With financial support from National Endowment for Democracy, ToroDev conducted 2 rural radio magazine/debates on 16th & 20th November 2018. The Two rural radio Debates/ Magazines were conducted in Hakibale Mugate, Muhangi Village Hakibale Sub county and Bulera Cell Karago town council in Kabarole district.
Women from hard to reach communities were the main target due to their limited participation in democratic engagement. The debates were conducted with an aim of involving women and youth to participate in democratic discussion and also demand for accountability for improved service delivery from their elected leaders at Sub County, District and National level.
Each Rural Debate/Magazine was attended by at least 50 participants and the project team ensured that 70% of participants in each debate are women. Member of the Rwenzori Journalists Forum (RJF), another initiative of ToroDev with support from NED was facilitated to organize the debates.
The focus of discussion was on the state of service delivery in Hakibale Sub county and Karago Town council, for example the state of service delivery in key sectors of Health, Education and Economic development. What woman and youths expect from their elected duty bearers?
The issues discussed were recorded and broadcast live on Jubilee radio during the ‘listeners forum’ program on Sunday 8:00-10:00pm for the local leaders’ intervention, articles posted online (listeners forum face book page &ToroDev blogs), Phone SMS, calls used for mobilization.
“ToroDev in partnership with Jubilee Radio organizes the debates to allow women and youth share their key service delivery issues and thereafter attract leaders’ attention. I encourage you to use platforms like radio talk shows and rural debates to continue engaging leaders to give accountability and continue monitoring services in health, education and other sectors and inform leaders of gaps discovered”. Said Sheila Amanya M&E ToroDev during the rurall radio debate in Karago and Hakibale.
Key issues shared by women in Hakibale Sub County on 16th November
In Hakibale forty five (45) women and youths attended the debate and the following issues were raised.
“We started our saving groups as one way of fighting poverty among women. Our leaders have neglected us they have never come back on ground to interact with us. We have not seen them since we elected them. We call upon leaders to come and support us and also organize training for women to get hand on skills”. Kangume Lucy from Mugate Muhangi Hakibale sub county during the rural radio debate.
Lucy added parents should support their girl child to stay in school because the girl child needs a lot of support. The girl child is more disadvantaged and need a lot of help and support from the communities, family and school authorities for her to achieve a brighter future.
“We have so many challenges in the health sector especially in Kitale HC. The nurses don’t attend to patients; patients wait for many hours without being attended to. We request health management committee members to work hand in hand with DHO to improve on supervision”. Said Kemigisa Maggie
“Poverty is one of the reasons marriages fail in many homes, because men are not supporting their wives and this causes a lot of fights and domestic violence, radio talkshows should sensitize men to work and provide for their families instead of wasting time betting for soccer”. Said Kakwezi Beatrice
Beatrice added we request women and girls to be empowered with entrepreneurship skills to create their own employment opportunities. We hope to see young women who are skilled and self employed to fight against poverty and domestic violence in homes.
“Kitale HC has no drugs, no water, latrines and the hygiene is bad especially. We request duty bearers to lobby for our health centre clean water source to improve”. Said Banura Joyce
“There is a problem of lack of piped water in Muhangi village Hakibale Sub County; we call upon leaders to lobby for us at least one borehole. In this village people are drinking dirty water which is hazardous”. Said Musinguzi John from Hakibale
“There is a big challenge of high school dropouts in Hakibale mainly because parents do not support their children, parents are too busy looking for money and they have no time for their children. I call upon leaders to come and intervene”. Said Kasweta John citizen of Hakibale
John added we have not benefited a lot from operation wealth creation program, the coffee and Tea seeds are not what we want. People don’t have enough land to plant the seedlings. The coordinators and organizers of Operation Creation have failed to coordinate the program well and they have failed to consult us to know exactly what we need before they deliver things.
Key issues raised by women from Karago town council.
“We have challenges with Bagaya cell road that connects to Kanzinga Health centre; the road is impassable during rainy season. It is very muddy and slippery during rainy season. We find it difficult to access services at the health centre. We call upon leaders to work on this road”. Said Lucy Mbabazi
“Nurses at Kazinga HC mistreat us and refuse to give us services at night, whenever expecting mothers go to deliver at night, nurses refuse to wake up and keep them outside for hours. We request DHO to intervene”. Said Enid Kajoina
“The community roads are impassable during rainy season. This has negatively affected our businesses and agriculture due to high transport cost. The transport fee is always high during rainy season due to slippery and muddy roads. We request our leaders to help us and put Murram”. Said Kengonzi Beatrice
“We request leaders to provide us with clean and safe water, because the water we are using is dirty and unsafe for human consumption”. Said Bright Rwankwege
“We call upon leaders to lobby for us boreholes for our community in Bagaya Cell. We call upon them leaders to come on ground and hold meetings with citizens for proper planning”. Said Tusiime Oliver
Oliver added thieves have become a big problem in this village. We have lost so many animals and crops. We request leaders and police handle this issue seriously.
Comments from Duty bearers
“I appreciate ToroDev for coming here to get our views. I seriously want to address some challenges raised by women. The roads here are very muddy and slippery during rainy season. This has negatively affected businesses and agriculture in this community. As leaders we held meetings to see how to improve and work on Bagaya cell road and when the rainy season ends we shall put murram”. Said Kayesu Betty Woman councilor Bagaya Cell.
Hon added people have been complaining of lack of safe and clean water. But Karago town council will soon have clean and piped water. We held a meeting last week with National water and sewage cooperation and pipe work has already started. We are sure that in 2019 people of Karago will have clean and safe water.
“For the thieves in this village we have arrested some and we have set up security communities to help improve security in this festival season”. Said Joseph Oceni LCII Kitaraga Ward Karago.
Joseph added that parents should take care of their children in this season. He urged parents to provide security to their children to stop giving them a lot of freedom to walk alone and move at night
In conclusion rural radio Debates/Magazines based on previous experience have played a major role especially on women and youth to participate in the governance issues of their society.
We take a great opportunity to thank SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, and CIPESA for financial support that has enabled us to conduct these debates.
