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Mobile technology: reporting human rights violations and creating radio broadcasts KZN
Pambazuka News
September 17, 2007

Rural women in KwaZulu Natal will soon be producing their own radio programmes on human rights issues affecting them. This is an initiative of the UmNyango Project, which is currently using SMS technology for rural women and men in KwaZulu Natal to access information to and report incidences of violence against women and children, as well as violations of women's right to land. There are currently 160 people using this facility, with the overwhelming number being women users.

The need for the UmNyango Project was confirmed in a survey of 5 rural communities in KwaZulu Natal, carried out by the Project earlier this year. It was found that there is an 80% IsiZulu literacy level; 83% of respondents owned mobile phones and 80% are able to send and retrieve basic text messages. The network coverage is also healthy and reliable in the target communities; 84% used the pre-paid method of accessing airtime; 76% used their mobile phones to make voice calls to follow-up on social-welfare, water and sanitation, and electricity applications, as well as to enquire about income generating opportunities. The SMS facility was mostly used for personal purposes. Rural based communities do not use the SMS facility to access information on development initiatives, government services nor on human rights, as these facilities do not exist. However, they would welcome any initiative that could allow them this opportunity.

99% would like to receive SMS headlines from Pambazuka News (an award wining weekly electronic newsletter on social justice in Africa, produced by Fahamu and accessed via Email and the Internet (www.pambazuka.org). Similarly, 99% would like to access Pambazuka News and other radio programmes on human rights issues via community and commercial radio stations or as 'podcasts' which could be 'broadcast' at the community advice offices.

30% had witnessed domestic violence in varying degrees of incidence. Most incidences were not reported and all respondents were of the opinion that the UmNyango Project could ameliorate the incidence of domestic violence through the dissemination of information and allowing individuals to report these and to seek appropriate support. Of all the respondents interviewed, none indicated that they were actual victims of domestic violence. We feel that this is not a true reflection of the reality and that respondents deliberately denied being victims, as they were embarrassed and/or fearful of intimidation, especially seeing that the interviews were conducted in the respondents' households. Due to financial constraints, we were unable to invite respondents to a neutral venue to conduct the interviews.

33% of respondents (all women) reported that they had been excluded from accessing and/or the control of land due to them. Respondents felt that the UmNyango Project could assist in this lack of access through awareness raising via the SMS gateway, radio programmes and also through education and training.

54% reported that they do not participate in governance in their communities due to the inaccessibility of relevant information, inaccessible local councillors and the cost of telephonic communications. In addition, civil society organisations were either weak or non-existent and therefore community members lack the skills for advocacy, lobbying and campaigning.

54% had experienced conflict in their communities particularly around stock theft, land and politics and 86% felt that the UmNyango Project provides a good opportunity for conflict resolution.

During 20-26 August, a core group of women from the Rural Women's Movement (www.rwm.org.za) and a male representative from the Centre for Public Participation (www.cpp.org.za), were trained on radio programme production by Community Media for Development (www.cmfd.org). They produced 8 magazine programmes covering issues of evictions on farms, evictions of widows from their marital homes, women's inheritance rights and the impact of HIV/AIDS, sexual violence against girl children, forced/arranged marriages, young women and employment and grandmothers and orphans. The programmes have been made available to local radio stations, as well as being distributed over the internet as 'podcasts'. These may be downloaded by anyone with access to the Internet. Please direct your browser to http://www.pambazuka.org/en/broadcasts/podcasts.php and to http://www.cmfd.org/cmfdprojects/ruralwomen.html. We encourage individuals and organisations working with vulnerable women and children to make use of the radio programmes for awareness raising.

The training of the women from the Rural Women's Movement on radio programme production, was made possible through a grant to Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) from the New Field Foundation (a supporting organisation of the Tides Foundation) (www.newfieldfound.org).

Dr. Firoze Manji, Director of Fahamu said: "The ability of women to conceptualise, develop and produce their own radio programmes is vital. These are the pioneers of citizen journalism in Africa. The voices and experiences of rural women can now be heard without editorial interference and interpretation. We plan to extend this initiative to Kenya and Sierra Leone in the next few months, and further afield in the coming year."

The women will now begin training other women on radio programme production and we are hopeful that we will continue to hear more reports by rural women about their plight.

Adv. Anil Naidoo, Managing Director of Indiba-Africa and UmNyango Project Team Leader said:

"The UmNyango Project is innovating simple, accessible and reliable ways to promote and protect the human rights of rural women in KwaZulu Natal. The Project is shaped and driven by their needs. This is the first instance we know of in South Africa, where rural women are using an SMS facility to easily access human rights information and to report human rights violations against them. All they need is a mobile phone. We have a network of partners that act on these reports. At a policy level, we are encouraged by a request from the eThekwini (Durban) Municipality to discuss how they may set-up an SMS facility for their rural Area Based Management and Development Programme. Now with the training on radio production, the women will have a powerful tool to directly interface with the rest of the world and thereby expose human rights violations in their communities that are very rarely reported on. In the next phase of the UmNyango Project, we hope to train rural women journalists who will file media reports along with photo and video clips using their cell phones. We will begin fundraising for this from October 2007. An American company, ReCellular has already donated 50 cell phones for this. We are hopeful that in the long term, these innovations will allow rural women and men, greater and more equitable participation in government, poverty alleviation and in the creation of a sustainable culture of human rights in South Africa. We have just launched an SMS competition for the participants of the UmNyango Project. The 5 best judged SMS's received suggesting possible community driven solutions to domestic violence will each win a re-furbished cell phone. We hope this will assist in the sensitisation and prevention of violence against women "

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