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.’
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.’
