Shujaaz nominated for prestigious One World Media award
8 April 2011

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On 24 March 2011 Shujaaz was named as one of three nominees for the One World Media Special Award.

ShujaazFM is an innovative multimedia youth communication initiative which combines comics, radio and social media to engage with young people in Kenya.

One World Media is a UK-based trust that, through its annual awards, seeks to reward the most outstanding media coverage of the developing world. This year's awards ceremony will take place in London on 10 May 2011 and will be later broadcast globally on BBC World News.

The One World Media Special Award is sponsored by the Thompson Foundation. The purpose of the award is to demonstrate the value of media in progressing development and human rights. It is presented for an outstanding project working on the ground in the developing world, where media activity has made a real impact on people's lives.

The judges are looking for projects:

• with a wider reach and a greater impact
• they consider to offer new and innovative ways of reaching a wider audience
• that make sure that local views and voices are incorporated
• that evidence of lasting beneficial impacts on the local community
• that have made an impression on public opinion or government policy and have an enduring success
• which evidence sustainability, i.e. national/local commitment to financial support for the longer term

Keith Sones of the RIU communications team said:

"DFID-RIU was an early investor in Shujaaz. We were impressed by the initial concept and have been delighted by the way this has been implemented - and, as this nomination shows, it is not just us who have been impressed. And only last month the BBC picked out Shujaaz as one of the companies which 'will influence the way mankind will live and work in the future' and filmed it for an upcoming series called Horizons for BBC World News TV.

DFID-RIU's investment has supported the inclusion of stories which help young people to develop agricultural enterprises based on proven technologies.

But there is much more to Shujaaz- it has bravely been challenging corruption and tribalism, explaining the constitutional referendum and making young people think again about the role of women in Africa. There is growing evidence that Shujaaz is making a real difference.

This nomination for the One World Media Award is very well deserved and we look forward to learning the outcome next month - but Shujaaz is already a winner in our view."

J.M. Ledgard writing in Intelligent Life (a quarterly magazine produced by The Economist) has also noticed the Shujaaz phenomenon:

"Take the example of Shujaaz, a comic read by about half the children in Kenya. It is among the first comic-strip representations of the daily lives of African children; the slums, the villages, the ramshackle schools and playgrounds... The difference now is that the comic which is passed from child to child in tenements and farmyards is enhanced by Facebook, as well as by a radio show, text messages and a website"

DFID-funded projects have a good track record in the One World Media awards. In 2009 the DFID-backed television drama series Makutano Junction was shortlisted for the Special Award and in 2010 it won the New Media Award.

Shujaaz is one of three nominees for the Special Award. The other two are:

In Tune for Life, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Kenya, DR Congo
The Samfya Women Filmmakers' Initiative, Zambia

RIU wishes the ShujaazFM team the best of luck.