Benin: Cotonou’s Multi-Media Centre Provides Hands on Training for Youth

Pierrette Gnanhoui , Her father, Marcel (right)

It is near mid-day in the middle of Cotonou, Benin’s main coastal city and its economic and cultural capital. In the wet, sluggish heat people move about as if in a huge outdoor Turkish Bath. In stark contrast to the lethargic pace of the city, a unique Multi-Media Centre, set up by UNFPA with funding from the United Nations Foundation, is bustling with activity. Here youth from around the country are learning hands-on media skills. Every room in the complex is occupied with groups of young people busy learning how to be print journalists, photographers, radio and TV broadcasters, magazine writers, layout artists, computer graphics experts, Web Site designers, videographers, digital video tape editors, and radio and TV technicians. Many of the Centre’s 280 students also study diction and drama.

Pierrette Gnanhoui discusses content of radio programme at editorial meeting at the Centre.

The Centre has its own radio station, which broadcasts programmes 24 hours a day, seven days a week on frequency 91.7 FM. It’s radio programmes, produced by and for youth, reach 300,000 listeners every day in a 50-km radius around Cotonou. More recently, the Centre launched its own TV station capable of reaching one million viewers.

There is nothing like this Centre in Benin, nor for that matter in any of the other countries that spill over West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea like a gigantic pregnant belly. “We are learning by doing,” says Pierrette Gnanhoui, an attractive 22 year old who is learning to edit digital video tape, while studying drama. “The radio and TV programming, the content of the scripts, the actual broadcasting – all aspects of production -- are done by young people like me,” she points out enthusiastically.

Students learn computer graphics at the Multi-media Center

A year ago, Pierrette was working as a part time secretary. She had dropped out of secondary school before finishing and had, in her own words, “not much of a future.” The Multi-Media Centre has given her purpose, poise and a new-found confidence. “Before coming here I could not speak in front of people, I was shy, retiring and unable to make decisions for myself,” she says. “Now all that has changed. I have developed a strong sense of self and intend to work in radio or TV as a dramatist or broadcaster.”

Visiting with Pierrette in her home, located in the poor Akpakpa District of the city, her father is just as enthusiastic about the work of the Centre as his daughter. “I have two wives and 11 children,” smiles Marcel, Pierrette’s father. “Most of my children are out of school and trying to find work. It’s a difficult time for young people today, since there are so many of them going after so few jobs. Most end up in the informal economy, or stay at home like two of my other daughters."

Marcel is elated that his daughter has a real chance at a professional career. “Pierrette was going nowhere fast before this opportunity came along,” he says with an ear-to-ear grin. “Any misgivings I may have had are gone. This Multi-Media Centre is important for the entire country.”

Radio broadcasters Stella Agbagbadin, Steve Hondjo and Lakiath Latouadi

The radio and TV programmes written, produced and broadcast by youth are also having a real impact on Cotonou and its surrounding areas. The radio programmes, for instance, pull people in with music – everything from hard rock and jazz to country western and African hip-hop. But wrapped inside the music programmes are short, informative segments dealing with current events and issues important to young people. A programme on young African musicians will suddenly feature the artists live on air talking about the threat of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent its spread. Another programme that features mellow jazz will break for a discussion on safe motherhood and where to go to get pre- and post-natal care. An English language programme will insert into its on-air lessons a discussion on the importance of staying in school, delaying marriage and sexual health.

“The information and messages broadcast by the radio station are not just directed at youth,” says Marcel. “These programmes need to be heard by the whole community. I am now learning from my daughter.”

The Centre is part of a very comprehensive project called EAGER, [Health and Social Services for Adolescents in Benin] with overall funding provided by the United Nations Foundation. EAGER is being executed jointly by UNFPA and UNICEF. In addition to the Multi-media Center, the project supports:

• Youth and leisure centers that provide a safe environment for adolescents, offering counseling, sports, reading rooms and access to TV and radio.
• Youth friendly reproductive health clinics, operated by the NGO OSV Jordan.
• Skills development and income generation activities for youth.
• Education, with an emphasis on reducing illiteracy among girls.

Group of curious adolescents gather around the videographer to look at the monitor, seeing themselves on video for the first time.

The Multi-Media Centre is the brainchild of UNFPA Country Representative Philippe Delanne and Tony Simard, the Centre’s ebullient director and chief technical adviser.
“This is a completely integrated multi-media center,” points out Tony Simard. “We use the latest professional equipment and teach by doing. Technically speaking we don’t have students. This is a training institution, not a school. After six months here, these young people all have real skills and are ready to work in any number of media professions – from computer graphic designers and editors to TV talk show hosts.”

Perhaps the best testimony to the Centre’s success is the reaction of its apprentices. “The Multi-Media Centre has opened up the world for me,” observes Pierrette. “I hope this can be the main training center for youth from all over West Africa who want to learn real multi-media skills in a short period of time. We have the laid the groundwork for the future.”

Ends.