The Community Aid for Relief and Development Organization (CARDO), with support from (Shejeh Salam), a USAID-funded peace project, on Friday launched a program to distribute 380 radio sets to local communities in Jur River County in Western Bahr el Ghazal state.
The project which targets communities in Jur River and Wau counties and five blocks of Wau Municipal Council aims at behavioral change through listening to media programming on peace awareness, gender-based violence, and education among others.
Speaking during the launch, the CARDO executive director, Orasio Opiyo, said his organization will distribute an additional of 190 radio sets to existing listening groups who regularly gather in Wau and Jur River counties.
“These radios have pre-loaded programs and we will listen to Hagiga tanina and life in Lulu, our school, the morning star, and ‘let us talk about us’ program which is about gender-based violence,” he said. “If you have been given this radio, you need to understand that it does not belong to you as an individual but belongs to you as a group. CARDO will be visiting your group based on the timetable you have given us.”
He urged the groups to use the radios for positive behavioral change which will promote peace among communities.
For his part, the DT Global representative, Angelo Uguak, disclosed that the objective of the project is to increase community access to information.
“The object is to increase access to information and that is why you can see Shejeh Salam is distributing radios,” he explained. “You may see that Shejeh working with Voice of Hope and our belief is that when you increase access to correct information, you will fight ignorance, bridge the gap of information and also fight fake news, rumors, and misinformation.”
Uguak advised the recipients of the radios not to sell them because they are more important than the money.
A representative of one of the listening groups, William Peter, thanked CARDO and their partners for providing free radios to the communities.
“Radio is the only channel through which we can get the right information. During our meetings, let us give at least 10 minutes to listen to one of the programs such as land rights or English learning program so that we can debate and find solutions to most of the problems facing us,” he advised.
Meanwhile, the state information minister, Samuel Nicola Cornelio, acknowledged the importance of radio as a channel that can provide accurate information to the public and connect people with the government.
“The groups which received these radios should take this seriously. Let us have some discussions after listening to each program,” he guided. “If the radio is going to give free lessons on land rights, this is very vital information which you will really learn from. Through media, we can talk about social cohesion and diversities, and it is the only and easy way to get connected to the government.”
The overall objectives of the project are to increase the availability of radios to the listening groups to increase community access to information, increase community debates and interaction as well as manage relationships with the authorities and positive behavior change.