Radio Scriptwriting Course on Healthy Communities

August 16^th is the start date for the online course on healthy communities and it’s coming up fast! If you haven’t signed up for this year’s competition and course yet you need to do so before Friday August 20 if you want to participate.

Please go to www.scriptcompetition.farmradio.org to sign up

The Sansa MP3-player awarded to participants who complete the online course.

All participants who complete the online course for the Radio Scriptwriting Competition on Healthy Communities will receive a certificate and a Sansa MP3-player with built-in microphone and radio. Broadcasters can use this little device in the field to record interviews with farmers and other community members.

To be eligible for the prize and certificate, you must complete all course assignments. This includes submitting your story idea and focus statement, the team tasks, and the quizzes. You must also submit your script at the end of the course.

So don’t wait any longer. Sign up now for the competition and the online course. The online course starts on August 16th 2010.

What is an RSS newsfeed?

RSS means “Really simple syndication”.  It is a simple way for you to get a quick list of latest story headlines from websites and blogs as soon as it is published, without having to visit the websites or blogs.

The benefits of the RSS newsfeed on the blog site:

As a way to help you save time online and to provide a quick list of latest health stories in Sub-Saharan Africa, Farm Radio International in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning has created a health newsfeed on our blog site.

It gathers all the headlines of current stories on Health, from different websites, so you don’t have to spend hours online searching for this information.

The Health newsfeed is definitely a time saver!

How to use the RSS newsfeed on the blog site

To access the health newsfeed, you have two options:

1-      You can click on the RSS symbol “HEALTH NEWS” located on the right side of the competition page. This will take you directly to the health newsfeed page; or

2-      You can check the headlines which will be featured daily in the newsfeed just below the title “HEALTH NEWS”.  If the headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline and you can read the whole story.

*Please visit the RSS feed on the blog site, to learn more about Health news in sub-Saharan Africa.

Please indicate when you sign up that you want the CD-ROM version. And remember to include your mailing address.

Sign Up Now

An online training course, starting August 16, will help participants write their scripts before the competition deadline of November 1, 2010. A number of prizes will be awarded to the authors of winning scripts. The best scripts will be published in English and French and distributed to hundreds’ of radio organizations across sub-Saharan Africa.

We invite you to sign up for the competition!

Press Release (PDF): Launching of the Competition

Andreas Mandler
Andreas Mandler is a social scientist, specializing in the fields of Communication for Development, Agricultural Advisory Services, and Rural Radio. He has a constant passion for radio and worked earlier as a freelance radio journalist for German broadcasting stations.

Bernard Pelletier
Bernard Pelletier is a faculty lecturer and research associate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University. Bernard has conducted research on the impact of small-scale farming practices on soil quality and crop yield in Malawi, using participatory and ecological techniques. His research interests focus on the development of methodologies and approaches (participatory, integrated environmental assessment, spatial and multi-scale modeling) to study complex social-ecological systems. Bernard also works as a consultant to a project in Haiti which aims to increase the capacity of local institutions/organizations to support rice and vegetable farmers in the Artibonite Valley.

David Gutnick
David Gutnick has worked with CBC Radio as a writer-broadcaster since the mid-1980s. One of David’s passions is finding alternative ways to tell stories on the radio.

Ibrahima Sané
Ibrahima Sané is an international consultant in communication for sustainable development. His skills include: participatory assessment of community projects, evaluation, communication planning, operational planning, facilitation methods, training in media practices, and conception and evaluation of media campaigns. Dr. Sané worked for four years as a radio producer and broadcaster for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Bush house, London, and has ten years of experience in media management as director of the Senegalese national radio network.

Liliane Kambirigi
Liliane Kambirigi began working at FAO in 1991 as an Information Officer for the Communication Division, where she specializes in radio production and media relations with broadcasters at the community, national and international level. She is responsible for overall radio activities, work and plans within the Communication Division’s yearly Corporation Communication Strategies. She travels to development and agricultural project sites in developing countries to collect radio/media material for worldwide dissemination, and contributes multimedia programmes – web articles, slide shows, audio-visual scripts, photos, etc. – for distribution to traditional and modern media, educational institutions, NGOs, UN agencies, and donors. Before working at FAO, she was the Director of the National Radio in Burundi.

Luca Servo
Luca Servo is a New Media and Web Communication expert with many years in-depth experience of Online Communities and Knowledge Management. He is currently supporting the Communication for Development Service of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for rural radio projects, as well as the CSDI ComDev Platforms network.

Congratulations to John Cheburet, a journalist from The Organic Farmer, a magazine and a radio show aired on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, who won first prize in an Africa-wide scriptwriting competition on smallholder farmer innovation. Fourteen other radio broadcasters and producers also won prizes for their entries.

In July 2009, radio professionals from across sub-Saharan Africa were invited to submit a radio script about an innovative smallholder farmer in their area. To help participants develop their scripts, they were encouraged to participate in a free two-month online training course on scriptwriting. Eighty-two entries were received from 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

The first-prize winner impressed an international panel of judges with his script about an innovative Kenyan farmer who uses sawdust to lengthen the storage period of Irish potatoes. His prize is a study visit at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. This award is sponsored by FAO.

Lydia Ajono from the Ghana Community Radio Network won the award for the best entry by a community radio broadcaster for her script about a woman farmer who grows henna plants and sells them for processing into dyes and cosmetics. The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) will sponsor her trip to the AMARC 10 conference, to be held in Argentina in November 2010. Rosemary Nyaole-Kowuor from Shine FM in Kenya received the Marie Coulibaly Award for the top entry by a woman for her script on sack farming. Sack farming involves putting soil and composted materials into a plastic bag and growing vegetables in the “sack.” This is a very useful innovation for those without land. She will receive a certificate recognizing her achievement.

All 15 winners will receive high quality digital audio recorders sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa. Winners will also work with Farm Radio International’s managing editor, using feedback received from contest judges, to improve and finalize their scripts. The 15 winning scripts will then be published in French and English and distributed by Farm Radio International to approximately 500 radio organizations across sub-Saharan Africa. They will then be transformed into a wide variety of programs and shared with a rural audience of millions of farmers.

The winners and script titles in alphabetical order by country are:

• Felix Houinsou, Benin -Using weaver ants to protect fruit trees frompests
• Issakou Yagui Assouma, Benin -Crush the maize stalk to preserve the grains
• Adama Zongo, Burkina Faso -The pump mill
• LydiaAjono, Ghana -The miracle local plant “zabila/lelle” or henna plant: The turning point for food security for a smallholder woman farmer in northern Ghana
• Gabriel Adukpo, Ghana -A farmer suffocates stem borers to death and saves his cocoa farm
• Rosemond Ohene, Ghana-A farmer protects his young oil palm seedlings from rodents with jatropha
• John Cheburet, Kenya -Sawdust prolongs the storage life of potatoes
• StanleyNyakwana Ongwae, Kenya -Women re-invent hanging gardens technology to solve land crisis
• Rosemary Nyaole-Kowuor, Kenya -Sack farming: Unlimited vegetable harvest
• Fredrick Mariwa, Kenya -A local farmer in Kenya uses water hyacinth to produce chicken feed
• Andrew Mahiyu, Malawi -Innovative farmer uses animal dung to protect his crops by fending off hungry goats
• Gladson Makowa, Malawi-What fattens pigs is still a mystery
• Lamine Togola, Mali -Composting, the best practice for improving soil fertility: The case of Dien
• Assétou Sidibe, Mali- Scarecrows and cassette tapes protect rice fields from predatory birds
• Lazarus Laiser, Tanzania- Transforming bicycles into a vehicle of innovation

Farm Radio International carried out the scriptwriting competition in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), UNESCO, FAO, the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Donner Foundation, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), IPS Africa, and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).

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For more information about the competition and winners, contact:

Blythe McKay, Development Communication Coordinator, Farm Radio International, bmckay@farmradio.org or 613-761-3652.

Anane Gbadago
Andrew Mahiyu
Andrews Osler
Daniel Osei-Bonsu
Dereje Moges
Fredrick Mariwa
Fredrick Mugira
Gabriel Adukpo
George Katongole
Gladson Makowa
Happiness Mnyachibwe
Ismaila Senghore
Jefferson Massah
John Cheburet
Justin Boswell Oryema
Khadija Chembe
Lazarus Laiser
Lilian Manyuka
Lucas Kulwa
Lydia Amy Ajono
Mary Yongolo
Monica Mandala
Odong James
Petronillah Simwenyi
Pius Sawa
Robinson Wikana
Rosemary Nyaole-Kowuor
Rosemond Ohene
Rotshak Wakdet
Sachia Ngutsav
Samuel Okocha
Sawuratu Alhassan
Susuma Susuma
Tiwonge Ng’ona

Stay tuned for mid-January when we will be announcing the winners of the scriptwriting competition!!

Thanks to those who submitted entries for the competition. To make sure we received your entry please check that your name is on the following list. If you sent us an entry but you do not see your name please contact Blythe Mckay at with your entry by Friday November 6 at the latest.

list of people who submitted scripts:

Andrew Mahiyu

Andrews Osler

Dereje Moges

Fidele Niyigaba

Filius Chalo Jere

Fr. Bento DeSOuza

Fredrick Mariwa

Fredrick Mugira

Gabriel Adukpo

George Katongole

Gladson Makowa

Happiness Mnyachibwe

Ismaila Senghore

James Odong

Jefferson Massah

John Cheburet

Justin Boswell Oryema

Kwabena Agyei

Lazarus Laiser

Lilian Manyuka

linus fiakeye

Lucas Kulwa

Lydia Ajono

Monica Madala

Peter Labeja

Petronillah Simwenyi

Philip Nana Koah

Phinehas Udoeyo

Pius Sawa

Rachel Awuor

Richard Elorm Ovulley/Dennis Eghan

Robinson Wikana

Rosemary Nyaole

Rosemond Ohene

Rotshak Wakdet

Samual Asaase-Kwaw

Sawuratu Alhassan

Stanley Nyakwana Ongwae

Susuma Susuma

Suwie A. Regina

If you have been participating in the online course, you can submit your script online. Here’s how: Log into the Scriptwriting Competition Course on Moodle, go to the last module (Module 6), and click on “Submit your script for the competition here.” Upload the file with your script, and you’re done!

If you have not been taking the online course, you can submit your script by e-mail to:  

Remember that, as well as receiving valuable feedback on your scriptwriting skills, you may win one of our valuable prizes. Each of the 15 winners will receive an Olympus LS-10 audio recorder. One lucky winner will have the opportunity to travel to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome for a 3-5 day training visit in 2010. Finally, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) is sponsoring an award for the best entry by a community radio broadcaster. The winner will have the opportunity to participate in the AMARC 10 conference, to be held in Argentina in 2010.

If you have any questions about your submissions, please send an email to Blythe McKay:  

We look forward to reading your final scripts. Good luck!!!