ZIYASONGWA, IT'S A WRAP!

On Tuesday we had a debriefing session with uMthathi, this was our last meeting as we are letting go of the handle bars of the bicycle. The meeting went well, in the meeting we discussed what we (students) have achieved so far in terms of generating content for uMthathi. It became pretty clear that we have managed to create a lot of things, for instance we have designed a poster for uMthathi as a way of advertising for the project. We have managed to record PSAs, adverts, stings and the how to’s. In the meeting, me, Alex and Chris told Xoliswa and Sicelo that we are going to put everything we have created-including all the shows- in one CD so that they can keep this for future purposes. Xoliswa liked the idea and she even asked us to make a separate copy for her.

We also used this time to discuss what worked and what did not work. Xoliswa and Sicelo said so far, they cannot think of anything that we have not done in terms of giving the project exposure and also advertising for them. Shockingly Sicelo told us that he did not know that we were leaving them to do things on their own. He thought that there was another group of students coming after us. I find this very shocking because during the course of the journey we kept reminding them that they must learn to do things themselves whilst we are around so that they won’t suffer when we are no longer there. I guess he did not understand that, he thought that we were leaving but another group is going to come after us. In retrospect I think Sicelo is the only one who did not know because if my memory serves me well; a couple of weeks ago Xoliswa asked us “when are you guys leaving?” this means she knew that we were leaving. We (students) however explained it properly to both of them and they understood.

In the meeting, we (students) also emphasized the fact that they must know that the slot that they have at Radio Grahamstown is theirs, it is for uMthathi. They can therefore do anything they want, they can discuss any topics that they want to discuss but they need to negotiate and communicate with Thenjiwe so that she will know what their plans are. We told Xoliswa and Sicelo that, the slot is theirs; they must not feel threatened by anything or anybody. I saw smiles on their faces after we told them this, it became clear to me that they were not aware of the fact that they have to take charge and be in control. This signals the value, importance and above all how necessary it was for us to have this meeting because we all got a chance to sit down and clarify things to each other. When we asked Xoliswa and Sicelo what is it that they wish the next group could do differently, they said they cannot think of anything for now but they will let us know so that the next group will follow up on that.

In terms of what still needs to be done, Alex, Chris and myself said they must try as much as they can to find people from the community who have benefited from the project. People who have been helped by uMthathi to open or enhance their small or big businesses, with that said last Friday we managed to have community members as studio guests. There were four of them, and they talked about their experiences and their feelings on the project. This was great because it was very nice to hear their different views and experiences. We (students) however suggested that next time they must minimise the number of studio guests because we noticed that due to time, they could not talk freely and they did not talk about everything. Sicelo agreed and he said he likes the idea because he also noticed that there was not enough time for each person to share his or her story.

What also came up in the meeting is the importance of communication, me, Alex and Chris suggested that since we are no longer going to be there as mediators; they must make sure that they keep communication going. This is very important. We then suggested that they must at least call Thenjiwe once a week and update her about their plans for the next show, the guests and the topic to be discussed. Xoliswa agreed and she said she will try her best. Communication is a key factor, if they master this; surely they are going to work very well together. For the next group of students, I think from the word go, they must emphasize on the importance of communication. They must be strict in terms of how they want things to go, and most importantly from the beginning they must sit back and let them drive everything so that it won’t be difficult for the uMthathi people to continue on their own.

Last Friday, we had a debriefing session where students and their community partners met to talk about different things and to also wrap up everything. I am disappointed because we (Chris, Alex and I) presented without anyone from uMthathi or Radio Grahamstown present. Xoliswa had lots of meetings to attend and Thenjiwe agreed to meet but she forgot to come. This was a bit disappointing but we presented nonetheless. We presented in front of Shireen Badat from Upstart (community project), Masixole Mdingane, Rhodes music radio station manager and our fellow classmates. They all gave us great feedback, they applaud us for the great work that we have done.

Before the presentation, whilst we were at Radio Grahamstown for our last show, Thenjiwe thanked us and she gave us an opportunity to say goodbye to the listeners. She told her listeners that we were working behind the scenes and that we are the ones who made the Masakhane feature possible. This was a very nice.

Well, I cannot believe that we have come to the end of this journey. It has been wonderful. I recall what I wrote in my very first blog about the project; where I said I am looking forward to everything that is going to happen. Indeed I have enjoyed every part of it. Even though there were days when I felt as if what we are trying to facilitate is not making any progress but I have come to understand that those were the strongest parts. Here we are now, we persevered and indeed our perseverance was worth it.  

I am very happy with what we (Alex, Chris and I) have managed to do. We said we wanted to produce audio for the uMthathi project and we have managed to do that. On that note let me jump in and say, I am so happy, actually I am extremely happy that we have managed to record the PSAs with members of the community. As I have previously mentioned, on Friday we had about four community members as studio guests. They were there to talk about their personal experiences and what they have learnt from uMthathi. This is what I have always wanted for the rest of this semester so that even other members of the society will see how uMthathi can help them, and how the project can change their lives.

So after the show we asked all four of them to record the PSAs, I first explained to them what they need to say. That went well. What a good way to end the project, at least we have something that we can pride ourselves with. Me, Alex and Chris have worked hard to make things happen. As facilitators I think we have done our job because we have managed to build a relationship between uMthathi Community Project and Radio Grahamstown. Of course we did not do this alone; we managed to pull this through with the help of our partners, uMthathi and Radio Grahamstown. I must applaud Thenjiwe for a job well done; I must applaud her for giving the Masakhane a chance on her show and for allowing the show to be broadcast in the station. Special thanks go to uMthathi for working very well with us. They were very co-operative, they know what they want and they also value their work.

I must say, even though our partnership officially ends here, I will continue to go to Radio Grahamstown every Friday to listen to the show and to just keep the relationship going. Not as a journalist, not as a student but as ordinary Pumeza Zaza Mabusela. I have worked very hard, I refuse to let go.

THE WAY FORWARD>>>>>>

We have got only two Fridays left with our community partners, the uMthathi Community Project. It has been a rough but controllable ride. As a team (students, uMthathi and Radio Grahamstown) we have managed to form a good relationship and we have improved a lot communication wise. Even though we have improved a lot, I think this is still one amongst the important things that Thenjiwe and Xoliswa have to master when me, Alex and Chris step back. In every partnership communication is the main important thing; this is what holds the relationship together. For now I think we have managed to create a bond between Radio Grahamstown and uMthathi, I think we have done a great job as facilitators in this whole process.

I think the fact that we went home for two weeks (April vacation) helped build a good relationship between these two organisations. I say this because I see that Thenjiwe and Xoliswa’s interaction has changed. I can tell that they understand each other better now.

Looking back, what we have done so far: we have produced a running order for the Masakhane feature on the Masabelane show. With that said, I have noticed that at first they used the running order quite strictly but now they kind of do things their own way (presenters). For instance, according to the running order they are supposed to play one song but they play two songs now. I think we need to have a conversation with Thenjiwe and remind her to stick to the running order. This running order is important because this is what we (uMthathi and students) agreed on and Thenjiwe also did not have a problem with it. I therefore do not see why this should change. In terms of the sting and the jingle for the show; we should remind Thenjiwe to also play it outside of the Masakhane slot. I think this has a potential of drawing more listeners to listen to the show.

We have also managed to create a poster to advertise the show. This is important because people will be able to see at what time the show airs, and what the show is all about. I think what we need to emphasise on before we let go is the importance of communication. They must communicate with each other at least two times a week, in terms of confirming studio guests and the topic to be discussed in the show. Since we created an advert and we are working on the PSAs, I think we need to talk to Thenjiwe about this, and ask her- as acting station manager- to ask presenters from other shows to also play these in their own shows.

As student facilitators before we leave, I think we need to sit down with both Thenjiwe and Xoliswa and talk about different things that they need to do. Things like updating each other at least two times a week. They need to make sure that the sting and the jingle are played in the show. Make sure the PSAs and the adverts are played at Radio Grahamstown, not only in the show but by other presenters as well. UMthathi must also make other plans to advertise for the show, even if it means putting posters around town because we have created a poster for the project. Like I said communication is key, they need to increase their communication level, especially now that we will not be there as mediators.

For the whole semester we have been struggling to get facilitators to come into the studio, this is very bad because listeners hear the same people every Friday. It would be nice to have the facilitators’ voices. Yes, two weeks back we managed to have Lakhanya, the facilitator as a studio guest but this was made possible by the fact that she was on maternity leave. If it was not for this, she would have not been able to come. Xolela (a few weeks back) and Zolani (this week) also managed to come because it was a public holiday otherwise they would not have been able to come. I’m aware that facilitators have tight schedules but I think this is important too because it is going to benefit the project at the end of the day.

I think they must make time to come to the studio. I see this as something that Xoliswa and the uMthathi people have to try and achieve because we did not, even though we wanted to. For instance last Friday facilitators were supposed to come to the show, we planned this three weeks ago because we noticed that that is the only week they would not be going out. Unfortunately last Friday Xoliswa told us that facilitators couldn’t come because they had to attend somewhere. The only new person who came was Zolani; he is also one of the facilitators, and likewise it was great to have a different guest to talk about his experience.

 It would also be nice if they can find community members who have benefited from the project. This is the second thing that they need to work on. During our regular meetings we (students) have asked them several times to organize people from the community to come to the show but they have not managed to get anyone thus far. I think this is a challenge that they have to overcome. I am sure they know people who have benefited from this project.

At the end we are going to put everything that we have created, that is, Adverts, jingles, stings, PSAs, How-to’s and the recorded shows in one CD and give it to the uMthathi community project so that they can play it for other people and they can also give it to their sponsors. For this week we are going to meet with the uMthathi people and let them know that we are going to take a back sit now and let them drive. They must call Thenjiwe and tell her about the show topic and studio guests.

During the last week of term, we are going to have a debriefing session and for this session I was thinking of asking the uMthathi people to comment on things like, what is it that they have learnt from us? Do they feel we played a role while involved in the project? What are the things that they need the next group to improve on? What is it that they feel we did not do? As students we can also use this time to talk about different things that they can do to make better the show. Like some of the things I have mentioned above. We can use the same time to give them the CDs and the pamphlets.

Ciao!!

HARD AT IT

We are making real progress! This last week, we have finally managed to have facilitators as studio guests on Masakhane. Zolani Zondani and Xolela Mountain were the facilitators who came to the show. Sicelo and Xoliswa were also there as usual. I think this was good because people at home did not only hear from the management or the administrators but facilitators were there as well to talk about what they do and their experiences of working with people. I think the facilitator’s perspective is very important as they are the ones who work with community members in different areas in and around Grahamstown.

Xolela, one of the facilitators, spoke about his experiences of working with people, and the challenges that facilitators face. For instance he mentioned that sometimes when they arrive at a site where they have been asked to help with the establishment of a food gardening project, there is not enough resources to work with. Resources like the gardening equipment, grass; they find that stones have not been collected and so forth.  He said they usually ask people to collect all the material that they are going to need well beforehand, to make things easy. However it becomes a problem when people have not managed to collect everything. The Umthathi facilitators are then forced to collect the resources and material for them - or, in some instances, they leave and come back when everything is ready. He emphasized that Umthathi is empowering people to do things for themselves; they just show them how and help where they can.

The facilitators also spoke about how they encourage people to engage and work with them. I think this resulted in a very informative and engaging show because I felt as if people at home are being directly addressed and that they are also involved. Those of them who have taken part in one of these uMthathi gatherings could relate to what the facilitators were saying. Yes, each and every week we had different topics being discussed in the show but I think this one was the most important because it was about the facilitators’ contributions. How they are contributing to the development and improvement of people’s lives in general. This has always been our plan; to have facilitators in the studio and a person from the community; a person who has benefited or who has learnt a lot from the project. For now we have managed to have facilitators but the show still lacks community voices.

We did not get callers this week but maybe this is due to the fact that the Friday of the show was a public holiday. Therefore due to the public holiday maybe people were too busy to call or they were celebrating the holiday and did not listen to the radio. I personally think that bringing the facilitators back would be a good idea. These are the people who work very closely with the community; they therefore know the advantages, challenges and benefits of Umthathi’s work first hand. They see people’s reaction every now and then; they are therefore the right people to talk to.  Which is why I think it is always important to hear from them.

The show also included a feature about uMthathi’s upcoming events. Here Xoliswa gave detailed information about where listeners can interact with them, how they can enter competitions and so forth. I think the competitions and the activities give this project color. It made for interesting listening, which may in turn encourage Radio Grahamstown audience to contribute actively to the show. This could even be a regular feature on the show, where listeners call and ask questions or comment on the show; where callers stand a chance to win in one of uMthathi competitions.

I am also happy to report that Chris, Alex and I have managed to put together the jingle and the sting for the Masakhane feature. These were played on Friday’s broadcast. This was one of our goals for this term; we wanted to create an identity for the Masakhane. We kicked this process off last term with the creation of the running order for the show (this is still work in progress as we are still trying to open spots for other features as well, like the above mentioned) and now we have the jingle and the sting.

We have also managed to ask Xoliswa to say something about the show and give people information about uMthathi and the Masakhane feature.  We (students) then recorded this and we are going to use it for the PSA and the advert that we are busy putting together. By next week we will also have the poster ready. I think the poster idea is important because we have to market the show, in order to build an audience. Xoliswa has also asked us to do pamphlets as she thinks they are a good form of advertising. We are still going to talk about this on our regular meetings on Tuesday. As Henry Ford nicely puts it; “coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”.

WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD

Me, Alex and Chris have been away for two weeks, which means we have not been around for the past two shows at Radio Grahamstown. This was not a problem because we had made arrangements with Xoliswa and Thenjiwe before we left for the holidays. When we got back last week, we met with the uMthathi people on Tuesday for our regular update.  It would seem that some things went well in our absence, while others could have gone better.

Upon arrival at the meeting, we were told that Xoliswa was not there because she is sick. Sicelo was there, however, and we sat down and asked him how the past two shows had gone. Sicelo told us that they only did one show while we were not around because they did not go on air on Friday of the Easter weekend. I personally did not have a problem with them not doing the show since it was a holiday. This, however, is not what we agreed on in our last meeting. We (Thenjiwe, Xoliswa and students) agreed on that they were going to do two shows while we were away.  It would seem, then, that there are still some foundational principles to sort out, with regards to the management of the project!

What I liked, though, is the fact that the uMthathi people called Thenjiwe and told her that they were not coming for the show because they were going to church. I think it is brilliant that they kept communication going; that they did not keep quiet but knew that they had to let Thenjiwe know. I asked Thenjiwe what she said to the listeners with regards to the Masakhane slot that Friday, and she told me that she carried on with her show and told the listeners that due to the holiday they will not have the Masakhane show but they must tune in the following week. I think this was good too. It shows that this partnership is between us, students, Xoliswa and Radio Grahamstown (Thenjiwe in this case). We are together in this; it is not just students but a partnership where all of us should take responsibility. We all should know what to do and when to do it.

Thenjiwe also told us, however, that on the Friday before last she thought the people from uMthathi were not coming because Sicelo arrived late for the show. Upon Sicelo’s arrival, they carried on and did the show even so. I think that Xoliswa’s absence is one of the reasons why this happened. Firstly because she is the one who always make sure that everyone arrives on time, and secondly because I think Sicelo is busy taking care of many things now that Xoliswa is not there. Nonetheless the show still continued which I think is good because they did not let it go because of Sicelo’s lateness, Thenjiwe managed to cover for it. 

On a different note, last Friday we had the Masakhane show and Thenjiwe hosted it. While sitting and waiting patiently for the show to start, I observed that she was not alone in the studio but co-hosting the Masabelane show with someone else. She however did the Masakhane slot alone. Lakhanya Tata Thembani and Sicelo Dyirha were the two studio guests, and the topic that they discussed was “home remedies”. Lakhanya is a specialist in the field, she was on maternity leave but she kindly agreed to come and be one of the guests. She was good, the discussion and everything  ran smoothly and they were enjoying themselves in the studio. As a result the co-host who has been quiet for the most part of the show started asking questions towards the end. These were questions that were prompted by what Lakhanya was educating people about. There was a lot of laughter and fun that broke out from the studio discussion; and this provided the show with a lively and warm feel.  

The main reason I think this worked well is because Lakhanya talked about things that happen in our daily lives, the examples that she made were of things that happen every day and that people from the community are also familiar with. I gathered that Lakhanya tried as much as she can to be at the same level as the listeners, she wanted to keep them listening by referring to some of the stuff that they are familiar with. She also gave funny examples, about how people mix together Savlon, Colgate and Handy-Andy to heal the wound. Everyone in the studio laughed and I as a person who was outside the studio laughed too because I was like “yeah that really does not make sense but people do it anyway”. She made the topic interesting, informative and educational at the same time. The examples she gave made the topic light, and the things she said easy to grasp.

On our side (as students) we have found music for the jingle and we have told Sicelo that by our next meeting we are going to ask the Umthathi team to comment on this.  We need them to tell us what they would like the jingle to say, and how they want it to sound. We also need to ask some of them to record whatever we (students and the uMthathi) agree on.

That is how things are up to now, and we are still patiently and excitedly going forward.