Michigan State University Libraries

Description:: This paper is an extension of a rural communication project by Unesco/IPDC and the Finnish International Development Agency FINNIDA, focusing on nine villages in northern Tanzania. The project was given the name Commedia, an abbreviation of "Community Media for Rural Development". Its aim was to promote grassroots communication and dialogue between the village and nation-level media. It was originally envisioned as a pilot experiment for a huge programme, finally covering all the 8,000 villages in Tanzania and shifting the urban bias in Tanzanian mass communication. The project did not work out quite in the way it was planned. The Commedia story includes the ups and downs of an exercise seeking a balance between idealism and a cruel and capricious reality, not always responding to set objectives in the way planned in the project document (Kivikuru et al, forthcoming).
Date Issued:: 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

Description:: The paper examines the inter-relationships between the environment and the health status of women and children in Nikrowa. Women interact with the bio-physical and social environments in their different occupational and domestic roles. In Nikrowa they farm, fish, collect water and firewood, engage in food processing and preparation. They also bear many children. The author points out that this hard physical labour results in continuous body aches and pains for women. Among children, environment-related illnesses such as malaria, measles, dysentry and diarrhoea are prevalent The geographical isolation of the village limits accessibility to modem healthcare facilities and consequently traditional therapies are relied upon for treating these illnesses.
Date Issued:: 1995-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Journal of Social Development in Africa