The Team - Yemen

The Team in Yemen, a football-based, dramatic television series that is produced with Yemeni partners. The TV show is accompanied by a radio drama series with a different plot, themes and structure to maximize the reach of the series.

The overall goal of the series is to shift attitudes and behaviors of millions of Yemenis, particularly young people, away from adversarial, destabilizing approaches towards greater tolerance and moderation among the country’s sectarian, ethnic, political and socio-economic groups.

With 64% of youth below 29, in a population of 22.5 million, The Team target audience in Yemen is the highest in the Middle East.

The TV and radio drama series are accompanied by an extensive national outreach and dialogue campaign targeting 10 governorates which include Sanaa, Aden, Taiz, Thamar, Al-Baydaa, Amran, Shabwah, Hajjah, Sa’dah, and Abyan.  The community outreach campaign includes holding 700 screening/listening sessions followed by debates in schools, universities, NGOs, youth clubs and local councils, as well as 60 mobile cinema sessions to take the series into remote rural areas.

• SFCG trained more than 80 facilitators in Yemen and in partnership with two local agencies who executed the screening/listening sessions and Mobile Cinema in the targeted 10 governorates.
• The Team in Yemen launched a website, and social media such as Facebook and YouTube pages that include photos, videos, polls, competitions and other interactive links.
• The Team also reaches its audience using SMS Bulks through local mobile operators.
• The Team also created a Theme Song using traditional music and is now available in all mobile operators RBT libraries for all subscribers.
• The Team TV and Radio series were both created with direct scriptwriter skills training and content oversight from SFCG.

The Team in Yemen Facts and Figures:

• The Team produced 120 radio episodes broadcasted on 5 National radios in Yemen covering the entire country.
• The Team season 1 TV series is compiled of 13 episodes and has been broadcast on the Yemeni Satellite TV and is scheduled to broadcast in March 2013 in two additional local TV stations.
• The outreach campaign reached more than 30,000 youth.

The Team has received funding from the following: