The Children’s Radio Foundation (http://www.childrensradiofoundation.org) train young reporters around Africa in radio broadcasting, opening all sorts of opportunities to them and teaching a plethora of useful skills. They are a wonderful organisation that we have been lucky enough to have the pleasure of working with.
They came to interview our team at our fundraiser we held in July 2014 and were absolutely delightful! The children who executed the interviews had prepared very carefully and were extremely competent – and very charming. Their standard question for getting the microphone balance right was: ‘What did you have for breakfast?’ When Lesley told him, her interviewer couldn’t help himself. ‘Is that ALL?’ he burst out. Lesley also heard some of the interviews with our two story-tellers and young upcoming violin soloist and they too were completely won over.
It was wonderful to see the confidence the children had gained through their radio experiences. They were shy and a little overawed (Gcina Mhlophe is a very big personality to children in this country) but they didn’t let that stop them getting the story. Lesley commented afterwards “I always feel that children (generally, not just in South Africa) need to be given the chance, more often, to be good at something; to succeed. Children’s Radio Foundation is doing a very good job of that!”
We were also deeply impressed with the adults who accompanied the reporters. They were organised, caring, had excellent rapport with the young people. They arrived on time, followed the rules and the timing constraints and – very importantly – got the interviews onto national radio as promised, and sent us a link (https://soundcloud.com/childrensradiofoundation/radio-workshop-listening-beautifully) We are sure we will be working with them in the future! A really commendable exercise.
