This year, DW Akademie is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It’s an institution that has grown immensely since that first training program for radio technicians in Rwanda. It has steadily expanded its work promoting press freedom, freedom of expression and media development. But the game has changed over the past five decades. Information can now reach every corner of the world, which is why media development has taken center stage in development policy. DW Akademiie is meeting these challenges with an innovative and interdisciplinary approach. They work on political frameworks in consultation with government authorities and NGOs, for example, and advise journalists and the media on developing new business models to assure their financial independence. Today, DW Akademie works in 50 countries around the world, with sustainably designed programs and clearly defined aims.

Africa
The news websites Focus Guinée und Guinée Signal are now DW partners for online content in French. The radio stations RTCT, Radio Télévision Communautaire Oasis and Radio Télévision Communautaire Ondese are now DW partners in Congo. They are broadcasting DW’s radio program daily in French and Kiswahili.

R2A Radio Azur in Togo is now broadcasting Learning by Ear, as well as the morning and evening shows in French and the evening show in Hausa.

In Cameroon, DW has three new partners for TV and radio. TV+ Cameroun will be including DW’s English channel in its portfolio, Canal2 will be broadcasting select programs like Made in Germany and Conflict Zone and CBS will broadcasting radio programs like Learning by Ear and AfricaLink.

UTV Ghana and Light TV are now DW partners as well, broadcasting programs like Kick Off! and Business Brief. Also in Ghana, Vision 1 is now broadcasting DW’s radio program AfricaLink as part of its lineup.

North America
DW is now working with MHz Networks in North America to distribute the English channel DW. MHz will now be broadcasting a three-hour block of DW from 15:00 to 18:00 (Eastern Time), which is picked up by DirectTV, more than 31 PBS stations and many other cable networks. It’s available in markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and reaches more than 40 million households.

Online
DW will be one of the first media companies to be included in Apple News with its own channel. The app has been included in the iOS9 launch.

Asia
The Indonesian website kompas.com is a new DW partner. Kompas will be integrated DW’s online content in Indonesian to its portfolio. It’s the 11th most popular website in Indonesia with 20 million active users and 40 million page impressions per month.

Europe
As part of a new coproduction, DW’s award-winning lifestyle program Euromaxx is now available in Lithuanian and broadcast on the public broadcaster LRT. DW’s Arts.21 is also being produced and broadcast by LRT in Lithuanian.

The media does its job when people who would otherwise go unnoticed and important things that would otherwise go unseen are cast into the light. Communities all over the world are created by the sum of the good work of many individuals. As an international broadcaster, DW has taken this to heart and created the local heroes campaign to provide people around the world the chance to express themselves and share the special things they do for their communities.

The local heroes campaign recently reached new heights in Ghana, where people from across the capital Accra were literally given a stage to express themselves and celebrate their communities. Created in cooperation with local broadcaster Joy News, the Heromobile took to the streets of Accra in October, visiting the neighborhoods Madina, Nima, Teshie and Labadi. At each stop during the afternoon the Heromobile toured the neighborhood asked people to share what made them stand out or what they were doing to make a difference. A stage was built and a celebration complete with artists and musicians created a sense of empowerment among the community.

The level of engagement people in Accra have is truly inspiring and the Heromobile campaign helped bring it out. More than 10,000 people turned out to participate and celebrate. The people who came out and shared their lives are as diverse and fascinating as their work. In Madina, Shadrach Victor Kwetso runs NGO’s and teaches young children literature and poetry free of cost. Rita Tacki Manieson teaches people how to weave and work with beads. In Nima, Adiza Alhassan sells food at a very low price and provides free food for mentally and physically disabled people in her community. Albert Stone Donkor has been coaching basketball in the community for over 25 years. In Teshie, Paulina Asorkor Amarh runs a center for widows that takes care of them and provides clothes and food. Nii Mensah Sowah runs a free school for less-privileged youth. In Labadi, Seth Mensah Quarshie Yemo is an actor who gives free acting lessons to local youth. Jospeh Adeti is an athlete that organizes soccer matches and coaches young people.                                                                                                                    

These are only a handful of the dozens of local heroes who joined the Heromobile at each stop. In the days following the events more people checked in on social media from around Ghana to ask if the Heromobile would be coming to their town and express regret that the campaign had ended before they could join. While the Heromobile is no longer running, the local heroes of Accra, and everywhere else, will always be taking action and improving their communities. Wherever DW goes next, they will be sure to have their chance to speak out.

DW’s new English news channel was created for people all over the world who are looking for news and information that supports and inspires them to shape their communities. During the past few months, DW has searched for these local heroes, and at every point we have found and celebrated people who are doing remarkable things and making a difference.

Most recently in Ghana, DW and local broadcaster Joy News organized a “Heromobile”, which is travelling around the capital city Accra with local musicians and went looking for people who stand out, make a difference or work hard for change. DW and Joy News collected and shared their stories taking pictures of the participants and created an atmosphere of celebration.

Earlier this summer in Kenya, DW organized The Local Heroes Journalism Competition, which encouraged young journalists to create a journalism project profiling local heroes making a difference in their communities. The competition drew a lot of interest and promoted quality journalism while giving Kenyan local heroes the recognition they deserve.

In Pakistan last month, speaking engagements in cooperation with local broadcasting partners honored local heroes and let them tell their story. Highlights from Pakistan included Samar Minallah Khan, documentary filmmaker and women’s rights activist who helped make the practice of forced marriage in Pakistan illegal. In Bangladesh, DW has honored Infoladies, who bike hundreds of miles to bring advice and medicine to thousands in remote, impoverished villages. There are currently around 70 Infoladies working mainly with women and girls as well as with disabled and elderly people, connecting them to the rest of the community.

In an online call to action over the summer,  DW asked people from anywhere in the world to submit the story of their local hero. Facebook posts on both DW News and 12 websites from DW’s various Asia and Africa departments combined to help draw attention to the new channel and encouraged people to share interesting stories of their local heroes with DW. The campaign was received with a lot of enthusiasm by online users. The various local hero stories complied by the participating DW editorial departments generated over 1 million reactions. The language groups that showed the most interaction with online posts were Dari, English and Bengali.

DW has shown that local heroes come from everywhere and anyone who has a vision and passion can make a difference in their communities – and there are always more stories to tell.

German music needs a strong voice to be heard by the world and DW is actively involved.  Recently DW’s German music program PopXport was the media partner at an awards event organized by the German Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media. The APPLAUS awards honored 64 outstanding independent clubs, and venues across Germany that help support young musicians and artists while contributing to a vibrant independent music scene.

PopXport already plays a large role in promoting German music as the media partner for the Initiativ Musik, a funding agency from the German federal government that supports new German music acts in every genre. Every month, PopXport features a new artist on the show.

The APPLAUS prize celebrates and supports small and medium sized music clubs and event promoters. The awards were divided into three categories with the top prize set at 30,000 Euros. A report on the awards ceremony is being aired on the PopXport episode starting October 16.