ARDA listener’s clubThe project is called Majalisar Mata Manoma and it’s about meeting spaces for women farmers connecting with radio and mobile phones in rural zones of Nigeria. The implementing organisation is the African Radio Drama Association (ARDA), and the methodology they use is called Theatre for development (TFD), where theatre serves as a means for mobilisation and awareness of community members, particularly women.
What’s the reality on the ground?
Before starting the project ARDA carried out a baseline research in order to identify the needs of the beneficiaries. It was revealed that women had much less access to mobile phones; justifying the grant of a phone to the all-female listener club. The baseline also drew out the issues, including gender inequality, that were priorities to be addressed by the radio programme. Furthermore, the baseline activity was a great opportunity for seeking the consent of the participants, as well as fostering a positive impression of the project by community. It also helped to determine the appropriateness of local theatre as a development tool, which was found acceptable.
Thanks to previous preparation, including work using TFD with men and women separately, women were not faced with opposition from their husbands, and as a result, their stories were told with encouragement. In fact, women who did not participate in the previous activities because of their gender roles, (workload especially) struggled to join the listener’s clubs. Every week, the women are increasingly willing and able to organise themselves with less effort on ARDA’s part. The last Sunday ARDA visited, all the women were already seated on arrival of our team. After each radio show there are discussion sessions. Women “go as far as asking questions about small loans from the micro finance bank and we assure them that in three weeks time, an expert on that topic (a Gbagyi-speaking guest) would be in the studio during the programme to educate them on how to go about obtaining loan facilities and they would then have the opportunity to call in and ask questions. Everyone was excited and pleased that the listener’s club held in spite of the lack of a radio at the start of the meeting (read more on the listener’s club blog )
First of all: learning how to use a cell-phone
A cell phone and accessories that will enable it to function in the remote village location of the project, were purchased and granted to the members in advance of the commencement of the radio broadcasts. Members learned to use the cell phones to make and receive calls as well as send text messages. The women recorded discussions, songs and opinions in preparation for the radio program. Replaying these inserts for the women farmers to hear their own voices is part of the strategy to empower them. This created excitement in the entire community for the forthcoming radio broadcasts. Most of the women are outspoken and eager to express their opinion during the recordings, a noticeable difference from the early days when they were extremely reluctant. . Another positive aspect is that through the mobile phone, thewomen of the club have started generating income for their association
The radio programs began to air on July 12, 2009 (Sundays at 2.30 – 3.00pm) and have so far aired three episodes. The program format is live, consisting of music, host chit-chat with an expert guest, inserts recorded by the listeners’ club members, phone-ins.
The women involved in the project had provided a priority list of issues which the radio programs have addressed, relying mostly on scripts downloaded from the Farm Radio International website. This is a successful strategy to build trust and ownership by project beneficiaries as well as another way to empower them.
From a simple listener’s club to an association
Recognising from the onset the value of achieving strength in numbers, the female members of the Listener’s club had expressed an interest in evolving into a vocational, development group or a farmers’ co-operative. ARDA staff helped assemble the information and set guidelines for formalising the group and the foot work required to deal with the various bureaucrats. With our assistance the group has registered with the local government with the name, Agbada Association. The women showed their commitment by forfeiting their weekly meeting refreshment allowance and usingit instead to pay for the registration of their association and open a bank account as a first step to leveraging investments to their enterprises.
Challenges remain
The basic challenge ARDA faced was mobilising the women. Even after the baseline research, which included focus group discussions, and interest to participate by the women, the women never really showed up at agreed times. The main reason was that they had much housework or had to gather sand from the stream, a major source of off-season income, thus making the group activity second to all the other things they must do. The listener’s club activities, therefore, had to be fixed for Sunday which is the only day these women work a little less.
Men also want to take part
Very surprisingly, two key male figures within the community willingly made it a point of duty to participate in the project once we began TFD rehearsals. It is believed by ARDA that their efforts, time and presence helped curtail possible opposition from the spouses of the participating women. One of these men is an elderly man known as Auta, a well respected farmer and elder in the community. Another is a primary school teacher m many men look up to on account of his educational qualifications.
During the club meetings, ARDA staff always asked permission to video record sessions and take photographs with a digital camera. Soon the younger members started showing interest in the recordings and immediate photo feed backs, so they were given an opportunity to handle both cameras and to record themselves. This started a competition byalmost all of the women, struggling to handle the camera and do the recording. The demystification of recording process and taking still pictures wasa confidence booster and continues to ensure a light-hearted, fun and playful experience for these women during the meetings.
Are men and women equal?
The workload for young girls and women is disproportionately heavier than that of their male counterparts. An activity that requested participants to chart the daily diaries of the opposite sex acted as an awareness builder to this problem for community members,while focus group discussions explored the significance of this issue. The TFD skits also portrayed this topic.
Despite overwhelming poverty in families, more men than women owned mobile phones. Only two women in a group of 25 had a phone of their own. While the women shrank from spending hard-earned money they claim was for food and school fees etc., men were not constrained by such self-sacrifice, making it easier to purchase cell phones and top-ups.
Connectivity and infrastructure issues
Given the low rate of literacy in Gwagwada, there is no cybercafé in the community and many of these women know very little to nothing about the internet, nor is there much awareness as to the value of such a resource.
Though Gwagwada was a former train station post and only 50 kilometers outside Kaduna towards the federal capital of Abuja, land-lines are not available and out of the seven or so mobile phone service providers, only one of them, MTN, has signals that are visible here and only if boosters in form of a masted antenna are added on. We noticed that men had to climb the nearby hill-tops to look for a signal. Though the companies boast about expanding their coverage, the poorer rural locations are not in their plans due to commercial and poor infrastructure .
