Chikuni Radio In 1905, a French Jesuit, Fr Moreau, established the Chikuni parish. Midway between Lusaka and Livingstone, the Chikuni Parish is a living example of the strength of community and how the people are grasping opportunities to develop themselves. Since the beginning, there has been a constant drive to help the local population – now some 25,000 Batonga farmers – to develop themselves physically, mentally and spiritually.education is key to achieving this goal and over the years, the Jesuits have set up 48 Primary Schools, the Canisius College secondary school and the Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College . Today, the main problems faced by the rural communities are associated with their isolation. Playing an integral part in informing, developing and empowering the people, the Jesuits are working on a vast range of projects: recently installing 2 Hammer Mills for the grinding of Maize, donating sports equipment to each of the 21 outstations and are hoping to give people the chance of watchinged ucational and entertaining videos at these remote locations. The Parish also has many AIDS patients and so they have set up the Home Base Care Project. This helps dying AIDS patients return to their families to receive their last days' care in the loving environment of their homes: freeing up scarce hospital bed s and helping break down the taboos surrounding people with AIDS. The 21 outstations of the mission cover an area of 10,000 sq Kilometres and, with walking being the only feasible means of transport for the majority of the population, it was impossible for the locals to fully participate in community life. In our world today access to information is indispensable and must play a central role in any effort of development. It soon became clear that the Batonga people needed a means of receiving relevant information which will help develop themselves individually and communally. In a ground-breaking move, with help from Jesuit Missions and other organisations, Fr. Tadeusz Swiderski SJ, Fr Andrew Lesniara SJ and their ded icated Batonga friends, have raised over £125,000 to set up and run the first Radio Station run by the Batonga people for the Batonga people: a true community effort. With the first transmission in October 1999, the majority of the programmes are in the local Chitonga language and are aired at times that are most suited to the people they are aimed at: the subsistence farmers that eak out a living in the dry and desolate land that is their ancestral home. Viewed as a pilot project, other radio stations may now be set up around the region which will benefit other communities in need of such help. Everyone is encouraged to submit programme ideas and is invited to participate in the broadcasts as much as possible. To ensure that this is possible, each of Chikuni's 21 centres have set up a “Friends of Chikuni Community Radio” Committee. Their role is to give detailed and constructive feed back on programmes, content and style, and to identify people in their areas that might take a more active role in the station. Filling the information vacuum, the topics covered by the programmes are agriculture, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS,ed ucation culture, justice, family, women, youth, profiles of local talent, local issues and events. The station broadcasts across a 75 KM radius and has a potential target audience of 100,000 listeners as it will also reach four other parishes and Monze town. The radio has become a neutral forum where people are able to openly discuss previously forbidden taboos: property grabbing, sexual abuse of young girls, witchhunts and so on… A great example of how the radio is enabling people to find for themselves an answer to the real problems that they face in their lives. With approximately 80% of children unable to attend school, the excellented ucational programmes that the station transmits (in conjunction with the Ministry ofeducation) have become incred ibly popular especially with those children that are unable to walk the enormous distances to schools – sometimes a 50 km round trip! In such cases the locals have set up “Radio schools”. These schools use battery-less wind up radio s and are run by local volunteer teachers. The teachers help the children to follow theed ucational programmes/classes that are broadcast daily on the radio and have achieved some excellent results with many children getting top places in the National School Tests. With the set up costs of a Radio School being just £500, they offer the children and their families an excellent way for them to receive a fulled ucation whilst ensuring that they are able to remain an active part of their tight knit communities. There are now 18 radio schools giving grade 1 and 2 lessons to both children and adults. The Radio Station is now running an annual 2-day music festival celebrating local music – with local artists able to record and sell their music raising funds for themselves and the radio station – and this year attracted around 7,000 each day! Proof of the success of the station and the wonderful effect that it is having on bringing the community together. This work is changing lives, developing minds and bringing people together in a loving environment based on their own need s in their own terms. Please help us support the invaluable work and help the Batonga people grow. |