New waves: Radio took to riverboats in the Central African Republic to bring information and news about a cholera epidemic

Innovations in radio technology are making it easier for remote areas to access information. Claire Kopsky explores three recent projects using new tools to deliver change

Speakers were placed on boats to broadcast information about a cholera outbreak in remote areas with no radio signal

CREDIT: Internews

IN THE CENTRAL African Republic a radio station is helping deliver news of cholera epidemics by boat. Last autumn, when there was an outbreak that killed more than 20 people and affected around 140 children, limited education of the disease meant people were unknowingly spreading it. CAR’s Network of Journalists for Human Rights and Internews, a non-profit, decided to do something about it. They produced a radio show, Honka Cholera (Go Away Cholera), to educate people about it.

Internews’ Africa Program Officer Joel Malebranche told Index: “These communities live in dubious hygienic conditions. They consume water from the river, do not have latrines and therefore use the bathroom either in the open air or in the river without knowing the risks.”

Malebranche said that boats transporting goods and passengers along the Oubangui River, where there is no radio signal, put up speakers to play the broadcast. It was also played in other areas on motorbike taxis.

Malebranche told Index that no radio station covers all of CAR, so this method provided essential life and death information to many. The cholera epidemic was declared over on 4 January 2017 by the Ministry of Public Health and Population.

Similarly, in April of this year, Internews started a project to distribute radios at five places in South Sudan: Mingkaman, Malakal, Bentiu, Bor and Juba. Their goal is to distribute over 40,000 radios and in so doing help spread humanitarian health information and ensure community radio programmes reached people in their native languages.

Internews is also sponsoring a programme in the USA to make voices from areas with minimal news coverage heard. The Listening Post Collective is operating in seven US cities and aims to revitalise local news. Partnering with local journalists, the Listening Post Collective provides journalists with a toolkit to engage local communities and source stories that reflect their struggles and opinions.

“Think of the Listening Post like a big microphone that could record all of you and your neighbours’ opinions about your town, then plays it for your mayor. That way the mayor can actually listen to what you and your neighbours think about things going on in your town,” said Kelly Schott of the Jersey Shore Hurricane News, who was trained by the project.