Author: Exclusive

Fr. Louis Chikanya

St. Paul’s Parish – Mchinji Radio Alinafe volunteers have been trained in radio programmes production and presentation.

The training took place at the parish hall where ten men and women received training. The reporters have been encouraged to be active in contributing stories to the Radio.

Alex Nasoni is one of the trainees; he expressed his satisfaction in the training. He said the lessons that they have received will help them to be confident and work according to the rules of the Church.

“As a journalist one must know the rules and furthermore, we are working as church journalists. This training therefore will help us not to sidetrack from what the church wants,” he said.

Radio Alinafe is a regional community radio station that covers the Archdiocese of Lilongwe, which is generally the Central Region of Malawi. It also covers parts of the Eastern Region and parts of Northern Region of Malawi.

Radio Alinafe Management on 6th June, 2021 organized a short refresher session for its staff as one way of improving their performance.

The session was organized to cover areas of technics of presentation, radio personality branding, behaving in a religious radio station, among others.

Jeremiah Kamanga is one of the new volunteers who attended the session and says he learnt a lot from the session. “I learnt on how to produce programmes and how to present them to the listener. Furthermore, I learnt the need to be confident on the radio. I also learnt that preparation is critical for a successful presentation.”

Catherine Damazio, another volunteer expressed confidence that with what she learnt will assist her to improve her presentation. “I was helped to write a script as a guide for my content and to be very selective in the use of language considering that Radio Alinafe is a religious Radio Station.” she said.

Mr. Gabriel Kamlomo, a radio personality facilitated the session.

Radio Alinafe, largely is served by volunteers with various professions.

Radio Alinafe trains new cohort of volunteers every year; but for the past two years we have not trained any volunteer because of the COVID -19 pandemic. Recently, we called for radio programmes production and presentation lessons for those who had applied before COVID – 19.

This time we have 13 new volunteers, 12 men and one lady.

On Easter Sunday, 2021, Radio Alinafe organised and successfully held a radio choir festival. The activity initially did not attract many choirs because it was an idea that is very new and few understood how it would be conducted.

On deadline, we had only registered 20 choirs. The number increased drastically few hours before the actual day for the festival. Radio Alinafe had a huge listenership on this day, perhaps second to the days the Archdiocese lost His Grace Tarcisius Ziyaye.

Radio Alinafe is an archdiocesan Radio Station operating on 97.1FM covering the central Malawi region and some parts of the north and south. It is also linked on radioalinafe.com

The main objective of the Radio Station is to evangelize the people. We have Bible programmes, Catechetical and spiritual programmes, health and environmental programmes, agriculture and educational programmes.

The Radio Station also, though not its main objective, offer time for adverts and announcements on an affordable fee. At Radio Alinafe we can produce and air sponsored programmes.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) held a better motherhood interface encounter with different concerned groups found in Traditional Authority Chitukula in Lilongwe.

The meeting focused on the challenges faced by the pregnant mothers when they want to access health facilities at Balang’mbe clinic and Lumbadzi clinic, both found in Traditional Authority Chitukula in Lilongwe.

Many women lamented the abuse by some nurses, especially at Lumbadzi Health Centre. “We are subjected to ridicule and embarrassment at these hospitals, especially at Lumbadzi Hospital,” one lady lamented. “We are not well received and sometimes we are told to sleep on the floor while shouting at us,” another woman spoke.

On the side of the health centres’ representatives, the issue is about understanding the motherhood steps. One nurse explained that good motherhood begins way back before pregnancy. “A woman or girl should have the recommended age to get pregnant. Not only age, but also knowledge of how the body of a woman works,” she explained. She however accepted that there might be bad nurses among them. What the mothers should do is to report the careless nurse to the relevant authorities.

The meeting resolved that both parties should take their role seriously; women should follow advise from the health personnel and the health personnel should be able to listen to the women when they come the facilities to seek medical help.

CCJP, through funding from UN Women is engaged in a campaign to end motherhood challenges such as reproductive health and gender based violence in Traditional Authorities, Tsabango and Chitukula, both in Lilongwe.