Making Waves: LA VOZ DE LA COMMUNIDAD
Stories of Participatory Communication
for Social Change
TITLE: La Voz de la Comunidad
COUNTRY: Guatemala
FOCUS: Community organisation
PLACE: San José Buenavista, Guatemala City
BENEFICIARIES: 25,000 people in San José Buenavista, Santa Luisa el Milagro and La Trinidad.
PARTNERS: Asociación Salud por el Pueblo, Guatemala(ASEP), Federación Guatemalteca de Escuelas Radiofónicas (FGER), ALER, AMARC,Red Cross
FUNDING: ASEP, FGER, Proyecto de Desarrollo Santiago, Guatemala (PRODESA), Spanish Cooperation, World Association of Christian Communities (WACC)
MEDIA: Radio
San José Buena Vista hangs from a ravine at a mere one thousand metres west of the main square of Guatemala City. This short distance actually divides two worlds: on the main square sit the Cathedral and the Presidential palace which recently became the Palace of Culture while over the ravine are suspended, almost in the air, some of the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital city. Between the two places sits "El Gallito" (The Cocky), a dangerous barrio where not even the police dare to enter. Drug dealers and juvenile gangs control it.
From the top of the ravine only a cascade of metal rooftops can be seen. Hundreds of small houses have been built one on top of the other, like a fragile card castle. Cars can only get as far as the crest of the ravine; the rest of the route must be done on foot following a steep path that joins the La Barranca River, at the very bottom. Men and women climb laboriously carrying boxes and belongings.
A woman knocks on the wall of a two-story house. "What do you want?" Three metres above, the head of Don Juan Guzmán, the owner of "La Canasta" (The Basket) shop appears through a small window. "I need a soap bar and a set of batteries for the radio", answers the woman as she deposits inside the basket a 20 Quetzales note. The basket rises in the air attached to a string and comesdown at once with the order.
Not far from there is La Voz de la Comunidad The clear green of its walls makes the construction look like an emerald among the ensemble of houses in cement. Reynaldo Gálvez, the director, introduces two young announcers and Manuel "Meme" Alvarez Castro, one of the founding members. Meme is the living memory of the station, he remembers every difficult time that the people from the ravine had to live through, and how La Voz de la Comunidad provided support and guidance.
"Just a week ago five children drowned in the stream, their bodies only appeared 14 kilometres down the river. The station participated in the search through the night, orienting and mobilising the community, but it was too late already", says Meme. When the Mitch storm hit us we saved many lives because we advised people to get out of their homes and run to the shelters. Several houses crumbled one over the next, and ended over the river, adds Reynaldo.
La Voz de la Comunidad (The Voice of the Community) started on August 19, 1990, with a simple system of six cone speakers, a small amplifier and a couple of turntables. Some started calling it "The Voice of the Ravine" because of its location on the slopes of the La Barranca River, which runs near the centre of the capital city of Guatemala. ASEP, a local NGO, provided technical support, WACC and PRODESA, a Catholic institution in Guatemala, funded the equipment.
Over the next nine years the project developed in the heart of San José Buena Vista, until November 1999, when La Voz de la Comunidad became an FM radio station, thus extending its coverage over two other neighbourhoods in the ravine: Santa Luisa el Milagro and La Trinidad.
La Voz de la Comunidad airs its programming using the 108 FM frequency. According to the broadcasting legislation of Guatemala, the station is illegal or pirate. In order to avoid sanctions it has kept alow profile during the past months. Ironically it is the only FM station that has decided on its own to limit its coverage by placing the antenna at the lowest point of its topography, instead of searching for the highest place available. Although it has a 20-watt transmitter, only 8 watts of power are in use.
The programming of La Voz de la Comunidad starts everyday at 5:30 a.m. and ends at 10:00 p.m. Most of the programme grid is filled with music, except for the children's segment ("Patojitos") and a youth programme "Entre cuates" ("Among Buddies").
Before the FM transmissions started, the programme grid was richer and included segments such as News From the Barrio Editorial The Family is the Best Barrier Against Drugs Learning Among Children and Chatting With You (interviews). All these were locally produced. Other programmes distributed by the International Red Cross on human rights, and by ALER and AMARC were also aired.
At the current stage, only a few months after the FM transmissions started, the station is fully engaged in promoting activities related to the internal organisation and training of staff. "We are in the process of accumulating strength", says Reynaldo Gálvez, who rejects the title of director. "I'm only accompanying the set of activities that the community has determined", he adds. In the near future new programmes with educational and cultural content will be produced in a more professional manner.
The new profile of La Voz de la Comunidad emphasises the participatory aspects: "A radio station that promotes community organisation as an alternative for the development of the community. A station where the microphones are always open for everyone, particularly for the poorest. A station that promotes the training of new community communicators".
Through its new programming La Voz de la Comunidad will provide the means to fulfill the need of education and democracy: "A radio station that strengthens community consciousness and national identity"; "A station that conveys to people new knowledge that will help to improve the living conditions of the poor"; "An instrument to guarantee the human right of freedom of speech"; "A radio station that guides the community and promotes a larger political participation in the civil society. These are quotes from the station Profile, Plan 2000."
Extreme poverty and wealth coexist in the Capital of Guatemala, only a few blocks away from each other. The topography of the city contributes to it: those that are better off live on the higher flat areas of the city while the poorest squash in settlements that grow on the ravines and river beds, with no electricity, water or telephone services.
No less than five thousand families live in San José Buena Vista, Santa Luisa el Milagro and La Trinidad, over the slopes of a ravine under the El Incienso Bridge, not far from the historical centre of the Capital. In the higher part of the ravine sits "El Gallito", a neighbourhood of narrow streets, better known for its violence and drug trafficking, than for the honest people that still live there. Hardworking construction builders, domestic servants and mechanics that can't afford anything better, live in improvised homes on the crumbly plots of San José Buena Vista, near the General Cemetery.
This is where the Health for the People Association (ASEP) has been working since 1997. This local NGO is helping to improve the life conditions of the population, through programmes of health, education, community organisation and communication.
In 1989 ASEP conducted a baseline survey to diagnose the social and economic situation in the community. One of the outputs was the need to undertake communication activities in the area. A previous experience had shown the effectiveness of using loudspeakers that were installed at the Social Centre of the community; which lead to establishing La Voz de la Comunidad as a permanent communication tool. Six cone speakers were installed on poles in strategic places.
La Voz de la Comunidad has transformed community life in the three settlements in the ravine. Its importance may not be easily noticed at first sight, as the regular programme grid consists mainly of music. However this communication tool has served the communitywell and contributed over the years to create a sense of unity among the settlers.
For instance, its role has been fundamental during the process of introducing pipe water in a few places within the settlements of the ravine. The whole community was mobilised through the speakers of La Voz de la Comunidad to participate in the project. Groups of volunteer workers were coordinated from the station, lists of people were established, and the name of each one was called through the loudspeakers to join the teams to work on the various tasks.
There have been moments of crisis for the community, where the station has taken action to coordinate and organise people in spite of its meagre resources. When Hurricane Mitch hit several countries of Central America in October 1998, the heavy rains also affected Guatemala City, in particular the ravine areas, causing landslides and collapsing houses which in turn carried other houses to the river bed in their descent. The mobilisation of people through La Voz de la Comunidad prevented higher human losses. Other nearby settlements that do not have a means of local communication registered more victims, as people were unable to promptly respond to the emergency.
From its inception La Voz de la Comunidad has adopted a participatory approach for the development of its activities. The decisions on the programming are collectively made by a local group of 17 young people that make up the "communication group" of the barrio, which holds meetings every Thursday.
A handful of social development organisations such as ASEP and the FGER accompany this process without directly intervening in the decisions that are made. FGER has included the station among its network of community radio stations, which groups around 12 stations in Guatemala, and regularly offers training.
La Voz de la Comunidad is in fact one of the stations that is part of FGER's Readjustment Project, which will extend over five years. The plan will be gradually implemented. It includes the strengthening ofsmall community stations in five main areas: training, management, research, programming and technological update.
La Voz de la Comunidad is one of the 6 or more community radio stations that are considered illegal by the government. The current concentration of radio and television frequencies are in the hands of very few; the collusion between authorities and private businessmen to hoard the remaining frequencies contributed, in 1999, to the establishment of new legislation that gives the frequency to highest bidder. Community radio stations are thus divested of their frequencies since they can't possibly afford to pay sums in the range of US$20,000 to US$50,000.
No wonder that La Voz de la Comunidad operates virtually in secrecy. It constitutes a unique example of a station that although physically operating from a high slope has nevertheless opted to raise its antenna deep at the very bottom of the ravine. This, in order to prevent a potential government intervention with the argument that the station is interfering with the signal of commercial radio stations. La Voz de la Comunidad has thus voluntarily restricted its coverage to the five thousand families that live in the three settlements of the ravine. Only the award of its own license would improve the situation.
The fragility of its legal existence has been one of the main factors impeding a higher level of community involvement, and is evidenced by the limits of working with a staff of volunteers. At some stages, only three people held it together. This added to the technical problems, which on various occasions forced it to suspend transmissions for two or three weeks in a row. The fragility of the equipment is at greater risk because of the unreliable and deficient electricity supply.
Programming was also affected by the conversion to an FM station in late 1999. Locally produced programmes on social and cultural issues were removed, although the new design envisages new segments with improved technical quality.
The information for this chapter was obtained during a field visit to La Voz de la Comunidad in August 2000; and based on conversations with Manuel Alvarez Castro(founder) and Reynaldo Gálvez (director).
La Voz de la Comunidad documents: Profile, Plan 20 y Pilot Programming.
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