Making Waves: Kothmale Community Radio
Stories of Participatory Communication
for Social Change
TITLE: Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project (KCRIP)
COUNTRY: Sri Lanka
FOCUS: Community Development
PLACE: Kothmale
BENEFICIARIES: Population of about 350,000
PARTNERS: University of Colombo
FUNDING: UNESCO, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC)
MEDIA: Radio & Internet
As Sriyapali prepares to interview one of the stations' avid contributors, I take a look around the station and notice that it is Kothmale FM at its best. In the staff room two local music teachers, Nilmany and Wijisinghe, are practising songs that they will record later in the day. They are both blind musicians who teach at a local school. Another six young girls from the nearest village are singing local folk songs. In the computer room Kosalais creating an animation piece for a Sri Lankan film company while on the other computer Buddhika an enthusiastic regular who had never used a computer before he came to the centre is chatting with someone in India while simultaneously designing his personal Web page. His e-mail inbox is filled with letters from newly made friends around-the-world.
Some studio equipment is being moved to the van: tonight there will be a live broadcast from the Wickramasinge College, where the students will perform a musical show.
The station is in its 11th year now and has obviously become an integral part of the community. Everyone in the area knows about Kothmale FM. I can travel 15 kilometres away, and when I ask people about Kothmale FM I always meet with a positive response. Many people will tell me that their sister or uncle or friend sang a song or spoke on a programme. They will tell me their favourite programme and announcer.
The interview begins in the studio. "My name is S.B.K. Wijarathna. My village is Dekekanawa Nawalapitya. I sell lottery tickets. I am 52 years old, and I am married with three daughters... I sent my first letter to the station 3 years ago; it was aired the next day. The feeling I had on that day was very joyful. Since then I write to this station, and I contribute with poems and historical stories and send facts and information... I think this station is a very friendly broadcasting service; it gives opportunities to new singers and artists. Our listeners enjoy the songs very much".
S.B.K. goes on to talk about his own programme where he plays and discusses old film songs. "Athithayan gee mal dothak" is proving to be one of the most popular programmes to-date.
Written by Tanya Notley, an Australian volunteer at KOTHMALE COMMUNITY RADIO.
Much poverty in Asia is concentrated in rural areas that have very limited access to information. New technologies can help alleviate poverty by providing access to development related data; a combination of traditional community radio and the Internet helps optimise the information services in rural areas.
The Internet is increasingly used for broadcasting radio programmes. The Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project (KCRIP) in Sri Lanka, which aims at assessing the potential benefits of new communication technologies to remote areas, is implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and the Media, the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, and the University of Colombo.
Kothmale is located in the central part of Sri Lanka. It takes a three hour bus ride from Colombo to reach the location. Kothmale Community Radio serves an area of 25 kilometres radius, which includes a number of rural towns such as Gampola, Nawalapitiya and Thispane, with an estimated population of more than 350,000. The project uses community radio as an interface between the Internet and rural communities. While UNESCO provided computer equipment and training, the Sri Lankan government, through its Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, provided the Internet connectivity to the community radio station through a dedicated 64 kilobyte line.
Three computer access points were established at different community centres. Due to a lack of landlines a microwave radio line has been established between Nawalapitiya and the Kothmale station and a Remote Access Server has been set up to provide a dial up connection to the Gampola centre and other future access points.
The telecommunication costs for dedicated Internet access at the community radio station and the other two access point are absorbed by the government for a two year period within which community radio will have to develop an income generating strategy to sustain the facility. This would mean that the community radio station would have to generate additional income of US$1,000 per month.
The project has incorporated computer classes and Web design with the assistance of Institute of Computer Technology (ICT), a volunteer worker from Australian Volunteers International (AVI) and radio staff at Kothmale FM. A Web design team has built the Kothmale Community Radio Web site in three languages; it will also include a live stream of the radio broadcasts.
There are three basic features of this project which combine new information technologies with the conventional radio medium:
Radio programme to Radio Browse the Internet: Broadcasts a daily one-hour radio programme, in which community broadcasters interpret information from selective Internet Web sites. Listeners direct queries to the radio station to find specific information, which is returned in local language for those who do not understand English.
Community radio functions as a mini Internet Service Provider: The community radio station has provided two free of charge internet access points at Gampola and Nawalapitiya community libraries. Access points are also used as a direct link to the radio station to produce and air live programmes.
Community database development: Kothmale develops its own computer database deriving information from the Internet that is often requested.
Kothmale Community Radio began broadcasting in February 1989. At the time Mahaweli Authority (a governmental development body operating in the central region) had relocated more than 2,900 families for Sri Lankas' second largest damming project. Mahaweli Authority set up the station with the objective of giving information to people who had been relocated. Many people in the region lost their crops and farm land. The station was also used to provide information about self-employment and health.
By February 1991 the station was on-the-air only three days per week with three hours of transmission per day. In 1999 the station moved to its larger, current location in Mawathura and broadcast time extended to 8 hours per day. The morning broadcast was commercialised so the station would collect approximately 75 percent of its operational costs from commercial revenue. Financial management remained with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.
By 1998 UNESCO provided US$50,000 to start the implementation of the Internet component. Thus the Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project (KCRIP) was born. KCRIP has aspired to provide extensive Internet access to remote and rural regions of Sri Lankausing only a few computers and a regional radio broadcast.
The station is located at the top of a mountain in the central region of Sri Lanka. The area is mostly rural with small farms, rice paddies and tea plantations scattered between dense rich green forestand small friendly villages.
Students of the access centres are designing their own Web sites, using the Internet for research and school projects, and obtaining information regarding educational grants and institutions.
Other members of the community have been able to directly access information regarding health, human rights, agriculture and other issues affecting their daily lives. Australian volunteer Tanya Notley, provides some examples:
One man came here recently extremely upset and confused as a local doctor had diagnosed his son with Hirchsprung disease. He was able to get information and advice from experts in other countries. A local school teacher was able to interact with teachers around the world about short-wave radio teaching and apply this knowledge to a very remote school, which operates without electricity. A local farmer who hoped to expand his market by raising geese was delighted with the housing diagrams and feeding information he was able to gather from the Internet.
A campaign to increase blood donations, an exhibition for people interested in self-employment, a public health campaign aimed at preventing a cow disease epidemic, a fund raiser for local hospitals, and a campaign to donate books for the local library... are some of the ventures supported through Kothmale radio.
Information on human rights has benefited from the convenient access to information on the Internet. Madhushini Nilmabandara and Nilma Samrakool do a weekly programme on human rights; the University of Colombo's Human Rights Centre funds their programme: "People were not aware of their human rights. So we give them information how to take action to protect it. Now we have set up human rights clubs in schools and do programmes with them (on radio)", she said. The local school students come to the station to produce programmes. They perform dramas about children's rights and women's rights and discuss issues related to war in Sri Lanka.
The project works in two ways. It allows for direct Internet access, mostly used by young people, and indirect access where listeners of Kothmale FM Radio are able to write in questions or provide topics for the radio station to broadcast. Trained volunteers research and gather information from the Internet and CD ROM's, and translate the information into Sinhala and Tamil. All but three of the weekly broadcasts are in the Sinhala language; the area has an ethnic breakdown of around 70 percent Sinhala. There are also large Tamil and Muslim communities. In January 1999, the station included Tamil broadcasts in its weekly programmes.
The questions are responded to within various radio programmes including: human rights, women's programmes, children's programmes, health programmes and international news programmes. Gradually all the data will be available for other community radio stations and citizens via the Web site. Furthermore, the station intends to broadcast online so to be utilised by other community radio stations throughout Sri Lanka.
A Friday evening programme is particularly popular. A local lawyer, hosts it and volunteers do the research during the week. His topics have included international cultural belief systems and practices, world leaders and social movements, law and change, scientific masters throughout history.
The staff and volunteers frequently visit the communities to do field recordings and live broadcasts. This direct communication is important, as many people are geographically remote. The station is able to bridge the communication gap by interacting with the community through live and recorded broadcasts. Music is a very important aspect of Sri Lankan culture; each day traditional songs are aired. Buddhist prayer is also broadcast every evening and on full moon Poya days.
Letters to the station average 50 per day (more on weekends). These letters include poetry, drama, history, songs and local event information. Members of the Kothmale FM listeners club deliver news summaries each day.
The initial Kothmale radio project, which started in 1989, seems to be the one still addressing the problems of the rural population. The Internet component that was added by 1998 is benefiting mainly those that either own a telephone line and can call in, or those that speak English and can browse the Web by themselves.
The domination of the Web by the English-language is a barrier to access, though at KCRIP they have enlisted bilingual speakers from the community to help programme producers. Doctors, lawyers and teachers get involved in the programme; they extract information from the Internet and interpret it for the listeners.
This chapter was largely drafted on information provided through e-mail by Tanya Notley, Australian volunteer working on the Kothmale project.
"Villages Get Wired on Air", by Kalinga Seneviratne (Inter Press Service).
"Radio Brings a Revolution in Communication", by Anthony David, in UNESCO Sources July August 1999.
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