Newly licensed Mashonaland Central based community radio station, Madziwa radio are now ready to go on air.This was revealed by Tatenda Makonza the Station coordinator for Madziwa FM during a training workshop conducted by Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Station (ZACRAS) in Madziwa recently.
By Richard Zimunya
The workshop mainly focused on teaching the community radio on how to draft and schedule radio programs.
“As Madziwa FM we are happy with the support we have been getting from ZACRAS, we have come a long way with them and they have taught us a lot in community radio .
“We are now ready to go on air, already we have engaged Madziwa council they have given us a space of land to build our station , but for now they have given us one of their buildings to use as our station basement.
“Everyone in the community is in full anticipation of the radio,” said Makonza.
Madziwa FM is one of the 14 licensed community radio station in Zimbabwe and as of yet it is only Avuxeni FM in Chiredzi on air.
Speaking at the workshop ZACRAS acting national coordinator Mlondolozi Ndlovu told this publication that the training was a capacity building exercise to ensure the station’s readiness to go on air.
“The training we had today ensured that we begin the capacity building exercise that will ensure that the station is ready to go on air.
“The training ensured that the station developed its programming schedules.
“We will be doing equipment handling, ethics and radio production trainings for all radio stations,” he said.
Over the years ZACRAS has been advocating for the licensing and sustainability of community radio stations in Zimbabwe.
Madziwa FM has 42 wards under its community.
One of the citizen journalist who works for Madziwa FM, Elizabeth Tafira expressed excitement with the developments , as she also highlighted the need to have more women in the community to be part of the project.
She said,”When we started it was more of a joke , now it is shaping up as anytime soon we will be going on air thanks to ZACRAS who have been helping us from time to time.
“Through them I have learnt a lot , as a citizen journalist on how I can gather news and also how to package it for radio.
“She however pleaded with ZACRAS to conduct programs in the community, encouraging more women to join in community radio project,” she said.
