Mtukwao Participatory Media Project, Mtwara and Lindi

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

In Tanzania, the majority of the population lives in rural communities that earn their living by subsistence farming and often lack most basic services. Rural communities are however almost totally neglected by the urban-based mainstream media. The main objective of the Mtukwao Participatory Media Project is to raise discussion about issues that are important to the people in rural communities in the Mtwara and Lindi regions. Community media wants to offer people on the grassroots level a possibility to take part in the public debate about issues concerning their livelihoods, about alternative ways of development and through this process a chance to find the best possible solutions to the development of their local areas in order to advance democracy, human rights and good governance. The project will support and develop the community media activities implemented by Mtukwao Community Media, including a new community radio station, Jamii FM Radio, expected to be launched during 2012 before the end of the first phase of the project. The direct beneficiaries of the project are the hundreds of young community media journalists and members of rural radio groups taking part in the implementation and facilitation of the activities of Mtukwao Community Media. Thousands of people will benefit from the project by joining the village discussions arranged as part of the community media productions. When people in the rural communities feel that their views are being listened to, they are also more inclined to actively try to make an impact to their own living conditions. Among the direct beneficiaries are also all inhabitants within the coverage area of the new radio station (almost one million people), who can potentially listen to the radio broadcast of Jamii FM. When the participatory video documentaries are broadcasted on a national TV channel, the whole population will belong to the beneficiaries. The key project activities include capacity building of young community media journalists, the establishment of new Community Media Centres and rural radio groups, promotion and marketing of the radio station, networking with other community media operators, and supporting the community media productions as well as the procurement of media equipment, including the construction of an own radio transmission tower and support for buying a media van.