FOCHI's impact: Radio Amani

‍Radio Amani is a peacebuilding project combatting misinformation and the manipulation of young people, helping to reduce tensions and prevent violence in communities. Every day, the radio broadcasts messages of peace, non-violence and healing.

The story of Radio Amani:

Since 2003, FOCHI has been facilitating community-led social cohesion by encouraging community members to engage in free, non-punitive, mediation-based conflict management mechanisms in its 39,646 km2 area of intervention. We established peace courts, which are community mechanisms for the peaceful management of conflicts.

But in 2020, we discovered that only 13.3% of our intervention area had been covered by our peace courts, despite the numerous requests from neighbouring communities. So in 2021 we decided to use a radio station to reach remote areas inaccessible to the peace courts. We hoped the radio would scale up the impact of our conflict management mechanisms, combating misinformation and hate messages and dispelling rumours – ultimately reducing inter-community violence.

The medium of radio enabled us to reach a large number of audiences in this immense region, otherwise inaccessible due to poor and, in places, non-existent infrastructure. Creating Radio Amani has enabled us to deliver much-needed reliable, balanced peace information in real time to dispel rumours and reduce intercommunal violence.  

Radio Amani has gradually reduced the level of ignorance about peace and rumours in their respective communities, and has rekindled hope among communities for a change in attitudes and a reduction in violence.

In 2023, we delivered:

- 1,360 peace awareness radio programmes

- 34 programmes per week

- 16 people trained

- 5 radio clubs for operational peace

- 672 editions of the spoken news bulletin broadcast in Swahili and French

- 1 solar panel energy microstation operational

Thanks to our efforts on increasing awareness of Radio Amani, 2023 also saw:

- Media coverage increased from 12 to 50 Km2. That's 38 Km2 more than before, reaching communities 50 km2 away from the station. Radio Amani's regular, permanent broadcasts of peace programmes are gradually combating misinformation and the manipulation of young people, helping to reduce tensions and prevent violence.

- Audiences increased from 720 to 3,000. That's 2,280 more listeners than before.

- 63.9% of listeners living in the new media coverage area of Radio Amani (32 km2) interviewed said that they had increased their motivation to listen to the peace programmes broadcast by Radio Amani, which had become more enjoyable as a result of the stability of its equipment, its energy source and the greater professionalism of its journalists than before (According to the Association of Journalists for Peace and Development in Kivu -AJPD/Kivu-, July 2023).

- 52% of the members of the population living 12 Km2 away from the Amani station surveyed praised Amani radio's enormous contribution to tackling disinformation, 38% to addressing stereotypes and prejudice, and 10 as a forum for dialogue (AJPD/Kivu, March 2024).

- FOCHI has helped to put an end to the sudden interruptions to radio broadcasts by Radio Amani, to secure its equipment against untimely power cuts, to reduce the cost of scarce and expensive fuel and to increase the loyalty of its audience, estimated at 2050 inhabitants.

‍

Discover more of FOCHI's work via their website: https://fochi.org/.

‍

Remembering Flory:

In March 2023, FOCHI’s Co-Founder and Coordinator, Pastor Floribert (Flory) Kazingufu, passed away. He was also a dear friend to Peace Direct. In this clip from 2017, he shares the story of his journey into peacebuilding – a journey that saw him become a deeply admired peacebuilder not only within DRC, but around the world. We include it here, in honour of his legacy: