Radio Chikuni

Chikuni Community Radio Station is a Catholic Run Radio Station based in the Southern Province. The mission statement is to use radio broadcasting as means to provide news and information for evangelization, development and education.

In a ground breaking move to bridge the information gap, the Tonga people of Chikuni Parish, with help from the Jesuit missions through Fr Andrew Lesniara s.j and Fr Tadeusz Swiderski s.j, set up a radio station. It has been broadcasting since 2000. From the few broadcasts when it started, it now broadcasts seventeen hours a day with different programmes covering all aspects of integral human development. Right from the start one of the aims of the radio station was to give the community the chance to create, participate in and listen to programmes that affect the community at large. To this end, fifty-five listening clubs of not less than twenty members each were formed with the intent to discuss issues they would like to listen to on radio.

Two people from each club were put forward to complete the "Basics in Communication and Reporting" course, facilitated by Chikuni Radio Staff. The members were put in four groups. Each group attended for five days. The two member-representatives from each club had internal group meetings in their clubs where they taught their colleagues what they learnt from the workshop.

The topics discussed cover issues such as gender, culture, conflicts between tradition and modern life, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, health, leadership skills and development in rural areas.The group members get an idea, do a survey and record the programme in the villages. The recorded tape is brought to the radio where it is listened to and edited but caution is made not to temper with the producers’ material.