“Hour for Humanity” hits Sri Lanka’s northern airwaves
Mahieash Johnney & Zafran Packeerally in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka
24/10/2012 – Jaffna, Sri Lanka: A new radio show titled “Hour for Humanity” hit the airwaves on Wednesday (24th October 2012) beaming to north of Sri Lanka on 92.2 & 102 FM. The programme was broadcast live on the frequencies of Yarl FM, a community radio station that carters to listeners in the north of Sri Lanka.
The initiative by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) in support with the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) seeks to communicate more effectively with the communities they are working with, to better understand and respond to their needs.
The radio show is a part of the SLRCS Post Conflict Recovery Programme (PCRP) where it aims to build 19,800 houses for returnees of the conflict.
In the first show a various segments were streamlined to introduce the programme and the project to the listeners and also on talk back phone lines where they can forward their questions.
Nimal Kumar – National Secretary of SLRCS, Tissa Abeywickrama – Director General of SLRCS, Bob McKerrow – Head of Delegation of IFRC took part in the radio show in order to inform the people of the programme and what type of benefits they would be getting through the housing programme.
K. Thiruthanigasalam – Monitoring Officer of the PCRP Programme also took part as the technical guest to answer questions from listeners.
In the first half of the programme, listeners were given information on the programme and what type of benefits given through the Red Cross. 15 listeners posted questions during the programme aimed at the Director General and the technical guest, ranging from “What type of support given by the Red Cross – to What would happen if someone doesn’t acquire proper identification in which case how can they still request for funding?”
Due to time constrains only 8 questions could be answered on air, while the remaining ones will be answered in the next week’s programme.
Below is the audio version of the show.