The main objective was to train eight journalists from four media houses in the art of creating features and conducting vox pops for the civic education program “Let’s talk”. The aim of Free Voice (http://freevoice.media/) was to coach and at the same time to produce the firsts of a series of programs. The training should produce a solid base for the journalists to construct, in their home states and by themselves, entertaining and informative features as well as vox pops, that give a balance view of the opinion of the population.

The one month training was a joy for the trainees and certainly for me. Of the eight journalist, seven proved to be gems in creating fantastic radio phonic features. Under my trainer/editorship we hammered out several programs on among others: misuse of alcohol, street children, prisoners, etc.

I was impressed in how fast they learned and how enthusiastic they were to produce features. Emmanuel Achaha proved to be a good talk show host and presented the interviews that followed the features. He helped out as a co-trainer as well.

Not only could the trainees be proud of their products but they became solid friends. The latter was a real bonus to the training as they came from often rival communities.

After a month the trainees went back to their stations and produced programs. Later Arabic version were made of them. I felt that it was probably a once in a lifetime training where the majority of the trainees wered great and promising journalists, who never disappointed.