Friday 9 November 2012, 16:11
How a question from his four-year-old daughter gave BBC Media Action’s humanitarian lead in Nepal a new way of thinking about his work helping radio stations prepare for deadly earthquakes.
Read more about "What colour is an earthquake?"
Friday 9 November 2012, 16:11
Kathmandu: Nepal’s capital lies in a highly earthquake-prone region.
"Papa! What colour is an earthquake? Is it black or white?" That was what my four-year-old daughter asked me one day a few months after the September 2011 earthquake in Nepal.
It was the first time she had experienced an earthquake and she'd grown hugely curious about them. And while her simple question sounds easy enough to answer, I realised she was, in her own four-year-old way, on to something.
The 1934 earthquake in Nepal, for example, was black. Over 8000 people were killed, over 80,000 houses destroyed and more than 126,000 damaged. The 8.4 magnitude earthquake changed the face of the capital Kathmandu and several other towns and villages in Nepal. It left almost everyone in Kathmandu bereaved.
In more fortunate times, such a dark and deadly impact is avoided. Sometimes it's through sheer luck and down to the strength, location and timing of a quake.
But it can also be lessened through robust preparation and efficient communication after an earthquake hits. A quake's potential 'black' impact can be mitigated – or in my daughter's eyes, lightened to a whiter shade – if people are given the...
Wednesday 31 October 2012, 12:27
Mariama training journalists in Kenema, eastern Sierra Leone as part of a project which is rebuilding cocoa farming skills lost during the country's civil war.
I've been working on our cocoa project in the Eastern region
of the country. It is especially satisfying for me as I feel like I have
travelled a full circle - and a long way - to be here. Eastern radio, where I
am training journalists, is where I got my first break as a journalist too. Our
project here is also a direct and practical way of helping the country heal and
move on from the civil war that ended ten years ago. I wanted to share my story
to help explain why my work here inspires me, so here is my story.
When war came, it came close to my street. I heard the screams of women and
girls nearby. I said to those in the house I was in, "I need to go as they will
be here soon." So I ran out and hid and I heard the rebels enter the house and
I heard my neighbours screaming. So I kept running, up into the hills behind
Freetown. We walked and ran for a long time until we could find safety. Many
years later when I was covering the court trials [after the war], I saw a man
from that street that night. His hand was amputated...
Monday 29 October 2012, 14:24
Kabul’s historic Asmayee mountain - now known as ‘TV mountain’ - bears witness to the proliferation of TV and radio stations in the last decade. But freedoms won over recent years are fragile and in danger of being lost.
Afghanistan's media is vibrant, relatively independent and crucial
to the future of the country. Unless something changes soon, the media’s
future will be shrunken at best and, at worst, co-opted into the service of political
factionalism and division.
That future is avoidable, but it requires clear, focused strategic attention from the international community, a more concerted and united effort by the media of the country itself and a clear commitment from the Afghanistan government. None of these things exist at present.
Afghanistan is in transition, not only to self-government but to a new future. That future will be shaped by its leaders and much will depend on the political settlement that emerges in the wake of that transition.
But the country's future will also be determined by its people. It is the people of Afghanistan who will, through their vote, determine the next government of Afghanistan. It is the people of Afghanistan...
Read more about Is time running out to save Afghanistan's imperilled media?
Tuesday 23 October 2012, 15:22
The multimedia learning project BBC Janala aims to raise the English language skills of 25 million Bangladeshis by 2017.
Since its launch in 2009, BBC Janala has attracted over six million users in Bangladesh and received several international awards for its innovative mix of pre-recorded English lessons and quizzes delivered through mobile phones.
International conferences provide an opportunity to share our experiences of working on a large-scale mLearning project. And last week, as BBC Media Action’s English Language Teaching editor in Bangladesh, I attended such an event, the 11th...
Read more about mLearning: Offering accessible learning for all
Friday 19 October 2012, 17:57
Women farming in Nepal.
"There's nothing
quite so deafening as a room full of children who can't cry because they are
undernourished."
This was the opening salvo of Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response (ECHO), as she delivered the keynote address at this week's European Development Days (EDD) conference in Brussels.
Billed as Europe's "foremost platform for dialogue, debate and exchange of best practices in development", EDD annually unites representatives from donor agencies, government bodies, the private sector...
Friday 19 October 2012, 15:57
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On a stormy day in April, almost 1000 young people gathered in Wat Batum Park in central Phnom Penh to try something that had never been done before. For exactly five minutes, and observed by dozens of independent witnesses, they performed in perfect unison a line-dance called 'The Madison'… and set a new Guinness World Record in the process.
The dance event was timed to mark the end of the first series of hit youth TV programme Loy9. Launched in Cambodia in January 2012, Loy9 has seen audiences of up to two and a half million viewers on TV, and the participation of thousands of young people...
Wednesday 26 September 2012, 10:07
A recording of the question and answer programme in Accham province in the far western region of Nepal.
Nepal boasts 326 FM stations, a phenomenal figure for a country of 27 million people. Both commercially and community-owned, they operate in 74 of Nepal's 75 districts.
But local stations are often criticised on a number of accounts: they are accused of weak editorial standards, an over-dependence on programmes produced from Kathmandu and even of acting as mouthpieces for local politicians and their agendas.
In fact, from my experience working with stations in remote parts of Nepal...
Friday 21 September 2012, 15:42
Fieldwork in Afghanistan: BBC Media Action’s research team lead a group discussion.
For everything in Afghanistan there is a season. And conducting research in the country is no exception. Spring, summer and early autumn are the only times when researchers can go into the field. The first fall of snow that marks the beginning of winter blocks mountain passes, restricts progress on the country’s few roads and washes away others. The Taliban and other insurgent groups also suffer from the same problems, resulting in the creation of a fighting season that runs from about April to October...
Read more about Fieldwork for most seasons: research in Afghanistan
Thursday 20 September 2012, 11:32
It was quite an intimidating thought. Training 11 senior journalists from Armenia and Ukraine in the delicate art of mentorship. I was dreading communication problems: I don’t speak any Armenian, nor Russian, nor Ukrainian. But human understanding is pretty universal and working through an interpreter was slow but not as painful as I thought.
I am the team leader on a project called Media Neighbourhood, funded by the EU and run by a BBC Media Action-led consortium. It’s all about supporting and training journalists: 1200 of them across 17 countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, in...
We believe in the power of media and communication to help reduce poverty and support people in understanding their rights. Find out more at BBC Media Action.
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