Digital story telling training opens new avenues for advocacy

Senzeni Chidziya Bhila 47 says she tested HIV positive in 2000. That was when she also discovered that her husband had tested positive four years before and had kept the information to himself because of the sense of guilty.

Senzeni says she has since embarked on a journey to alert all women to be cautious in their relationships. She says she would want to take every opportunity to tell women and girls about what happened to her so that they do not fall into the same trap.

Chidziya says when she heard about the citizen journalism training offered by the Creative Centre for Communication and Development (CCCD), she realised that this was the opportunity she was waiting for. She says that although she had done some radio and newspaper interviews, she had never had an opportunity to be in charge of the production of the content of her story.

“Most of the news articles attributed to me have been diluted. The news reporters wrote the articles to suit the angles they wanted to portray. The digital story telling training is the first opportunity that I have ever had and I wanted to make full use of it,” says Senzeni.

For 21 days, Senzeni says she was engrossed in the training with the conviction that she wanted to produce a story of her experiences in her own way and by herself. After the training Senzeni was happy with how she had packaged hers story and was ready to share it with the rest of the community.

The digital story produced by Senzeni was one of the videos used during the International Women’s Day on 8 May, 2013. Senzeni was there to discuss some issues that were arising from her digital story and is happy that she is now reaching more women and girls.