admin | May 23, 2024
Several months ago, we asked you to consider developing an episode or two on unpaid care work—an under-discussed and not-well-understood issue. Our online discussion had great participation and we were encouraged that our network members would learn about this issue, read our radio resources, and produce an episode on this important topic. And you did!
We far exceeded our goals for the reach of this network-based campaign, with more than 200 episodes airing across 130+ radio stations across Africa from late February through the end of April. Listen to some of the episodes here: https://soundcloud.com/farmradio/sets/unpaid-care-work-campaign
Many people used our radio resources to produce their episode, using a Barza Wire story on air, or using the backgrounder and FAQs to better understand the topic. Some people produced magazine episodes, sometimes with callers participating and sharing their experiences, while others prepared round-table discussions to hear from a variety of voices on this issue. Still others integrated radio spots or dramas to use a bit of entertainment to get the messages across.
We invite you to continue to discuss this important topic. It takes a lot of hard work to keep a family healthy and happy—and many of these tasks are unpaid and frequently undervalued. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, caring for elders and sick family members—all of this hard work is essential in a family. Much of this work is done by women, and is often unrecognized, unappreciated, and keeps these busy individuals from pursuing paid work. How can this work be more equitably shared among family members? How can these great contributions be valued and appreciated? These are the questions we hope you will tackle through your radio programs.
Find all our resources on this important topic here: https://scripts.farmradio.fm/radio-script/unpaid-care-work-2/
In several countries, radio partners are continuing to discuss unpaid care work as part of our Script+ Series. Thank you to those radio partners.
Finally, we offered 30 prizes of $100 CA to radios who participated by broadcasting episodes about unpaid care work. Those individuals have been contacted and the payments are being coordinated now.
We hope that everyone will join us in addressing other important issues in the future. Some upcoming opportunities include a discussion on sexual health which will take place around the time we publish our newest learning module on Addressing sensitive issues. To help you address sensitive issues like sexual and reproductive health and rights, we’ve also updated our Broadcaster how-to guide on the subject and will be publishing a terminology guide. You can find many other resources here: https://scripts.farmradio.fm/topic/health/
And if you’d like to continue to advance gender equality issues, perhaps at your radio station, consider taking our gender equality self-assessment for radios.
We will share more information soon on future opportunities on topics related to agriculture and climate change.