Spotlight Story

Story Workshop Receives Grant from American Embassy for Human Rights & Democracy Project

27 September, 2006 - Story Workshop has received a grant from the American Embassy in Malawi's Human Rights and Democracy Fund to produce radio jingles on civic dialogue and participation. The project aims to increase knowledge and spark dialogue about human rights and political participation within across Malawi.

The project will develop and broadcast a series of 8 jingles, run more than 1,000 times over the 3-month course of the project, on Malawian government, democracy and human rights.

Drawing on current issues and research from Story Workshop field staff on topics of dialogue among rural Malawians, jingles will cover topical issues -- for example, how the budget affects the day-to-day lives of Malawians, the roles of MPs and councilors, separation of powers and checks and balances, consumer rights, and addressing corruption at the community level.   

Using our trademark “edu-tainment” format, Story Workshop will employ dynamic words and music that Malawians can easily commit to memory, thus increasing knowledge and sparking dialogue about human rights and political participation within communities. Each jingle will include a “call to action,” giving the audience practical steps that they can take to implement their new knowledge.

Democracy and human rights are acknowledged worldwide as basic prerequisites for development, economic growth and social justice. As Malawi transforms towards a multi party democracy, its people face numerous obstacles to civic involvement, including corruption, discriminatory allocation of resources, political infighting, lack of understanding about checks and balances and balance of power in the government.

This project takes a vital and necessary step towards paving the way for advocacy and civic participation. At its most basic level, one of the major barriers to advocacy and civic engagement, particularly in a young democracy, is lack of knowledge about how the government and legal system function, as well as how the workings of government affect “regular” peoples’ lives.

For more information, contact Janie Hayes at janie@malawi.net or Marvin Hanke at marvinbh@africa-online.net