notice is served and announced through community radio and by using notice board of local college and press club. Fellowship program is formally started after receiving recruitment letters by the fellows. The recruited fellows, having been oriented and trained in journalism and reporting, start their works under the guidance of a mentor from each station. An experienced and senior level Community Radio staff plays the role of a mentor. The fellows prepare and produce news/reports/feature/case study/human profile. They broadcast these reports and features through radio and publish in local newspapers. 12 women fellows of the 1st batch, in their tenure of 3 months, broadcasted 144 reports through community radio and published 72 articles in local newspapers. The 12 fellows of the next batch broadcasted 244 audio programs and published 144 reports in local newspapers in their 6 months fellowship-tenure. These programs and reports covered issues like education of women and children, their access to public facilities, health, child marriage, example of success stories etc. In general, these have reflected the updated situation of the disadvantaged community, particularly the on-site scenario of the present lives of rural women and children.
The community media fellows reach to the remote locations and collect information on the lives of women and children and prepare their news and programs. Normally, one woman feels comfort to talk and disclose the facts with another woman of her neighborhood. Through the reports, many untold stories have been brought to the light. For the first time, the unheard voices of the rural women are coming up through the works of these youth women journalists. They are contributing in development and changes of their own community lives by their programs and reports on prevention of early marriage, promotion of education and other important issues of mother and children. Parents and social elites became sensitized and in some community radio station areas they have collaborated to immediately stop the cases of child marriages.
The youth women fellows have earned prestige and recognition in the rural community through this program. Some of the parents now show interest to push their young daughters to engage in community media and journalism. As a result, 10 fellows out of 12 of the 1st batch are now working as regular staffs in radio stations of their area. With her radio station-radio Naf, Hla Hla Yee Rakhaine is also working as district corre spondent of a popular weekly newspaper. Mentionable, she is the only women journalist the area has ever produced. Some other fellows like Sanjita Kaochar Sopnil of Radio Bikrampur, Shahrina Jui and Hoimonti Mou of Borendro radio, Samia Akhtar of Radio Mahananda – all are working in their radio stations as full-time producers. Shammi Akhtar, a community media fellow of the 2nd batch, is now working with radio Borendro told: “I have learned and explored many new areas of journalism while working as community media fellow, that made me confident to take up this as full-time profession.”
While female journalists are facing numerous challenges even at national level, it was not easy for the youth women to work as journalists at grassroots level. “Youth women in community media” was itself a very new idea, so it was truly challenging to introduce at local/rural level. Challeneges not only came from the families of the selected fellows; it was hard to convince even the community radio stations. There are challenges in every single step of implementation. Another great challenge of this new program is to retain these young women in professional journalism. However, by facing all those challenges, the program is running successfully. The fact is that the rural women are not at all the topics/subjects of news, but they themselves are now producing news and writing reports for the media. Now the relevant stakeholders should come up and support them so that they can continue as a sustainable professional group within the community media.
(Syed Kamrul Hasan: Writer, Journalist and Development Communication Initiator)
I was born and brought up in such a family, where there was no scope to even think of being a journalist. Now I can dream of becoming a full-time professional journalist and prove that one can go a far; I believe that everyone has power and potential to grow and the identity like “women” is not an obstacle for that” told 20-year old Shahrina Sultana Jui, a fellow from Community Radio Borendro of Naogaon district, who has just completed her fellowship tenure. Community media can strengthen participatory decision-making process by creating opportunities for expression of opinion from people of different class and profession of the society. Community media can contribute in community empowerment process by being the direct media for exchange and access to information for all. In particular, participation of women in media is an agenda for today aiming women empowerment, reduction of social inequality, capacity development and ensure easy their access to information. The program:”Youth women in Media and Journalism” has been launched with these theoretical aspects into consideration. The program has been started in community radio station areas in 2013, with the objectives:- i) to facilitate in creating an enabling environment for the young women to be enrolled in the media and journalism to develop as professional community media journalists and ii) to encourage more young skilled women to be enrolled in the media to work for the development of rural communities.
Set up under the policy approved by the Government in 2008, 15 community radio stations are now on air in different locations of the country. They are broadcasting altogether 125 hours program per day covering 5.5 millions rural listeners in 70 Upazila under 14 districts of the country. Around 1000 youth women and youth are now working with those stations as rural broadcasters. Out of them, 344 are young women. This fellowship will help them to work more skillfully for the larger groups of women and children community.
Recently 12 fellows have successfully completed their six-month tenure of fellowship. This is the 2nd batch of this program. There were 12 youth women fellows in the 1st batch, who worked with 11 Community Radio stations located in 10 districts of the country. More 40 selected women fellows are waiting to join in the 3rd batch. While as criteria, the poor young women (of HSC education level) are preferred in selection process, all 40 fellows in 3rd batch are being recruited from the dalits community (the lower strata of the Hindu society).
“Call for application” from the interested local youth women is the initial step of fellowship program. The notice is served and announced through community radio and by using notice board of local college and press club. Fellowship program is formally started after receiving recruitment letters by the fellows. The recruited fellows, having been oriented and trained in journalism and reporting, start their works under the guidance of a mentor from each station. An experienced and senior level Community Radio staff plays the role of a mentor. The fellows prepare and produce news/reports/feature/case study/human profile. They broadcast these reports and features through radio and publish in local newspapers. 12 women fellows of the 1st batch, in their tenure of 3 months, broadcasted 144 reports through community radio and published 72 articles in local newspapers. The 12 fellows of the next batch broadcasted 244 audio programs and published 144 reports in local newspapers in their 6 months fellowship-tenure. These programs and reports covered issues like education of women and children, their access to public facilities, health, child marriage, example of success stories etc. In general, these have reflected the updated situation of the disadvantaged community, particularly the on-site scenario of the present lives of rural women and children.
The community media fellows reach to the remote locations and collect information on the lives of women and children and prepare their news and programs. Normally, one woman feels comfort to talk and disclose the facts with another woman of her neighborhood. Through the reports, many untold stories have been brought to the light. For the first time, the unheard voices of the rural women are coming up through the works of these youth women journalists. They are contributing in development and changes of their own community lives by their programs and reports on prevention of early marriage, promotion of education and other important issues of mother and children. Parents and social elites became sensitized and in some community radio station areas they have collaborated to immediately stop the cases of child marriages.
The youth women fellows have earned prestige and recognition in the rural community through this program. Some of the parents now show interest to push their young daughters to engage in community media and journalism. As a result, 10 fellows out of 12 of the 1st batch are now working as regular staffs in radio stations of their area. With her radio station-radio Naf, Hla Hla Yee Rakhaine is also working as district corre spondent of a popular weekly newspaper. Mentionable, she is the only women journalist the area has ever produced. Some other fellows like Sanjita Kaochar Sopnil of Radio Bikrampur, Shahrina Jui and Hoimonti Mou of Borendro radio, Samia Akhtar of Radio Mahananda – all are working in their radio stations as full-time producers. Shammi Akhtar, a community media fellow of the 2nd batch, is now working with radio Borendro told: “I have learned and explored many new areas of journalism while working as community media fellow, that made me confident to take up this as full-time profession.”
While female journalists are facing numerous challenges even at national level, it was not easy for the youth women to work as journalists at grassroots level. “Youth women in community media” was itself a very new idea, so it was truly challenging to introduce at local/rural level. Challeneges not only came from the families of the selected fellows; it was hard to convince even the community radio stations. There are challenges in every single step of implementation. Another great challenge of this new program is to retain these young women in professional journalism. However, by facing all those challenges, the program is running successfully. The fact is that the rural women are not at all the topics/subjects of news, but they themselves are now producing news and writing reports for the media. Now the relevant stakeholders should come up and support them so that they can continue as a sustainable professional group within the community media.
(Syed Kamrul Hasan: Writer, Journalist and Development Communication Initiator)
