For months now, work has been ongoing to erect a mini studio in Kibondo. This is after we moved out of the former location near the parish and acquired a piece of land in an area called Kilima hewa, Kibondo in Kigoma region.
The director Fr. Angelo Munduni, SJ has been working tirelessly and still does to ensure this construction is actualized. How soon? Soon and very soon. As we speak, studio acoustics are already in place. Water installation and toilets done. What remains is a few finishing touches which you all know in the construction industry takes almost 80 percent of the work. More prayers are needed so that RK Kibondo mini studio can have it’s permanent home for the first time in about 30 years. No more flipflops!
I take you through a parcours photographic on the progress.
Radio Kwizera (RK) was established in 1995 following a large influx of refugees in West Tanzania and was the first radio station ever to be operated by Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in collaboration with The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Catholic Diocese of Rulenge.
Over the years it has established an unrivalled reputation in Eastern Africa and is listened to by many people. Radio Kwizera literally stands for the Radio of Hope and has been serving millions of people who are on the margins of society. As a regional community radio, it currently broadcasts in Kiswahili to reach the largest number of people in Ngara, Kibondo, Kasulu, Bukoba, Geita, kahama and parts of Burundi and DR Congo.
The vision and mission of the radio is to defend and promote a culture of peace and to enhance individual and collective development in the region. It does this through promoting: rights to Information, social justice, human and Social-cultural rights, health issues, gender perceptions and main-streaming, peace/Reconciliation, inter-religious dialogue, multiculturalism and co-existence, integral education and development, participatory democracy and good governance, community development, economic rights, climate change and environmental conservation, authentic praxis of faith.
Radio Kwizera has great impact in the region as it animates issues affecting communities in the area. The radio is ever at the frontier promoting justice, rights of marginalized persons. The Radio programs produced all gauge at tackling all spheres of life affecting the people within and without.
The confrontation of unhealthy gender disparities and social mishaps is one of Radio Kwizera’s themes. The Radio does this through offering rights to information, sensitising people about the value of integral formal and informal education that is meant to stimulate positive actions for change to combat illiteracy, ignorance, diseases, environmental degradation, political decay and so forth. Good governance, peace, reconciliation is another top agenda as good governance helps to boost democracy, economic growth, entrepreneurship and better living.