|
Haiti blog: Airwaves of Hope |
 |
 |
 |
Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer, Feb. 26, 2010
Community radio helps earthquake survivors cope
The studio at Radio Francisque FM is a tiny affair, but buzzes with activity. DJ Bernard Felusma works the audio board, headset glued to his ears as he spins his two-hour morning show, Recréation 10-12. The sounds are upbeat: Creole hits, hip-hop, and easily recognized international stars.
Entertainment is serious business at this little station, supported by CARE and based on the second floor of a squat, concrete building in the northwestern Haitian town of Gros-Mornes. After every tune, Bernard flips on the microphone and engages his audience with something useful: health and hygiene tips; a lost-and-found service for residents who have misplaced something like an ID card; advice about how to access government services – and crucial information for those displaced by last month’s horrifying earthquake.
Funneling information to the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Haiti’s devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, for provincial towns and villages like Gros-Mornes is an important task -- difficult in the early days when communications links were all but cut off. “We would broadcast names of people who were missing, and invite them to come to our affiliate station in Port-au-Prince to contact their families here,” recalls the DJ.
Bernard, age 19, is a volunteer – like all 30 staff members at the station (98.9 on the FM dial). He brings a young, hip edge to what is in fact a crucial public service. He and his colleagues brim with enthusiasm at their project.
CARE supports Francisque FM – named for a famous variety of mango that is the chief product of Gros-Mornes – through a special project funded by the U.S. State Department. Designed to promote good governance and social inclusion through the media, the two-year project seeks to strengthen 10 community stations; staff have stretched the resources in order to reach 13.
Part of CARE’s support is practical: making sure the stations can stay on the air. “There are six solar panels, 12 batteries and an inverter, to run the transmitter even when the city power supply is out,” boasts Dorcin Fresner, CARE project manager, pointing to a small room containing Francisque FM’s electrical equipment. “We’ve even arranged for Internet access by stringing a cable from another office building. That way the station can become part of a network, carrying programming live from Port-au-Prince.”
Along with technical help, the project is training 30 journalists, reinforcing newsgathering techniques and ethical principles, while encouraging them in their mission to educate the public and hold the powerful accountable.
Rural Haitians have limited sources of information – only 80,000 people read newspapers nationwide, according to the NGO Internews, while the Internet is limited to urban hubs. TV sets can be useless due to erratic power supplies. But as many as 92 percent of Haitians listen to radio.
In even the most makeshift camps for displaced people in Port-au-Prince, neighbors cluster around battery-powered radios, seeking entertainment to pass the long days, as well as information as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Likewise, former residents of the earthquake-affected zone who have fled to rural areas cling to their radios for news from home and tips on how to survive far from their support networks.
By supporting community radio stations in rural towns, while also working to educate citizens about civil rights and civic participation, CARE is creating a network for change where it is most needed.
“Radio has immense power and influence in Haiti, and our goal is to put some of that power in the hands of those who have traditionally been left out,” says Dorcin. “We want to be a voice for the voiceless.”
|
|
|
