Arda Radio

"OROGOJIGO"

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:30:00

âOrogojigoâ meaning âDeep and Wide Mattersâ in Yoruba language follows the disintegration of a hitherto happy family in their attempt to deal with infertility and infidelity. It targets urban as well as rural audiences with civic education, democracy and good governance, child abuse, sexual exploitation, and issues of honesty and transparency in the South Western part of Nigeria. Twenty-six episodes of this serial have been produced and each episode lasts 15 minutes.

"CHIEFOO"

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:26:12

âChiefooâ (Day Break) is an Igbo soap opera. The soap follows the intrigues within a typical Igbo extended family dealing with polygamy, girl-child disinheritance, maltreatment of widows and issues of integrity and accountability. Other themes include male child preference, womenâs political invisibility, female genital mutilation (FGM), corrupt practices, general low Knowledge of civic rights and low expectations from public servants. 104 episodes of these have so far been produced.

âASUBA TA GARIâ

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:23:53

15 minute Hausa radio soap opera. It follows the lives and times of different classes of men and women in a typical urban and rural Northern Nigerian setting. Main themes address rights of women and children under Muslim laws. Over time, other issues e.g. HIV/AIDS, gender and development, corruption, and violence against women have also been addressed. 234 episodes of âAsuba Ta Gariâ are available.

"Rainbow City"

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:21:07

This is a 15-minute soap opera in Pidgin English based in a fictitious location in Nigeria known as Rainbow City. Most of the action takes place in a typical large tenement building, which is residence to a mix-grill of characters dealing with everyday problems of survival, and getting along. Themes addressed so far include: democracy, good governance, civic rights, responsibilities, corruption; reproductive health, sexual responsibility, HIV/AIDS information. There are 260 episodes so far.

Management

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:40:32

ARDA is governed by a board of eight trustees. A Program Director and an Executive Producer jointly oversee day-to-day management of the organization. They are assisted by a diverse team of enthusiastic and highly skilled personnel including program officers, production assistants, administrative staff and other consultants. A full time accountant and an audit firm oversee the financial matters.

The core values of the organization are Integrity, Professionalism and Cleanliness.

Programs

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:30:00

Activities of the Organisation

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:45:23

Since its inception in 1995, ARDA has spearheaded the communication of various development messages, ranging from agriculture, population and reproductive health, gender equality, the environment, to democracy and civic rights issues, through radio drama series and other related programs. Programs like Abule Ireti, Bugga Town, Kadara Town, and Home Sweet Home are products of such efforts.

From January 1999, ARDA produced and syndicated the broadcast of four radio âSoapsâ and two magazine programs in Pidgin English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages: Rainbow City, Asuba ta Gari, Chiefoo, Orogojigo, Get A Grip and Ku Saurara (Listen Up!) on 30 radio stations in the country, one foreign community radio station supported by the Panos Institute West Africa and the Hausa Service of Deutche Welle. The dramas, which take into account the peculiarity of the socio-cultural milieu of listeners, address issues of democracy, good governance, human rights (including womenâs rights), transparency and accountability, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS among others. The four âsoapsâ are the longest running radio dramas on Nigeriaâs airwaves. ARDA utilized grants provided by the following to design and produce the programs: The USIS, The US Embassy, The Ford Foundation, The Mac Arthur Foundation, DFID, The Packard Foundation the World Bank, the MTN Foundation, IDRC and the GenARDIS Fund. The organisation has also collaborated with many international and local agencies to design scripts and produce communication materials. ARDA provides consultancy in training, capacity building, audience research, need assessment and strategy development. The following organisations have been beneficiaries and partners: UNICEF, EC, UNOPS, The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Johns Hopkins University/Centre for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), The Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), The Niger Delta Development Commission/GTZ Master Plan Project, SHELL, The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Integrity, The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the D&G program of the US Embassy, the Voice of America (VOA) and the Nigeria Meteorological Agency.

In November 1999/February 2000, ARDA participated in a competition for innovative ideas in development organised by the World Bankâs Development Market Place. ARDAâs entry for the competition titled âVillage Meeting: Development through Radioâ was one of the winners worldwide. We used the award prize to pilot the winning strategy in 51 communities in 2 eastern Nigerian states. The project provided rural community women access to state radio to dialogue and articulate their needs and aspirations to government. The women by-passed the community meeting place to which they used to be traditionally excluded, to engage their officials in programs and contents they themselves presented, produced and aired on radio. This project also included the development, production and broadcast of an Igbo radio drama serial, âChi e fooâ (Meaning: âIt is Dawnâ), addressing womenâs rights issues in the project communities which ARDA produced and syndicated to the radio stations in the East. When the World Bank funding ended, the US Embassy and the DFID provided funding to scale up the program to two Niger Delta states and to continue airing the Igbo âsoapâ.

More recently ARDA is 2006 -2010, ARDA has produced and aired a radio âsoapâ on Adolescent reproductive health and HIV in Bayelsa state, a climate change adaptation radio series in northern Nigeria in partnership with IITA, Farm Radio International and the University of Guelph Canada and a project that created a meeting place for women to connect with each other and sources of agricultural information through ICTs (using mobile phones, live community theatre, a live call-in radio program and listenersâ club meetings) in Kaduna state.

ABOUT ARDA

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:30:17

The African Radio Drama Association (ARDA) is a leading development communication, non-profit and non-governmental organisation in Nigeria. During a symposium of African development communication experts in Harare, Zimbabwe in November 1994 the consensus was that for Africaâs largely illiterate and low-income populations, dependent on oral narrative communication, radio was a highly accessible and very effective medium of information and education. Research findings shared revealed that drama programs were particularly effective in motivating behaviour change. A key outcome of the symposium was the inauguration of the African Radio Drama Association and the mandate to start up country chapters.

ARDA Nigeria was inaugurated in 1995 (registered with CAC in 1997) with the goal of contributing to the sustainable development of the country and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens. The organisation uses drama and other entertaining formats for stage, radio, television and print as vehicles to communicate development topics and messages. The high quality of our broadcasts, the support for broadcasters and our activism in the area of media pluralism and other advocacy have all contributed to the advancement of our institutionâs profile and credibility, thus leading to our involvement in various development projects and collaborations.