Despite a high-profile assassination and an attack on a human-rights activist in Burundi, the director of TWR’s national partner chooses to focus on signs of hope in the African nation.
TWR Burundi Director Rachel Muhorakeye was on her way to church Aug. 2, 2015, when she was turned back and had to attend another church.
Burundi refugees draw water supplies at a camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Photo by Abel Kavanagh/U.N./CC license 2.0)
Plans to provide a much better signal in Mzuzu are underway. This will involve shifting of transmitting equipment from Chikangawa Forest to Mkhorongo in Mzuzu.
NKhorongo is a transmitting site of the Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian). This should provide a much clearer signal in Mzuzu than from Chikangawa (a city located about 50 km south.) TWR has been there since June 2006 but the signal reaching Mzuzu was being affected by hills.
This phase of transfer will cost about 1.3 million Kwacha (US$2,700) and is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the FM signal throughout Malawi in the next six to twelve months.
TWR Burundi recently became the centre of a group project of at least eight organizations. Since May, the radio studios of our national partner office have been transformed into a television soundstage for the production of a series to reach youth on both sides of the violence and promote peace, reconciliation and respect for human rights.
In April violent protests broke out in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. Children have been unable to attend school for over a month while roadblocks and demonstrations appear frequently.
Swaziland Transmitter Site Repairs
Peace was unexpectedly transformed into mayhem when a powerful storm damaged our transmitter site in Manzini Swaziland. Substantial damage was sustained to feed lines and a curtain antenna element when Manzini was hit by severe wind and hail on Sunday night, 19 April.
TWR’s area director for East Africa has fled his home in Burundi as unrest spreads in this African nation of about 10 million people.
Egide Bandyatuyaga reported by email that he and his wife and three children had time only to pack a few clothes before leaving their home in the capital of Bujumbura to seek safety.
I had hoped that today would be better than yesterday, but this morning we woke up with barricades less than 20 meters from my gate,” he wrote Monday, May 11, 2015.