Lao Red Cross, with support from IFRC, visited Nepal and met with Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), Association of Community Radios Nepal (APORAB) and BBC Media Action on 13-17 February 2017 in Kathmandu, Nepal to do the radio peer-to-peer exchange with NRCS for the Lao Red Cross’ Communications and Fundraising Department (CFD).

Outcomes
On day 1 they had a meeting about the overview of NRCS’ CFD and community engagement and accountibility (CEA) initiatives – NRCS presented about Hotline 1130, the newspapers’ Q&A columns, Facebook communication, NRCS’ radio programme and street dramas by NRCS.

Volunteers from 14 of the worst quake-affected districts in Nepal were trained how to to carry out interviews with community members. Photo Credit: Lao Red Cross Society

On day 2 they had a field travel to Kavre to have a meeting with Kavre chapter to gain understanding of the community engagement aspects of Kavre chapter which included Kavre chapter shared CEA in earthquake operations, Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMC) were formed to gather feedbacks and they are shared with RC monthly, local radio stations were selected based on coverage, radio volunteers for RC were identified, and RC radio volunteers are informed about the activities and are free to choose contents to cover. Then they had a field visit to the community where Kavre chapter was carrying out second installation of cash for livelihoods recovery, to observe the radio volunteers carrying out interviews with community members.

On day 3 they had a meeting with BBC Media Action’s earthquake recovery production team and Country Director – They shared the production process and success stories of their community radio programme following the earthquake and discussed their partnership and collaboration/coordination with the humanitarian partners. Then there was a meeting with ACORAB, which is an umbrella of 300 community radios in Nepal, to discuss ACORAB’s community engagement initiatives (broadcasted in over 70 languages, engaging children as reporters, radio dramas, lifeline programme, using community voice as evidence-based advocacy, etc.). They also had discussions with LRC about the progress of their radio programme, social media progress, radio training, social media training, production of 10-12 radio spots, completion of on-the-job training for two CFD’s radio staff, peer-to-peer with NRCS, International Women’s Day, May 8’s concept note and 2017 activities.

Meeting amoung Lao Red Cross, Nepal Red Cross Society and BBC Media Action.

Follow-Up Actions
For Lao Red Cross, the concept note and budget for the radio training and social media training will be shared. And following the P2P with NRCS, the LRC has come up with the next concrete steps which are to propose a professional radio speaker from LNR while the two CFD staff of the radio will continue to received trainings from LNR, to reach out to other departments, provinces and external agencies to gather voices from the community, to share monthly updates with the IFRC’s communications staff to keep track of the progress and share important feedback, to set up a studio at the headquater for which CFD will follow up and include in 2017 plan, to develop an annual plan and share it with IFRC, and following the radio training at HQ level, to organize a training for 4-5 priority provinces (2017 plan).

For IFRC, the IFRC’s communications staff will support LRC in the upcoming radio training, and regarding social media training, they will identify a communications team member to support LRC in the training.

See the related story: Giving quake-affected communities a voice through radio