Equal Access Nepal

Voices of Youth

Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Jun 17, 2010

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A recently launched campaign at a popular youth radio program in Nepal focuses on the voices of youth - or at least, text messages of youth. Regardless, the SMS campaign seems to be making strides.

UNICEF in Nepal has teamed up with the popular Nepali radio program Saathi Sanga Man Ka Kura, which means "chatting with my best friend." The program, also called SSMK, is run by the non-governmental organization Equal Access Nepal. SSMK has been on the air for 10 years and reaches millions of youth listeners (primarily ages 13 to 26) throughout Nepal. In April, UNICEF and SSMK launched a campaign that allows young listeners to take an active role in a conversation, all via SMS.

Rupa Joshi, a communications specialist with UNICEF, explains the origins of the campaign.

Basic Information
Website URL: 
http://unicef.org.np/voy/
Organization involved in the project?: 
UNICEF
Project goals: 

The goal of the project is to maximise participation of young people and reflect their voices on issues that affect their lives.

Brief description of the project: 

UNICEF in Nepal has teamed up with the popular Nepali radio program, Saathi Sanga Man Ka Kura, which means "chatting with my best friend." The program, also called SSMK, is run by the non-governmental organization Equal Access Nepal. SSMK has been on the air for 10 years and reaches millions of youth listeners (primarily ages 13 to 26) throughout Nepal. In April, Unicef and SSMK launched a campaign that allows young listeners to take an active role in a conversation, all via SMS.

Every week on the program, the radio team frames a topic or a question and invites the listeners to respond via a free text message to an established short code, 4400. The responses are then posted on a forum on the UNICEF Voices of Youth website.

Target audience: 

The target audience of the project are the current listeners of the SSMK radio program. It has been on the air for 10 years and reaches millions of youth listeners, primarily ages 13 to 26, throughout Nepal.

Unicef Voices of Youth Forum
Detailed Information
Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

The project worked in conjunction with the ongoing success and popularity of the SSMK radio program. It adapted a technology that was highly accessible (and free) to the target audience. Start up and maintenance costs have been relatively low. The project has also benefited from a positive working relationship with a local mobile technology sevice provider to trouble-shoot technical issues that have come up.

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

The group has had to perform ongoing fixes to various processes. In its current state, it also requires significant administrative time to monitor and post incoming responses.