June 17, 2022 / Education, Culture and Communication / Community Networks
Training conducted by the School of Community Networks and Saude e Alegria enabled the creation of vignettes for the recently installed Sapukaia radio station of the Solimões village
Three students from the Solimões village, located in the Tapajós Arapiuns Extractive Reserve, participated on the last 9th, in a workshop to transmit information during local programming with community news, music and bulletins. The region that is part of the Connecting the Disconnected project, which in Brazil is carried out by Saúde e Alegria and encompasses five countries coordinated by the Association for Progressive Communications, benefited from the radio station installed in April of this year.
With a power of 15 watts, the installation of the radio was the realization of an old desire of the 55 families of the Kumaruara ethnic group, who now tune in to 88.0 FM, according to Jardson Assunção, President of the Association of the Solimões village: “It is a great pleasure to receive this community radio in our village. We started with a newspaper in 2004 with Saúde e Alegria, which has always given us support in communication”.
In the workshop, Walter Kumaruara, PSA’s popular communicator, shared techniques for the production of vignettes, news, and audio editing. The meeting was held by the team from the School of Community Networks of the Amazon.
“The students did the first interview for the community radio with the nurse Maria Inês from Fiocruz, present with the communication team, making a documentary about the actions carried out in the Amazon territories by the PSA. The nurse talked about health care, vaccination, and other health materials that will be linked in the program by the radio” – explained Sabrina Costa, from the Escola de Redes coordination.
“We came together today to build the vignettes for our community radio. This is very important for us who are starting this work that is very important for us and our village. Not only for us students, but also for our people who stay connected to the news and to everything that happens in our village” – said Varlei Sousa, a student at the School.
In April, when the sound table, two microphones, cables, headphones, microphone support, box and return, and FM 15 watts transmitter with antenna were installed, the technician Juscelino Filho conducted a workshop on Community Management and Community Radio. In the training they reflected on communication, the context of community radios in Brazil, media monopoly, social networks and communication, freedom of expression and fake news, citizenship, radio programming and script, and criteria for choosing the group responsible for the radio.
Inaugural class of the School of Community Networks
The project “Connecting the Disconnected” promoted by the APC and Rhizomatica organizations and executed in Brazil by the Health and Joy Project, has as its pillar of formation and training the School of Community Networks of the Amazon, which seeks to connect disconnected communities through the development of models, capacities, and forms of sustainability for populations with a focus on technical assistance, capacity building, advice for advocacy, and community mobilization.
The school has 21 students in three states of the Legal Amazon (Acre, Amazonas, and Pará). The inaugural class will take place next Saturday (June 18th), when the school officially starts its academic calendar.
The event will be online and will be attended by PSA coordinator Caetano Scannavino, Father Edilberto Sena from the Amazon News Network, and Joelma Viana – teacher and social communicator from the Amazon News Network.
The selected communities that have members who will participate in the training are: in Pará, the Aldeia Solimões and Guardiöes do Bem Viver in PAE Lago Grande – both in the municipality of Santarém – and the Rede Águas do Cuidar/ Casa Preta in the Ilha de Caratateua, greater Belém. In the state of Amazonas, the Marajaí Village, municipality of Alvarães – Middle Solimões; the Formigueiro Group of Vila de Lindóia in Itacoatiara; and the Wayuri Network in São Gabriel da Cachoeira. In Acre, the Puyanawa Village in Mâncio Lima.
The board of experts is formed by Beatriz Tibiriçá (General Coordinator, Coletivo Digital), Georgia Nicolau (Director of Projects and Partnerships Pro Common), Jader Gama (Researcher – UFPA), Doriedson Almeida (Professor – UFOPA), Karina Yamamoto (Researcher – USP and Jeduca), Guilherme Gitahy de Figueiredo (Professor UEA – Tefé – AM) and Carlos Afonso (Executive Director – NUPEF Institute).
