Community Broadcasting Winners – 2008
COMMUNITY BROADCASTING: Dambadeniya Community Radio
DESCRIPTION
The income of rural community living on agro/livestock/craft 
depends on seasonal rain, raw materials, environment, services and information from the government. The rural community is deprived due to existing communication gaps, poor roads, electricity and potable water that cause heavy losses and low productivity in their income generation. To address these gaps, Dambadeniya Development Foundation, a non government and non profit organization registered in 1994 under the social service ministry of Sri Lanka, has initiated a Community Radio programme to meet informational and communicational gaps of the communities. The community radio belongs to and is managed by the communities with the objectives of enhancing efforts of those living in vulnerable areas to raise their voices and fill the information and communication gaps through carrying out group interviews. This way the grievances are brought to the notice of the decision makers with uploaded programmes on the internet. Recorded CDs are being disseminated at village gatherings.
CITATION
Community broadcasting is one of the best tools for empowerment across distance, communities, and educational barriers. Dambadeniya Community Radio has done exactly that by offering services, information directly relevant to the community including information services in livelihood, agriculture, weather, veterinary, cattle rearing, fruits and vegetables, and so on. The impact of Dambadeniya Community Radio multiplies by integrating the content through internet, CDs, DVDs and other digital media. The sustainability is taken care of because of widespread involvement of community members.
PRODUCER
Sunil Rodrigo
Ajith Kumara
Nalini Herath
Organisation
Dambadeniya Development Foundation
Location
Noth Western Province, SRI LANKA
Telephone
94 733 882280
Email
susasiri@slt.lk
naleeherath@yahoo.com
Technology/Medium
Radio
Language
Sinhalese
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COMMUNITY BROADCASTING: Equal Access
DESCRIPTION
Digital Broadcast Initiative, Equal Access Nepal was established as
an NGO in Nepal in February 2004. This initiative, that utilized digital satellite broadcasting technology to bring vital development information directly to under served communities in rural settings, was formally launched in Kathmandu on June 24, 2003. Since then, Equal Access has continued to implement numerous ‘communications for development’ projects in Nepal, with programming on a range of thematic areas including education, healthcare, microfinance, sustainable agriculture, human rights and conflict management, HIV/AIDS and women’s empowerment. Equal Access projects are designed to reach the broadest possible audience in culturally appropriate and cost effective ways By April 2008, 100 multimedia sites were setup by Equal Access Nepal in different rural parts of the country. More than anything else, Equal access’s initiative has helped in overcoming the bias of English associated with Internet.
CITATION
Information in this age has become the key to growth and access or denial of access to information greatly affects the economic and social conditions of any place. Unfortunately, a large share of the rural population of Nepal are underprivileged and do not possess basic information on a wide number of issues. In such a scenario Equal Access entered into collaboration with several partners for developing software and technology for data casting multimedia to rural sites in Nepal using the World Space Satellite Technology. Using this technology set up, Equal Access today has been disseminating various information materials on health; women’s issues such as domestic violence, rape, girls trafficking; Youth issues; HIV/AIDS; and education.
Producer
Pawan Prakash Upreti
Anil Ghimire
Krishna Guragain
Upendra Aryal
Organisation
Equal Access Nepal
Location
Lalitpur, NEPAL
Telephone
97 1 5013509
Email
pupreti@equalaccess.org aghimire@equalaccess.org
kguragain@equalaccess.org
uaryal@equalaccess.org
Technology/Medium
Satellite
Language
Nepali
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COMMUNITY BROADCASTING: Madurai Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli
DESCRIPTION
community radio Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli was planned as a part of documenting the various development interventions that was taking place along the coast of Nagapattinam district after tsunami; thereby create awareness among the community on disaster and the coping-up mechanisms for overcoming such impacts of disaster. So far, a total of forty weeks of programme were produced and broadcasted. The contents are community-oriented and mostly community-driven. All the community reporters are below plus 2 qualification, all from poor family back ground. They do not have any experience in any media work but are trained in audio production and facilitating community participation. The products had created very good social recognition for the station among listeners.
CITATION
A new set of community reporters without any previous experience in production successfully completing 40 episodes of weekly programmes on their own is by no means a small achievement. Despite the fact that the chance for interactivity is less, yet the programmes on safe drinking water, primary producer groups and marketing groups of agricultural intervention, usage of assola as a livestock fodder have created greater awareness among the community members. This effort has been able to introduce concepts like a community based, community owned, community driven radio, something unknown to the people earlier.
Producer
Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli
T Kannan
A Porkodi
S Meena
P Vetriselvan
Organisation
DHAN Foundation, Madurai
Location
Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Telephone
91 452 2610794
Email
kalanjiamvanoli@gmail.com
Technology/Medium
Radio
Language
Tamil