Community Radio in Sierra Leone Offering “prospects for women empowerment”: Testimony

Theony, she continued, “now operates the entire running of the radio’s studios and the most interesting thing is that she doubles as Disc Joker and plays songs very well and as I speak she has become popular in the Eastern region where the radio is operating from.”

Nyapui Radio was established “to promote the voices of women in Sierra Leone by providing a radio platform for women-centric programs”, the station’s website indicates, further acknowledging the support from Irish Aid through Ireland Embassy in the West African nation and SEND Sierra Leone under the More Than a Woman (Phase II) initiative. 

Programs at the radio station “focus on educating the general public on women related issues and empowering women to proudly discuss issues related to gender equality, women’s economic and political empowerment, equal access to all services, participation in political and governance discourse, and societal development,” the website of the station further indicates.

In her March 8 presentation titled, “The role of technology in women’s empowerment”, Ms. Sesay said, “ICTs have the ability to facilitate information sharing and provide marginalized groups in society more influence.”

She found it regrettable that “60 percent of those unemployed in Sierra Leone are women,” adding that “their lack of technical skills is a key cause behind these statistics.”

Ms. Sesay said the solution to the challenge lies in technology, which, she added, “now plays a significant part in the advancement of women and offers prospects for their empowerment in this post-modern period.”

Technology, she went on to say, “empowers emerging female leaders who strive to make a difference in their communities.”

The availability of modern equipment has enabled Nyapui radio to reach out to “women farmers in their different farms through a well-organized agriculture program called Kpamaakei (Farm Basket),” Ms. Sesay said.

She described the radio program as “a weekly women’s agricultural show that follows the women farmers on their farms to look at work done, success and challenges.”

The show “is geared towards supporting women farmers to engage in commercial farming rather than normal farming that must at times just cater for the immediate needs of the farmers and their families,” the Station Manager of Nyapui radio said.

The radio station that fosters women-centric programs also supporting local authorities in Sierra Leone in the registration process ahead of planned general elections.

Although most of the women in rural Sierra Leone “are still finding it difficult to live their schedules to attend radio programs or even listen to radio,” Ms. Sesay said, “we want them to understand and be fully involved in the elections activities.”

“We organized series of outreach radio programs for women to understand the registration process and we also did a radio survey to ascertain if they have registered especially for women with disabilities, aged and first time voters plus in-studio radio programs with political parties women for them to sensitizes their constituents about the registration process,” she explained.

Nyapui radio, Ms. Sesay further said, “is also implementing other programs ranging from health, education, disability, profiling of women etc., and those programs entail in-studio and outreach facilities to fast tract our targeted audience participation and to also make them fully benefit from our daily broadcast.”

“Technology through women’s empowerment is key,” she continued during the CI webinar on the occasion of IWD 2023 that was driven by #EmbraceEquity campaign theme aimed at getting “the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough”.

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She added that “the more women are empowered technologically the more they will be able to create jobs for themselves and take care of their families.”

Titled, “Embrace equality, encounter, renewal” the March 8 webinar also provided an opportunity for participants to reflect on the promotion of equality between men and women through: listening and dialogue; access to education and technology; the recognition of women leaders’ knowledge and skills in communities; and the inclusion of women in decision making processes at all levels.

In his keynote address during the webinar, Mons. Robert Murphy, Head of the Peace and Security Sector at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the UN, spoke about the strongly-felt presence of women leaders in the ambit of multilateralism.

“Women have real lead roles and make very real decisions that affect how the Church interacts with religious communities and with communities around the world. The Holy See is very frequently represented in the multilateral fora by women,” Mons. Murphy said.

On his part, the Vice Chancellor of the Catholic University of Makeni in Sierra Leone, Fr. Joseph Turay, said that a number of scholarships and post graduate programs are being awarded to women, particularly those from rural areas, so as to “empower women in the country”. 

Fr. Turay also said the university is increasing the pool of female staff on part-time and full-time basis.