Building a community-first podcast
I am building a podcast to serve off-grid communities in rural Matabeleland
I’m excited to join a team of amazing content creators who have chosen to revive Zimbabwe’s content creation space through various media driven initiatives. Being a development practitioner who has over 3 years’ experience in the industry, I am always in the field, out there in the communities and I witness human rights abuses, and other injustices that affect communities yet they lack coverage in the mainstream media.
Lack of consistent coverage of local issues in the traditional media inspired me to use alternative media to tell those stories. My hope is that my stories would drive the public conversation and help these communities hold their local leaders accountable for gross human rights violations, and poor service delivery.
Before joining the Entrepreneurial Journalism Program (EJP), I had been working on short 5–7-minute podcasts that are focused on capturing community voices and telling community stories. My podcasts are broadcast by CITE, a local non-traditional newsroom. This podcast is powered by Anchor Fm, a platform that allows users to record and edit at the same time. In addition, I had already started working on a WordPress blog. One of my recent articles was nominated for the Affluent Media,a local magazine and media house.
My aim is to create a podcast alongside a website to tell communities stories. My podcast will focus on public health, climate change and gender equality. Unlike other podcasts, mine will include ordinary voices, especially those residing in rural areas.
The biggest challenge I foresee in my project is reaching the rural populations I seek to serve because of the digital divide in my community. However, I am determined to self-fund and visit a few, especially in Mangwe, Matabeleland South where I grew up, and try to better understand their needs so that I can build a product that genuinely serves community needs. If you would like to offer some help please get in touch with me on buhletjedu@gmail.com.
