Wednesday, February 25, 2009

About Us

The Children’s Radio Education Workshop (CREW) is an educational broadcast initiative of Bush Radio, and was formally established in 1996.

Aims

§ To demystify radio and other forms of media to children and youth between the ages of 6 – 18 years
§ To encourage the active participation of children in the development of radio programs for children
§ To help children develop broadcasting skills; produce their own radio programs, and enhance their communication and leadership skills.
§ To make children aware of the importance of community radio and it’s potential
§ To encourage children to honestly express themselves through radio, and other forms of media
§ To promote and deliver high quality radio productions by children and youth, which educate and inform not only their peers but all individuals living within the communities that fall in Bush Radio’s listener-ship areas.

CREW enables Children and Youth between the ages of 6 and 18 years to research, produce and present radio programmes live on air. The children have full editorial control over the CREW programmes and they host these programmes themselves. The training that the children receive develops communication skills, produces articulate, confident and well-informed children, who possess research and analytical skills. These skills are also used to produce a quality on-air product, which includes well-researched discussions on topics affecting children. Phone calls and sms’ from the listeners help establish and maintain the vital interaction between the children and the listeners.


CREW is divided into three segments: Bush Tots, Bush Kids and Bush Teens, catering for specific age groups.

BUSH TOTS
Bush Tots is on air for a total of one hour, which is split into different age groups.
· Bushtots junior : aged 6-8 years
· On air from 10:00am-10:30am
· Bushtots senior: aged 9-11 years
· On air from 10:30am-11:00am


BUSH KIDZ

· aged 12-15 years
· on air from 11am-12pm

BUSH TEENZ

· aged 16-18
· on air from 12pm-1pm

These programmes provide a platform for children and youth to give their opinions on issues affecting them. These include the rights of the African girl child and children’s rights in general, teenage pregnancy and career guidance while at the same time providing information, entertainment and education to children in the surrounding townships of the Cape Flats and beyond.

All the children involved in the programmes come to Bush Radio an hour before the start of the programme to consolidate their information, write up a script and thereafter go on air. When they come off air, they have an assessment/evaluation of the programme with their listener-group. After this they put up a summary of the day’s show on their respective blogs and plan for the following session.

Training and Production

Within each of these three on-air components CREW also has a radio production team, which pre-produce features and inserts for the on-air shows. This group work largely on features such as audio diaries and documentaries – where participants are able to tell their own stories and those of their peers. This allows for the voices of ordinary children to be heard on various topics.

Training on on-air and programme production also occurs every week.

The radio production team is also the hub of the recycling club. Through features they produce they raise awareness on not only the importance of recycling but also on other aspects of conservation and the ecology such as global warming. Every fortnight trips are made to the recycling depot to drop off old newspapers and magazines.



CREW culminates in the annual International Media Kidocracy Konfrence, which provides young people from all corners of the globe to discuss issues that affect them. The role of media in relation to each issue is also explored.