Radio, drama artists trained in civil education
Realising the role of a r t s and artists in educating the masses, National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) oriented radio and drama artists on civic education concerning the region.
The two-day workshop, which was held at Gold Card Lodge in Blantyre last week, is part of Nice’s governance and regional integration project which seeks to popularise the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) so that Malawians actively participate in matters of the region.
The workshop drew participants from Malawi Broadcasting Corporation’s (MBC) popular soap operas— Sewero La Sabata Ino, Nzeru Nkupangwa and Pamajiga.
In his opening remarks during the workshop, Nice executive director, Ollen Mwalubunju, u n d e r s c o r e d t h e importance of arts in civic education, saying they contribute towards empowering people.
Mwalubunju said: “Nice has decided to mainstream issues of Sadc and regional integration in its ongoing democratic governance intervention. Given that, to deliver its civic education it has decided, once again, to train drama artists for a wider dissemination of information and popularisation of regional integration and Sadc.”
According to Mwalubunju, current experience has shown that Sadc “is just a club of heads of states” and in most cases, people come to know about its existence when meetings are being held.
T h e r e f o r e , N ice seeks to shift from just providing information to people to empowering and transforming them to ensure an increased popular participation and improved service delivery at all levels of governance.
Ac t o r s C h a r l e s Mphoka, Esther Mulewa, Cosmas Charly, Enifa Chiwaya Paul Nazombe and Dyson Gonthi were some of the participants of the workshop.
Mphoka remarked about the workshop: “For a long time, Malawian artists have been at the centre of civic education.
For example, they were heavily used during Malawi’s first tripartite elections. However, they lack proper induction on certain issues. So, this workshop has given us an insight on how to go about Sadc issues.”
