Investing in Fiji Rural Women’s Community Media and Radio

18 October 2011
Suva, Fiji Islands

“Investing in Fiji Rural Women’s Community Media and Radio Network”

FemLINKPACIFIC, the operators of Fiji and the Pacific’s first women’s community radio station FemTALK 89.2FM is pleased to announce the expansion of our women’s community radio network as a result of the donation of 2 additional “suitcase” radio kits, transmitter equipment as well as a vehicle thanks to an AusAID capital & infrastructure grant worth more than FJ$160 000 from the Australian Government.

“This means women in two rural centres – Nausori and Labasa will be actively involved in the 16 days of community radio campaign coinciding with the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence from November 25 – December 10 and in 2012 FemTALK 89.2FM will also be able to stage uninterrupted weekend broadcasts in Suva,” says FemLINKPACIFIC Executive Director, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls.

“And with an additional suitcase radio kit on Viti Levu we will be able to take one “suitcase” radio kit out to more rural centres, while members of our Generation Next team in Labasa will host monthly broadcasts in town. These additional broadcasts will definitely contribute to enhancing and enriching our ongoing work of linking Peace and Development, especially with rural women,” she added.

In handing over the equipment, AusAID’s First Secretary for Development Cooperation in Fiji, Timothy Gill, said “Radio is an extremely important medium for reaching out to ordinary people in Fiji. AusAID is pleased to be able to provide this support to FemLINK so that they are able to expand their community radio programs and other outreach services to Labasa and rural Fiji. This is part of Australia’s commitment to community development in Fiji.”

Also under the AusAID grant, a 4 wheel drive vehicle is been handed over to FemLINKPACIFIC to further assist its invaluable community work and expand its community reach both in the rural and urban centres.

According to FemLINKPACIFIC’s rural convenor in Labasa, Adi Vasulevu Chute, who is also the facilitator for the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding in the North, the 1325 network is more than just about making peace the news:

“We are not just taking stories from the women, but we are also educating them and advocating and taking things from upper regional level right down to the communities, so they know, they understand. Most of the women in the rural communities now know what CEDAW and the 1325 in their own context.”

The rural “1325” network meets on the 3rd Wednesday in each centre and enables FemLINKPACIFIC to provide a space for women leaders, as well as senior citizens in Ba, as well as members of the Generation Next project for young women to discuss and document their human security priorities. By bringing together a diverse range of rural women together every month, FemLINKPACIFIC provides a platform for more rural women to be heard by policy makers as well as broader civil society said Bhagwan-Rolls:

“This is critical because we are able to ensure women who attend our community media consultations and broadcasts, as well as the members of their clubs and organisations, and their families, they have access to regular information and an opportunity share ideas, learn about the policy and international convention commitments to gender equality, women’s rights and peace and security. This is the foundation for engendering development processes, for realizing human security.”

“The community radio stories we collect, the consultations we conduct and the spaces we enable, serve as the basis for our contribution to the advocacy to ensure commitments to ALL women’s human rights – social, economic, political are accounted for, in line with commitments made in the UN Beijing Platform for Action (1995), UN Convention for the Elimination of All form of Discrimination against Women (ratified in 1995) as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security, October 2000) and the Millennium Development Goals. The stories we collect also ensure women, themselves, are able to identify their Peace and Development priorities and also remind us of the inter-connectivity between all human security priorities,” she added.

ENDS

© Scoop Media