Readymade for radio | Making A Difference

ANUP PRAKASH

When Sunita Syangtang and Usha KC were still in high school they started volunteering at Palung FM, a community radio station owned by a village cooperative. Today, at 19, both are working journalists with fulltime jobs which they combine with going to college and doing social work. They never received any formal training, but both felt like they were readymade for radio.

Usha took an interest in the technical side of the studio and does all the sound recording, ensuring quality, sequencing the broadcasts and controlling the songs through a computer. But Usha also doubles as a radio reporter, venturing out to the field to do interviews and record programs. "It's as if I was born to do this work," says Usha, "I really can't imagine myself doing anything else."Sunita is also equally motivated, and she sees tremendous potential for the medium to help improve the lives of people from her community.

Sunita conducts a popular daily Tamang-language program called Chorowa, meaning awareness, which has become immensely popular among villagers from Makwanpur, Dhading and up to Kabhre. Women tune in all the time, and Sunita has become something of a celebrity in her hometown.

The program has actually become a life or death issue, and proves just how important communications is for ensuring health in rural Nepal. For three years Palung FM had been broadcasting educational programs in Nepali on how to prevent gastric infections and pneumonia in children. But it was only after Sunita started doing the same programs in Tamang language that it made a difference. The Makwanpur health authorities recorded a sharp drop in the child mortality rate among Tamang children in the district.

"The fathers understood Nepali and the mothers didn't, but the mothers took care of their children and when the message started going out in a language they understood it made a big difference," explains Sambhu Karki, Sunita's boss.

Besides the health issues, Sunita says her program has helped fight alcoholism, gambling among male villagers and even helped conserve the Tamang language because many words were being replaced by Nepali. Sunita also works as a social advocator to set up women's groups in Tamang villages where they have a savings and loan project. Palung's women-led micro credit schemes are the most successful in Nepal and have raised living standards.

Usha and Sunita are not typical young women in Nepal. At an age when most urban boys and girls are busy studying computers or management in college and thinking of going abroad, these two radio journalists are already on a career path. In a tone that is very mature for her age, Sunita says: "I could probably earn a lot more money doing something else but where would I be able to find the sense of fulfilment I have here, helping my own people?