The Radio Workshop:
Giving Young People a Voice

Listen to the entire show

Welcome to the Radio Workshop Podcast!

The Children’s Climate Forum took place a few weeks ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 165 youth delegates from 44 countries represented the young people of the world in the lead up to COP15 (the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference).  Want to know more about the Children’s Climate Forum and COP15? Click here to visit Unite for Climate!

No time to listen to the entire show? Pick and choose what you want to listen to below! Or subscribe to our iTunes podcast to get full episodes delivered to you every week.

Welcome to the Show!

Radio Workshop host Mbali Vilakazi welcomes listeners to the show.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAfm.  If you live in South Africa, you can listen live on air. Tune your radio to a frequency between 104 to 107FM to find SAfm.

Children’s Climate Forum declaration for the world’s leaders

At the closing ceremony of the Children’s Climate Forum, twelve young people representing different parts of the world presented a children’s declaration on climate change to Connie Hedegaard, the president of COP15.

Listen to the young delegates read the full declaration.

Want to know more about the Children’s Climate Forum and COP 15? Click here to visit Unite for Climate!

Youth perspectives on climate change

Kondwani Joe Banda (above) comes from Lusaka, the Zambian capital, and says that the effects of climate change are seen in all corners of his country. Extreme heat and flooding contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, he says, including cholera and dysentery. Kondwani says that his work as a UNICEF climate ambassador includes educating Zambian youth about climate change, and getting them to take action against it.

Luyando Katenda, age 14, hails from Lusaka, Zambia (photo below). He asked fourteen year-old Bertram Moeller-Jacobsen, a student at Copenhagen’s Vesterbro school, about what Danish students are doing to combat climate change.

Signing out

That’s it for this week, join us next week for more from the Radio Workshop. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show!

Click here to listen to previous Radio Workshop podcasts. And click here to subscribe to our iTunes podcast to get new episodes delivered to you every week.

Listen to the entire show

Welcome to the Radio Workshop Podcast!

In November the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It was on November 20, 1989 that almost all the countries of the world signed a treaty agreeing to protect the rights of children. In this final episode of our four-part series, we take a look at the rights of foreign and refugee children.

Article 22 of the Convention says that refugee children have special rights to protection, as well as all the other rights included in the treaty.  A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their home to live in another country.

No time to listen to the entire show? Pick and choose what you want to listen to below! Or subscribe to our iTunes podcast to get full episodes delivered to you every week.

Welcome to the Show!

Radio Workshop host Mbali Vilakazi welcomes listeners to the show.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAfm.  If you live in South Africa, you can listen live on air. Tune your radio to a frequency between 104 to 107FM to find SAfm.

Schools – a place to come together

We have to learn to live together, says Ntombi Mcoyi from Africa Unite, an organisation working to bridge differences between South Africans and foreign nationals. Schools are one place where teachers can set a positive example through fair and equal treatment of children from different backgrounds and nationalities.

Human rights belong to everyone

The Convention on the Rights of the Child says that foreign children have the same rights as South African children. We hear from Stephen Blight of Unicef, as well as Shirley Pendlebury and Lori Lake of the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town who explain what South African law says.

Xenophobia erupts in a small South African town

A learner from Esselen Park High School in Worcester, Western Cape remembers the outbreak of xenophobic violence in June 2008.

A Rwandan teenager in Cape Town: King’s story

Seventeen-year old Jafiya Kadende, better known as King, came to South Africa when he was seven years old. He remembers what it was like trying to fit in at school and learning to live in a new country.

Join us next week for more from the Radio Workshop. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show!

Click here to listen to previous Radio Workshop podcasts. And click here to subscribe to our iTunes podcast to receive a new episode every week.

Listen to the entire show

Welcome to the Radio Workshop podcast!

This is part three of our series marking the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child signed on November 20, 1989. Today we hear about the right of children to be protected from injury and abuse, as well as children’s right to education.

No time to listen to the entire show? Pick and choose what you want to listen to below! Or subscribe to our iTunes podcast to get full episodes delivered to you every week.

Welcome to the Show!

Radio Workshop host Mbali Vilakazi welcomes listeners to the show.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAfm.  If you live in South Africa, you can listen live on air. Tune your radio to a frequency between 104 to 107FM to find SAfm.

Children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse

It is an abuse to neglect a child’s needs or to beat a child, but in many South African communities and even at home, children are treated badly by adults. Charmaine Smith from the organisation, Molo Songololo, tells us about the difficulties some children face, but says they need not feel alone. Help is available.

“Molo Songololo” means “Hello Caterpillar”. If you’d like to know more about Molo Songololo, click here.

Know your rights, protect your rights!

How best can children ensure their rights are respected? There are many things children can do. Unicef’s Stephen Blight, along with Shirley Pendlebury and Lori Lake from the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town offer some practical advice.

To find out more about Childline services in South Africa, click here.

Learning to live

All children have the right to education – no one can force a child to work instead of going to school. Teenagers from Esselen Park High School, in the farming town of Worcester, Western Cape, tell us about the choices that some children face. 

Signing out

That’s it for this week, join us next week for more from the Radio Workshop. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show!

Click here to listen to previous Radio Workshop podcasts. And click here to subscribe to our iTunes podcast to get new episodes delivered to you every week.

Children’s Climate Forum declaration for the world’s leaders

At the closing ceremony of the Children’s Climate Forum, twelve young people representing different parts of the world presented a children’s declaration on climate change to Connie Hedegaard, the president of COP15.

Listen to the young delegates read the full declaration.

Want to know more about the Children’s Climate Forum and COP 15? Click here to visit Unite for Climate!

Climate Justice

The Children’s Climate Forum is currently taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 165 youth delegates from over 44 countries are representing the young people of the world in the lead up to COP15. We gave young people audio recorders and asked them to document the experience.

In this interview, Zakaria Merdi, a 16-year old from Agadir, Morocco, speaks to 14 year-old Hamza Aaras El-Gouriti about global climate justice. Zakaria asks Hamza about “the role of developed countries” in helping out countries with less means to deal with climate change issues (in English).

Want to know more about the Children’s Climate Forum and COP 15? Click here to visit Unite for Climate!