Media training and wild conservation has come into focus on African Voices, magazine programme of the Cable News Network (CNN), sponsored by telecommunications giant, Globacom.

The programme will feature the duo of Abaas Mpidi, a Ugandan, founder of the Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) and Brad Bestelink, Creative Director, Natural History Film Unit.

 
Mpidi is the Chief Executive Officer, of the MCI which is a youth-driven, non-profit organization building the next generation of journalists in Africa through training, mentorship and experiential peer-to-peer learning. The initiative has equally carved a niche for itself by assisting  upcoming journalists to  hone their skills by learning the practical skills required for the job.

The MCI team is made up of a collective of exquisite young men and women who are deeply passionate about creating the next generation of journalists through offering knowledge and solutions based skills. They come from diverse backgrounds including radio, television, communication, creative design, strategy, and research.

The group last year successfully collaborated with the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda to train 1,000 young journalists on effective reporting on climate change in the 2019 Climate Change Media Challenge.  The event was held last November.

Bestelink on his part is a producer, director and cinematographer and was reputed for filming the Nat Geo Wild Savage Kingdom series. Having grown up in Botswana, he exhibits deep interest in filming unusual predators, their habitats and behaviours, forged as a result of unique environmental circumstances.  

The whole series was filmed in a place called Savute, which is in the northeast corner of Botswana. “There’s an ephemeral river that flows in there for 20 out of 100 years, and we managed to get in there during the five-year period when it flowed,” he explained. All these prey species flock into this little oasis.

African Voices  Change Makers will be on DSTV on Friday at 9.30 a.m. and on Saturday at 12.30 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.  Other repeat broadcasts come up on Sunday at 5.00 a.m., 9.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m., with more repeats on Monday and Tuesday at 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. respectively.