Partnering for the Ticuna

A widespread radio partnership has taken a project forward to benefit the Ticuna, an isolated, nomadic people living along the Amazon in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.

There are churches among the Ticuna people, but because they are a nomadic group, and living in jungle, there are a lot of isolated communities. Radio is an ideal medium for reaching these people with the Gospel - for evangelism, teaching and building up the church."

In Brazil's 70-plus Ticuna villages, the people have access to both a writing system and education in their language, as provided by the country's National Foundation for Indians (FUNAI). The New Testament has also been translated into Ticuna.

That led Trans World Radio to move forward with getting the Gospel into an audible form for them. It's been a year now since the first Ticuna-language radio program went on the air, followed by a Portuguese block produced by TWR-Brazil. Daily radio transmissions have a large coverage area, reaching the majority of the Ticuna villages of Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

Part of the plan was to distribute radios to the Ticuna peoples, free of charge. The radios, designed by HCJB Global's technologies centre, are fixed-tuned and solar powered. American radio stations Carolina Christian Radio, WWIL, and Tacoa Falls Radio Network, WRAF raised funds for the radios.

Trans World Radio reports that the Ticunas are reaching their people through 15 minutes of programming every day, recorded by their own trained program producer. But the are praying for their own recording studio and have a vision to reach their people by way of their own local radio station.