World Space Satellite Rebroadcasts Begin

Ushikwapo Shikamana (If Assisted, Assist Yourself) completed five years of broadcasting at the end of June 2004. PCI partnered with First Voice International (FVI) to rebroadcast Ushikwapo on FVI’s community radio platform. FVI owns 5 percent of the capacity on the WorldSpace satellite system and is responsible for establishing the first-ever pan-African satellite radio service dedicated exclusively to open access, non-commercial, educational and social development programs. PCI and FVI began broadcasting the first season of Ushikwapo at the end of April 2005. The broadcasts run over twenty-six weeks, with four episodes airing per week.

In addition to two community radio stations in Kenya, FVI has fourteen community radio stations in Uganda and five community radio stations in Tanzania, all of which broadcast in Kiswahili. Ushikwapo is now being broadcast in all of those countries and throughout Africa to those with access to satellite radio.

The PCI/FVI partnership is following the serial drama broadcasts with on-the-ground interventions to assess and reinforce the messages in Ushikwapo. Currently, the program is being assessed in Kenya by Relief and Environmental Care Africa (RECA). RECA organized focus groups with thirty-three listener groups, representing over 1500 people, mostly women and children, predominantly from rural western and central Kenya after the first broadcast. Nearly everyone who participated in the focus groups was a first-time listener and unfamiliar with the original broadcast.

PCI and FVI were also pleased to have a representative from PSI, a giant reproductive health organization, speak at the opening ceremonies of the first re-broadcast in Kenya. This link with an organization of such magnitude is significant in that it potentially opens up opportunities for larger-scale projects to rebroadcast Ushikwapo in its entirety to connect with more listener groups, creating additional measurable indicators of the program’s efficacy.

The first feedback on the listening groups is exciting. Since the program began, there has been a steady increase in the number of listeners within various listening groups, and more people are aware of the causes of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Additionally, listeners, especially young girls, are now aware of their rights regarding the disease and other abuses, and more reticent members of the listening groups are now actively involved in public debate regarding issues highlighted in Ushikwapo. At the school level, in Mayenya (Western Kenya), the primary and secondary school created their own soap opera drama clubs to perform Ushikwapo in their local language.

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