On radios and peace

Radio is probably the most important information channel here, I suppose in a similar way as in Europe in the first half of the last century. Who can have a TV of course has a TV, but for many people, especially in the rural areas, it's the radio which is the main medium for information, discussions and public awareness - it's accessible, low cost, doesn't require literacy or constant power supply, and can easily be shared among many people. Uganda has many radio stations, some national, but most of them are local, covering a particular area and broadcasting in one of the local languages. 

In the area of Lira, one of the biggest radio stations is called Radio Wa. I got to know about it through Alberto, a Spanish director of the radio, who had been in Lira since 2009. Michele and I have been planning to take the opportunity of a guided visit to the radio for months - and now finally we executed the plan.

Radio Wa had been founded in 2001, during the years of LRA insurgency, when a big part of the population of Northern Uganda was displaced in IDP camps. One of the programmes the radio broadcasted, called "Karibu", was targeting local children abducted by the LRA and kept in captivity as child soldiers. When a village was attacked by the LRA, many times children were taken away - and brutal tactics were often employed to make sure they wouldn't go back, like forcing the children to kill one among them or among their family. The boys were then kept as child soldiers and girls as sexual slaves and servants to the LRA commanders, living with them in the bush. Several tens of thousands of children were abducted during the conflict.

This radio programme every week hosted families, friends and relatives of the abducted children, to simply give them the chance to talk to those who might have been listening, tell them they are still loved and missed, and they want them to come back. Former child soldiers were also invited, to show that it's possible to return and be accepted back in their villages and communities. Secretly, many abducted children were listening to the programme in the bush - and according to the data from reception centres (through which all those who escaped from LRA passed), 1,500 children said they escaped because of the Karibu programme.

Maybe also because of that the Radio Wa studios, which at that time had been a few kilometres from Lira, had been attacked and destroyed by LRA in 2002. The radio moved to Lira afterwards, and recently it relocated again, this time to a new modern building with what to me looked like very professional equipment. Karibu programme had been transformed several years back, but the radio still retains its focus on peacebuilding.