Unite for Child Survival! Radio Drama Competition

Here’s your chance to help people pay attention: Get involved, take creative action and unite to help children in your community survive and thrive!

UNICEF’s 2008 State of the World’s Children report urges the global community to pay more attention to child survival. Community involvement, political will and global health partnerships are all necessary to save children who are dying from preventable causes. 

Every day, on average, more than 26,000 children under the age of five die around the world, mostly from preventable causes. Some of the main threats to children’s lives are under nutrition, pneumonia, malaria, AIDS and childhood diseases, lack of clean water and sanitation and poor maternal health.

Voices of Youth seeks creative radio dramas from around the world to bring to life issues that affect children’s health. Write a radio drama about children’s health issues in your community. Communicate your creative messages in the form of a drama and spread awareness to help children enjoy a healthy childhood.

Why radio?

Radio is one of the most effective means of communication because it touches a large and diverse audience. Newspapers and print media have a limited reach because of low levels of literacy, and many communities do not have access to television or the Internet. But portable, battery-operated radio sets are listened to in even the smallest villages around the world.

What is a radio drama?

A radio drama, or audio play, is simply a play or story broadcast on the radio. Radio dramas use dialogue, sound effects and music to help listeners follow the story from their own homes. Radio dramas have successfully brought about positive social change in several countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

 What we would like from you:
 
You are invited to send in a script for a radio drama. Please note, we are NOT asking for an actual recording. The competition asks only for a WRITTEN script. Radio scripts will be reviewed by an international panel. The panelists will select eight finalists, one from each region, and one winner, to be featured on the website. The winning script will be produced by UNICEF and broadcast on UNICEF radio.

Things to keep in mind while writing your script:

1. Your radio drama must focus on one of four topics that affect children’s health in your community:i) Nutrition; ii) Maternal and newborn health; iii) Water and sanitation/clean environment; iv) AIDS or other diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia or measles.
   
2. Like a drama performed in a theatre, a radio drama tells a story. It usually has characters the audience can identify with, a plot with conflict, and a resolution.
   
3. But, in contrast to a staged play or television, we cannot see the dramatic action. Since radio dramas use only voices and sounds, dialogue is the most important way to express emotions of happiness, anger, sadness, love, surprise etc. Sound effects, such as music, knocking, birdcalls, telephone rings, or traffic noise, also help to communicate. Include sound effects in your script like this:
   
   Sound of knocking on the door.
   
   Amy: Who is it?
   
   Tendai: It’s us, Padmini and Tendai.
   
   Amy: I wasn’t expecting you both so soon … but I’m so glad you are here! 
   
4. Have fun and be creative while writing your script. Bring in elements of humor or tragedy and surprise, but remember that presenting the health message is most important.
   
5. The running time of the radio drama should not be more than 7 minutes. We recommend that you read your script out loud, leaving time for the sound effects, to make sure that the play can be performed within 7 minutes. 

Criteria

• Scripts will be judged on creativity, structure, writing and how well the theme is expressed.
  
• Participants must be under age 25.
  
• Submissions must be original, unpublished and unproduced.
  
• Individual and group submissions are both fine.
  
• Please submit a written script for a radio drama. We will NOT accept recorded pieces.
  
• Language: English, French, Spanish or Arabic.
  
• Length: The script should make a finished radio play no longer than 7 minutes.
  
• Content: Submissions which contain any of the following will not be accepted:
  -Positive portrayals of illegal drug use or alcohol abuse.
  -Derogatory characterizations of any ethnic, racial, sexual or religious groups.
  -Language which is vulgar or offensive.

How to submit your script

Along with your script, please provide the following information. If the script was written by a group, please provide this information for each writer: 

• Full name
• Age 
• Gender 
• Full address 
• Country

Also include a summary of less than 300 words describing your topic and how it affects your community.

Deadline

Please send your radio script, personal information and plot summary before December 31, 2007 to the Voices of Youth Mailbox:  voy@unicef.org

You can also become a member of Voices of Youth, so sign up today!