KATHMANDU – When a deadly earthquake hit Nepal in April 2015, survivors like me were too scared to live in our own houses, even if they were not damaged. We all moved to temporary shelters amidst a series of aftershocks.

Five years later, we find ourselves in the midst of another crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic. If the earthquake forced us to flee our houses, the pandemic has made it necessary to stay at home, and to maintain physical distancing if we step out.

After the earthquake, I had the opportunity to lead a 主播大秀 Media Action team to produce Milijuli Nepali (‘Together Nepal’) – a daily Lifeline radio programme that served local communities with lifesaving messages, initially about food, shelter and sanitation, and then about reconstruction and retrofitting.

Milijuli Nepali became an instant hit because of its unique style of delivering messages through an amalgamation of folk music and stories. After more than 1,200 episodes, broadcast through local radios in the 14 districts worst affected by the earthquake, Milijuli Nepali took a break in March 2019.

A little more than a year later, as Nepal battles against a deadly coronavirus outbreak, we've relaunched Milijuli Nepali – this time with a mission to communicate vital health messages related to COVID-19.

And I'm thrilled to have another opportunity to do what I love, and what I'm good at: using information as aid to save lives during a humanitarian crisis.

Restarting lifeline communication

When Nepal confirmed its first coronavirus case in February, fear, anxiety and uncertainty spread like wildfire, just as in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. People had many unanswered questions about this invisible enemy that had already created a long trail of death and hardship around the world.

This situation got me thinking: I wish I could restart Milijuli Nepali so we could help people with trusted life-saving messages about COVID-19.

I then realised that I was not the only one to have thought that. I was called in for a meeting by our Country Director, Shobhana Pradhan, who had also felt the same urge to relaunch our Lifeline communication programme to save lives during the pandemic. That meeting was remarkably different from all our previous meetings at 主播大秀 Media Action. Everyone sat at least two metres away from each other, and everyone wore masks.

When a second coronavirus case was confirmed in March, Nepal announced an indefinite nationwide lockdown. The government also sealed off the long porous Nepal-India border, and all domestic and international flights were suspended indefinitely.

We rapidly realised supporting our local media partners to make Lifeline programming would need to be virtual – and started testing video conferencing for remote mentoring.

The lockdown slowed the spread of the virus in Nepal, allowing the government and hospitals to buy valuable time to better prepare for an outbreak. It also gave us time to plan how we could produce daily Lifeline content during a pandemic.

Producing this programme after the earthquake had its own challenges, but at least we could go to the field and interact with people directly. But how do we record people's voices for radio when it would be morally, ethically, and even legally wrong to meet them?

We developed our plans to produce radio content with minimum physical contact with communities, while still interacting with them as much as possible. Our plans are simple: avoid going to the field, and conduct interviews mostly over phone. Our regular production meeting also takes place virtually.

By setting up a dedicated phoneline, we've ensured people can leave us direct messages. Our voicemail has started receiving encouraging messages by people from remote and inaccessible areas, where people rely on Milijuli Nepali for health information. One recently recorded voicemail came from Ran Maya Kandel, who called us from Baglung district in Nepal's remote western hills. She told us that she eagerly waits for Milijuli Nepali as the programme delivers 'important messages in interesting ways'.

She added: "I love Milijuli Nepali because its producers talk exactly like me, or like how we village people speak."

Our work has come just in time. Since the lockdown was lifted on 21 July, coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths have surged. In the six months after the first case, 40 people died of COVID-19. But once the country re-opened, the death toll almost tripled in just the first month.

The second season of Milijuli Nepali is now being aired through 46 radio stations, strategically selected from across the country so everyone can listen to it, wherever they are. The timing of our relaunch could not have been any better.

Similar but different

In 2015, we named our Lifeline radio show Milijuli Nepali because we wanted the programme to motivate all the Nepali people to stand together to physically help each other in rebuilding their houses, lives and livelihoods ravaged by the earthquake.

But in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the idea of helping each other to survive – it now means standing together by being physically apart.

In this new season, Milijuli Nepali still sticks to its approach of communicating trusted, actionable and vital messages in simple colloquial language, but it is now inspiring people to stand together in a way that has become the new normal for the post-pandemic world.

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Bhuwan Timilsina is Project Manager for 主播大秀 Media Action, Nepal

As world leaders gather at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, Diana Njeru from 主播大秀 Media Action Kenya explains how climate change is affecting people across East Africa, and how we’re supporting them to adapt through radio.

Here in East Africa, there is no doubt we’ve been experiencing more extreme weather events. In 2019 alone, Cyclone Idai in south-eastern Africa and drought in Northern Kenya have resulted in loss of livestock, damage to crops, and even loss of life.

According to the , there’s a high probability that we’ll continue to experience higher temperatures, more erratic rainfall, severe droughts in the arid lands, and rising sea levels along our shores. Our communities are not easily able to adapt, so these changes will have devastating impacts – .

These communities, which are often remote and hard to reach, need the knowledge and skills to build their resilience to climate change. That is where radio comes in.

I manage a project called Weather Wise through which we’re partnering with eight local radio stations to provide weather and climate information to farmers, fishermen and pastoralists whose livelihoods are most affected by climate change.

Tradition versus science?

Formative research into our audiences’ knowledge and attitudes about weather and climate information revealed that they rely primarily on indigenous beliefs to predict the weather, but recognise that this is becoming less accurate as the weather becomes less predictable:

“In the old days, if you see the swallows migrating from the East to the West, it was an indication that the rains are about to come, but today, the swallows migrate anyhow, could be somebody disturbed their resting places and they flew off, you cannot use that to make any farming decisions.”  – Young farmer from Uganda.

Yet audiences are reluctant to give up traditional methods of forecasting in favour of more scientific approaches, which they say they don’t trust, understand, or feel meets their needs.

“The forecast is general; it does not have the information that we need. We want to hear a forecast talking about the winds that affect the fishermen, to see the forecaster showing us our islands and what is happening in there, not some map that is not specific to us.” – Fisherman, Uganda.

We are training journalists to produce high-quality weather and climate radio content in local languages – including features, magazine programmes and bulletins – that is accurate, timely, relevant and useful for practical decision making.

Bridging divides

But our work goes beyond training. We’re supporting journalists to interview members of their communities and set up radio listener groups, so they can hear what their audiences need and tailor their shows accordingly.

We’re also bringing together scientists and journalists who, historically, have had a hard time understanding one another – with journalists struggling to grasp complicated climate jargon and scientists worrying their information would be misconstrued. Workshops have built new relationships between scientists and radio producers, who’ve undergone training in how to produce weather and climate content with the audience at its heart.

Although we’ve only scratched the surface, Weather Wise is starting to have an impact. Journalists from our community radio stations, who previously had little or no formal training, now report that they have an improved understanding of climate change and are more confident communicating it to their audiences:

"I have learnt the importance of thinking about the needs of my audience and how to equip them with practical information that they can apply in their day to day lives. As a result, I’m finding my work as a journalist to be more fulfilling now, as many listeners call me telling me how they are learning a lot from my programme and improving their lives." – Journalist, Radio Kwizera, Tanzania

Encouragingly, their listeners are already benefitting, too:

“In one of the programmes, they shared how the rains would fail and the different things we could do as farmers to cope including planting more drought resistant seed varieties. I planted these on my farm that season and was able to get a much better harvest than my neighbours’, most of whom lost all their crop.” – Female farmer, Masaka District, Uganda.

As for me, this has been an eye-opening project so far and I’m learning more about climate change and its impacts on the region’s poorest people every day. Because climate change isn’t just about the weather – it’s about people.

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Diana Njeru is Project Director for our Weather Wise project in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Weather Wise is part of the Met Office’s Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Sarah:

The first thing I hear in the refugee camp is, “Rohingya women can do anything, I can do anything.”

Ayesha, about 60, shows us into her makeshift home with grace and warmth. My 主播大秀 Media Action colleagues and I sit on the beaten earth floor of her plastic hut dwelling. We’re in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world: Kutupalong, just outside Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.

Her welcome is impressive and humbling. She has her baby grandson in her arms. His mother and father are conspicuous by their absence. We don’t ask where they are.

Four writers, a drama director and I are in the camp to talk to any of the Rohingya refugees kind enough to give us their time. But unlike so many of the journalists and NGO workers present, we’re not here to talk about their recent traumatic experiences, instead we want to know about life in the camp and how they’re coping now.

Earlier in the year, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted funding to and 主播大秀 Media Action to create a radio drama for Rohingya communities, specifically to help women and girls. As the project’s radio drama consultant, I’m here to help shape the production team’s ideas into a 20-episode synopsis.

Listening to real women’s stories

主播大秀 Media Action often uses drama as a way to approach sensitive issues, and one of them is what NGOs call Gender-Based Violence, or GBV. This laudably non-judgmental expression is new to me and I can see the advantage of its neutrality. This term respects cultural practices, whereas terms such as ‘wife beating’, ‘sexual assault’ or ‘grievous bodily harm’ could be seen as pejorative and risk shutting down conversations around the issue. By understanding the experiences of Rohingya women and girls, and exploring them openly, this new radio drama has the opportunity to help address sexual violence and abuse.

Back in the office, my Media Action colleagues presented their excellent new research into GBV among the Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar. It revealed that many Rohingya women experience forms of GBV such as child marriage, intimate partner violence and sexual abuse. In the context of a poorly-lit, overcrowded camp, the risks intensify. This research is an invaluable resource, providing accurate evidence which the team can consult when trying out new plot lines.

Changing the story

We know that character-led, long form drama has the power to shift opinions, and the hope is that this serial will subtly increase knowledge around GBV through stories with which both men and women can empathise. This drama, created specifically for the Rohingya crisis, will also inform people about the support services available to them in the camp.

But perhaps the drama’s true power is presenting the flip-side, illustrating the largely untapped potential of women and girls.

So the team and I got down to the job of sticking plot lines to the wall, creating the stories for each character over 20 episodes. The writing and directing team were used to working for screen, so I ran a couple of workshops on the relationship between radio scriptwriting and sound effects. The team tried out their draft scripts with their backs turned to the actors – the test was whether they could ‘see’ in their mind’s eye what was physically happening in the scene and which character was talking.

And the production team aren’t alone, the Rohingya audience is unused to radio drama too. One of the challenges is to ensure that the audience understand that the episodes aren’t a real, fly-on-the-wall documentary, but fiction.

Entertaining and informing

The refugees in Kutupalong have little to do and face an uncertain future in their new home of Bangladesh. A drama that could entertain and distract a bored and traumatised people, even for a moment, must be useful. But crucially, it also has the potential to get them talking, asking wider questions around their situation: it could be massive.

Back in the camp, Ayesha walks us up the hill on which her hut is precariously perched. Together, we look out over the vast camp, past the trees and the water to Myanmar. 主播大秀.

Perhaps it might come as a surprise to the menfolk in her community to hear Ayesha talk to us so fluently, confidently, proudly about her skills as a net maker. So we have given her a voice – basing one of our characters on her.

After all she can do anything.

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Sarah Bradshaw has worked for 主播大秀 Radio Drama as a producer, director and writer. She’s also worked as a consultant for 主播大秀 Media Action’s very own Life in Lulu.

Our new radio drama for Rohingya communities is currently in piloting and is due to air in Cox’s Bazar in early 2019. To find out more about how we’re responding to the Rohingya crisis and how listening to those affected informs our work, take a look at .

If you’d like to learn more about how drama can be an effective tool for tackling sensitive issues such as gender-based violence, you might like to read written by our Executive Director, Caroline Nursey, last year.

Saiyada started listening to Beggunor Lai inside her home, sometimes joined by her husband. But after a few months, she began hosting the listener groups where fellow women in the camp came together to hear the podcast and discuss the issues raised in the show with each other.

After hearing an episode about health, Saiyada was motivated to visit her nearest health centre with her husband. She had been experiencing difficulties with her pregnancy and the doctor she heard on the programme prompted listeners to seek professional advice. Saiyada was seen quickly by a doctor who helped her with her symptoms, resulting in the healthy arrival of a baby boy – Abdul.

Then in June of this year, Abdul unfortunately fell sick. Her husband took him to the health centre, but returned without a solution. Empowered by advice she received via our podcast, Saiyada convinced her husband that she should accompany him to the health centre and explain the symptoms to the doctor as she had been monitoring her son’s illness closely. The following day, they both returned to see the doctor and Saiyada was able to properly explain the issues herself, resulting in the doctor prescribing appropriate medication and their son quickly recovering.

“Now I am telling my neighbours to listen this radio program – which has opened my eyes”, Saiyada said.

The majority of Rohingya women are typically confined to the home and reliant on male members of the family to access any sort of information, including how and where to access different kinds of aid. This can be particularly difficult for women who unfortunately don’t have male members of family – for instance those who have been widowed or separated from their fathers or brothers. Given that women make up just over half of the population in Cox’s Bazar, this creates a huge information vacuum.

That’s where 主播大秀 Media Action comes in and why listening groups are so important for women like Saiyada.

Information is aid

You may think that the most important types of aid needed by those affected by the Rohingya crisis are food, shelter and water. But timely and reliable information is also crucial so that people can know where and how to access aid in the first place.

Listener groups are a rapidly growing and increasingly relevant and effective mechanism for providing information and advice to displaced Rohingya communities, as well as for collecting views, opinions and feedback to inform the humanitarian response to the crisis.

For Saiyada, the information she received via Beggunor Lai and the listener group both prompted her to take action for her child’s health, but also informed her where she could go and who she could speak to in order to get the help she and her family needed.

Receiving the right information at the right time empowered her in the decision-making process for her family’s wellbeing. I feel proud to play a part in helping to improve the lives of Rohingya women, like Saiyada, by engaging them through our radio programmes and podcasts.

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Mukta Roy is a Humanitarian Officer in Bangladesh.

Saturday 25th August marks the first anniversary of the start of the Rohingya emergency, which in August 2017 saw an unprecedented number of Rohingya refugees flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine State across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh - specifically in the district of Cox’s Bazar.

主播大秀 Media Action has been at the heart of the response to the Rohingya emergency from the very start, ensuring refugees and host communities have access to vital information and can convey their needs to humanitarian agencies on the ground.

We’ve helped set up and support 233 listener groups currently operating in 12 camps, like the one described by Mukta, and the number is growing rapidly.

主播大秀 Media Action’s support to radio broadcasters in Cox’s Bazar is funded by UNICEF. Our work training and supporting listener groups is funded by IOM, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF.

“My husband was killed in Myanmar, and I had to flee with my children, leaving everything behind. I didn’t know where I am going. But, after coming to this camp I am living a much better life.” Rohingya widow, Kutupalong camp, Bangladesh.

In late January I visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar to find out how the community gets its information and the media they preferred – to inform the humanitarian programmes we’re supporting local broadcasters to make in response to the emergency.

It was my first visit and I had mixed feelings – empowered at being part of this huge emergency response, yet not ready to confront the brutal reality of what so many people had faced.

While designing any research we always map the ethical considerations before we go to the field. I was hesitant to ask people to relive difficult experiences, and very conscious that Rohingya people are managing extreme trauma.

However, whilst people were distressed I felt the interviews acted as a catharsis for them as they talked about their past and expressed their fears about what the future held.

Many aid agencies around the world are responding to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis after more than 670,000 Rohingya people fled into Bangladesh last year. However, the illiteracy rate is high, so people living in the camps are often not aware they’re entitled to relief or how to access the services available.

This is where 主播大秀 Media Action comes in.

Since October 2017 we’ve been supporting local partners in the local dialect - which is, largely, understood by Rohingya people in the camps and the host communities in Cox’s Bazar.

But, we wanted to do more to reach the affected communities.

So, through focus groups we explored how people are able to access information. It was fascinating.

We discovered the Rohingya people in the camps get information via word of mouth from “Majhis”, selected leaders who, in turn, acquire information from aid workers. Religious leaders are also a trusted authority.

The majority of Rohingya are Muslims. Women tend to leave the home only if they have something important to do – and they cover themselves up while outside. “We pray during our breaks and talk to our neighbours, that is our only entertainment,” as one woman told me.

It means that many women rely on the men in their family for information – and those without male relatives (such as the large number of women who were widowed before leaving Myanmar) find it even harder to find out what is going on.

Most women have no access to mobile phones and even men, who own a phone struggle to recharge them because there is little electricity in the camps.

In other humanitarian emergencies, such as in and Darfur, our listener groups have helped vulnerable people – such as women and children – to get information and support each other. 

But here, whilst some women feel able to come to the listening group, others only attend if they are women-led, women-only groups and held inside homes or shelters.

Face-to-face communication

These research insights are being used to shape our communication plans – radio programmes, podcasts, vital face-to-face information at community hubs as well as sharing our content for the door-to-door communication carried out by UNICEF and other partners. And, we now know that making content aimed at women, as well as training and providing this content to information workers at the places that women (and children) are able to visit - is key.

But to continue making effective programming for displaced people and host communities (many of whom told us of their concerns about losing land, trees and other assets), there is still more we need to understand. For example, how we can work with the local and religious leaders to disseminate information using their networks. Likewise, we need to find a way to disseminate our media content further in the areas with scarce electricity. And, we need to continue to find ways to connect, support and inform female-led families and other vulnerable groups.

Without a doubt this is complex humanitarian emergency – where information is aid – so we continue to strive to reach those most affected with vital and life-saving information.

Aniqa Hossain is a Research Officer in Bangladesh

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With our support, Bangladesh’s state broadcaster and Radio Naf have now broadcast over 100 episodes of the radio programme Beggunar Lai (For Everyone), with our support Radio Naf is now producing Shishur Hashi (Children’s Smile) a programme aimed at children. A monthly programme called Betar Sanglap (Radio Dialogue) - aired by the state broadcaster – is offering a space for the local Bangladeshi communities affected by the emergency to ask questions and share their views with local officials and aid providers.

主播大秀 Media Action’s work within the Rohingya emergency response is funded by Global Affairs Canada, the UK Department for International Development and UNICEF; and is delivered in partnership with Action Against Hunger and IOM.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis is visible on the road winding away from Cox's Bazar long before you reach the camps.

Empty aid trucks head back to town as the landscape shifts from palm trees to rice fields and then hillsides full of shacks with orange and blue plastic sheeting for roofs.

These camps are who have fled violence in Myanmar - with more than 600,000 arriving since August 2017. That's more than the population of Sheffield.

There is no disguising that it's a major emergency and getting bigger and more complicated. It is predicted that will be born into these conditions where poor sanitation increases the risk that deadly diseases will spread quickly. People are traumatised: they have left behind their homes and livelihoods and witnessed unspeakable violence. Many are now at risk of exploitation by criminals.

In a situation like this, access to information is as important as food, water and shelter - it saves lives. And we are there, supporting our local radio station to produce providing vital information to Rohingya people on how to survive, cope and recover.

Beggunor Lai (For Everyone) is broadcast locally on Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh's state broadcaster and Radio Naf, a community radio station. With our support, Radio Naf also produces Shishur Hashi (Children) a programme aimed at children, who make up more than half of those displaced from Myanmar.

I visited Cox's Bazar to see first-hand how we're delivering this life-saving work and the impact it is having. People gathered around a wind-up radio in one of the day centres set up in the camp - a makeshift structure with a corrugated iron roof - and it was clear that . I also met our team and local broadcasters who all felt proud and enthusiastic to be producing programmes that are making life bearable for people in desperate need.

Programmes have given advice on getting vaccinated against cholera and , finding clean water, nutrition and keeping children and other vulnerable people safe. As cyclone season approached, the shows explained how to strengthen temporary shelters in preparation for storms.

And they give Rohingya people a voice through phone-ins and vox pops - vital for mental well-being.

The programmes - funded by Unicef - are broadcast in the local Chittagong dialect that the Rohingya people can understand. And we are working with a range of partners to set up listening groups, like the one I saw, because few people have radios of their own.

There are serious problems in store unless more land becomes available to build secure shelters before the monsoon season starts in April. The hillside camps are at risk of serious mudslides, and disease will spread if floods pollute water points.

And the next stage - with a new tranche of UN funding - involves us working with and to strengthen the two-way communication between people affected by the crisis and aid providers so that Rohingya people can help shape the services and information that they receive.

I have never come across a crisis where communication is recognised as such an integral part of the humanitarian response - thanks in large part to our work in Bangladesh over many years to help prepare for natural disasters. The work is impressive - but there is much more to be done.

Mais Katt from Radio Rosana, said: "We did a lot of research on the subject matter and I had to re-write the script on several occasions. I consulted with psychosocial experts and worked with a great team at the 主播大秀 who advised on the creative, dramatic and technical part of the production, as well as editorially."

Danger of walking into a minefield

Explosive weapons have dramatically affected the lives of more than 5 million Syrians, of which 2.2 million are children who are directly exposed to its dangers. This affects their daily lives – exposing them to risks while simply walking to school, or playing outdoors in places where there has been intensive fighting.

We supported an independent producer make a cartoon to help children identify explosive devices – including devices disguised as toys that tempt children to pick them up.

We also coached a radio station that created a series of discussion programmes. One episode on explosive remnants of war (ERW) featured experts talking about how to identify explosive remains and what listeners should do if they find one.

Livelihoods destroyed

"The war has destroyed families’ livelihoods meaning it is common for children to drop out of school to earn money" says Nisrine Alaa Deen – an independent Syrian producer - who was also mentored to produce her first documentary on this subject.

"I found Ahmad after months of researching a story for my documentary on child labour. He is one of the lucky children who didn’t endure family separation", she says.

But he and his brother lost two years of their education after their parents lost their business and all of their savings and ended up working with their father selling street food to earn a living.

Nisrine captured the realities of child labour on film but took a solutions-focused approach. The documentary captured how Ahmad’s mother enrolled him on a new curriculum for children who have missed years of schools. Ahmad’s mother was very cooperative because she wanted other parents to see that it is still possible for children to catch up on the years they have missed.

Mothers’ meeting – a radio drama

Radio station Arta FM in North-East Syria wanted to make a radio drama targeted at mothers and pregnant women in Jazeera but they had no experience of how to make one, so we connected them with the producer from – a 主播大秀 Media Action radio drama for Syrians living inside and outside of the country.

The Arta FM producers also spoke to local women about their experiences and maternal health experts to shape the drama.

The result? Characters Layla and Salma – two women who meet every week for coffee to discuss, and debunk, the myths and common misconceptions held by women about pregnancy.

"Talking about contraception, abortion, pregnancy, periods and so on in conservative or rural communities can be tricky. But the women we encountered wanted to know about their children’s health; to know how they could help themselves in the difficult circumstances that Syria is going through today." says Shiar Youssef from Arta FM.

For children at all ages

Life remains incredibly difficult for children across Syria but it is so important that these producers get the help they need to improve their programming for children and parents. This helps reduce the mental and physical risks faced whether as a newborn baby or a child missing out on school. Our partners use their own language: they know best what is happening in their community and how to speak to their audience to make an impact.

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About Julie:
I’ve been working to support the humanitarian response for Syria over several years. Initially I was producing in Lebanon and Jordan – helping to give Syrian families safe and accurate information after they’d fled their homes. We then produced radio drama – – helping Syrians living inside and outside of the country to cope.

This online mentoring programme called Community voices: child rights, development and survival is a 主播大秀 Media Action and  project. 

"My eyes are burning" says Mishri Lama as she prepares dinner in the temporary shelter that has been her family’s home since she was displaced by the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015.

Today they have a guest: Govinda Raj Pokharel, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority (NRA). "So much smoke. Is it the same every day?" he asks as he squats on the floor to share a meal with his hosts. "It’s the same every day because there is no window," says Mishri’s husband, Kaile Tamang Lama.

The Lama family live in one of the hillside villages of Selang in Sindupalchowk - one of the districts that was, and still is, most affected by the disaster.

Over a modest dinner of boiled maize flour and lentil soup the conversation turns to the difficulty the family – and their neighbours – face in rebuilding safe homes on their own land.

"We are scared of landslides from above the village. It will definitely fall down if there is another earthquake," says Kaile Lama.

After hearing their story, Pokharel promised to inspect the land himself the following day. He was visiting Selang with 主播大秀 Media Action to witness the hardships faced by communities who lost their homes in the earthquake. Pokharel spends the night in the Lama’s makeshift home experiencing firsthand the conditions faced by families like the Lamas.

Sajha Sawal visited Selang right after the earthquake in 2015 with the then Forest Minster who vowed that households would be moved to a less hazard-prone location. The team returned two years later to see what had changed and give people the opportunity to hold those leading the reconstruction efforts to account – and urge them to deliver on their promises.

After seeing the precarious hillside and listening to the residents’ concerns Pokharal said: "People are scared to live here. Naked eye observation shows the cliff might fall down in case of an earthquake. We should not keep our people in such places."

Promises of new land

Pressed by presenter Bidhya Chapagain to provide action as well as more assurances he pledged to find new land where the community could rebuild safely.

And meeting the commitment made on the show, Pokharel returned to Selang in June and helped identify 65 households that needed to be resettled to a safer location.

A more stable area of Selang has been identified by geologists where the displaced families are being provided help by different organizations to rebuild, making it the first resettlement plan initiated by the government.

Steps in the right direction – but still a way to go

The government also identified 700 families in settlements in Rasuwa, Dolakha, Gorkha and Ramechhap districts in need of resettlement. And even though it has been deemed unsafe by the government geologists, the villagers of Selang have still been returning to their farmlands on the brittle hillsides to plant crops.

"We had dry landslides three days ago, that nearly swept away some villagers," Ramamaya Lopchan told 主播大秀 Sajha Sawal over the phone this week.

"We have been told by the government not to build on our land we have as it is unsafe. Winter is almost here and we are still living in our temporary shelters. My children keep falling sick in this temporary shelter and hospitals are days of walk."

"We are now waiting for the government resettlement to begin so that we can build our homes in safer locations,"she added.

For Nepali communities, the challenges around rebuilding resilient and safe homes remain so our work through Sajha Sawal to help them ‘build back better’ and hold the government accountable is vital.

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主播大秀 Media Action is not funded by the 主播大秀 licence fee and depends on the generous support of donors. .

In Sierra Leone, where  our team has been using their , the most popular in the country, to provide information on how to access emergency numbers and centres where those affected can access food, clothing and other assistance.

We are also using Facebook to share advice on how people can keep their families safe by avoiding water contaminated by the flooding and prevent an outbreak of cholera or typhoid. And we’ve produced radio public service announcements on flood preparedness and cholera prevention as part of the Sierra Leone government’s communications response to the disaster that will be broadcast over the weekend.

Incessant monsoon rain has also caused widespread and which has left around 500 people dead and affected millions more.

Our team in Nepal has been working with 主播大秀 Nepali Service, national broadcaster Radio Nepal and other radio stations to address the urgent information needs of affected communities. Researchers have been contacting people in flood-affected areas using Facebook, email and phone to understand their priority information needs.

Mona Laczo, Country Director Nepal, said: "People have told us they need information on subjects including weather forecasts, personal and family safety, how to avoid snake bites and harmful insects, water purification, how to get medical assistance, who to contact for support, and how to create a temporary shelter."

"This feedback is then being fed into , special media content for people who are facing humanitarian crises, which have been shared widely with 主播大秀 Nepali and local stations."

We have shared the research and  - a guide for the media on how to help audiences affected by crises - with broadcast partners to inform their programming. Producers with Lifeline programming experience are providing coaching and mentoring support to Radio Nepal and training has also been provided to staff at Radio Kantipur. And we’re liaising with agencies mobilising humanitarian assistance on the ground and identifying opportunities to .

The team are also working with  to assess the damage to local radio stations and approaching organisations who may be able to provide new equipment to get them back on air.

In Bangladesh, pre-developed advice and guidance specially designed for Facebook has been published on our own channels and through partner organisations with big online followings.

"We are supporting local and national radio stations to broadcast life-saving information." says Richard Lace, Country Director in Bangladesh. 

“We’re also creating a ‘pool’ of audio content aimed at providing advice and support to immediately flood-affected people through radio stations but also likely to be used initially through loudspeakers attached to boats because road communication in affected areas is getting increasingly difficult."

The team will act as a temporary ‘humanitarian communications agency’ for other organisations – providing coordinated, consistent audio and graphic materials on a range of topics including obvious things like water purification as well as less obvious topics like access to maternity care in flooded areas. These outputs are designed to help other humanitarian agencies integrate communication techniques into their response in a coordinated, consistent way and we’ll continue to support them as they start to plan their own, medium and long-term response.

In India the flooding has been concentrated in Bihar where the state government is rebroadcasting Lifeline programmes previously produced by our India team.

More rain is forecast in all of the areas so badly affected this week. Access to relevant, timely and trust worthy information will be vital in helping people prepare for more flooding and eventually rebuilding their lives.

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主播大秀 Media Action is not funded by the 主播大秀 licence fee and depends on the generous support of donors. .

Abass became a voice for Ebola survivors across Sierra Leone. Allieu Sesay tells his ongoing story.

Holding his baby daughter in his arms, today Abass looks like any other proud father. But when we first met three years ago, at the peak of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, it seemed hard to imagine this day would come.

Then I was spending nearly every day making radio programmes to share life-saving information to stop the virus spreading. Abass was volunteering at a health centre in Freetown. As an Ebola survivor he had some immunity to the virus and wanted to help other patients.

When Abass told me his story – I was appalled. His wife Fatima had lost both parents to Ebola and most of her extended family. Their six-month-old baby had died in the epidemic.

Like most survivors, he was suffering serious health complications and most painful of all – discrimination and isolation from society.

I asked him to speak on our radio programme to represent survivors, showing listeners their point of view and their daily struggles.

How media fought Ebola

When the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency, we were already challenging misinformation and confusion in our discussion programmes, public service announcements and by training journalists across the country. We created “”, a radio magazine programme and later – a radio drama in local languages.

Radio programmes could reach large numbers of people, help them understand how to protect themselves and highlight how traditional practices – like caring for the sick or washing the bodies for were killing people.

But increasingly it became important for ordinary people like Abass to say what they were going through - to have a voice – and most importantly for others to listen.

On-air counselling

Abass agreed to talk to a counsellor on air, helping others understand the devastating consequences of the stigma he faced. To help change perceptions we also invited a doctor to explain that you cannot catch Ebola by touching a survivor.

Through his bold statements and courage, he became an advocate for the needs of survivors. "Anyone who survived Ebola was a miracle at that time," he says, "but it was not easy for me and other people."

After the outbreak was declared over, and the government announced plans to restore essential services, we created a successor programme (We The People). We reported on the country’s health, education and social care sectors, giving people information about their rights and entitlements. Read more about the impact of the programme

In Abass’s case, this meant getting the surgery he needed to address his health complications caused by Ebola, "I was unable to urinate and I was afraid of problems with my kidney," he said. He also helped keep up the pressure for the government to deliver on other promises – including providing free healthcare for survivors and pregnant women.

The road to recovery

Three years since the declaration of a public state of emergency - my country is slowly recovering.

And three months ago Abass and his wife welcomed Huratu Patricia, the baby daughter they longed for. They were fortunate to benefit from the free healthcare for pregnant women.

The road ahead isn’t easy. Abass’s health problems continue and make it hard for him to find employment. He is one of more than 4,000 survivors suffering from post-Ebola syndrome. Symptoms include joint and muscle pain, blindness, and neurological problems. Many people are still stigmatised and rejected by their families and communities, and struggle to find a way back to how their lives were before the epidemic.

As Wi Di Pipul comes to an end this month. I’m proud of but know it is more important than ever for survivors to continue to be heard.

We need to continue amplifying their needs and concerns to help them rebuild their lives and build a future for Huratu Patricia and her generation. Let’s talk about what will happen next.

Allieu Sesay is the Head of Production for 主播大秀 Media Action in Sierra Leone

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主播大秀 Media Action is not funded by the 主播大秀 licence fee and depends on the generous support of donors. Help our work.

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Young people were soon happily crowding around the main stage for the music, singing, magic shows and dancing. Our popular MCs, including a well-known Klahan9 presenter, did a great job getting the crowd involved by inviting people on stage to share their own stories. Our partners joined us on stage encouraging young people to be Klahan (brave) in pursuing the job they want.

I’m so happy we are able to reach and inspire people in remote areas who would not otherwise have access to this kind of information. As Youm told me, “the roadshow games are fun and educational which makes me brave to pursue my dream.”

Being brave and achieving one’s dreams is what Klahan9 is all about.

Radio is seen as decidedly “old” technology. Iraqis prefer social media and satellite television. But for Ahmed and many others, this is now a lifeline. So much so that the first thing he did when his father visited him was to borrow his phone and call Radio Nawa.

UNHCR calculates about 160,000 people were recently displaced in northern Iraq. This brings the total number of displaced since IS arrived to three million people. Not all are in camps. Even so the vast majority face problems with the basics of civil life; such as how to sit exams when you are registered in another province or how to get your pension when far away from your assigned pension office.

Phoning in

With 主播大秀 Media Action’s support, Radio Nawa produces a daily two-hour programme where people can phone in, raise their issues and seek an answer from one of the officials invited to join the show.

It’s not just about venting. For people in need it’s about trying to find solutions and link up the dots: families stranded in an isolated spot near the front line and in desperate need of aid, a woman from the camp in need of an urgent operation, a boy who wanted to sit his exams but was not allowed to leave the camp. The calls have prompted provincial officials to respond, many times successfully. The stranded families got help, the woman had her operation and the boy sat his exams. They all phoned back to thank Radio Nawa, including the officials themselves.

In theory, when compared to the Syrian refugee crisis, the situation in Iraq should be simpler to resolve. After all, the majority of Iraqis who fled IS are displaced within their own country. Iraq is not poor and there is a ministry that deals with migration and displacement. But the status of internally displaced people is a political hot potato.

One of the people the team from Nawa talks to when they visit the camps says his house is a kilometre away, but he’s not been allowed to return. He is not quite sure of the reasons. It’s a complicated story in keeping with a complex situation - one in which many factors come into play, including Iraq's sectarian divide and a long-standing territorial dispute between Kurds and Arabs. When IS first came to the region locals often said they were more afraid of government security forces than of IS.

Lifeline radio

A month after distributing the radios, Nawa’s team holds the first “information clinic” in the camp, bringing with them officials and microphones. It's especially valuable for those without phones and unable to make contact any other way.

It is overwhelming listening to them.

There are countless satellite TV channels in Iraq – mobile phone use is extensive and Facebook for mobile is probably the most prolific means of getting information and keeping in touch.

Yet as this latest twist in Iraq’s long and difficult journey from dictatorship and international sanctions to a shaky democracy shows, radio is once again a lifeline.

主播大秀 Media Action began working in Iraq in 2004, setting up and assisting local radio to give the community a voice and hold officials to account. 

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As we step into the front yard of a straw-roofed house – one of many in the village – we’re welcomed with a Namaste by Sita Poudel, a farmer and housewife. When Bhawana introduces herself as presenter of Milijuli Nepali, Sita excitedly invites her neighbours to meet her. The women in the village are fans of the show, and say Bhawana’s motivational conversations about reconstruction have inspired them to get through their more difficult days.

“I remember the episode where you interviewed a group of female builders. Skills you learn are always your own!” says Sita, smiling. “I love that your programme motivates women to learn new skills.”

Sita lives in what remains of her house after the 2015 earthquakes. The first floor was destroyed and the ground floor, with its partially cracked walls, is now the place where the family cooks and sleeps. Others in the village were forced into similar arrangements; while many continue to live in makeshift tin huts that were built after their houses collapsed.

As the reconstruction slowly gets underway, Sita’s neighbours say they are grateful for information about safe and sustainable construction that they heard on Milijuli Nepali.

Nearby in the village of Raatmate, we speak to Kanchi Rai, a member of the Danuwar community who have their own language and are often marginalised in Nepali society.

Kanchi tells us that, as a Danuwar, she faces cultural and language barriers in her quest for information about post-earthquake reconstruction. She said she would like Milijuli Nepali to explain how she can access Nepal’s government reconstruction fund.

We’re now planning to include this information in future episodes. Nepal’s government has committed to provide 300,000 NPR (about 2,260 GPB), to people who are rebuilding their houses damaged by the earthquakes. Broadcasting simple, clear information about what government help is available and how to access it can be life-changing, and helps makes the government more accountable for its promises.

As we wrapped-up our Nuwakot visit, Bhawana tells us that going to the villages to seek feedback from listeners helps her appreciate the impact of the programme – as well as research new ways to help her audience. “As a presenter, I feel inspired when I hear that people have done things differently because of our show. That’s when I feel like my work has paid off,” she says with a wide smile.

Milijuli Nepali is produced with support from USAID. 主播大秀 Media Action doesn’t receive any funding from the 主播大秀’s licence fee and depends on the generous support of donors. .

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This sugary social media coating belies the station’s ongoing struggle to stay on air. Regular electricity cuts and fuel shortages have threatened its closure on numerous occasions. When an anonymous bomb threat forced staff to evacuate, the eerily empty station managed to keep broadcasting by playing popular music tracks on a loop.

It is within this context that seasoned presenter Mohammed Masri finds himself working.

I met Mohammed while conducting “preparing for Lifeline” a that helps local media and aid organisations share practical information in a humanitarian crisis. 主播大秀 Media Action adapts the training for use across the world – from earthquakes in Nepal to the Ebola response in West Africa and those affected by conflict – yet the overall message is always the same ‘communication saves lives.’

“Lifeline training helps us think about how we can we can broadcast news, as well as share information which will actually help people like finding food, shelter and medical facilities,” says Mohammed. "Lifeline programming is about helping communities bind together in adversity, sharing solutions to their problems and expressing their needs."

During a training session, delegates asked themselves; ‘If a family needs to flee their home, what useful information can a radio show provide them?’

For most people in the room – including me – these scenario-based exercises can be painfully real.

When the conflict escalated in Gaza in 2009 it wasn’t safe for me to go to work. Heavy shelling meant a simple visit to the shop for food, water or medicine might result in serious injury or death.

Practical information

I spent many sleepless nights with my family. We were so scared. Bombs were dropping overhead as we lay in our beds. Listening to the radio through an old battered Nokia phone – and accessing the internet through a battery-powered Wi-Fi router – we could only get information about casualty counts and the latest political talks. At a time when we feared for our lives, we really needed practical information like where to find our nearest shelter, health services and aid distribution points.

It makes me very happy to see radio producers like Mohammed and representatives from humanitarian organisations – including Oxfam, UNOCHA and UNICEF – working together to improve communication with people in the midst of crisis. Contacts made in the room that day will help create a more joined-up response in future – and help more people survive.

Along with light-hearted social media, music and news, local stations like Radio Gaza FM can provide practical information too. In a place like the Gaza Strip – people really need it.

Lifeline programming guides and an online course are available on the 主播大秀 Media Action website.

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Why we chose “real people” instead of actors to feature in our Public Service Announcements (PSAs), TV adverts sharing simple solutions to prepare for cyclones, flooding and drought.

When her husband ran away with another woman, 35 year old Thin Thin Aye was left alone in her small palm-leaf house with eight children to feed.

Standing in a dark room flanked by rickety floorboards and broken walls, she tells us what she fears most is the unpredictable weather in the delta region of Myanmar.

“What I’m worried about is not only wind and rain. We live near by the sea and we don’t have protection when the water level rises,” she said.

As a daily worker earning $3 to $4 a day, she can’t afford to strengthen her delicate bamboo house or to stockpile food in advance of Myanmar’s cyclone season from May to September, where violent storms rip across the country.

Her limited resources haven’t stopped her from preparing for disaster though. In the flickering candlelight, next to a small statue of Buddha, visitors may spot a plastic bag with some documents inside. The bag, containing her family’s identification papers, is tucked away discreetly by the altar, a safe, memorable place. In times of disaster, she can grab the precious package and take it along with her family to the village’s emergency muster-point by the local school.

Simple, do-able solutions

We visited Thin Thin Aye’s village, in Myanmar’s cyclone-prone Irrawaddy Division to collect real-life stories for a new series of radio and TV public service announcements (PSAs) on preparing for extreme weather and climate related issues. After exploring different TV formats – including drama and factual reconstruction – our research revealed that people preferred to hear solutions about preparing for extreme weather from people like them, rather than actors.

As a result, Thin Thin Aye’s simple ‘plastic bag’ solution is featured along with a number of real-life stories including a 64 year old woman who converts a clay pot into a portable fire-pit in case of flood; a mother and child who use a school building for shelter as it is one of the few brick buildings in their area able to withstand cyclone-force winds; and a mother who keeps an emergency bag full of the things her 14 year old disabled son might need in preparation for seasonal floods.

The PSAs are being broadcast nationally, but we’re seeing the impact at community level too. We recently travelled back to visit Thin Thin to find that her filing system had expanded since our initial filming. She’s now the trusted keeper for the land, registration and birth documents for most of her village!

If she can do it…

Through the use of mass media, we’re making sure that ‘do-able’ solutions from people like Thin Thin Aye, are been shared with as many others as possible. We hope that when people hear and watch her story, they’ll think ‘if she can do it, then so can I.’

主播大秀 Media Action’s PSAs are part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the resilience of people in Myanmar to since 2008s devastating Cyclone Nargis.

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