ComDev09 students are now finishing up their final thesis projects ready for submission on Monday. A ComDev thesis often involves original field research and enables students to apply theory in practice. This is exactly what ComDev08 alumnus Rosalind Yarde did when she conducted her field research for her final masters thesis with Mkombozi, an NGO in Moshi, northern Tanzania that supports children living on the street. The field work for Rosalind’s thesis was a pilot study that explored how a participatory approach to radio production might become a vehicle for social change. Rosalind worked with a group of young people to make a one-off radio programme. The programme presented issues that were important to the young producers from their own perspective. The positive response to the show form the participants, the Mkombozi project and even local authorities was an indication of how successful the ‘experiment’ had been but Rosalind did not initially anticipate taking the project further than the pilot stage. However soon after she completed her thesis Rosalind was approached by Mkombozi and asked if would be interested in developing her pilot study into regular programming for a Youth Radio Network initiated by UNICEF Dar es Salaam.
The 15 children that Rosalind is working with have now produced 9 editions of their radio programme and in this piece for the ComDev Blog she describes the rewarding experience of moving from pilot study to continuing project and how satisfying it is to see the research she did for her masters thesis validated as as theory is proved in practice.
Myriam had already been working with communication for social change and advocacy for many years before she enrolled on the Communication for Development Masters programme with Malmö University. She worked on a number of high profile campaigns with organizations such as Jubilee 2000 and OneWorld International and is now a consultant specializing in evaluation and strategy.
A friend recommended the ComDev course with Malmö University and Myriam joined the part-time distance learning programme in 2008. During her two years of part-time study Myriam continued to work as a communications consultant. At the moment Myriam is working on a project evaluating a Council of Europe campaign aimed at promoting inter-cultural dialogue and anti-racisim.
Myriam competed the ComDev masters programme in January this year when she submitted her final masters thesis ‘Rap: A tool for promoting change amongst youth in West Africa? The case of AURA’s Poto Poto project’.
I caught up with Myriam after her examination just as she was finishing the final revisions to her thesis. You can find out more about Myriam, her final project and her reflections on her two years as a ComDev student here
ComDev04 alumnus Dominique Thaly is responsible for the environmental communication component of a current Environmental Protection Programme initiative in Tunisia. One of the areas that this German/Tunisian project is working in is to raise awareness in local communities of issues around rubbish collection. Dominique is seeking Arabic speaking ComDev practitioners that could work within local communities to build participatory projects that will work in tandem with existing communication initiatives that are mainly targeted at local municipalities. If you are an Arabic speaker with an interest in practicing participatory communication for development then Dominique would like to hear from you. Interested parties should contact Dominiquie directly on Dominique.Thaly@giz.de
ComDev09 students are now finishing up their final thesis projects ready for submission on Monday. A ComDev thesis often involves original field research and enables students to apply theory in practice. This is exactly what ComDev08 alumnus Rosalind Yarde did when she conducted her field research for her final masters thesis with Mkombozi, an NGO in Moshi, northern Tanzania that supports children living on the street. The field work for Rosalind’s thesis was a pilot study that explored how a participatory approach to radio production might become a vehicle for social change. Rosalind worked with a group of young people to make a one-off radio programme. The programme presented issues that were important to the young producers from their own perspective. The positive response to the show form the participants, the Mkombozi project and even local authorities was an indication of how successful the ‘experiment’ had been but Rosalind did not initially anticipate taking the project further than the pilot stage. However soon after she completed her thesis Rosalind was approached by Mkombozi and asked if would be interested in developing her pilot study into regular programming for a Youth Radio Network initiated by UNICEF Dar es Salaam.
