Children recording in Guinea

Children use radio to have their say

A West African radio show championing children's rights, entitled: I am a child but I have my rights too!, won the 'finalist award' in the category 'best children programs' at the International New York festivals 2003.

More than 2,400 entries from television producers, stations and networks in 33 countries were entered in this year’s event. Founded in 1957, The New York Festivals ranks among the most heavily-subscribed and prestigious awards shows worldwide.

The children's radio team in Senegal

The regional radio campaign “I am a Child but I have my Rights too!” has been produced by Plan in West Africa since 1998. The show informs parents, children and authorities on their roles and responsibilities to respect children’s rights, and 30 stories promote the right to go to school, to have access to potable water (water suitable for drinking), to grow up healthy, to be protected against exploitation, etc.

The radio campaign project is broadcast in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Benin, by up to 10 radio stations in each country (including public, private, rural and community radio stations). Each country adapts the stories to its own culture.

Children's radio in Mali

The five-minute stories involve hundreds of professional comedians and children (about 600 children from 6 to 18 years). Apart from promoting and informing on child rights issues, which is the main objective, participation of children is a major component to the project. Demonstrating children in active roles, as capable agents for social change, is key to the dialogue on the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) (to read more about the CRC treaty, visit http://www.crin.org).

Children participate directly to the production but also participate to the broadcast through interviews and debates, radio contests, and by sending poems, letters and drawings.

This is not the first award for the radio campaign. In 2000, “I’m a child but I have my rights too!” won the SILVER WORLD MEDAL in the Best Children Programmes category at the International New York Festivals and is finalist at the OneWorld/UNICEF radio contest 2002 for outstanding children's radio Programs.

For more information contact please contact:

Ms Aminatou SAR - Regional Radio Campaign Coordinator, Plan 

Mimi Brazeau - Regional Media Programs Development Advisor Plan

By email: aminatou.sar@plan-international.org or mimi.brazeau@plan-international.org