February 2007

Dear Friend,

In this month's e-newsletter, we'd like to share items from three very different areas of our work:

Letter to New US Congress: David Hoffman, President of Internews Network, has sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with recommendations for the 110th US Congress on supporting independent media in developing countries.

Radio Stations for Darfuri Refugees: Internews is about to launch its third radio station in eastern Chad to serve the 220,000 refugees who have fled from neighboring Darfur. Produced by local journalists, our radio programs cover vital issues of health and security for the refugees.

Ground-Breaking Talk Show in Central Asia: A new radio talk show in Tajikistan is tackling long-taboo topics such as heroin use and domestic violence. A recent program on battered women resulted in more than 40 calls to the station, and six women came by the station seeking assistance.

We welcome your comments.

Radio Stations Serve Unique Needs of Darfuri Refugees

If you were in eastern Chad today, you could hear a program in which three Sudanese women talk of the sexual violence they survived as victims of the genocide in Darfur and the impact these crimes have had on their lives. She Speaks, She Listens is Internews’ program on gender-based violence that is being broadcast on Internews radio stations in eastern Chad. 

Two of these radio stations, Radio Absoun and La Voix du Ouaddaï, are currently broadcasting from Iriba and Abéché, respectively. The third and final station will begin broadcasting next month in the Dar Sila region from a small studio in Goz Beïda. In addition to reaching camp populations in Djabal and Goz Amer, Radio Sila will be heard by the local population and the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in this part of Chad.

Internews programs are broadcast in Arabic, Zaghawa and French, and will soon air in Massalit as well. Zaghawa and Massalit are non-written languages and have never before been heard on the radio in the region.

In late October and early November, Internews ran a series of messages on the Chadian stations that encouraged families to send their children to school, especially their young girls. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that the radio programs were responsible for a noticeable increase in enrollment, especially among young girls.