By Tara Thean

TAIPING: Seventeen kindergarten teachers from Kedah, Pangkor, Perak, Segamat and Malacca learned how to set up, use and edit their own community radio during a two-day workshop conducted by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in June.

The teachers were first divided into four groups and introduced to basic recording equipment such as microphones, mini recorders and mixers, which they used to learn interview techniques and the proper way to record their voices. They were then taught to edit their recordings using “Audacity”, a free and open software easily downloadable from the internet.

The workshop also included discussions on the many problems faced by the participants, covering their education, family and living situations, and cultural issues.

CIJ community training officer Thanam Subramaniam was extremely pleased with the participants’ progress during the community radio workshop.

“They enjoyed the training,” she remarked. “This was a very talented, advanced and supportive group and the level of enthusiasm was very encouraging,” she said, adding that the women asked a lot of questions and generously shared their ideas and experiences with others.

Thanam felt that the community radio skills learned by the participants will help to generate human and women’s rights awareness among their communities, which they can practice in their daily lives. She hoped that they would channel their new skills to the public through education, perhaps using community radio to record dramas on pressing issues such as sexual harassment and child abuse, which will then be played to students to create awareness and ensure they know how to protect themselves.

“The best thing about this training is that it creates a space for people to share their issues and views with others in an easy way,” Thanam said. “It also improves their communication and leadership skills and helps them to produce their own programmes independently.”

The workshop took place on the 14 and 15 June 2008 at the Persatuan Guru Tadika training center here and was co-facilitated by Thanam and CIJ executive director Gayathry Venkiteswaran. Also on hand to help out with the training were CIJ interns from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, Alex Patterson and Laura Tribe.

Similar workshops by CIJ have been conducted for the indigenous people in Carey Island, Burmese women in Bukit Bintang, youth in Jinjang, indigenous people in Gombak, volunteers for the Women’s Aid Organization, youth in the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor, and women from Batang Berjuntai.

Thanam said CIJ hoped to organize future community radio training sessions for this group to help its members to further develop their skills. They will also be given the opportunity to act as co-facilitators during future workshops.

A youth camp has also been planned for December to encourage more youths to learn community radio skills and use these skills for their own empowerment.

(Tara Thean is a CIJ volunteer)