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Cultural Survival’s Community Radio Program in Guatemala is looking forward to some very exciting new developments at this moment. We have received three new grants for three new projects that will provide new programming for the radio stations in our network, strengthen relationships and improve programming for the radio stations, and expand our network to include radio stations in Belize and El Salvador.
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Anselmo Xunic Cabrera, the manager of our Community Radio Project, on his way to Belize for our first meeting with our project counterparts, Tumul K'in Center of Learning.
The first of our new projects has been made possible through a generous contribution from the AMB Foundation, a foundation that funds projects which support and fight for social and educational reform and equality. This project will address the issue of community health education in a culturally relevant way by broadcasting radio productions in the various Indigenous languages used by our community radio station partners. The radio productions will focus on resources for the communities with regard to sexual and reproductive health issues. These radio productions will be available to all members of the community, but will be particularly geared toward educating, informing and entertaining young men and women seeking information about these issues. Workshops will be held, in which radio volunteers will learn about sexual and reproductive health issues, and then design programs that will be sensitive to each of their communities’ specific needs.
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Members of Radio Damasco and Radio Celajes at an environmental project during the last exchange project.
Our second project is an extension of the exchange program that we recently completed between 12 Indigenous community radio stations in our network. The Swift Foundation, who funded the previous exchange project, has granted us the funds to conduct exchanges with 12 more radio stations, some of whom are already members of our network, while others are either community radio stations with whom we have yet to work, or communities who are hoping to develop community radios of their own. As a result of the completed exchanges, participants shared ideas for strengthening their stations, gained experience in investigative reporting and developed technical expertise by broadcasting from local sacred sites and environmental projects. The renewed funding will allow increased participation from thus far excluded communities, increasing the number of radio volunteers and communities who will benefit from these exchange workshops.
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The Tumul K'in Center of Learning/ Ak'Kutan Radio staff with our team at our first meeting in Belize to organize our joint project.
Our third new project is focused on strengthening the participation and integration of indigenous people in Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala through community radio networks. This project is being funded by FLACSO Costa Rica, and will be completed in collaboration with Tumul K’in Center of Learning from Toledo, Belize, and ADECAP Guatemala, located in Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Through this project we will extend our network to include radios from Belize and El Salvador, and we will create and broadcast a cross-country radio program on issues regarding Indigenous rights and integration that are relevant to communities from the three countries involved. Our team will be hosting a large radio exchange and a youth radio forum with all parties involved during this time, and will be attending various other events, organized by the other organizations, as part of the construction of a Central American network of Indigenous community radio.
Our Community Radio Program team find ourselves in exciting and very busy times, with many new relationships to be made, and many exciting new developments to be had. We are grateful for the generous support from three fantastic foundations that are allowing us to take these next steps toward bettering Indigenous Community Radio in Guatemala and beyond. Look forward to many new articles outlining our new projects in the months to come.
