Kids Waves is a weekly programme of 30 minutes produced and broadcast in eight countries in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) in several languages.
This project forms part of the continuation of the radio campaign "I am a child but I have my rights too !" which has been led in nine West African countries since 1998.
Each programme shows one of the many child rights (education, health, protection, free time, early marriage, etc, which are explained to listeners as well as children‘s responsibilities and those around them. Fifty-five radio stations (community, rural, private and national) broadcast programmes and each week twelve children are trained in production and hosting radio programmes.
In Senegal, Kids Waves is called Radio Gune Yi. Created in 1995, it’s one of Plan’s first radio projects in the world. Kids Waves is called Deviwo Be Radio in Togo, Bibir Radio in Burkina Faso, Eto Dodo Deviwo in Benin, Denmisenw Kun Kan in Mali, La Voix de Finda et Alpha in Guinea and Pikin Dem Voice in Sierra Leone.
Since 2004, Kids Waves has travelled throughout West Africa, involving thousands of children, more than fifty stations, "travelling" from village to village to promote child rights. This regional project allows children and young people to express themselves to their communities, to entertain their parents, friends, local authorities and adults whilst raising awareness among them all on diverse questions relative to child rights and responsibilities, as well as responsibilities that parents, authorities and adults have regarding these rights.
Until now many thousands of listeners have been reached and around 2000 people take part in the recording of each programme. The different programme jingles as well as songs promoting child rights were produced by young musicians.
The itinerant nature of the programme and its live recording are a way to gather parents, authorities, opinion leaders and cultural actors to discuss subjects that children find significant and interesting.
Some figures for the year 2008 :
- Close to 5000 young people were directly involved and acquiring life skills to improve children lives in their communities
- 2500 radio shows were produced in 10 countries with 110 radio partners
- Millions of listeners in West Africa
To learn more about Kids Waves
Read the presentation pager and the Annual report 2008.
Read the Press Kit 2008
This project is funded by Nokia
Documents to be consulted :
