In the News
Media Release
December 2008
Scriptwriter from Kenya Selected for Prestigious Award
Farm Radio International names Rachel Awuor Adipo, employee of an NGO in Kenya, as the recipient of the George Atkins Communications Award. She will be giving a presentation with a colleague at World University Service of Canada’s 62nd Annual Assembly.
Rachel Adipo and Rose Ong’ech from the Ugunja Community Resource Centre (UCRC) will talk about youth and leadership and the work that their organization is carrying out. UCRC played an important role in maintaining peace during the Kenyan election crisis and continues to support opportunities for disenfranchised youth in its work in rural Kenya.
“It is such an honour to have been nominated for the award let alone selected,” says Rachel. “I have been working with UCRC in the department of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Programme where I have worked with both community groups and individuals. I believe using radio as a way to keep local farmers informed is paramount to their livelihood and sustainability.”
UCRC has a task force for setting up radio stations where Rachel generates content for programming. She’s a talented scriptwriter, compiling data, editing and producing stylized scripts that are shared within Farm Radio International’s affiliates.
She has won awards in two scriptwriting competitions. In 2006, her script, Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, was a winner of the Millennium Development Goals scriptwriting competition. This year, her script, Farmers can prepare for changing weather patterns was a winner of the Climate Change Adaptation scriptwriting competition.
Insert quote from someone who can speak to Rachel’s hard work and winning of the award.
A Member of the Order of Canada, Dr. Atkins owned and managed a small farm in Guelph, Ontario and was CBC Radio commentator on agricultural issues. A trip to Zambia to work with African broadcaster sparked the idea for Farm Radio International over 30 years ago. The annual George Atkins Communications Award recognizes rural radio broadcasters for their outstanding contribution to food security and poverty reduction in low-income countries.
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About DCFRN
Founded in 1979, DCFRN (www.farmradio.org) is a Canadian charity with the mission of supporting broadcasters to strengthen small-scale farming and rural communities in Africa. DCFRN researches and produces radio scripts on rural development issues and distributes them to some 300 radio broadcasters who interpret and use the scripts to provide their listeners with practical information about farming, land management, health and other issues. DCFRN also provides training opportunities, facilitating networking among and between broadcasters.
For more information contact: Kevin Perkins, Executive Director, Developing Countries Farm Radio Network
kperkins@farmradio.org
