ABU/ACORAB Consultation Meeting and Journalists Training
Under its long-term campaign for Saving Lives, the ABU organised a four day meeting and training on Emergency Communications: Working together to Build Resilient Communities from 20th – 23th July 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The composite event was conducted in partnership with Association of Community Radio Broadcasters Nepal (ACORAB) and The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The programme was designed for practical training of community radio journalists from across Nepal on disaster preparedness, disaster coverage and providing life-saving information during rescue, relief and reconstruction phases. Twenty one community radio journalists and three station managers, representing fifteen radio stations from fourteen districts participated in the activity, which was conducted by the UK based independent consultant Mr. Russell Isaac and Mr Nam Thanh Nguyen and Ms Natalia Ilieva from ABU.
During the consultation meeting on the first and second days, the participants learned more about the recovery operations at national and local levels and the work of Nepal National Meteorologial Office, Nepal National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), Nepal Red Cross, Nepal Association of the Blind and SEEDS Asia. They discussed and listed recommendations how community radio can help to build an effective network for preparing even the most remote communities for natural or human made disasters and safe lives and liveligoods.
The second part of the workshop was on the job training for producing programmes. The participants were divided into 5 teams who produced half an hour programmes to be aired in all radio stations present at the workshop.