Where We Work

Sub-Saharan Africa

Chad

In May 2005, Internews in conjunction with its local partner, the Association pour le Développement des Médias Communautaires (ADMC), launched a program to meet the critical information needs of Darfuri refugees and the local Chadian population living in eastern Chad. Internews created a newsroom and studio in Abéché to produce multi-lingual news programs, and a community radio station in Iriba, Radio Absoun.

From a 20-foot cargo container perched on cinderblocks in the middle of a frontier town in Chad, Radio Absoun is making a difference in the lives of thousands of Sudanese who have fled the genocide in Darfur and the local population affected by their arrival.  The radio station broadcasts a mixture of news, information and music for six hours every day, its content spanning a variety of issues, from access to water and firewood, two precious commodities, to information about health and refugee rights.  It also serves as a bridge between the refugees and the Chadians who have welcomed the Sudanese, but now face immense competition for local resources. 

Radio Absoun is the first of three stations to be built in Eastern Chad that will ultimately become a broadcast network capable of reaching nearly all the camps and the more than 200,000 refugees who live in them, as well as the nearby local populations. In 2006, Internews expanded its work in Chad to include radio news programming that targets the needs of female victims of gender-based violence.

In recent years Internews Chad has expanded to also include work in N’Djamena with our program, “A Voice for Chadian Women.” This project will enhance citizens’ access to locally developed and broadcasted news and information on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and women’s rights in remote communities in Chad, especially those in which GBV is an acute problem.  The expected results are to improve the ability of journalists to report on these issues in a sensitive and appropriate manner in their local languages; to improve the quality and quantity of programs aired on these key issues; and to help spearhead community dialogue on GBV and women’s issues in an effort to address it. Internews as a means to accomplish these goals will conduct regular trainings and roundtables with local media and also will provide a media resource center in N’Djamena open to all in the media community.

Sub-Saharan Africa