In recent weeks in Europe, we’ve seen how natural resources, that should provide sustainable livelihoods for local people, are being repurposed to placate aggressors. In Morobo county, years after villagers lost swathes of their valuable teak and fruit trees to conflict, trees are now changing role again – from placating aggressors to building sustainable peace.

In the Southern border regions of South Sudan, armed groups, either from the South Sudanese armed forces or from opposition groups, were often posted from the North and left for months without any wages, or senior leadership. To provide for themselves, some of these groups would confiscate harvests from locals. In the process they also destroyed lots of the mango and jackfruit orchards. Some went beyond simply seeking sustenance and plundered the valuable teak plantations, leading to widespread deforestation.

Over the last year, the Hope Village community-centred media project produced several speakerbox and radio programmes on natural resource management, exploring the causes and the far-reaching effects of deforestation. Listeners groups contributed their own thoughts to programmes and got a wider conversation going. Listeners heard how deforestation is linked to changes to local climate, such as reduced rains, and increased dust and heat. They also acknowledged that the reduction in local resources had led to new conflicts between neighbours or neighbouring communities. Lack of food or income sources for families led to girls being married off early and increased the number of school dropouts.

The Konakimungu listening group took on the challenge. They agreed together to start up a campaign on the plantation of teak trees, mangoes and jackfruits to replace destroyed trees around their home stead.

With support from our partner Community Development Centre (South Sudan), the Hope Village radio programmes also provide advice and support for how communities can go about a campaign like this. This includes conversations about gender equality so that men and women, boys and girls, would work together to plant new trees and so that all would benefit from the tree planting activities. They want to improve the lives and rights of girls and prevent them being the first casualties should communities faced difficulties in future.

Listeners to Hope Village are following the Konakimungu group’s progress and we expect more communities will be planting trees soon that bear fruit now to feed their families, and sustain peace in the long-term.

Amplifying Voices has supported Hope Village with community-centred media training, and with equipment including speakerboxes and a mobile studio to help more community voices take part in making the Hope Village programmes.

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Today, on World Radio Day 2025, we celebrate the power of radio in addressing climate change. And there’s no better example than Vox Radio in Tana River County, Eastern Kenya, a community station that was set up by Amplifying Voices in partnership with the Amani Centre and Sentinel Project in 2017.

Tana River County faces devastating impacts from climate change: frequent droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, and food and water insecurity. But amid these challenges, Vox Radio is turning the tide by empowering the community with life-saving information.

Every weekday from 2 to 3pm, Vox Radio’s climate segment, hosted by Yoash Festus, delivers vital weather updates and expert insights. Farmers, fishermen, and pastoralists tune in to hear simplified forecasts and practical solutions to cope with unpredictable weather patterns. The station bridges the gap between complex scientific data and community needs, ensuring everyone understands how to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Collaboration is at the heart of Vox Radio’s approach. Through a partnership with BBC Media Action under the Bridges programme, Vox Radio unites meteorological experts, journalists, and local communities to co-produce informative broadcasts. This three-year initiative involves farmers, fishermen, and pastoralists who help to shape the content they need most. As part of this effort, journalists Kulah Nzomo and Ferdinand Muthui have received specialised training to produce tailored climate programs that truly resonate with the audience.

“We are doing this so that our community can make informed decisions about changing weather patterns,” says Ferdinand Muthui, Vox Radio’s Operations Director. “Our goal is to empower listeners with knowledge that helps them adapt and build resilience.”

On this World Radio Day, Amplifying Voices salutes Vox Radio for turning up the volume on climate action. Together, we amplify hope, solutions, and resilience for a better future.

The post Amplifying Climate Solutions in Tana River appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

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.

“After four years of devastating drought and food insecurity, no-one was ready for this,” says Fatma. “Even the authorities were poorly prepared and only days before the flooding started, the President said that he anticipated that the rainy season would be short and not have much impact on farmers,” she added. Thankfully before the rains arrived, Vox Radio had already begun preparing communities, advising them what to do in the event of flooding.

Partnering with the county government and service providers such as the Kenya Red Cross, Vox team members have been reaching out to flood-affected communities, giving them a voice. “As we meet community members, we listen to their concerns and needs and we also engage with specialists who can answer their questions,” says Fatma.  “For example we have discovered that a lot of people have been traumatised by the floods, and so we have been helping people understand how to identify trauma and giving them ways to cope.”

Fatma Mzee accompanies the District County Commissioner and other officials during a food distribution to displaced communities.

Vox Radio Chairman, John Otunga who has also been supporting the team in their emergency response described how the Vox team responded when the scale of the disaster became apparent: “We realised the importance of reliable information and immediately took action. We rallied community leaders from the government, religious groups, and the broader network of development workers to share messages of hope, give direction, and reassure the affected communities. We also restructured our programming to address community concerns and facilitated community discussions. We placed a lot of emphasis on engagement with community leaders and health experts in our radio programmes, which has fostered a sense of connection and support. These platforms of dialogue have contributed to the unity and kindness we are witnessing in Tana River, even as people grapple with the aftermath of the floods. Leaders are showing more accountability, and slowly, hope is finding its way back into the hearts of our people.”

The authorities have also acknowledged the valuable role Vox Radio is playing, even in supporting their rescue efforts.  One family whose home had been submerged under water called the radio station to tell them of their situation, which alerted the authorities who were able to rescue them.

According to Fatma, the floods came at a terrible time for both pastoralists and crop farmers. “Most farmers had already planted their seeds, but these have been washed away,” she said.  “The pastoralists likewise had brought their livestock from the hinterlands to graze by the river, so many animals were swept away, and those remaining are now suffering from diseases caused by the Tstese Fly.”

Going forward John believes that as the flood waters start to recede, the radio station will have a critical role to play as the communities will face many challenges.  On top of the existing challenge of food insecurity, which has been exacerbated by the floods, there is now a threat of a cholera outbreak and mosquito-born diseases like Malaria.  There is also a risk to communities from wild animals, whose habitats have been washed away, which often brings them into direct contact with people.

While thousands of people are now living in temporary camps, Fatma is thankful that many people are listening to Vox Radio.   “We have found that people in these IDP camps are very vulnerable, especially young people, and so we are running special mentorship programmes for boys and girls,” she said.  “Vox teams have been moving from camp-to-camp having conversations with young people about the risks that they face and about how they can keep safe.”

Meanwhile John says that Vox Radio’s commitment to serving the public during this crisis underscores the vital role that local media plays in times of disaster. “By leveraging its influence and reach, which is now almost county-wide, Vox Radio has not only disseminated critical information, but also fostered a sense of community resilience and unity, proving that even in the darkest times, the power of community-centred media can bring people together and help them rebuild.”

Photo credits: Kevin Odit (Nation Media Group) and Kulah Nzomo (Vox Radio)

The post From Drought to Deluge: Vox Radio Becomes A Lifeline appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

Last week the Soot Semee coordinators organised two days of community-centred media workshops to train new volunteers and to refresh the existing team’s skills. As well as learning media skills such as how to record interviews and make effective community service announcements (CSAs), the training workshop includes time to reflect on community goals for development and exploring opportunities to work together in other “off-air” activities. To mark the end of the training the community organised a peace-friendly football match.

So what exactly does Soot Semee mean by “peacebuilding”?

Soot Semee volunteer team, Nov 2022

Peacebuilding is sometimes understood as aiming for a cessation of armed conflict. However, it is important to know what everyday peace looks like to the community members involved. You might pause for a moment and ask yourself:

“If I were to think about my own situation, rather than geo-political events, what does peace look like to me?”

This is the sort of exercise that the organisation Everyday Peace Indicators does regularly in their mission to build bridges between communities and the diverse organisations working to build peace.

Taking a cue from their work, we asked this question to several community members in Omugo 4. The responses are interestingly varied:

Susan – “Peace is like staying good calmly with love”.

Idoru – “Peace is like for example if you have a wife, and you understand each other very well, that’s how peace looks like”.

Maka – ‘Peace is when there is always enough food at home

Moses – “To me something called peace, is like when you stay well with other people, with good security and no fear, that’s peace”.

Isaac– “Peace is when you live in a place that has no war”

Alfred – “peace is when there is money at home”

Margret– “peace is when every family member embraces love for one another”.

Simon – “Peace is when you live without threatening words of ending someone’s life. You stay stress free”.

Florence – “Peace is when you have everything at home”

Mary – “What also looks like peace is when someone wrongs you, then you don’t need to keep it in your heart because you want to pay back, but instead show your goodness to him or her”.

Click play to hear community members voice their responses in Bari and Juba Arabic.

You may have noticed that only one response refers to war, and just one other refers to threat of violence. The rest of the responses refer to relationships, food security and wellbeing.

Our partners, Community Development Centre, who lead the Soot Semee project, also belong to the South Sudanese refugee community they serve. They understand that building a place where peace can thrive means addressing all these everyday aspects of peace. This is reflected in Soot Semee’s programme planning and the associated off-air activities outlined below.

This month, Soot Semee audio programmes will address environmental issues, while community volunteers have organised activities to clear up plastic bottles and bags from Omugo 4 village. They have also made plans to plant new trees.

Trees contribute to a more resilient natural environment. They can also help reduce violence. A lack of trees has led, in some cases, to conflict over places to collect firewood.

In December, Soot Semee volunteers will focus on wellness with programmes promoting hygiene and sanitation. The volunteers have also organised days to clean up the water collection points along with the locally organised water management committees. Clean water and good hygiene also contribute to everyday peace as it is defined by the Omugo 4 community members.

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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. This conversation led to the youth in Garsen to participate in a town-wide cleanup.

Although the county department’s garbage collection unit was doing its best, it was getting overwhelmed. “During the rainy season we see a dramatic increase in cases of Cholera,” says Harriet, “Much of which is due to poor sanitation and hygiene and the garbage situation contributes to that.”

Several young people were joined by Kenya Red Cross workers and Amani FM presenters during the cleanup operation, which put into practice all the talk of keeping the environment clean.

Amani FM presenters, Red Cross workers and youth join together to clean up their town in Tana River County

The post Community cleans up appeared first on Amplifying Voices.

In its short existence, Tana FM, the first community station in Tana River County, has already become a trusted voice in the community.  The station’s CEO, Shedrack Hiribae, says Tana FM has already begun to have a big impact.  Mr Hiribae described how the team’s peace-building initiatives have promoted dialogue between conflicted communities and also how mango farmers have got a better deal for the sale of their produce as a result of the station’s advocacy work.

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