RX Radio Case Study Notes

Introduction

  • 34% of South Africa’s population are children, but their voices are often unheard.
  • RX Radio aims to empower children and young people to express their views and contribute to decisions affecting them.
  • The case study provides an overview of children’s participation, its legal framework, approaches, and benefits.
  • It describes the RX Radio project, its objectives, outcomes, methodology, values, and guiding principles.
  • The paper concludes by addressing emerging issues and lessons learned.

Context

Children’s Participation Legal Framework

  • The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the legal framework for children’s participation:
    • Article 12: The right of children to be listened to and taken seriously.
    • Article 13: The right of children to freedom of expression.
    • Article 5: Acknowledges the evolving capacities of the child.
  • Children's participation is complex and goes beyond legal frameworks.
  • Participation varies with circumstances, including culture, age, gender, setting, and resources.
  • Implementing children’s participation initiatives is challenging and requires a shift in adult thinking and behavior.

Approaches to children’s participation

  • Gerison Lansdown (2001) grouped approaches into three categories:
    1. Consultative processes: Adults initiate processes to obtain information from children to improve legislation, policies, or services.
      • Adult-initiated, adult-led, and managed.
      • Children have no control over the outcomes.
      • Provide opportunities for organizing, skill acquisition, and influencing outcomes.
    2. Participative initiatives: Aim to strengthen democracy, create opportunities for children to understand and apply democratic principles, or involve children in the development of services and policies that impact them.
      • Initiated by adults.
      • Involve collaboration with children.
      • Involve the creation of structures through which children can challenge or influence outcomes.
      • Usually involve children taking self-directed action once the project is underway.
    3. Promoting self-advocacy: Aim to empower children to identify and fulfill their own goals and initiatives.
      • Issues of concern are identified by the children themselves.
      • The role of adults is to facilitate, not lead.
      • The process is controlled by the children.
  • Projects can evolve from one category to another.
  • RX Radio falls under the self-advocacy approach.

The benefits of children’s participation

  • Kirby, Lanyon, Cronin, and Sinclair (2003) identified three broad reasons for children’s participation:
    • Practical benefits to services: Services are more effective when they listen and respond to customers, including children.
    • Promoting citizenship and social inclusion: Engaging children early in public life builds a healthy society.
    • Personal and social education and development: Participation contributes to children’s self-worth, confidence, skills, and knowledge.

Why children’s radio?

  • Radio is a powerful tool for communication, advocacy, and development.
  • Advantages of using radio to promote children’s participation:
    • Hands-on activity.
    • Technical skills are gained.
    • Tangible outputs (radio programmes).
    • Programmes are vehicles for children to tell their stories.
    • Wide distribution to the public and target audiences.
    • Effective advocacy tool.
    • Opportunity for peer advocacy.
    • Promotes self-mastery.
    • Enhances listening, comprehension, reflection, and oral skills.
    • Skills can be used later in life and help build early career pathways.
  • Challenges include media practitioners talking on behalf of children and misrepresenting their perspectives.
  • There is a difference between media produced for children and media produced by children.
  • Children can be trained to use media to share their own stories.

Radio produced by and for children: The RX Radio experience

Background

  • RX Radio draws on experience from previous initiatives:
    • Radio Zibonele (Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa): One of the first community radio stations in South Africa. Trained children aged 6 to 12 to broadcast live.
    • Growing up in a time of AIDS: Abaqophi BakwaZisize Abakhanyayo Children's Radio Project (Ingwavuma, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa): Provided children aged 8 to 14 with the opportunity to depict their experiences of growing up in the time of AIDS. Trained children to produce broadcast-quality radio programmes.
    • Children's Voices: Film diaries (Engoyi, Northern Namibia): Children aged 8-13 made films about their life experiences.

Who we are – a brief history

  • RX Radio is an award-winning children’s radio station run by and for children operating from the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
  • It is one of the first radio stations in the world that trains child reporters to broadcast from within a hospital.
  • The idea started in 2008 with a pilot of four children, who were trained in life skills and basic radio skills.
  • The pilot was successful and allowed the review of the methodology.
  • RX Radio is now a Non-Profit Company registered under the Companies & Intellectual Property Commission and became operational as one in January 2019.

What we do

  • RX Radio gives young people the chance to build life skills and confidence.
  • It opens conversation between peers, family members, and professionals.
  • It empowers chronically ill children and their families to reconnect with the world around them.
  • RX Radio broadcasts 24/7 with live and pre-recorded programmes.
  • Children can participate in shows through song requests, dedications, live games, and prize giveaways.
  • To become an RX Radio reporter, children complete basic training: a week of workshops about important life skills (e.g. listening, storytelling), radio reporting and production skills.
  • After basic training, they have the choice to become an official RX Radio reporter.
  • They then can participate in on-going training: workshops led by staff and guest facilitators from a variety of fields.
  • RX Radio has trained 100 Child and Young Reporters (ages 4 to 18), at RCWMCH and Paarl Hospital.
  • The reporters are given the opportunity to conceptualise and build their own shows on health issues and topics that they find interesting.
  • RX Radio encourages children to express themselves in languages that make them feel comfortable and confident – which predominantly include English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans
  • Programme activities are delivered by a team of seven staff members, two interns and various volunteers.
  • Child and Young Reporters are always the ones behind the microphone, and are responsible for choosing their own music, inviting guests, preparing interviews and supporting with events.

Children’s Voices on COVID-19

  • RX Radio Reporters used WhatsApp voice-notes and other remote recording methods to gather content about the pandemic.
  • Public service announcements (PSAs) were created and interviews were conducted to give information about the Coronavirus and promote health and safety in the home during the South African National Lockdown.
  • Children shared how COVID-19 is affecting their lives and gave tips and advice for staying healthy and keeping busy.
  • This project helped children engage with adults to show them that children have a key role in tackling this pandemic.
  • RX Radio is a vehicle to open inter-generational dialogues and empower children and young people to engage with issues that affect and involve them.

RX Radio strives to:

  • Provide a safe platform for children to express themselves on issues that are important to them.
  • Improve children’s experiences of hospital and of their illness.
  • Contribute to the healing process.
  • Increase adult understanding of children’s experiences of chronic illness/hospital.
  • Inform improved health worker and hospital practice.
  • Produce quality audio programmes by children and for children that informs, educates, entertains, and promotes respect for children’s rights.
  • Build lifelong skills of the Child/Young Reporters.
  • Facilitate intergenerational dialogue between children patients, families and health workers.
  • Generate content, based on the stories produced by children, which can be used to improve the public’s awareness of specific children’s issues, as well as targeting policy- and decision-makers.

Sustainability

  • Sustainability is a key priority and is approached in a holistic way:
    • Social sustainability: Children’s participation and sense of ownership.
    • Institutional sustainability: Governance, policies, partnerships, training, and support from the hospital community.
    • Financial sustainability: Financial resources needed to keep the station running.

Institutional sustainability

  • A strong admin unit is needed to ensure that activities are managed and run smoothly.
  • Essential policies, forms, and guidelines were developed.
  • RX Radio became a separate legal entity and developed a Memorandum of Incorporation and formed a Board of Directors.
  • A Code of Conduct was put together collectively, in a participatory manner, in a workshop held with the reporters.
  • RX Radio now has a financial policy.

The key things that have made the project a success:

  • Buy in from all staff and stakeholders.
  • Strong values and principles that guide key decision making and how the station is run.
  • Ensuring that fun is had as much as possible.
  • Dedication and commitment to producing quality work and ensuring ethical considerations are always done.

Moving forward

  • RX Radio has partnered with the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health to increase the reach of the broadcasts in other public hospitals in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
  • RX Radio will be applying for low powered FM transmitter licenses to cover specific hospitals and is exploring the possibility of applying for one of the FM licences that ICASA has made available in the Western Cape.
  • RX Radio is also exploring zero rate access to data to listen to the station via internet with different service providers.
  • RX Radio is actively pursuing content syndication with community, commercial and public broadcasters.

Awards and Partnerships

  • WHO Innovation Challenge: RX Radio was one of two winners out of 140 entries worldwide for the Reboot Health and Wellbeing Innovation challenge organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, WFP, UNAIDS, and the UN.
  • SA Radio Awards: RX Radio was the recipient of three SA Radio awards to individual members of the Team (Young Reporter, Producer and Station Manager).
  • Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) Isu Elihle Awards: One of the RX Radio reporters, Luzuko Sonkapu, has made the Top 6 for the Media Monitoring Africa Isu Elihle Awards, out of 114 entries in Africa.
  • 5 Rights Foundation – RX Radio participation in the UNCRC General Comment: Children's rights in relation to the digital environment: RX Radio contributed to this publication and one of the reporters, Tarique Kenny, has been invited to be one of the panellists at the Internet Governance Forum event on the of 3rd November 2020 – where the Steering Group will discuss the General Comment.

Training Methodology used

Proven child-centred training methodologies

  • Training is fundamental for the success of the project.
  • The methodology used was developed over the last 15 years, was tested in a variety of different settings, and has been implemented in South Africa and Namibia.
  • The methodology used is broadly based on the following:
    • A participatory child-centred approach is used as the vehicle through which the needs of the ‘whole child’ are addressed. Children are active participants in the learning process.
    • The projects combine child-centred learning and participatory media techniques in its approach to advancing children’s rights.
    • The children decide on the issues that they want to address.
    • Training programs are planned and developed based on children’s developmental needs and interests. The workshops are based on free play in a stimulating and safe environment. The concept of the ‘whole child’ approach ensures that children develop physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and cognitively during exposure to and involvement in the workshops.
  • The children’s basic radio training workshops are mainly facilitated over a period of five days and the objectives are as follows:
    • developing trust amongst children, and between children and facilitators
    • learning to work in a group
    • developing listening skills
    • developing confidence and assertiveness to speak in public
    • developing the children’s skills in developing oral histories, and narratives
    • exploring what are the most common problems/issues that affect them
    • understanding the concept and meaning of rights
    • creating awareness about children’s rights
    • exploring which personal narratives children would like to tell
    • preparing children for the media workshop process
    • learning communication and interviewing skills
    • learning listening skills, and the role of sound in producing radio
    • learning technical radio production skills, including the use of recording equipment and the elements of producing radio programmes
    • recording their personal radio narratives/radio diaries

Advanced ongoing radio training

  • Ongoing advanced radio training is a fundamental pillar of the training programme at RX Radio and plays a developmental role in the lives of the Child/Young Reporters.
  • The RX Radio ongoing training serves as an opportunity for the reporters to further develop their skills relating to their participation with radio.
  • The training consists of formal workshops and in-house training to hone their technical and life skills.
  • Beyond their training relating to the mechanisms of radio, another aspect of the in-house ongoing training is for the reporters to become facilitators of the RX Radio basic training.

Guiding values and principles

  • The following guiding values and principles frame the establishment and implementation of RX Radio:
    • To uphold and promote children’s rights to expression, participation and involvement in decision-making as a central element of RX Radio.
    • To promote the concept of the whole child.
    • To promote learning through first-hand experience and fun, though play, games and artwork.
    • To encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills in all the children participating, through appropriate activities
    • To affirm children participating in the project in their own culture, language, religion, and socio-economic background.
    • To go through a thorough process of informed consent with the children and their parents/caregivers participating in the activities of the radio station.
    • To gain the buy-in and ongoing support of parents/caregivers of the children participating in the radio as well as the broader hospital community.
    • To succeed, the programme requires a shift in paradigm at philosophical, conceptual, strategic and functional levels, and which results in the development of a supportive environment that protects and enhances the rights of children participating, supported by the concept of the whole child and a child-centred approach.

Ethical considerations

  • It is important to be aware of the delicate balance between the right of the child to be protected and right of the child to participate.
  • Access to support mechanisms for children needs to be provided to ensure that children are able to progress without undue stress and in a safe environment.
  • For the children involved in the radio, due and proper consent processes apply as a crucial prerequisite for the children’s participation in the project.
  • Programmes need to ensure that all caregivers are well informed of the project through meetings and workshops so that they can participate and ask questions to enable informed decisions in considering the participation of each child in the programmes.
  • Formal consent forms are signed by caregivers and the children.

Emerging issues and lessons learned

  • Through the planning and implementation of RX Radio, a number of issues emerged and lessons were learned.
  • Various issues are highlighted as valuable for the planning and implementation of similar projects, including:
    • Creation of safe and enabling environments to work with children. A crucial prerequisite for successful participation.
    • The development of child centered methodologies for training.
    • The need to train adult facilitators to work effectively with children.
    • The need to work in parallel with the parents/caregivers of the children.
    • Applying selection criteria for the children to participate in the projects.
    • RX Radio’s developmental role: Lifelong skills are being developed in the Children/Young Reporters and supporting them in planning their career paths.
    • Children’s ownership and participation: RX Radio strives to be a radio station led by the children themselves.
    • The power and magic of the mic: This refers to the transformation that is often observed when the children have access to a microphone to interview and talk with adults.
    • Bringing together the hospital community: RX Radio is helping to develop a positive environment in the hospital community by providing the opportunity and the platform for child patients, families and health professionals to engage in an ongoing inter-generational dialogue.
    • Improve health care delivery: Children’s voices are helping to influence the way that health professionals communicate with children.

Summary of the benefits observed on the children, organizations and communities adjudicated to RX Radio

Measuring the impact:

  • An exploratory qualitative study from Stellenbosch University provides support for the RX Radio model as a tool that positively contributes to patients’ lives.

Benefits related to the children themselves

  • Dignity and respect: Through their participation in the workshops and their own production of media programmes, children gained a sense of dignity and respect.
  • Enhanced well being: The media programmes helped to break the silence and for the first time children were able to find out the truth.
  • Contribution to gaining life skills and leadership development that can be built on and used in life: There was evidence from teachers and parents that through their participation in the projects, the children improved their communication skills and became more effective communicators.
  • Able to take informed decisions: Children made decisions about a number of issues.
  • Promoting democratic citizenship: It was interesting to observe how children developed a sense of team and how they operated when taking decisions that affected the group as a whole.
  • Gaining a better understanding of own health needs and encouraged the children to take responsibility for their own health: In doing so they gained awareness, information and knowledge that gave them a better understanding on the impact of health in their communities and increased responsibility for their own health.
  • Educational benefits: Children gained listening, comprehension, reflection, oral skills, language usage and enhanced personal leadership skills. Parents/caregivers, health workers and teachers reported that they could see positive changes at home and at school in the children’s performances and behaviour.
  • Technical skills benefits and early opportunity to provide career pathway and interest options, including ideas for their life’s journey: In a short period of time children mastered the use of equipment such as field recorders, video and photographic cameras.
  • Capturing the interest of children through a hands-on activity: A key advantage of using media as a tool for meaningful children’s participation is that this approach captures the interest of the children immediately

Benefits related to the children’s parents and families

  • Caregivers realized the importance of talking and listening to the children under their care.

Benefits related to the organizations and individuals involved in the project

  • A common comment across the individuals that participated in RX Radio is the learnings gained and the personal growth and enrichment experienced.

Benefits related to the communities in which the project was implemented

  • The field recorder enabled children and adults to converse in a way that both parties found comfortable.

Benefits related to the advocacy component of RX Radio

  • Advocacy materials were produced to improve public awareness of specific children’s issues targeting policy and decision makers, donors, and the public in general to take into account the issues raised by the children through their media programmes.

Suggested good practice when implementing children’s participation initiatives

  • Based on the lessons learned through the initiative described and others, the following guidelines for good practice are suggested when developing and implementing children’s participation initiatives:
    • Get to know the children that will participate in the project. Understand their context, their capacity, motivations, interests and how they perceive issues.
    • Project strategies for children’s participation should incorporate and build on supportive local structures, traditions, knowledge and practice that involve children.
    • Involve children in project design as early as possible. This will help to develop ownership, learning and commitment from an early stage.
    • All stakeholders to agree on the purpose and benefits of children’s participation. The decision about the level and nature of children’s participation should involve all project stakeholders including children.
    • Assume child capacities and competencies to participate. Age–based assumptions could be misleading. To some degree it is important to assume the competence of children to participate in and focus on the type of support they need to enable them to participate meaningfully.
    • Focus on child-centered methodologies to facilitate participation.
    • Support adult stakeholders in developing their capacities to support children and implement meaningful participation.
    • Ensure that there is appropriate support and essential referral services available for children that participate in specific projects. Ethical considerations and child protection issues should be considered. It is imperative that the physical and emotional wellbeing of the children involved is ensured throughout the project as well as after the project ends.
    • Manage flexibly, document the processes and be open to learn. There are many ways of facilitating children’s participation. There is no single model that suits all contexts and situations. It is important to be able to adapt and change according to the specific circumstances and situations. Each project should be a learning process that is well documented so that this can be shared as well as contribute to the knowledge and practice in the field of children’s participation.

References

  • Chawla, L. 2001. “Evaluating children’s participation: seeking areas of consensus” PLA Notes 42, IIED London.
  • Hall, K. 2019. “Demography: Children in South Africa”. Children Count. University of Cape Town, South Africa. http://childrencount.uct.ac.za/indicator.php?domain=1&indicator=1
  • Lansdown, G. 2005. Innocenti Insight “The evolving capacities of the child”. United Nations Children’s Fund.
  • Melton, G.B. 1999. “Parents and children: legal reform to facilitate children’s participation”. American Psychologist, 54 (11), 932-934