The innovative South African RX Radio station beat 138 other entries from around the world to jointly win the World Health Organisation’s Reboot Health and Wellness Challenge award for its COVID-19 programme titled ‘Children’s voices on COVID-19’.
RX Radio is based at the Cape Town Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in South Africa created by children for children, one of the first in Africa.
Ever since its launch in November 2016, RX Radio has provided a powerful platform for the important voices of children to be heard and recognition from the WHO makes their effort worth it.
16-year old reporter for RX Radio, Talitha Counter says ‘receiving the award just shows how important children’s voices are especially when the coronavirus situation right now and also with other global issues that affect children.
Being recognised by the WHO is a great thing because a lot of people will see what RX radio is doing to work with kids.’
Talitha who suffers from a chronic viral condition that affects the functioning of her nerves and muscles als says their programmes offer an easily accessible platform to educate other children about the pandemic.
‘From this project a lot of children will now know more about the virus and how it spreads and what the coronavirus is because of our stories and our experiences.
So this project has really helped other children as a platform to listen to coronavirus news and if they don’t want to ask their parents, they can know that they can listen to our stories and experiences.’
RX Radio broadcasts live and pre recorded programmes 24 hours a day throughout the hospitals in internal television systems as well as through their website and mobile app.
One of the main debates during the COVID-19 has been its impact on children’s education.
Mukhali, another reporter with the station says children having a source of information they can relate to and understand gives them hope during the pandemic especially when a major activity of their lives; school has been taken away.
‘I personally, really don’t want schools to close. Because I actually miss my teachers a lot. So I think it’s really nice to hear other childrens’ views, especially children that don’t know what on earth to do.
Also when it comes to school children doing online schooling it helps them so much to have a class in the house. It also helps them so much to hear other children’s experiences.
It gives them hope, it takes a lot of fear off the shoulders and makes them feel so much better especially if it’s a recovery story.’
Their work also got the attention of an audience beyond their immediate listenership.
‘Some authorities have taken the children’s views on the coronavirus on board. For example the Children’s Commissioner for the Western Cape, Christina Nomdo, has asked for some of the experiences of the children like their views on lockdown as well as governance structures to be considered and added to the South Africa Children Development plan,’ the station producer, Chris Booth shared.
‘We are still trying to spread the message of the children’s views and experiences to get more people to listen to them and for more authorities to take them seriously.’
The challenge was organised by the WHO, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The World Food Programme and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
