By Mara Randazzo

A new local radio station, Radio Paraclete, in the great Bong County offers a reliable voice close to the people. Right in the heart of the pandemic.

Gbarnga, Bong County, Liberia. Clementine is 8 years old. She loves spelling bees, a tradition imported from the U.S. When she heard that there was a chance to participate in this competition via radio, she did everything she could to be among the contestants and… she won!

Florence is a radio presenter: she gives the news, presents, does interviews and broadcasts: “I can say that, now, there are no limits for me in this field,” she says. Becoming a journalist was, in fact, her dream, but all doors seemed closed. “To work in radio you have to be appointed by a politician, based on the interests involved. If you are introduced with ‘this is my daughter, she wants to be a journalist’, then you have a chance”, Florence reveals during a live interview. But one day, listening to the radio, she noticed that a new station had just been launched in her city. Her chance was at the doorstep.

In that same community of Gbarnga – 200 km from the capital Monrovia and on the road to the Guinean border – a young man has returned from Israel where he studied the most advanced agro-alimentary techniques that he now shares via radio. His name is Jacob Dennis. Through his show “What’s Hiding in the Soil?“, a new broadcast has reached out to the over 200 farmers in the area. Their main resources are rice, bananas, cassava and potatoes, but the way of cultivation has changed in recent years, and it is necessary to keep up to date.

A new culture respectful of the ecosystem must also counter deforestation caused by “slash-and-burn” (the ancient technique of burning trees to clear space for new crops), one of the human activities eroding the natural forests of Liberia. “I have a master’s degree in plant science from Tel Aviv University, with a specialization in food security,” Jacob says, who is also the founder of a local group. “I try to help people find a better path, to spread awareness about food safety and knowledge about how to overcome certain challenges – pesticide control, soil management and wood harvesting, for example”.

Clementine, Florence, Jacob are three of the many people who were able to share what has changed in their lives after Radio Paraclete – this is the name of the new radio station – began broadcasting.

A simple FM radio station. Simple, yes, but unique. No other local radio stations reach the area, nor television channels. No local newspapers are distributed and there are no journalists on the ground. The radio itself needs solar panels to operate due to the constant power outages. On top of all of this is the shutdown due to Covid 19 and the major paralysis that followed. And it was at the peak of the pandemic, on May 26, 2020, the day of Pentecost, that Radio Paraclete’s programs went on the air for the first time.

The project is the result of 3 years of tenacious work by local representatives and the planning, technical analysis and fundraising team of a Catholic NGO based in Rome, Signis, which offered all its technical expertise; and of the substantial contribution of the CEI[1] with the funds of the eight per thousand[2].

So you can’t imagine the emotion of the Capitoline team (Signis) upon receiving the photos of Anthony Fallah Borwah – Bishop of Gbarnga – blessing the solar panels. They arrived intact from Italy, along with the other equipment – mixer, transmitter, racks, microphones – wired and assembled in the workshop in Trastevere, enduring a long journey by sea and land. At the same time, the anxiety when, a year later, the mixer was burnt out by a lightning strike.

Liberia is not an easy country. Ranked 98^th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index 2021, it also suffered many restrictions relative to coverage of the coronavirus crisis. Let’s not forget that Liberia is an “expert” with pandemics, having gone through the Ebola crisis in 2014-2015.

Put a channel free from political pressures, put a radio of proximity, that is, close to the people and ready to respond to the real needs of the territory, that is how any radio equipment and the possibility to use it, becomes a great opportunity for this community of 1.2 million inhabitants.

“Instead of politicians, we talk about agriculture, we give space to people with disabilities,” shares Florence. “There are many programs that we run for communities. At Radio Paraclete you can listen to quality broadcasts. Right from the beginning our goal is this: to promote development instead of interest”. Clementine, Florence, and Jacob experienced this firsthand and involved others in this novelty. In Bong County, a chain reaction was set off.

[1] CEI: Italian Episcopal Conference

[2] 8×1000: A fixed percentage of personal income tax that Italian taxpayers can allocate to certain actions in the social and cultural sectors of the Italian State or for religious, social or cultural purposes.

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