Swazi TV campaigning for safe education_ Swazi TV_ August 2016

Name of the story: Swazi TV campaigning for safe education

Name of the station: Swazi TV

Country: Swaziland

If you have sent the artefact by courier to

The Gender and Media Summit Administrator

9 Derrick Avenue

Cyrildene

Johannesburg 2198

South Africa

Synopsis

Brief description of the item of work you submitted and motivation of why it is a good example of gender awareness and sensitivity in advancing gender equality Post-2015.

Due to research and global survey, it is still very difficult for millions to receive safe education. The global theme of the 16 Days Campaign in 2015 was “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All!” This theme recognizes the dismal situation for millions of girls and boys, and young women and men, whose universal human right to education is daily impacted or cut short due to violence, lack of resources, and discrimination.

Therefore as Swazi TV we find it to be our obligation to focus on the precarious situation of education for girls and boys, young women and men through yearly programs titled “These Hands’ throughout the 16 Days Campaign. These Hands is an annual program produced specially for 16 days of Activism against Woman and Children. A program is both educational and informative.

The campaign takes place annually between 25th November and 10th December. The Key dates include 25 November: International Day of No Violence against Women, 1 December: World AIDS Day; 3 December: International Day for the Disabled; 10 December: Human Rights Day. The program ‘These Hands’ is played daily throughout the 16 days campaign covering the above themes/topics on how they all relate to Gender Base Violence.

Every year ‘These Hands” is produced with a different genre; in 2014 we produced the programs as a talk show and in 2015 “These Hands” was a series of 16 titled documentaries. The series of documentaries included interviews with different organizations in Swaziland who work together to combat the fight for both women and children; Nercha, Woman in Law, Royal Swaziland Police, SWAGAA, Conference of Churches, Khulisa Umtfana (Raising a Child) etc.

Background

Why did you produce the story? What problem or context is it responding to?

These Hands was produced with the focus to end violence against women and children in our country through education and in formativeness; by raising awareness, using innovative and community driven content and interviews, about harmful traditional practices. Practices as abused polygamy, child Marriages, sexual violence, physical and mental violence against women and girls even including boy. It Provide a platform for women and girls to raise their voices on gender based violence issues and HIV/AIDS also provide an awareness to how gender based violence is directly linked to disability by giving people living with disability and those living with disable person a voice to share their stories.

Ensure mass mobilization of all communities to promote collective responsibility in the fight to eradicate violence against women and children. By Combining technology, social media, the arts, journalism, religion, culture and customs, business and activism to draw attention to the many ways that violence against woman and children affects the lives of all people in all communities around the world not just Swaziland.

Key objectives

What did you hope to achieve with this coverage?

Violence takes many different forms and is vastly linked with HIV/AIDS, disability, human rights, abuse of tradition and religion.

Therefore with this coverage we wanted to attract all Swazis to be active participants in the fight to eradicate violence against women and children; hence the program name These Hands, to emphasize the fact that the solution lies within all of us.

Furthermore, to encourage society to recognize that violence against women and children is NOT a government or criminal justice system problem only, but a societal problem, and that failure to view it as this curse in our communities.

Targets audience

Whom did you hope to reach? Did you succeed in reaching this audience? What evidence do you have to that effect?

The documentary was targeted for women and men both young and old, between the ages of 18-50 years of age with target of

50% women and 50% men. The target audience is so broad because of the topics the documentaries tapped on were highlights of the 16 days campaign. These Hands documentaries reflects on issues touching each and every one in a family setup complete education and information through relevant stories about today’s relationships, all told with diversity, passion, heart. The primary target audience comes from rural to middle class background. The reason being they are familiar with these topics (HIV/AIDS, disability, gender based violence, human rights etc.) through experience, education or background.

Because Swazi TV does not have a way to monitor or receive feedback from what we broadcast, we cannot provide evidence of impact and accept through spoken compliments. Though we do know that the impact the documentary made was positive, for our viewers and especially our profiled interviewees both personally and business wise.

How did you go about producing the programme?

How did you gather the data, how many sources, female and male did you consult? Why did you choose these sources and how were their voices important?

These Hands is a series of documentaries therefore, we used different sources, both male and female talking heads that are aspects in their field. For example, on the topic of disability we interviewed a mother living with his disabled son, a Physiotherapist, an award winning disabled carver and Matron of a disability-training centre.

In gathering data, we first identified the issues we wanted to concentrate on, and then conducted a review of all policies, practices and procedures applicable to the issues we were concentrating. That was followed by Selecting issues and opportunities and we then set goals in terms of what we wanted to achieve with each issue. There after we planned an approach and method of executing different interviews (drafting guideline questions). Once that is done we then go out and collect the data (do interviews) with the different organisations and people. Thereafter come back and place data together to form edit and tell the story through voice-over, pictures and interviews (Analyse and interpret data).

Feedback

What impact did it have? What evidence do you have to illustrate impact?

Please provide any examples of feedback that you received from the articles (from websites, letters, etc.)

We did have whatsapp group we opened for the show to discuss what should be done after people had watched each episode. “Establishing effective outreach and education programs that target both women and men from early childhood” Phumlile Gwebu-76509310 “passing legislation that specifically addresses gender-based violence and establishing a system of oversight to make sure the laws are enforced”.

Lwazi Dlamini-76772177 “ensuring the participation of women in all areas of society and supporting the appointment of women to leadership positions at the local, national, and international levels”. Nqobile Dlamini-76363632 (translated) “providing ongoing training to police, judicial staff, and medical staff, who are the primary sources of protection and support for women and girls in crisis” Nozibele Bujela- 76037388 “making the prevention of violence against women and girls a political priority on the international, national, and local levels” Melusi- 78023782

Attach all relevant feedback documentation here:

Follow up

How would you conduct a follow up to your story and why?

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women and children as any act of gender based violence that results in physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women. These includes threats such as acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life” (UN Women, 2012).

These Hands is a series of documentaries that highlight key issues surrounded and contribute to Gender Based Violence. The topics and issues touch on the current situation in our country and globally in terms of where we from, where we are and what do we want to achieve both in our communities and in legislation/policies regarding human rights issues.

Therefore follow up will definitely be working together as production department together with the newsroom to follow humanitarian stories through the year leading to our next 16 days campaign program broadcast. By following stories of human rights, HIV/AIDS, gender based violence; disability etc. monitors organizations, government and the community in terms of the work that is being done for the overall agenda of zero Violence against women and children plus eliminating discrimination when it comes to HIV/AIDS and disability. Following up on these issues throughout the year, we keep tabs and are part of our research for our next program to be more informative, educational and in-depth.

Gender-based violence is not the result of random, individual acts. It is deeply rooted in the unequal power relations between men and women, as well as in cultural and social norms that encourage discrimination against women and girls and the violation of their human rights.