Nekakat made a lasting impact by shedding light on cross-cutting issues, inspiring women and girls to rewrite their life stories. It addressed critical issues such as sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation, family planning, reproductive health, women’s empowerment, and gender equity sparking dialogue, opening minds, and driving social change.
Building global sustainability for today and for tomorrow all begins with the rights of women and girls. The right to education, economic independence, and reproductive autonomy are the building blocks and must-haves for gender equality and a climate-conscious world.
PMC launched Nekakat in Ethiopia in December 2020. This 156-episode radio show aired through 2022 in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and other Amharic speaking regions.
Nekakat followed several storylines and characters facing decisions on the core issues of the show — family planning, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, and child marriage.
PMC’s transformative storytelling began in Ethiopia, with the first PMC stories for social change broadcasting in 2002. The significant impacts of previous programs in Ethiopia — such as Yeken Kignit and Sibrat — laid the groundwork for a successful launch of Nekakat.
To complement Nekakat, PMC-Ethopia launched the radio talk show Yalaleke Guzo (“Unfinished Journey”). These 30-minute episodes shed further light on the issues in Nekakat with expert interviews, related news articles, health tips, and featured personal stories.
The cross-platform digital ecosystem for Nekakat was extensive, allowing audiences to engage with characters and storylines in a variety of formats — including video versions of each episode and a mobile app.
Each radio episode was made available on YouTube shortly after its original broadcast. Visuals of each episode were added to the radio dialogue along with sign language interpretations. Nekakat became the first PMC radio show to offer visual sign language translations, broadening its audience reach and addressing accessibility barriers.
The Nekakat mobile app, available on Android, provided fans with a centralized location to access all episodes. Additionally, push notifications were sent to app users to alert them when new episodes became available.
