SFCG in the Great Lakes Region

Laurent Kassindi, a journalist from Radio Maendeleo in Bukavu, presents the first program of Generation Grands Lacs in the Contact-FM studios in Kigali

Great Lakes Generation (Generation Grands Lacs (GGL) in French) is a weekly radio program that is broadcast through an innovative use of internet, telephone and FM technology. This 60-minute live phone-in talk show for youth is simulcast on five radio stations in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo every Saturday afternoon, providing young people an unprecedented opportunity to talk, listen, and learn about the issues and challenges facing their region.

Each week GGL addresses a different theme such as identity, manipulation by leaders, gender, violence, youth participation in political life, issues of ethnicity and nationality, etc. The format includes invited studio guests, pre-recorded interviews, voice-on-the street interviews, music, and audience call-in. Listeners participate by calling in, sending SMS (text messages), or by email. Listening sessions, organized in collaboration with a university student’s network, are held in high schools and universities in the three countries, encouraging youth to listen, phone in, and discuss the subject after the program ends.

Each week the place of broadcast rotates between Kigali, Bujumbura and Kinshasa. The radio station webstreams the live broadcast, which is then picked up by the other four stations who broadcast it on FM. Young journalists from the partner radio stations host the program, and invite callers to phone-in in any of the six major languages of the region. GGL was launched at the end of 2006 and a recent survey showed that 63% of students from the three countries regularly listen to the program.

In collaboration with the Great Lakes Inter-University and Youth Forum, listening sessions are organised in universities and secondary schools each week during the broadcast of GGL, followed by a facilitated discussion. Forum members then gather ideas and concerns from the listeners and feed these into joint planning sessions with the GGL journalists from the partner radio stations.

Read a press release about Génération Grands Lacs: English [pdf] | Français [pdf]

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