Radio Workshop

Before the month of love comes to a close, we wanted to share one of our favorite episodes from the archive. 
Dating is complicated. Not to mention dating on the apps! And for LGBTQI+ folks on the African continent, where many countries criminalise queerness, it’s even MORE complicated. We asked reporters in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia to share how they navigate the highs and lows of seeking romance, community and friendship online. Despite all the pitfalls, love calls out to all of us.
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Abiodun Oyeniran lost his sight completely at age 21. At 28, he finally makes it into the University of Lagos, only to realise the campus is not equipped to fully support the needs of blind students. So, Abiodun becomes an accidental activist, creating a grassroots system that helps visually impaired students navigate exams for 5 years—until the university decides his solution is a threat to their policy and shuts it down.
Show Notes
Sources:
2017 National Policy on Inclusive Education 
2018 Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act
2023 Study on Nigerian Visually Impaired Students’ Computer Skills
The Tweet
Acknowledgements:
This episode would not be possible without support from Fondation CHANEL, Ford Foundation, and Luminate.
Support the show
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Last week, one of Radio Workshop’s producers was featured on the Sound School podcast. Sound School, hosted by Rob Rosenthal, spoke to Kabir Jugram about his podcast episode “Nothing Wrong, Bro,” which explores the mental health struggles of young men in South Africa’s most densely populated city, Johannesburg. 
Twenty-three-year-old reporter Kabir Jagram says young men in South Africa are stoic. Holding back emotions is a survival mechanism in a country wracked with youth unemployment. And that can lead to serious mental health issues. So, how then, as a young man himself struggling with expressing feelings, did Kabir manage to produce a captivating radio documentary about emotions?
Support the work of Radio Workshop by donating today.
Support the show
We can only do this work because of your support. You can make a donation at radioworkshop.org.

Aphiwe's grandmother taught her to flatten cardboard boxes when she was just a kid, selling the tiny "baby bundles" and saving the money in a piggy bank. Now 19, Aphiwe wears her grandmother's old work clothes and does the job alone — supporting her entire family. Waste pickers like Aphiwe recover 80% of South Africa's recycled plastic and paper, yet earn poverty wages in an industry that depends on them but won't protect them.
Shownotes
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Sources 
Occupational Groups in the Informal Economy: Waste Pickers
Infrastructure News - Stop Pretending Waste Pickers Don’t Exist
Nature News - South Africa’s waste pickers deserve more recognition for environmental role 
Newcastillian News - SA’s Recycling Lie: What Really Happens to Your Rubbish
Acknowledgements
This episode would not be possible without support from the UMI Fund. Special thanks to Hindenburg for supporting our projects across Africa with audio editing software.

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We can only do this work because of your support. You can make a donation at radioworkshop.org.

To wrap up our December re-releases, here’s the third and final episode of our award-winning series. 
Mary-Ann explores the contradictions of life in Alexandra. There are no easy answers, and not everyone will make it out of Alex—but there’s something infectious about the energy and persistence of young Alexandrians, a spirit Mary-Ann embodies and hopes will take her out of Alex. Some day...
Three years later, Mary-Ann is still living in Alex. She says she doesn’t want to be there, but her family needs her. So for now, she’ll stay. She says, “Leaving won’t be impossible, I just need to be patient. I still refuse to grow old here, and that's never gonna change.”
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We can only do this work because of your support. You can make a donation at radioworkshop.org.