The training on the role of correspondents to feed local news and collect testimonies aimed at empowering participants with knowledge and skills on how to gather different news items and testimonies, which are of concern to the audience. With this training, participants will now be able to properly source for news stories and testimonies for broadcast at the radio station. Training on the use of Internet to report on subject areas such agriculture, health and education equipped participants with enhanced knowledge and skills to effectively conduct research for the development of news stories by also capitalizing on the use of new media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube among others.

The training on entrepreneurship and income generation empowered participants to effectively be able to cover these issues during on-air programmes, whereas the training on financial planning and management enabled participants to discuss, explain and apply ethical principles, standards of practice and rules of conduct for the financial planning at the radio station.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr Fredrick Mariwa, Sauti FM Station Manager, stated that the trainings were key in deepening and improving knowledge and skills of Sauti FM staff members. He further thanked UNESCO for its continued support and help in building the capacities of community radio stations in Kenya.

Another participant, Mr Peter Kochiel, said, “This training has come at the right time for Sauti FM staff and we are glad that the most important issues such as financial planning, use of Internet to report on agriculture, health and women empowerment, entrepreneurship and income generation among others were prioritized.” “This training will be very instrumental in the running of day-to-day work as we have now been equipped with knowledge and skills to run our radio station,” he added.

Discussions, practical exercises and lectures were used as a mode of delivery for the aforementioned trainings to enhance and encourage participation, thus enabling participants to properly grasp issues raised during the training.

This workshop was carried out as part UNESCO’s continued efforts to strengthen and build capacities of community radios in Kenya under the ongoing SIDA funded project “Empowering Community radios with ICTs.”