Rozana Media Development Center (RMD) is working, in cooperation with the Humanitarian Aid and Journalism organization (AHJ), on a new project entitled Makanati.

The project mainly aims at training journalism and media female students in Erbil, northern Iraq, to ​​write audio content for podcast platforms, through direct training online and via the Zoom platform.

This training is provided by trainer Lina Shawaf who provides her accumulated experience in radio formats and various audio models, which are suitable for modern platforms such as podcasts.

The training targets female journalists from several cities in Iraq, who are looking forward to achieving a bright future in journalism and media, and addressing women’s issues in their society.

Shaida Hosami, Founder and General-Manager at AHJ and Chief Supervisor at Makanati project, said that the “Makanati in Media” project was launched in Yemen and Iraq in early September 2020, and is aimed at empowering women facing exclusion and gender inequality, especially in the fields of journalism and media.

The Makanati project seeks to give women their true and well deserved place in the media sector, in addition to helping them achieve a stronger presence in community life generally.

Hosami added that the Makanati project is “from women and to women,” as it started now to train female students and graduates of journalism and media with the aim of sharpening their skills and support them to produce independent media content away from community censorship, in addition to assist them in overcoming all the challenges that they may encounter as women in the societies of countries like Yemen and Iraq.

“Makanati in the Media” project looks forward to pushing social change forward through the most important means, which is media.

Hosami concluded that the Makanati project is supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by CFI, in cooperation with AHJ and local partners, namely the Studies and Economic Media Center (SEMC) and the Iraqi Women Journalist’s Forum (IWJF).

Rozana Media Development Center provides, through its professional trainers, training services to institutions and individuals alike, most notably for Syrian journalists and institutions or in North Africa, Yemen, Libya and Iraq, in cooperation with leading Arab and international organizations that support free media in the Arab World.