RUGO: BBC Great Lakes Lifeline Service and Training Project

The following article was contributed by Kari Blackburn the BBC Swahili and Great Lakes Service Head

BBC WINS DFID SUPPORT FOR PROJECTS IN RWANDA

The BBC World Service is absolutely delighted that the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID) has agreed to continue funding the BBC Great Lakes Lifeline Service for a further year and has also agreed to fund a major World Service training project for Radio Rwanda.

The announcement about the training project which involves a grant of over £700,000 over three years was made by the Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, at the launch of the BBC World Service Training Trust on November 3rd 1998.

The BBC Great Lakes Lifeline started in late 1994 in response to the mass exodus of refugees from Rwanda.

At first, it was only a fifteen minutes broadcast on weekdays which concentrated on humanitarian messages to the refugees and their relatives.

In December 1996 it expanded to thirty minutes a day to include detailed coverage of news and current affairs in the Great Lakes Region and educative features on issues related to development and rehabitilitation.

We have excellent access to all key players in the Great Lakes Region and have done series of very lively features on disability, health challenges and women's issues.

We are just about to run a series on the environmental challenges in the Region.

In the past the Great Lakes Lifeline Service has been funded by a number of NGOs such as Christian Aid, Cafod, Save the Children Fund and the British Red Cross as well as DFID and the UNHCR.

From next March, the project will be funded entirely by DFID

Gahuzamiryango as the programme is known can be heard on shortwave throughout the Region and on 93.9 FM in Kigali.

President Pasteur Bizimungu launched the Kigali relay in March 1998 so listeners in Kigali can now listen to the BBC in crystal clear quality in French, Swahili and English as well as Kinyarwanda.

Preliminary results from an audience research in Kigali show an extremely high audience for the BBC, particularly in Kinyarwanda.

We hope to be on FM in Bujumbura in early 1999.

As part of the agreement to set up the FM relay, the BBC organised a four week training course for Orinfor (the Rwandan Government body in charge of radio, TV and the Government newspaper) which concentrated on journalistic skills.

As a result of this it was apparent that Orinfor was eager to have a much more detailed management and journalistic training programme.

The BBC World Service training Trust and the Thompson Foundation therefore drew up a three year proposal for Orinfor in consultation with the Director of Orinfor and the Great Lakes Lifeline Service team.

This has now been approved by DFID and we will shortly be advertising for a Project Manager.

This is an extremely important and sensitive time for the media in Rwanda.

The power of the media for evil as well as good was shown only too clear in 1994 with the Mille Collines hate radio station.

There is a tremendous thirst for objective information and equality programmes in the whole of the Great Lakes Region and the BBC is delighted that DFID has recognised this by funding two major BBC projects for the Region.

For more information, please contact Kari Blackburn, Head of Swahili and Great Lakes Service on 0171 557 2612 or E-mail: Cari.blackburn@bbc.co.uk