Beaming deeper into Africa

TWR - Trans World Radio - have been working on their Monte Carlo transmitter to increase the strength of their signal into Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and other parts of north Africa - with a potential of reaching 15 million new people.

Many of the people in reach of these signals have never had the Gospel in their own language before - and many cannot read. TWR currently broadcast in Arabic and four different Berber dialects.

Presently the TWR aerial system is omni directional. The increase in signal strength is being achieved by changing the aerial system to a directional beam.

The importance of this project was confirmed by a Moroccan man who had come to know Christ through a radio broadcast. For ten years, that man had no fellowship with other Christians, and it was only through radio that he had fellowship. Radio can go places missionaries often can't.

TWR has also delivered radio/CD players to Morocco and Algeria, along with a CD of TWR programming. If broadcast signals are weak, listeners can still hear the programs. In addition, several hundred pre-fixed radios are being readied for distribution throughout North Africa.

TWR know through anecdotal evidence that people are coming to know Jesus and that churches are being planted. They contact TWR in many different ways, and when they do, they are asking for more programs so that they can hear what God has for them.

Producers are focusing their radio program content towards women, youth, oral-speakers, and the general public.

The Living Secrets of HIV/AIDS

Trans World Radio is developing a new radio series about HIV/AIDS for the Dhuluo- and Luo-speaking peoples in Kenya, southern Sudan and neighbouring countries

The Living Secrets of HIV/AIDS,” or “Malingling Mag Ayaki,” will be aired twice weekly. 104 fifteen-minute segments will cover topics like dealing with HIV/AIDS on a daily basis, secrets of dealing with HIV in the family, safer ways of disclosing your HIV status, abstinence, integration of orphans into families, health care for AIDS patients at home, and encouraging people to adopt AIDS orphans.

Trans World Radio has been addressing HIV/AIDS since the early 1990s, but only in English and Swahili, which have a broader listening audience than local dialects. Sponsorship raised by TWR’s partner in The Netherlands made possible the development of the new show, in the Luo and Dhuluo languages.

Luo is spoken in Nyanza province, which is the Kenyan province most affected by HIV/AIDS. Kenya has 1.1 million AIDS orphans, and 6.1% of its adults are HIV positive, according to UNAIDS.

As a result of a rise in prostitution, 33% of 15 to 19-year-old girls near the city of Kisumu are HIV-positive, according to a recent study by the National AIDS STD Control Programme (NASCOP).

A regular listener from Zimbabwe explained why he appreciates the daily HIV/AIDS program that Trans World Radio airs in his area, called “Saving a Generation.”

“Undoubtedly HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Most people here in Africa (south of the Sahara) are affected in one way or the other. If one is not infected, then one is definitely affected. I lost my only brother and his wife to the disease a few years ago.”

• Trans World Radio Africa