Voice activated speakers like the Google Home and Amazon’s Echo Dot have triggered renewed interest in audio media and boosted the popularity of podcasts according to Reuters Institute. In some places where HCR partners are working, portable speakers with digital audio are key sources for information and entertainment. Increasingly HCR partners are using speakerboxes where there are restictions on using FM radio…
The Next Ten
Eighteen months ago, Nanda could not read or write - today she regularly reads stories to her parents! The ADIVASI VOICES PROJECT is changing the lives of Nanda and others in her remote tribal community in Maharashtra, India. Her teacher says, "Thanks to the project there is now 100% school attendance and there are more girls in school than boys. You have helped parents see the value of education.”
The Pervasive Flavour of SALT
A new community is benefitting from the Amplifying Voices through SALT project (AVS) in Freetown, Sierra Leone! Young people in Sammy Town have taken up the challenge to repair the damaged roads in their neighbourhood following a chance encounter with project volunteers. Sammy Town is a community in the hills overlooking the centre of Freetown.
Soot Semee (Voice of Compassion) begins ...
Sustainable Development Goals
The 17 SDGs reflect that EVERYONE has a role to play in the sustainable development of our future. We know community media is an essential component towards achieving the SDGs, which is why we are facilitating community-centred media around the world to support communities live life in all their fullness, free from poverty, injustice and conflict. Some of the ways in which we support the SDG’s include…
Yet more evidence… radio changes lives!
How a radio project dramatically improved the lives of communities in conflict… An evaluation of HCR’s community-centred radio model in an area of violent conflict, has shown that it led to significant improvements in the community. This study is evidence that a local level community-centred radio and their volunteers is powerful way facilitating dialogue, livelihood and participatory communication outcomes in contexts characterised by sustained conflict, disadvantage and disempowerment.
Sunda Sar (Skull of a bull)
Whatever we asked, the reply was: “no, we do not have it”, “no one listens to us”, “no one comes to us” or “no one is willing to help us”.
A community leader told HCR’s Hazeen Latif, “we are 3000 houses and an estimated population of 15000 including children and elderly people there is not a single BHU (basic health unit) or even some private clinic. There is no public dispensary. The list goes on and on. This is “Sunda Sar” or “skull of bull” meaning a place of prosperity and power.
Adivasi Lives Matter
In today's tech savvy world, information is just a click away with our mobile phones and computers, or if those aren't in reach, our televisions and even radios all help keep us informed. But what if we didn't have any of these available to us? How would we find out important health and community information? HCR has been working in partnership with Seva Social Welfare Foundation in remote parts of India’s Maharashtra state, home to many indigenous groups known as Adivasis.
Two years of promoting peace
Two years ago a small team from HCR set up a community-centred radio station in the remote town of Garsen in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County, training a team of volunteers from different tribal groups. Ahead of the August 2017 elections, the station was designed to promote peace and social development in an area that had all-too-often experienced violent conflict along ethnic lines.
Today, two years on, Amani FM has become a vibrant part of the community and a powerful voice for peace
Community cleans up
“The garbage situation was getting so bad in our town, that something had to be done about it,” says Harriet Atyang, the station manager of HCR partner station, Amani FM, in eastern Kenya’s Tana River county. Approached by the Kenya Red Cross in an effort to help the problem, Amani FM was able to go on air and get a conversation going about the importance of keeping the environment clean.
"You kept your promise!"
What a joy to be back in the remote Maharashtran village of Kahandol in time to celebrate the inauguration of their two new wells. Just four months earlier I had been standing on a dried up riverbed with my Indian colleagues, Shilpa, Sam and Akshay and the head of the village, Patil Ramdas Warde. Ramdas told us how the drought had brought great hardship to his village, with only 28 days of water, and he had asked us if there was anything we could do to help …
"Electric fan was no better than a handheld fan!"
Picture this: a village with around 120 households; men, women, children and elderly all living together in conditions very few would dare to live. As the night falls the world beyond the village illuminates with lights glowing from house windows and on the streets. Cool air wafts from air conditioners and fans are blowing. But this village in KPK looks like a campsite with candle lights getting dimmer and dimmer as night get deeper.
Stations collaborate to end violent extremism
HCR partner station Amani FM in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County, has joined forces with another community station to promote peace in this conflict-affected region. The project “Amani Mashinani,” which in Swahili means peace at the grassroots, involves young people in the design and creation of feature stories and talk-shows that promote peace, using the airwaves of Amani FM in Garsen and TBS (Tana Broadcasting Service), in Hola.
Spraying for peace ...
Radio station supports thousands fleeing attack
Umoja FM, HCR’s partner station in Nobili, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is supporting communities fleeing attacks by Islamist rebels. “Our team are doing all we can to provide essential information to displaced people as well as support to the wider population,” said Station Manager Baraka Bacweki.
“We didn’t realize that our voice was so effective and strong!”
Change is happening and its infectious! The development changes we have seen in the last few months in Majukay, a community in Charsadda, Pakistan, were almost unimaginable 4 years ago when the community members set ambitious goals for being a healthy thriving society. It feels like a corner has been turned, and the change is gaining momentum.
Buzi bounces back ...
Yesterday Cyclone Kenneth was the second cyclone to hit Mozambique this season. Only one month ago, Jon and I traveled to Beira in central Mozambique in response to Cyclone Idai. Beira was cut off from many parts of the country for several days, and some surrounding towns were cut off for several weeks. The fastest way to re-connect people was through restoring the mobile networks and through FM radio stations.
I am not a witch!
Children in their thousands are suffering significant abuse and stigmatisation, or even being killed, due to accusations of witchcraft against them. There are tens of thousands of cases, in many nations worldwide.
‘I’m not a witch’ is a powerful, new short film produced by Congolese film maker, Tshoper Kabambi, designed to promote awareness of the problem.
Water: essential for life
Our partner, Seva, working among tribal people in Maharashtra had gone to distribute SD cards for latest audio programmes for the 'speaker boxes' when they discovered the community in Kahandol in great distress due to lack of water. They found people desperately trying to dig pits to find water, but with little effect. Seva’s Chief Executive, Shilpa Shinde said they had to do something to alleviate the community’s distress.
Violence is never okay
In Australia, 1 in 6 women have experienced physical or sexual violence and 1 in 5 have been sexually assaulted or threatened. These statistics are even more alarming at the local level. So in response to this, the Geraldton community joined together to make a stand together to say violence is never okay.