The new radio station in Pemba district of Southern Province, Zambia, started airing test broadcasts on Monday 8^th April. Johnny was happy to be present at the switch-on, along with Milden Choongo from our partner organisation, Chibozu Community Trust. In the week leading up to the switch-on, an enthusiastic team of volunteers took part in a media training workshop. They used community mapping exercises to build a picture of their communities’ various resources and challenges, and to develop ideas for how media could bring out their local strengths to tackle the challenges. New media skills included reading the news, making short educational announcements (CSAs), and preparing for interviews with local dignitaries.

Volunteers give feedback on their community mapping exercise. Simooya, 2024

There was a powercut when we went to practice working with the new radio studio. But this didn’t deter the team. One person took the role of presenter, another sat at the guest microphone.

Learning to use a studio during a powercut, Simooya, 2024

As the presenter moved the faders on the mixing console and interviewed the “guest”, a third person sang along to provide music for fading in and out between the speech segments.

It was a lot of fun, and when the power came back on, the lesson progressed quickly under the tutelage of Kelvin Muzelenga, the new station manager.

However, all this happened in the context of the worst drought Zambia has experienced in many years. The Zambian government has introduced scheduled power outages (loadshedding) to cope with a reduced electricity supply capability. The country is reliant on hydro-electric power, but the rains failed between November and March, leaving rivers and dams at very low levels. This means that government needs to ration electricity supplies until the rivers have been replenished by the next rainy season.

Underground water supplies have not yet run out, so there is still water for irrigation on large farms, and for communal water tanks supplying drinking water in villages like Simooya. However, the drought has ruined maize crops in rural communities where small-scale farmers don’t have irrigation equipment. Small scale farmers grow crops for their own food supply, so lots of households face a year of hunger if they can’t find money buy food instead.

One commercial farmer I visited, on learning that I had come to help get the radio station on air, said my time would be better spent digging boreholes to provide water as that is the real need. As you read this post, you may well feel the same way. It’s the sort of dilemma we are often confronted with.

Maize crops in Simooya, destroyed by the drought conditions. April 2024

The farmer went on to say how sad it is that so many farmers are selling their cattle and goats because there is a lack of good pastureland, and farmers need to sell to get money to buy maize for their families. The flood of livestock on the market has depressed prices, making this an inefficient way to raise money. The farmer also told me that the Tonga cattle, a breed native to this area, are very hardy, adapted to the harsh climate and resistant to local pests. When the drought is over, farmers will want to replenish their stock, but will have to buy in from other regions and the new herds will not be so resistant to local livestock challenges, causing further losses. She thought it would be good if local farmers could work cooperatively to protect their breeding stock.

I realised we were having exactly the kind of conversation that works so well on community-centred radio. An idea is born, and community members talk it over on the radio and in their homes. People are drawn together to work out the details or to adapt the idea and develop a workable solution which is also shared over the radio.

This also goes for conversations about boreholes, raising awareness that boreholes don’t have an infinite supply and could dry up during drought. Water should not be wasted, so radio can help build community consensus around prioritising water use.

We don’t yet know how the people of Simooya will respond to these challenges, but we have seen how innovative the volunteers are in their first attempts at creating content, and how much they want to see their communities flourish. Another commercial farmer from the district has already provided the station manager with sample radio programmes he is making with small scale farmers in the region, discussing ways to maximise productivity despite the drought. We are confident that Simooya and the surrounding village will use the new radio station as one of their primary tools to respond to the drought together, and to ensure as many people as possible can benefit from solutions they develop.

The post Going on air in a drought appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

Amplifying Voices is working with Zambian NGO, Chibozu Community Trust, to set up a community radio station in Simooya. The nearest town to Simooya, Choma, is on the main road from the capital Lusaka to the tourist centres at Victoria Falls. Choma is quite accessible. Simooya is not.

In earlier conversations about logistics and resources for the project, the term “but they’re in the village” seemed to suggest limitations. However, the implications were not clear to me, coming from a UK context where the term suggests an alternative lifestyle choice from urban living. In Zambia’s Southern Province, we soon recognised that “in the village” is a euphemism for isolation and lack. Life for people “in the village” is very different to life for people in towns like Choma. People in Choma have access to reasonable healthcare, toilets and running water in homes, but it’s often not so “in the village”.

Simooya is made up of several settlements each with its own headman. I went to visit some of the headmen and their households, to get a better understanding of what they hoped for in a radio station. I also wanted to introduce myself so that when I return to do installation and training, I’m not a total stranger. Three men and two women from the local charity came with me to translate, and probably also to vouch for me. Building trust is really important in community-centred media projects.

At each place we sat around until a few members of the household gathered. Some might exchange pleasantries, and then there was, what seemed to me, an awkward silence. When I tried to break it and get the conversation going, my companions cautioned me to wait, “it’s different here in the village from the town. We don’t just dive into things.” Then eventually there would be a lift of a chin in my direction and eyes glancing to one of my companions – it’s the cue for “so what’s he got to say then?”

After asking about who lived in the compound, how old were the children etc, I could ask about the radio station. What did the community members hope it would offer them? What kind of shows were they looking forward to listening to? And what if anything should the radio station not do – what mistakes should we avoid?

And so, we came to this man who told us that radio would help him get his missing animals back. These smallholdings don’t have any fences and cattle and goats roam freely, with some teenagers or children keeping an eye on them. The man said that whenever one of his animals goes missing, he has to go to Choma, (which is difficult for villagers to get to), to put out a notice via a commercial radio station (which is expensive and not very local). He is looking forward to having a local radio station to go to place his missing animal notices.

Other families were looking forward to sports updates, to educational programmes and to farmers being able to share ideas and advice with each other. One woman warned us that we should be careful that the radio station doesn’t become a source of misinformation.

People “in the village” don’t want the phrase “in the village” to always have the connotations of poverty that it has now. Our hope is that the radio station plays a significant role in villagers experiencing “fullness of life” instead.

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There are only a few areas of Southern Zambia that don’t have their own radio station. Pemba district is one of those. Weak signals from stations in other districts can sometimes be heard, but the voices and the conversations are not the voices and conversations of Pemba district. They serve the needs of those other places. In Zambia, as in many African countries, community radio is recognised as a vital tool for communities fighting poverty, creating new opportunities and helping to sustain better health outcomes. Our Zambian partner, Chibozu Community Trust and other community members in Pemba district have been advocating for several years to be allowed to close this gap in local radio availability. At the end of June, the government of Zambia allocated a license to Chibozu Community Trust to set up and run a new community radio station for Pemba District.

The station will be located in Simooya, a village in the middle of the rural settlements south of Pemba town. People living in this area are mostly subsistence farmers. Chibozu Community Trust has supported community members to build and run a school and a clinic in Simooya.

We asked how community members were responding to the news that the community radio license had been granted:

The head teacher of the school said

“The community radio station will be a great way to preserve culture and traditions through story telling, interviews and music. Making culture and tradition as part of radio is a great way of passing it down from generation to generation and hence keeping it alive.’’

Another teacher saw the potential for extending education opportunities to those with limited or no access to school.

“the school can broadcast the lessons that can reach many learners thus increasing learning time”.

Simooya Headteacher

Teacher at Simooya School

Community members and health workers also see the potential to support the school and the clinic. These are a great benefit to those living closest, but some community members living more remotely may not be know how or when to access the facilities.

The nurse in charge at the local clinic saw the importance of the radio station when she made the following remarks: ‘’it will be possible for us to send various health information to the community relating to health activities. … For instance when we carry out what we call ‘child health week’.’’

A local mother agreed: “I am happy to be told that there will be a radio station in the area as it will help me get the information on when to take the children for under five clinic services.’’

Community radio will increase local trade opportunities, and support informal local advice networks:

“The coming of a radio station will be very helpful to farmers as it will be easy for us to market our farm products and when it comes to animals diseases, it will be possible to share information about prevention and treatment of various animal ailments.” (A farmer from Simooya)

Local government in Southern Zambia is shared between elected government and traditional chiefs. One of the chiefs said:

‘’The radio station will help us as traditional leaders to send information to our subjects like inviting them for meetings”

This is not just a tool for chiefs getting their messages out. It is a platform that creates opportunities for more local people to get involved in local decision making.

The chief also sees the value of community radio for communication between community members: “it will be easy for someone to trace something if it gets lost such as animals.”

The enthusiasm continues. There are the local businesses looking forward to staying in touch with customers and reaching new contacts, and the local pastors who look forward to better connection with congregations and reaching new people with the Gospel. There is a palpable excitement about the imminent arrival of the new station.

But there are a couple of catches. A brand-new radio station needs to be set up and ready to start broadcasting by the end of October to meet conditions set by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and ZICTA, government agencies responsible for granting the broadcasting license and a station frequency. The station needs to have suitable premises ready and equipped. The equipment needs to be purchased, shipped, cleared through customs, and installed. Some of the license conditions, e.g., for soundproofing the studio, are more stringent than we would expect (or recommend) for a community radio station, leading to unexpected costs and a larger longer term challenge for the local community to make the station sustainable. A station manager needs to be recruited and local team members trained to use and maintain the equipment, and very importantly, how to create community-centred content in collaboration with community members and local service providers.

We are not standing still, and neither are Chibozu Community Trust or the Simooya Community Members. We have already provided two sessions of online training for the board of Chibozu Community Trust so they are prepared for recruiting and providing governance for a local team. The board have visited other local stations so they understand what the finished setup could look like and what is expected of them. They have started to adapt an unused classroom at the end of the school building for the studio. Amplifying Voices has sourced most of the equipment which should be ready to send to Zambia within the next couple of weeks. We are planning to visit Simooya in the second half of October to oversee the final stages setup and provide training workshops for station staff, community volunteers, service providers and other local stakeholders.

The post A new community radio station for Southern Zambia appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

Milden and Catherine Choongo

We’d love to introduce you to Milden Choongo and his wife Catherine, the founders of Chibozu Community Trust. Together they passionately support community development work in Simooya and the surrounding villages. Milden grew up in Simooya. He went on to graduate in automotive engineering and eventually started up his own transport consultancy business in Zambia. During this time, Milden and Catherine also started the Chibozu Community Trust as a way to give back to their home communities. Milden named the trust after his late mother. Over the years, Chibozu Community Trust has supported the Simooya community to build a health clinic and a highly respected community school which has over 500 pupils.

Milden Choongo commissioning water supply at the community school, Simooya

Since moving to the UK with their 4 children in 2006, Milden and Catherine have continued to serve Simooya communities. They set up a UK office for Chibozu Community Trust and registered as a UK charity. Milden and Catherine keep close connections with Simooya, visiting twice a year where possible.

Catherine Choongo, commissioning drinking water supply, Simooya rural clinic.

Ongoing developments in Simooya

In recent years Chibozu Community Trust has has helped to bring reliable electricity and a mobile phone tower to the area. The school and clinic have clean water supplies thanks to new boreholes facilitated by Chibozu. The community is currently building a maternity wing to Simooya Rural Health Centre. Catherine holds a degree in General Nursing and Midwifery and has championed the maternity ward development. Her vision is for women in and around Simooya to be able to deliver their babies with dignity, avoiding maternity infections and preventing deaths in childbirth.

The new facilities in Simooya came about through community participation in all the decisions and activities, so that the developments truly reflected the hopes and concerns of local people. The school and the clinic are staffed by the government, but the community owns the facilities.

Despite this level of local participation, community leaders and the board of Chibozu realised that some people could still miss out on the opportunities offered by the developments. Some because they are not aware of what was available to them or their families. Others miss out because they don’t know how, why, or when they should make use of facilities like the health clinic. Some are too old to go to school, but would love to have learning opportunities. This could, for example, lead to more productive, more sustainable farming practices.

Simooya Rural Clinic

The board of Chibozu feel the time is now ripe for a community radio station. They want to ensure the benefits of development reach more people. They also want to bring people together in community conversations and to expand learning opportunities across the 12 villages around Simooya.

Radio in Southern Zambia

The nearest large towns to Simooya are Choma and Pemba. Simooya is in Pemba district and neighbours Choma district to the south. Choma is the provincial capital for Southern Zambia. Both Choma and Pemba are on the main road between Zambia’s capital, Lusaka and the tourist city of Livingstone, next to the Victoria Falls on the southern border. Although this road makes Simooya area quite accessible, the villages are still remote. The distance from Choma and Pemba means that the only radio service available is the national station broadcasting from Lusaka.

Amplifying Voices has been asked to support Chibozu Community Trust with the purchase of equipment and by visiting Simooya to provide community-centred media workshops. The workshops will train community volunteers and workers from local service providers. They will learn to make media content together and to operate a community FM station. Starting small and building up as people gain experience, the radio station would provide a mix of information, advice, entertainment, advocacy and learning together through community conversations. Initial goals are likely to include supporting the work of the new maternity unit and encouraging healthy conversations around the topic of HIV and AIDS. Programmes will also seek to improve livelihoods and food security among local farmers.

Milden also told us that many community stories are being lost. They have not been passed on to younger generations. He believes radio would help keep these community memories alive and contribute to a flourishing future.

What next?

There is a lot to do before the station can become operational. Chibozu needs to get a broadcasting license. We need to agree on and purchase equipment for the station. There will be more Ting-listening – community consultations to confirm what the community want to tackle in the radio programmes, and to identify the people with something to say. Of course the equipment then needs to be installed in a secure, sustainable and accessible location. We look forward to an intense period of working together with Milden, Catherine and the Chibozu Community Trust, and to seeing the Simooya community flourish.

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