Kenya

“Tuanze Biashara” is Swahili for “Let’s Start a Business”, a poverty alleviation project integrating a community radio station, social media, training workshops and a savings and loan association. See how this innovative micro-enterprise project is lifting people in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County out of poverty.

I’d like to introduce you to Flora and Hadiya, two budding Kenyan entrepreneurs who really mean business. In the absence of finding jobs and struggling to make ends meet, these two delightful ladies never thought they’d be able to start a business. That was until Amplifying Voices (then working as HCR) in collaboration with Aid…

Day 13 of #16DaysofActivism Combatting gender-based violence can take courage, sensitivity and wisdom. I met Mary*, an ordained minister working in a rural area in Kenya, who showed all of these qualities in her work to help women and girls. In this particular area of Kenya, the challenges facing families include limited access to food and water, and high levels…

Day 8 of #16DaysofActivism “Gender inequality exists throughout Kenya, but it’s particularly bad in this part of the country,” says Harriet Atyang, the manager of HCR partner station Amani FM in Tana River.   In many situations Harriet says women are subjected to abuse and violence, but it is rarely reported, as it seen as a cultural norm. Recounting…

Day 5 of #16DaysofActivism Radio Amani was launched in the conflict prone area of Tana Delta in the summer of 2017, ahead of the parliamentary elections in Kenya.  The purpose of the radio station is to promote peace and social development in Eastern Kenya’s conflict-affected Tana River (the northern region of Tana River County). The…

Day 4 of #16DaysofActivism I believe every person has a story to tell and it is often the people who have suffered the most whose stories can affect us the most deeply. I met Precious* in Kenya and she is a truly courageous and inspirational woman.  She was married at fourteen and had to stop attending…

There is an old proverb that says, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”   At Amplifying Voices we’ve come to realise that if we really want to help alleviate poverty, we need to go even further – we…

“I never realised how the Orma people came to be in this region of Kenya,” said a retired teacher from Tana River, “but since I started hearing their stories on the radio, I have begun to understand them better.” The man, from a rival community, was responding to a series of cultural programmes he had…

By Jon Hargreaves With just over four months until Kenya goes to the polls amidst concerns that there will be election-related violence, HCR (now known as Amplifying Voices) is exploring the feasibility of a new radio station in eastern Kenya’s Tana Delta. Last year we partnered with the Sentinel Project to set up a peace…

MSc Student, Joseph Thompson has just completed writing up his research which he conducted at HCR’s partner project, Tana FM in Eastern Kenya during June and July.  A student of water resource management at Wageningen (Holland) and Copenhagen (Denmark) Universities, Joe’s research addressed the conflict over resources in the region and particularly how the radio…