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Curious Minds - Ghana

Contact details

Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh
c/o The Producer, CURIOUS MINDS
Radio Production Department
G. B. C. Box 1633, ACCRA
Ghana
Tel.: +233 24 538168
Fax: +233 21 221165
Email: tkok212@yahoo.com

Location

Accra, Ghana (West Africa)

Project summary

A group of young people aged 8-18 who are part of the Children and Youth in Broadcasting/Child Survival and Development (CYIB/CSD) Action Club are behind the radio programme Curious Minds.
The children/teenagers are the radio show hosts and also the producers of Curious Minds under the supervision of a professional journalist, who coordinates the activities of the group.
The aim of Curious Minds is to help raise the awareness of children's rights among the population of the West African country Ghana.

Project partners

• Save the Children
• Plan Ghana
• Women-in-Broadcasting

Project description

Curious Minds produce two radio programmes per week which are then broadcast on Ghanaian National Radio. Of the two programmes, one is in English while the other one is in a local language spoken by the people in the capital Accra. More than 200 children are part of the group. Some programmes have resource persons (adults) - others only involve the children framing the discussions from their point-of-view.
Curious Minds programmes are divided into segments: A "letter to the one who cares" starts programme. The letter, written by a child, always touches a pressing issue from a child's perspective. Other children then discuss the subject and come up with suggestions. The "facts corner" explores issues in a specific subject area chosen for the week.
The "partnership" segment tries to find solutions as to which organizations/decision-makers can be involved to address this issue. The majority of the weekly schedule (55 minutes of programmes are produced per week) is reserved for a discussion of the different issues raised by these children.

History

In early 2004, through further collaboration and support from Save the Children, Curious Minds extended its activities to cover all regions of Ghana. The Ashanti Regional branch was launched in 2003, followed by the branch in the Upper East Regional capital called Bolgatanga.
School-based clubs are also in operation to expand the base of the children who directly benefit from the programme. In January 2004, another branch in the Central Regional capital Cape Coast was inaugurated. This group used the celebration of the 2003 International Children's Day of Broadcasting to raise more awarenessabout the need to grant children greater access to the media. The celebration was jointly held with the mother organisation of the club, Women-in-Broadcasting.
In collaboration with Plan Ghana, Curious Minds launched a pilot programme - "Yen Adwen" ("Our Opinion") on another station in Akan in December 2003. The aim was to enable children to use radio to advance their rights.

Aims & objectives

The goal of our project is to create a coalition of media and youth organizations that are committed to working together to bring youth voices into the mainstream press and instill an on-going dialogue so that youth are considered by everyone as a valued part of all communities.

SOURCE and emails from Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh

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