LWDR 91.1FM.
Mariella Frostrup explains how Liberia Women Democracy Radio offers a lifeline to women.
Down a dirt track, off a highway that once teemed with the dictator Charles Taylor’s child soldiers, lies the tiny Liberia Women Democracy Radio. In a basic studio, Naomi Saydee is engaged in a live programme about teenage pregnancy. Initially, callers alternate between blaming the parents and children, while Naomi patiently tells nervous young women callers where to go for help. Her perseverance is rewarded: young girls soon jam the switchboard to share their experiences, unseen but heard.
Out in the villages of tin-roofed huts, ‘listening groups’ of women gather round their communal radio. At LWDR 91.1FM they learn how to seek justice for crimes of domestic violence, how to protect themselves from HIV/Aids and about their rights. They also listen to music that ‘doesn’t defame women’, an initiative UK radio might do well to adopt. ‘Giving voice to the voiceless’ is the station’s mission statement. ‘Women need to have their lives represented’, says the founder, Estella Nelson. ‘In Liberia, all the media is controlled by men, it is they who decide what and how things are covered.’
It’s hard to describe what a lifeline this minute station provides. Not only does it broadcast 12 hours a day on a shoestring budget, but through its founding NGO, Liberian Women Media Action Committee, it runs local outreach programmes and journalism training, and lobbies on gender-sensitive issues. In a country where, until recently, rape was not a crime, girls’ education was ignored and children were stolen from their homes and turned into killers, the depth of these women’s trauma is unfathomable. They need to talk about their nightmares and LWDR is a unique forum for them to do so in safety.
The day after my visit, the station’s UN development funding ends and LWDR is desperately short of resources, yet Nelson remains undaunted. She inherited her crusading spirit from her grandmother, an illiterate farmer who wanted her grandchildren to have the education she lacked and talked the other women in her village into pooling their pitiful savings to hire a teacher and create a school. With LWDR, her granddaughter continues the effort to see their countrywomen empowered. It’s a salutary reminder of the vital role radio has to play in the less ‘connected’ world.
The article was published in the Collector's Edition of the New Stateman on 6th April 2011
To know more, please click the source at thegreatinitiative.com.
Mariella Frostrup explains how Liberia Women Democracy Radio offers a lifeline to women.
Down a dirt track, off a highway that once teemed with the dictator Charles Taylor’s child soldiers, lies the tiny Liberia Women Democracy Radio. In a basic studio, Naomi Saydee is engaged in a live programme about teenage pregnancy. Initially, callers alternate between blaming the parents and children, while Naomi patiently tells nervous young women callers where to go for help. Her perseverance is rewarded: young girls soon jam the switchboard to share their experiences, unseen but heard.
Out in the villages of tin-roofed huts, ‘listening groups’ of women gather round their communal radio. At LWDR 91.1FM they learn how to seek justice for crimes of domestic violence, how to protect themselves from HIV/Aids and about their rights. They also listen to music that ‘doesn’t defame women’, an initiative UK radio might do well to adopt. ‘Giving voice to the voiceless’ is the station’s mission statement. ‘Women need to have their lives represented’, says the founder, Estella Nelson. ‘In Liberia, all the media is controlled by men, it is they who decide what and how things are covered.’
It’s hard to describe what a lifeline this minute station provides. Not only does it broadcast 12 hours a day on a shoestring budget, but through its founding NGO, Liberian Women Media Action Committee, it runs local outreach programmes and journalism training, and lobbies on gender-sensitive issues. In a country where, until recently, rape was not a crime, girls’ education was ignored and children were stolen from their homes and turned into killers, the depth of these women’s trauma is unfathomable. They need to talk about their nightmares and LWDR is a unique forum for them to do so in safety.
The day after my visit, the station’s UN development funding ends and LWDR is desperately short of resources, yet Nelson remains undaunted. She inherited her crusading spirit from her grandmother, an illiterate farmer who wanted her grandchildren to have the education she lacked and talked the other women in her village into pooling their pitiful savings to hire a teacher and create a school. With LWDR, her granddaughter continues the effort to see their countrywomen empowered. It’s a salutary reminder of the vital role radio has to play in the less ‘connected’ world.
The article was published in the Collector's Edition of the New Stateman on 6th April 2011
To know more, please click the source at thegreatinitiative.com.
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