Young German and African Journalists Foster Ties

Young German and African Journalists Foster Ties

radio+ is a student journalism project. By working together in radio, participants from Harare and Berlin hope to help sweep away prejudice and misconceptions, both among themselves and in the wider world.

Even in this age of online services and global television, radio is still a widely-used medium, both in Africa and Germany.

radio+ is run by the Go Germany Alumni Association (GOAL) which was founded in 2011 and has the backing of Germany's Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The project is arranging joint training in radio for journalism students from Harare and Berlin. It is being run by Agnes Leder, who told DW that about a dozen students from Africa and a dozen from Germany will be taking part

"We have two to three weeks all together here in Germany and then we go to an African country there we also have two to three weeks," she said.

The students will learn how to produce radio jingles, develop content for radio and how to structure a radio show. They will be able to hone their editorial and linguistic skills and receive microphone training.

At the end of the training, the journalism students will have the opportunity to produce their own shows, which will then be aired by partner stations in Germany and Zimbabwe.

Personal motivation

When asked why she was organizing this project, Agnes Leder spoke glowingly of an earlier exchange scheme with South Africa in which she had personally participated.

"We met a lot of students and I had the experience that radio is a media which is still a lot used in Africa, especially in South Africa. I thought that this would be a really nice idea to give young students the opportunity to make their own features."

Yet getting such a big project on its feet isn't easy. One of the Zimbabwean organizers is Nyasha Frank Mpahlo. He told DW that the biggest difficulty they face so far has been financial resources, but he insists that "there's been so much commitment from the group members of this organization, no matter the distance."

He also says they have a challenge with the radio stations they have been approaching for assistance. "But we have also been able to get community radio stations and university radio stations to support this project."

Last year the radio+ team received a civic engagement prize from Germany's respected Friedrich Ebert Foundation.