Radio Pag La Yiri

According to the organisers, Radio Pag La Yiri is the first community radio in the region, and they hope that the radio station will function as a tool to help stimulate development in the local community through the exchange of information. The organisers found that there was a considerable lack of information and communication in Zabr. Along with radio, the project is designed to use internet and email as a way to reduce the amount of time it takes to send and receive information (such as the latest agricultural information or health newsletters) from its headquarters in Ouagadougou to the Zabr office.

The main objective of the radio station and the internet connection is to provide weekly market price information for the 20,000 farmers around Zabr. The market prices are collected via the internet through partnerships with stakeholders marketing agricultural-related goods. The radio programmes include interviews with role models, such as female entrepreneurs, to encourage other women in their field. They also seek to raise awareness about family and relationship issues. For example, in the programme "La vie au Foyer", presenters invite counsellors to talk about difficulties in relationships between women and men. Listeners can also call the radio station to ask questions or share their own experience.

The Pag La Yiri radio broadcasts are also made available on the internet so that they can be accessible to other partner radio stations in other parts of the country. Radio Pag La Yiri also accesses programming from other stations via the internet which are then broadcast for the benefit of people living in Zabr. Organisers say that this ensures that people living in remote and rural areas will also hear the broadcasts from the city.

Members of Pag La Yiri were trained to use radio equipment and conduct interviews. Broadcasts are mainly in local languages - a strategy for making it more appealing, since many listeners do not speak French. The radio broadcasts within a radius of about 80 km reaching about 1,500,000 people.

Click here to view a video about the radio station.

Agriculture, Health, Women, Information and Communication Technologies.

According to the organisers, most people in this area make a living as farmers but face great difficulties, since a good transport and information infrastructure is lacking. Within an area of 130 kilometres, there is no radio or television reception, except for the Anglophone radio stations of Ghana - which are not really helpful, as many people only speak a local language such as Bissa or Mooré. Before Radio Pag La Yiri, information from the head offices of Pag La Yiri in Ouagadougou was passed on by telephone or by mail. The latter was often challenging due to a long and difficult journey over a pothole-ridden road.