Radio Miraya or the power of words

Since I set foot in South Sudan, a jingle has become part of my daily soundtrack, the jingle of “Radio Miraya, the pulse of a new nation”. Radio Miraya was launched on June 30 2006, in partnership with the United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss NGO constituted by journalists and humanitarian workers, whose aim is to support independent information in war, crisis and post-conflict zones. With the help of the Fondation Hirondelle, 30 millions people are getting free information in countries such as Kosovo, Timor Leste, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, DRC Congo and South Sudan, where Miraya (which means Mirror in Arabic) is able to cover the whole country thanks to its 25 transmitters and its 140 national and international staff members. No wonder a recent survey has ranked Radio Miraya the first radio of South Sudan for credibility and quality of information provided.

I get up at 7:15 am every morning but I start to wake up only when I tune to Miraya Breakfast Show, whose most popular feature is probably Miraya Connect. According to the Fondation Hirondelle: “after a conflict, societies do not only need to re-build their infrastructures, but they also need to re-build their social network”. From 7:35 to 7:45 am, Miraya Connect receives calls of friends, relatives, classmates and colleagues who have lost touch with their loved ones during the war and hope to re-connect with them through the frequency of Miraya.

I start to work at 8:30 am, so I cannot listen to the other programmes of Radio Miraya, but when I happen to be home, I greedily listen to Tribes from 11:00 am to 12:00 am, which broadcasts traditional music of South Sudan’s myriad of ethnic groups. If I want to be updated about what’s happening at the  moment, I do not only listen to Miraya’s news but also to Inside South Sudan, that in the past weeks has extensively reported on the border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan, on the populations affected by the conflict and on the efforts by communities, aid organizations, UN and governments to assist them. When I prepare my dinner at 7 pm, my guests are those of the Round Table, a daily discussion programme about the topical events effecting South Sudan. I do enjoy very much their company, since they change every day, they let me eat all my food without asking for sharing it and do not get offended when I don’t listen to them anymore.

Yei has also its own radio station, Spirit FM, which has hosted Ibis few months ago for a talk show. It was difficult to believe that through the red velvet walls of a tiny room, the voices of Felix Amule, Central Equatoria State Coordinator for Budgeting and Planning, Daniel, the ALP project manager and those of the County Education officials could be heard by thousands of people listening on how important is the role of parents in the education of their children. But the dozen of calls we got from the listeners, swept away my doubts. In a country where almost nobody has power at home and where few can read or buy a newspaper, a radio which run on batteries remains the only source of information. Fortunately radio waves, as words, can float throughout households and clans and villages spreading knowledge at no-cost as the South Sudan’s Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) has noted. The MoEST has in fact implemented a Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction (SSIRI) project, that provide learning opportunities for children, adults, and teachers with activities like: the Learning Village, whose lessons are designed to complement classroom instruction in local language literacy, English language, mathematics, and Life Skills; RABEA (Radio Based Education for All) that provides an opportunity for learning or strengthening English language skills; Professional Studies for Teachers, a distance learning course to improve the teaching practice.

Thanks to Radio Miraya, I rarely walk without my portable radio, which has become a faithful companion to my no more lonely meals.