Dear Daughter
BBC World Service
Publishing Details
Contact & Outreach
About This Podcast
Extraordinary letters written from parents to their children with Namulanta Kombo. Sharing amazing real-life experiences, parenting advice, family stories and life lessons.
Dear Daughter is an award-winning podcast from the BBC World Service about love, life, family, and raising children. It is the brainchild of Namulanta Kombo, a mother on a quest to create a ‘handbook to life’ for her daughter, through the advice of parents from all over the world.
Each episode, a guest reads a letter they’ve written to their children (or their future children, or the children they never had) with the advice, life lessons, and personal stories they’d like to pass on.
Expect unbelievable true stories, inspirational advice for parents, and moving accounts of families, relationships and raising children.
Share your letter! What do you want to say to your kids? Or the next generation? Do you have thoughts on motherhood, fatherhood, or parenthood to share? Whether you are a mum or mom, dad or papa, grandparent, uncle, aunt, daughter, son or just want to write a letter, send us a Whatsapp message on +44 800 030 4404 or visit bbcworldservice.com/deardaughter.
You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ZFHNV8v7qgTm1zbKbkwsvR/dear-daughter-privacy-notice
Explore Statistics
Recent Episodes
The importance of education
What shapes a father’s determination to educate his daughters? In South Sudan, Marco tells Namulanta Kombo why making sure his four daughters go to school matters so deeply to him, carrying forward a…
Adoption day
Fleur lives in Singapore. She tells Namulanta Kombo about adopting her daughter after years of fertility treatment, and the moment her life changed with just 24 hours’ notice. Now, the family…
The world you’ll inherit
From Jakarta, Indonesia, Yasmina writes a ‘Dear Son’ letter to her teenage son about growing up in a changing world. Yasmina set up a grassroots climate project for families after becoming…
Mother and son champions
Skiers Sarah and Lasse made history as the first mother and son duo to compete at the same Winter Olympic Games, representing the Mexican team together.For Sarah, it was never just about medals. In…
Lessons from childhood
As a child, Yeiwah was forced to leave Sierra Leone, growing up far from the country she has always called home. Years later, after becoming a mother, she returns with her young daughter, determined…
Donor conceived
Emma, who is from Denmark, grew up with openness about her donor conception from the very start. When she was a baby, her parents wrote her a letter explaining how she came into the world, putting it…
A tractor load of love
How far would you go to help your child achieve their dreams?Corne drove the family tractor across South Africa to raise money so her daughter, Marconette, could represent her country at the World…
A different birth day
Lejla was born as a result of sexual violence during the Bosnian war. Adopted as a baby, she grew up in the UK.In this episode, she shares her difficult origin story with Namulanta Kombo. It’s a…
A mother of many
Anita from Singapore is a mother whose first fostering experience didn’t go to plan, but she was encouraged to try again.Twenty-three years on, she has opened her heart and home to 28 foster…
Reaching milestones
Bella is originally from the UK but now lives in Dubai, where she is raising her daughter who was born with global developmental delay. She tells Namulanta Kombo that her journey into parenthood has…
What makes a man?
Did you ever look at your life and think you’d never end up here, raising children you once couldn’t imagine having? Namulanta Kombo catches up with her old Kenyan school friend, Fiona. When they…
Keeping traditions
Tamaki talks about her daughter’s Seijin no Hi, Japan’s Coming of Age Day, the annual January celebration for young adults in the country who have turned 20 years old in the past year.In a letter to…
Surviving my daughter’s killing
When 19-year-old Ann from Florida, USA was shot by her boyfriend in 2010, her family were thrust into a nightmare, one that meant taking the agonising decision to withdraw her life support.In this…
Being a girl dad
Ajit, a dad from India, tells Namulanta about realising just how tough the world can be for his daughters as they grow up in a male dominated society.He’s funny, honest and totally unfiltered as he…
The gift of life
Brenda, a Canadian mother living with chronic kidney disease, was facing a long and uncertain wait for a transplant, until 2013 when her daughter Kielah stepped forward with an extraordinary act of…
Dear Daughter is back!
Namulanta Kombo is collecting letters of advice from around the world, to create a handbook for life for her daughter Koko – and daughters everywhere. This season, Namulanta speaks to Brenda and…
Leaving for college
Shelley’s daughter leaves for college – it’s a thrilling moment for everyone, but at the same time there’s a sense of loss. What will happen to their family when one piece of it is missing?So Shelley…
Grieving you
Paola’s daughter Camilla was beautiful, with curly hair and big eyes like her mother. She loved bath time and eating mangoes. But she also had a severe mental and physical disability, and died aged…
Don’t fear menopause
Annice Mukherjee is a hormone expert – she’s spent her career helping women deal with menopause. But when she develops breast cancer at 41, she becomes a patient rather than a doctor.Annice writes a…
The nappy braai
Azola’s friends welcomed him to fatherhood with a surprise baby shower, called a nappy braai. Instead of the chilled Saturday barbecue he was expecting, they handed him a beer and an adult nappy and…
Frequently Asked Questions
Dear Daughter has published 87 episodes since November 2021, covering topics in Personal Journals, Society & Culture.
Dear Daughter is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 24m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Dear Daughter, including email and social media links.
