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http://www.internews.org/prs/2009/20090624_chada.shtm

Chad-Sudan - Women Refugees from Darfur Get Radio Program 

Interactive radio programs designed to address women’s issues air across Eastern Chad through Internews’ network of community radio stations.

United Nations

Women in the Djabal camp in Eastern Chad listen in groups to Women's Crossroads on Radio Sila.

(July 7, 2009) Seide sits cross-legged on a straw mat, surrounded by a dozen other refugee women in the training center of the Djabal camp for Darfur refugees in Eastern Chad. She reaches over for the bright blue radio set which is the center of attention, unfolds the handle of what looks like a child’s toy and winds it vigorously to hear another 10 minutes of Women’s Crossroads, a program on  89.9 FM, Radio Sila.

“This is a great program. It talks about…all the bad things we suffer at home,” says Seide. “People have got the message. It gives advice to polygamous husbands on the different ways of taking care of their wives. That’s really what life is about here in the refugee camps.”

Women’s Crossroads is a new program from Radio Sila specifically designed by Internews journalists to address the information needs of women living in the area. 

Coinciding with the launch of Women’s Crossroads, fifteen wind-up radios with mini solar panels were distributed to women’s groups in Djabal camp, with the help of MINURCAT, the UN mission deployed in Chad. There is no need to buy batteries as the radios are powered by the sun. Women can sit and listen in the camps or in surrounding villages, wherever they need to go to collect food and water or get health care for their children.

“We have a radio at home,” says Fatime “but my husband takes it with him when he leaves the house. I can only listen to it when he is there. Other women who don’t have radios have to go to their neighbors to listen.”

Some of the men – husbands, fathers, brothers – were at first reluctant to let nassaras (foreigners) distribute radios to women without showing due respect by giving them to the male leaders of the communities.

“The main purpose of this project is to facilitate the access of women to radio programs specially designed for them,” notes Eliana Rueda from MINURCAT. “But it also aims to benefit the whole community, since the radios are installed in public places, as well as empowering women, who are put in charge of the radio sets.”

Neither the women’s programs nor the radios were intended for individual use, but for group listening so as to encourage women – and men – to talk freely about gender issues. The programs do not only deal with issues of mistreatment and violence. Women’s initiatives, like income-generating activities or cooking tips, are also on the agenda.

Sylvie Bowen, Internews reporter for gender issues in Eastern Chad, has found great satisfaction and motivation from producing and presenting this daily interactive call-in show. “Women are now telling me, ‘I have listened to other women speaking on the program. Now I want to speak too!’  Before, it was difficult to get them to talk. Since we started airing Women’s Crossroads, they are the ones who call us.”

Another refugee woman from Djabal approves. “In the camp, all the women can now listen to the radio,” says Achta. “Sensitization and information can change women’s everyday lives.”

Internews’ work in Chad is made possible by grants from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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