Women on the Global Airwaves is a podcast series bringing you stories from around the world. The stories are brought to you by me, Birgitte Jallov, who has worked in this area for a lifetime. In many realities women’s voices are among those least heard and women are often not being respected with equal access to their human rights.
Women in community radio anre working to change these narratives and realities. They ensure that women’s voices and stories and sharing their life and realities in the public, increasing the respect and space.
Impact assessments of community media on different continents and in different realities have shown that when community media break the silence, unhealthy traditions change. It takes some time, but it happens. One of the most prominent impacts I have found when working in communities everywhere is, that violence against women and children has decreased, and that women have begun to have a more active, visible and respected role in the community.
In this podcast series the community radio women will, themselves, identify and document their experiences with community media as platforms and channels for empowering women and increasing women’s role in the concrete communities and in consequence thereof, in society in general. And the podcasts seek answers to why and how – or why not?
1983– Birgitte, a young volunteer in the women’s radio ‘Women Waves’
Birgitte’s work with community media happens in many different ways – as policy advice to governments, media organisations and development funders, as an adviser and trainer, designing capacity building processes, as an evaluator documenting community media impact, as an activist advancing the space for and understanding of community media. And no matter how Birgitte works with all this, the space for and rights of women and girls is always a part of it.