The Radio Workshop:
Giving Young People a Voice

Listen to the entire show

Welcome to the Radio Workshop podcast!

Do you know what you want to be when you’re grown up? In the upcoming weeks we’re going to be introducing you to an interesting selection of jobs and careers. Today we’re going to meet someone who has chosen a career that all of you will know at least something about. We meet a Grade 3 teacher, and also hear about what Maitland High School learners think it takes to be a good teacher. Stay tuned!

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. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

Being a teacher

Veneta Katzen is a Grade 3 teacher at Athwood Primary in Hanover Park, Cape Town, and it’s her first year on the job. Let’s find out about what it takes to make it as a teacher! 

Thanks to Nicole Wagner, a 3rd year student at the Centre for Film and Media Studies (CFMS) at the University of Cape Town, for producing that profile for the Radio Workshop, and to Dr. Tanja Bosch, the lecturer in Radio Production at the CFMS!

What makes a good teacher?

What do you think it takes to be a good teacher, and which teachers have made a positive impact in your life so far?  Drop us an email and let us know, we’d love to hear from you: info@radioworkshop.org — or add a comment below at the end of this page!

We put that same question to some of the learners at Maitland High School in Cape Town.  Here’s what they had to say about teachers.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAFM. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

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!

The Radio Workshop has been working with students from Maitland High School in Cape Town, and we gave them the opportunity to speak about what’s on their mind.

So today, we hand the microphone over to them. Our topic is inspiration.  What inspires you, or who inspires you?   What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and give it your all, or who gives you the power to succeed?

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. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

Jafiya “King” Kadende

Nomthandazo “Thandi” Valashiya

Luyolo “Leo” Mahambehlala

Furaha Kanyangambi

Noziphiwo Fadana

Zenzo Chakara

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!

Today we’ll be hearing from some of our radio reporters from the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.  We’ve been working with a group of young people from Red Cross since January. We’ve taught them how to use recorders and microphones, and how to tell their own stories for radio.

Our stories this week come from Red Cross patients who live in St. Joseph’s Home, a home for children who need extra help to deal with their illnesses.  St. Joseph’s is just outside of Cape Town and it was started way back in 1935.  Take a listen!

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. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

A day in my life

Let’s hear from Radio Workshop youth reporter Nonkhanyiso Mphanga, aka Nonnie.  Nonnie is 15 years-old, and give us a day in her life at St. Joseph’s home.

Want to find out more about our radio project at Red Cross Children’s Hospital?  Click here!

Living with diabetes

Next we meet someone who uses an injection needle every day to manage her diabetes, and she tells us that we don’t need to be afraid! Let’s meet 10 year-old Lelethu Nyalase.

For more photos, articles, and radio reports from our Red Cross Children’s Hospital radio project, click here.

This Week in History

Find out what important events happened this week in history!

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! We’ve got a great show for you this week, as we’ll be hearing from one of our radio reporters from the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.

We’ve been working with a group of young people from Red Cross since January.  We’ve taught them how to use recorders and microphones, and to tell their own stories for radio. Today we hear from 8 year-old Mujahid Weiner. Mujahid shares his story with us about how he landed up in hospital in the first place, and interviews his doctor about what it’s like to work in the Burn’s Unit.

To find out more about our hospital radio project, click here!

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. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

Red Cross Reporter Mujahid Weiner

8 year-old Mujahid has spent a lot of time at Red Cross Children’s Hospital since his burn accident. Today, Mujahid tells us his story, and also interviews his mother about the day of the accident.

Want to learn more about our Radio Red Cross programme? Click here.

Ask the doctor

For those of you who have been in hospital before, have you ever asked your doctor questions about how you were as a patient? Next up, Mujahid asks Dr. Heinz Rode about what it’s like to work with burn patients, and finds out whether he was a good patient, or a bad patient! 

Are you a burn survivor or do you know someone who is? Visit the World Burn Foundation of South Africa’s website for more information about fire prevention and what to do if you have a burn.  They provide all kinds of resources and information, and they even host a Burn Survivor Camp!

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! On today’s show we’re talking politics. As young people we often don’t have the opportunity to give our opinions about the issues we face.  But today, we meet some young people who recently made their voices heard—and the world was listening to what they had to say.

UNICEF sent four young South Africans to the Junior 8 Summit in Rome last month. The J8 is a yearly meeting where young people from across the world gather to share their views on global issues, and make recommendations for how to deal with these issues. We’ll meet the J8 delegates, and find out more about the summit a bit later in the show.

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 Lesedi Mogoatlhe welcomes listeners to the show.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAFM. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

The Junior 8 Summit

UNICEF sent four young South Africans to the Junior 8 Summit in Rome last month. The J8 happened at the same time as the G8 summit, which brings together the heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The summit was an opportunity for these young South Africans to make their voices heard—and to represent young people worldwide.  The goal was to get world leaders to hear their concerns.

Today we meet the four South African UNICEF delegates: Aletta Dhlamini, Yumnah Jackson, Richmond Sajini, and Refilwe Tsumane. And yes, that’s Richmond in the photo next to President Jacob Zuma, shaking hands with US President Barack Obama!

For more information about the J8 Summit, visit UNICEF’s J8 website.

My view of the world

Aletta, Yumnah, Richmond, and Refilwe were all winners of last year’s Albert Luthuli Young Historians Oral History Competition. The competition gets learners to do oral history research on a topic that interests them, and to present their findings. For more information about the competition, click here.

We asked each of the J8 delegates to give us their thoughts about things that matter to them. Here are their “audio commentaries.”

Richmond Sajini, 16: “Ordinary people like me can make a big difference…”

Refilwe Tsumane, 18: “You are who you are because of those who came before you…”

Aletta Dhlamini, 17: “The one moment he was around, and the next, he disappeared…”

Yumnah Jackson, 17: “Why does poverty exist?”

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

Thanks for joining us for another Radio Workshop podcast!  This week it’s all about books, books, books! Reading takes you places–places near, places far, and places you’ve never heard about!

We take you on a tour of the Central Library in Cape Town and hear about their programmes for young people.

And then, it’s story time!

And closing the show, find out what happened this week in history.

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 Lesedi Mogoatlhe welcomes listeners to the show.

The Radio Workshop broadcasts every Saturday at 12 noon on SAFM. Visit SAFM’s website for information about how to find their frequency in your area.

Audio Postcard: Cape Town’s Central Library

Today we get a tour of Cape Town’s Central Library. Our tour guide, Senior Librarian Kathleen Laishley, tells us that even though libraries are filled with great books, they contain so much more!

Visit the Central Library at its new location in the Old Drill Hall, on the corner of Darling and Parade Streets in the Cape Town CBD.

Story time

Sit back and relax, because it’s story time!  Today we read from a book called 92 Queens Road, by Dianne Case (Maskew Miller Longman). Bo Petersen reads Chapter One for us.

Do you want to find out about new South African books for young people? Click here.

This Week in History

Find out what events shaped the course of history this week in June!

Interested in South African history?  Visit South African History online!

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. Feel free to leave a comment below.  We’d love to know what you think!

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.

By Gabriel Urgoiti

It always amazes me to hear children’s insight and understanding of issues that affect them. The problem is that adults seldom listen to what children have to say – and more often than not, they make assumptions about what the children need and what they want.

Sick children are no different. They have the right to know as much as possible about matters that affect them, to understand and to be involved with their illness and the health care provided to them. They need information about the hospital environment and what is expected; their health condition; diagnostic procedures and treatment options; possible outcomes of these treatments; degree of likely pain and discomfort, and above all to be able to ask questions and be reassured of the support and care they will receive from their parents, caregivers and health workers.

It is for this reason that Children’s Radio at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital (RXH) is being established.  Imagine a radio mainly run by the children in the hospital providing them with the opportunity to connect with other children by sharing opinions, asking questions, telling stories, sharing entertainment and creating vibrant networks. These are just some of the opportunities to be gained.

Qaqamba and the author in the hospital classroom.

You already know the children who took part in the inaugural hospital workshop – Qaqamba (9) Mujahid (7) Kauther (8), Iyad (9) and Nonkhanyiso (15). All are veterans of RXH. They have experienced a lot in their young lives, from accidents to chronic illnesses. Each of them has been admitted to the hospital many times and continues to return for treatment and check-ups.

Our workshop took place each morning from 10:00 to 12:30 in the small hospital primary school on E Floor. Here we worked every day. However we had to be very flexible to accommodate the different needs of each child such as medical follow-ups, changing oxygen tubes, going for chemotherapy, taking medicines, getting injections and changing tracheotomy tubes.

Working on self portraits.

The first five days included a variety of activities such as drawing and painting, listening and talking, games and story telling. Each child developed a “life book” where they drew or painted self-portraits, as well as depicting important people in their life, the things they like and dislike doing, and ‘a day in my life’ in hospital. They also mapped the hospital by walking around and describing the areas of the hospital they knew well.

These processes helped to develop the necessary trust, team spirit and life skills to help the children to begin sharing their stories. Early during the workshop we introduced the audio equipment so that the children could familiarize themselves with the technical aspects of recording sound.

During the last five days the children focused on developing their stories that later become their radio programmes. They looked at their life books to remind themselves of their stories and decided what they wanted to tell and whom they wanted to interview.

Fun and games: Mujahid, Qaqamba & Kauther.

As a team we had a rewarding time with lots of fun. We managed to learn a lot and also to open ourselves up and to share experiences. We all became good friends and I believe that the learning and the laughing opportunities also contributed to the healing process.

Feedback Session: Mujahid (foreground) and Qaqamba listen back to their finished programmes.

On Saturday January 24, we invited the children, their parents and caregivers to listen to the radio programmes and to view all the photos that were taken during the workshop. It was a very special moment.  Looking at the faces and body language of the children and their parents while they listened to the programmes was deeply rewarding. A good few tears were shed by those in the room.

In reflecting on the workshop and the objectives we set ourselves, we are confident that RXH radio can make a big impact on healthcare workers, hospital managements, parents and of course children themselves. Listen for yourself to the voices of our five ‘reporters’ and see what you think.

Kauther Sallie, age 8

Kauther walks towards the E2 ward of Red Cross, the section of the hospital for children with kidney problems.  She’s on a mission to record the sounds of this ward, and has her recorder and microphone all ready to go.  Kauther can describe the various beeps of the machines that have saturated her environment while in the hospital, and can tell you what each beep means.  She can also tell you what it sounds like if things are not going well for a patient. As we enter the ward, the nurses start to fawn over Kauther.  Kauther, like many of the other children in the group, is very popular with the hospital staff.  They often go out of their way to acknowledge the kids, giving them hugs and kisses, and anything else they can think of to make them feel special.  But before they could get their hands on her, Kauther vanishes.  She had something she had to do first—she had to go see her friend. Kauther jets past the doctors and nurses and heads to the room just past the nurses’ station where Maurice stays. Maurice is just 2 years old, and Kauther says he’s her very good friend.  He’s waiting for a kidney transplant, just like Kauther.  They’ve been through much of the same routine at Red Cross, and shared a room before.

Kauther and Maurice

Maurice’s big eyes see Kauther coming around the corner.  He immediately turns away from the nurse at the side of his bed, throws down his plastic rattle, and holds both hands up high, inviting her embrace.  Kauther gives him a big hug with a smile, says a few words into his ear, and then lets him get back to the nurse.  “I love that boy,” Kauther says.  “He’s on dialysis.”  I ask her what dialysis is, and she replies, “I don’t know. But they take you into that room over there and hook you up to a machine.  My friend is on dialysis quite a lot.”  Kauther then returns to her sound collecting mission, in search of the beeps, and slowly makes her way back to the nurses to give them a proper hello. Listen to Kauther’s story: