Your StoryTeller

Your StoryTeller is an initiative to create a story collection designed to extend the reach of community radio (CR) stations through interactive "Animated Audio-Visual Storytelling" on tuberculosis (TB) awareness and treatment. It is a project of ZMQ Software Systems, a Delhi, India-based company specialising in using information and communication technology (ICT) to develop communication solutions, with a focus on entertainment-centred, interactive learning to raise awareness about issues, such as HIV/AIDS, polio, sexual and reproductive health, etc. (See Related Summaries below.)

ZMQ is partnering with Development Alternatives and three stations: Alfaz-e-Mewat (Haryana), Radio Snehi (Bihar), and Lalit Lokvani (Uttar Pradesh). The three radio stations have a reach of over 2 million listeners. The project is part of the ZMQ's FreedomTB project being established in Mewat District of Haryana, with further expansion through these radio stations.

The Storyteller can be downloaded on mobile phones, (e.g., Android mobiles) to play the stories. ZMQ plans to develop a library of over 30 stories in 2015. This initiative complements the Freedom TB mobile games and interactive learning approach, including its CD-Rom package of games, "Stop TB Carnival".

From the story library: "Sacchi Saheli - A True Friend, is a series of stories to create awareness about TB, related myths & misconceptions and promote treatment.... It is an innovative approach of converting Radio based shows as interactive audio-visual experience using animated comic based storytelling approach. The content is designed to create awareness about TB in communities and is for global consumption...."

Another addition to the mobile YourStoryTeller Channel, a collection recently launched by ZMQ as a new platform to raise voices of the communities through digital story-telling, is Doll Bride. "Doll Bride is a short story of a young girl named Gudiya and her doll....The story focuses on the issue of early child marriage, prevalent in some parts of India."Click here to see this story on early marriage.