A young inter-faith couple falling in love and marrying despite their parents’ concerns, an adopted daughter on a mission to discover her biological family, a journalist and filmmaker tackling fake news, and a family-run tea shop that has faced fires, economic meltdowns and now the COVID-19 pandemic – and through many other twists, turns, trials and tribulations, The Tea Cup Diaries has it all.

Since its launch in 2015, the show has reached millions of listeners across Myanmar – promoting understanding, openness, and respect for people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Now in its eighth series, the show continues to touch the hearts of audiences with relatable characters who reflect the country’s rich ethnic and cultural diversity, and entertaining storylines that provide a window into the different lives, experiences and beliefs of its communities. In the process, it’s garnered a following of dedicated fans – like this group of weavers from remote Kachin state, who we featured back in 2016.

The Tea Cup Diaries is unique in its timely reflection of real-life events woven into the drama’s plotlines, and the impact of COVID-19 is no exception. Our team behind the show was quick to adapt to the upheaval – from setting up home recording studios, to introducing new storylines reflecting how different characters are dealing with the pandemic.

With the tea shop in the drama shut due to COVID-19, the characters are struggling to adapt and missing each other. Listeners follow them as they learn ways to keep themselves safe, asking each other: What are the rules? How do we keep our families safe? Are we allowed to go outside? Is there a vaccine and can local herbs cure us?

We’ve been following up each recent episode with a magazine-style programme in which we interview doctors, religious and community leaders, actors, celebrities and members of the public who have been quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19. We talk about how their lives have changed during the pandemic – sharing diverse perspectives and fostering a sense of ‘we’re all in this together,’ regardless of ethnic or religious differences.

Since the beginning, we’ve used in-depth research to understand our audiences, explore their engagement with key communication objectives, and adjust content accordingly. The most recent findings from a panel study found that audiences were delighted to hear The Tea Cup Diaries continue to broadcast despite movement restrictions. Listeners reported learning about the ‘dos and don’ts’ of managing risks related to COVID-19 and enjoyed hearing how their favourite characters were dealing with these challenges:

 “Everything is included – such as washing hands, avoiding crowds and gatherings and talking from at least six feet away” – Female, 29, Ayeyarwady

“We should respect and follow [COVID-19 advice], as it is happening all over the world. We should not be neglectful and forget. [The show] is presenting according to what is practically happening outside – it is more complete and meaningful as they warn us with storylines and drama” – Male, 58, Bago

As access to the internet expands rapidly in Myanmar, and brings with it a burgeoning population of young Facebook users, we’ve also cultivated our own digital Tea Cup Diaries community. Almost 1 million people now follow – where we bring the themes of the show and the country’s diverse culture to life even more vividly through engaging daily video and social content. At the same time, we’ve worked to improve our followers’ digital literacy to help them navigate fake news and mis- and dis-information – all of which threaten to sow further division in the country.

Five years of The Tea Cup Diaries is a truly wonderful milestone and reflects an amazing creative journey with so many talented people who have produced and supported the show over the years. We are grateful for our loyal audience who have laughed, loved, learned new things, and travelled with us to understand more about Myanmar and, of course, each other.

We are all hugely proud of what the show has achieved and look forward to what the next 5 years (hopefully!) have in store. But, for now, it’s time to celebrate and raise a glass of – you guessed it – tea!

--

The Tea Cup Diaries is broadcast nationally on MRTV and Myanmar Radio, and is currently funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Previous funders are USAID, DFID and DAI.

Sarah:

The first thing I hear in the refugee camp is, “Rohingya women can do anything, I can do anything.”

Ayesha, about 60, shows us into her makeshift home with grace and warmth. My Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action colleagues and I sit on the beaten earth floor of her plastic hut dwelling. We’re in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world: Kutupalong, just outside Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.

Her welcome is impressive and humbling. She has her baby grandson in her arms. His mother and father are conspicuous by their absence. We don’t ask where they are.

Four writers, a drama director and I are in the camp to talk to any of the Rohingya refugees kind enough to give us their time. But unlike so many of the journalists and NGO workers present, we’re not here to talk about their recent traumatic experiences, instead we want to know about life in the camp and how they’re coping now.

Earlier in the year, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted funding to and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action to create a radio drama for Rohingya communities, specifically to help women and girls. As the project’s radio drama consultant, I’m here to help shape the production team’s ideas into a 20-episode synopsis.

Listening to real women’s stories

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action often uses drama as a way to approach sensitive issues, and one of them is what NGOs call Gender-Based Violence, or GBV. This laudably non-judgmental expression is new to me and I can see the advantage of its neutrality. This term respects cultural practices, whereas terms such as ‘wife beating’, ‘sexual assault’ or ‘grievous bodily harm’ could be seen as pejorative and risk shutting down conversations around the issue. By understanding the experiences of Rohingya women and girls, and exploring them openly, this new radio drama has the opportunity to help address sexual violence and abuse.

Back in the office, my Media Action colleagues presented their excellent new research into GBV among the Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar. It revealed that many Rohingya women experience forms of GBV such as child marriage, intimate partner violence and sexual abuse. In the context of a poorly-lit, overcrowded camp, the risks intensify. This research is an invaluable resource, providing accurate evidence which the team can consult when trying out new plot lines.

Changing the story

We know that character-led, long form drama has the power to shift opinions, and the hope is that this serial will subtly increase knowledge around GBV through stories with which both men and women can empathise. This drama, created specifically for the Rohingya crisis, will also inform people about the support services available to them in the camp.

But perhaps the drama’s true power is presenting the flip-side, illustrating the largely untapped potential of women and girls.

So the team and I got down to the job of sticking plot lines to the wall, creating the stories for each character over 20 episodes. The writing and directing team were used to working for screen, so I ran a couple of workshops on the relationship between radio scriptwriting and sound effects. The team tried out their draft scripts with their backs turned to the actors – the test was whether they could ‘see’ in their mind’s eye what was physically happening in the scene and which character was talking.

And the production team aren’t alone, the Rohingya audience is unused to radio drama too. One of the challenges is to ensure that the audience understand that the episodes aren’t a real, fly-on-the-wall documentary, but fiction.

Entertaining and informing

The refugees in Kutupalong have little to do and face an uncertain future in their new home of Bangladesh. A drama that could entertain and distract a bored and traumatised people, even for a moment, must be useful. But crucially, it also has the potential to get them talking, asking wider questions around their situation: it could be massive.

Back in the camp, Ayesha walks us up the hill on which her hut is precariously perched. Together, we look out over the vast camp, past the trees and the water to Myanmar. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

Perhaps it might come as a surprise to the menfolk in her community to hear Ayesha talk to us so fluently, confidently, proudly about her skills as a net maker. So we have given her a voice – basing one of our characters on her.

After all she can do anything.

--

Sarah Bradshaw has worked for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Drama as a producer, director and writer. She’s also worked as a consultant for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s very own Life in Lulu.

Our new radio drama for Rohingya communities is currently in piloting and is due to air in Cox’s Bazar in early 2019. To find out more about how we’re responding to the Rohingya crisis and how listening to those affected informs our work, take a look at .

If you’d like to learn more about how drama can be an effective tool for tackling sensitive issues such as gender-based violence, you might like to read written by our Executive Director, Caroline Nursey, last year.

Our radio drama Life in Lulu which depicts the lives and trials of people living in a small village in South Sudan and its regular listeners include inmates at Tonj prison. Henning Goransson Sandberg, our Research Manager, talks about his visit there to understand what they took from the programme.

The prison sits on a main road, overlooking the river that flows past the city of Tonj, in central South Sudan. The doors are open to the street, and the only guard at the entrance takes a cursory look through my bag as I walk past his desk on my way in. The courtyard, where most of the prisoners spend the day looking after cows, farming or cooking food, is patrolled by guards and surrounded by a low wall.

I meet the prison director who shows us around and tells me why the prisoners are there; their crimes range from fraud, shoplifting and petty theft to rape, assault and murder. The most serious offenders have their feet chained together, he tells me.

I am here to speak to inmates who have taken part in radio listening clubs facilitated by presenters from Döör FM, the local radio station. They have been discussing Life in Lulu, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s radio drama about the residents of a small village. The drama, now in its fifth season, is broadcast across South Sudan and explores a number of issues including non-violent ways to resolve conflict. 

Döör FM, which means “Peace” in the Dinka language, is a private radio station broadcasting mainly religious, education and public information programmes in the local dialect. The station started the listening clubs around a year ago and has since staged discussions about forgiveness, peaceful conflict resolution, the dangers of weapons in civilian hands and the dangers posed by mines and other explosives. By showing its characters making poor decisions when they are angry or drunk, Life in Lulu highlights the dangers of owning and using weapons.

Most prisoners had not heard the programme before starting their sentences, mainly because they had no access to a radio. But for the past six months they had listened weekly and discussed the show when the Döör FM presenters came to visit. The storylines seemed to resonate with them.

Achol has served two years of an indeterminate sentence for a gun-related crime. "All the problems that exist in this community occur because of guns," he said. "If you don’t have gun according to the perception we have here is that you are not a man and you don’t deserve the respect that men in the society enjoy."

He is passionate when he speaks of Life in Lulu and what he has learned. He told me that since his arrest, he had changed his mind about gun ownership. "I came to realise that guns should not be handled by civilians," even claiming, "After I’m released I will never touch any gun again … I will tell people about what I have learnt about guns in the prison and I will advise them to surrender their guns to the government so that we can remain as civilians."

Our research has shown that Life in Lulu has been successful in targeting beliefs and norms around weapons, in particular the belief that they symbolise masculinity and command respect.

Discussing the programme with others is important – as it increases the influence of the programme beyond its immediate listeners.

Talking to the prisoners I was struck by how closely the stories in Life in Lulu resembled their experiences. Deng, another prisoner, spoke about the storyline related to a revenge attack after a cattle raid in Lulu in which one person in the neighbouring community was killed:

"If they were to follow the legal procedure I think they wouldn’t have killed that person just because of one cow," he said. "The government would have apprehended him and put him in prison and the problem would have been resolved amicably. That is why I am in the prison here now, because I failed to follow the legal way of demanding my right, rather than commit a revenge attack."

Deng later told us he thinks the programme has influenced how he handles conflict, "I have totally changed from the way I used to do my thing in the past, after listening to Life in Lulu. Now if I have a problem then I will sit with people and negotiate until we reach a peaceful resolution."

 

--

The prisoner’s testimony was gathered as part of a research study and all names have been changed.

Life in Lulu is currently starting its fifth season. The programme is broadcast nationwide in South Sudan in three different languages, Juba Arabic, Dinka and Nuer. The programme is funded by the Norwegian Embassy in South Sudan.

If you are not one of the 17 million Nigerians who regularly listen to Story Story: Voices from the Market let me fill you in.

Back in 2003 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action created a radio drama to reflect the lives of ordinary Nigerians and to help them understand the issues impacting their lives. Set in a fictional market and motor park – places every large town in Nigeria has - we describe it as "somewhere in West Africa, somewhere near you".

It started broadcasting on 20 radio stations. The episode on Sunday went out on 164 radio stations, making it a truly national programme. In addition the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service broadcast it across Africa and there’s been a Story Story podcast, so it’s reached an international audience too.

I joined series two as a (struggling) freelance writer and I’ve worn a lot of hats during my time with Story Story: writer, content researcher, script editor, producer, head of drama and now I’m head of production and training. Let’s just say I’ve been through the full food chain.

From the start, we wanted it to be character driven and not issue led. Mainly it is about people. All of us deal with so many things on a day to day basis – we deal with work, how our communities are run, our health and our relationships. All of this makes for wonderful, compelling drama.

Story Story is a composite of real life, so to make it as realistic as possible we recorded the drama outside on location, not in a studio. In the early days we visited markets and talked to people who interested us to understand their lives. We then turned them into characters in the drama, helping make it as real and diverse as possible.

We even welcomed when she was on a state visit to Nigeria in 2003.

Real characters, real stories, real issues.

All this combined with rigorous research helped us create universal storylines. We’ve tackled corruption, ethnic and religious conflict, electoral fraud, HIV and environmental sustainability to name just a few.

Drama gave us the chance to cover difficult issues.

At the time, the HIV story was highly sensitive but we knew we needed to talk about it. It was affecting people across Nigeria and West Africa, and halting its spread was part of the . We wanted to talk about discrimination and condom use, so we decided that Madam Fati, a prominent character, should be HIV positive. It helped increase awareness about transmission and dispel stigma for those living with HIV. Madam Fati is still in the programme today.

As a writer, my favourite series was on the theme of environmental sustainability. The storyline was based around a rumour that there were diamonds in the area of the market place. So everyone went digging. People kept falling into holes dug by their neighbours looking for diamonds! It was funny and entertaining of course - but at a deeper level it was about how we are all responsible for our environment. If we destroy it we are destroying our lives.

Drama gave us the freedom to explore how the mining of natural resources can lead to degradation of the environment. Something which could have been difficult to cover in factual programmes because the economic mainstay of the country is from these industries.

But Story Story mirrors society to the extent you sometimes feel you are living in a documentary. When the audience considers the actions of their favourite characters in the drama it’s like a reflective moment. They see themselves in those situations and ask,"what would I do"? If they see a character they relate to making a positive change, it will motivate them. We wanted to capture that emotion and that’s what makes it so powerful.

Entertainment with impact

In the run up to the last national elections in 2015, the drama centred on local elections but reflected what was going on nationally. We encouraged the audience to think about the bigger picture and the importance of peaceful participation in democracy while maintaining our neutrality - it worked.

More than 80% of listeners said their knowledge of key governance issues increased as a result of the programme. And we know that listeners were more likely to resolve conflict using peaceful means and vote than non-listeners.

For me, encouraging peaceful dialogue in communities rather than violence has been the biggest benefit of Story Story. From the early days that was what we really wanted to achieve, and it has carried on to the present day.

I will miss Story Story and so will its millions of listeners. We all hope it will return soon.

 

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action is not funded by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ licence fee and depends on the generous support of donors.