The Southern Africa Media and Gender Institute (SAMGI) was founded in 2003 as a result of the expanded activities of the Women’s Media Watch.
Due to the rapid diversification of the Media Watch activities, the organisation has set up a trust in the name 'The Southern African Media and Gender Institute' and the Women's Media Watch has become a project thereof. In this way, the Southern African Media and Gender Institute is able to fulfil the communication, gender awareness and critical media consumption needs of the Southern African Region. The effectiveness of the outreach to the region is facilitated by the affiliation of regional organisations to SAMGI. This structure enables the Women's Media Watch to focus on the purer activities of deconstructing the media, monitoring the media and bring about constructive transformation in and by the media. Within these activities a forum is provided to give voice to the voiceless at grassroots level and highlight their needs to the media industry.
The Women's Media Watch was founded in 1994 and started as an interest group of women who saw the need to get the least represented female voices heard in the media. Women, the group predominantly denied access to the media, were finally given a platform to get their voices heard and to access information though the media.
The small group of woman who started the Women's Media Watch drew into their circle some women from grassroots organisations and some disadvantaged women who were able convey their problems and that of their communities to the group. As more and more requests for assistance were recorded, it was decided to formally launch the Women's Media Watch and a project was born.
This was the first Women's Media Watch in the Southern African region and had no role model from which to draw experience. The small volunteer-staff component and the struggle for funding soon saw the vibrant project shrink and hibernate. In 1996, a new director was appointed to take the project through a radical change process. The value of the Women's Media Watch was recognised and the project was re-established, funded and an expert co-ordinator in gender and media appointed. In 1997, the Gender and Communications course was added to the Women's Media Watch. Women's Media Watch concentrated on advocacy, lobbying and activism. The Gender and Communications course was initiated to teach the skills required to deconstruct the media, develop critical media awareness skills, monitor the media, develop information technology skills and develop writing skills to a wider audience.
The organisation enjoyed a high level of recognition and the ability of the organisation to attract funding ensured that the Women's Media Watch was able to fulfil its terms of reference and grew into a well-received project with good potential to replicate itself in the Southern African Region. The project was invited to local and international conferences where it enjoyed success.
A change of management in the parent organisation in late 2000 sounded the end of the project when it decided to re-build its image, remerge with its former parent NGO, the Community Arts Project and abandon its gender projects. However, the will for the existence of the Women's Media Watch and the role it plays in gender transformation, the constant pressure from its beneficiaries and a few committed staff members of the project ensured that it was to survive. The 'new' Women's Media Watch concentrated on training on gender and media for gender activists for campaign strategies, have also trained youth in media and gender awareness including looking at the impact of HIV and AIDS, domestic violence and poverty on their lives. A basic media production module was developed and this included print, radio and photography skills. Finally, New Information Technology was added to the skills training programme.
