<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0VOICE OF AMERICA BEGINS ROHINGYA LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING – A Commentary by VOA Director Amanda Bennett:\u00a0 \u201cVoice of America has launched its first radio program in Rohingya, the language of more than 800,000 refugees who fled Myanmar and are living in camps across the border in Bangladesh.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many international organizations are working to provide the refugees with necessities such as food, clean water, and shelter, but there is another critical need facing these refugees – the need for information.\u00a0 When I visited the largest camp in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh, last year, many who had just recently been driven from their homes wanted to know what was going on back in Myanmar.\u00a0 They wanted to know what the international community was thinking about them, or if they had been forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The life for these and other refugees and displaced persons is extremely difficult.\u00a0 They are basically stateless, homeless, with little opportunity for education or jobs, and few hopes for the future.\u00a0 They are very isolated and want to know what, if anything, is being done to try to resolve their crises.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0VOA\u2019s new Rohingya program is called \u201cLifeline.\u201d\u00a0 It airs for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, on shortwave and medium-wave frequencies.\u00a0 The program focuses on the lives and needs of the refugees, providing them with valuable information about the situation in the camps.\u00a0 Security issues, food rations, education, and health.\u00a0 In addition, a daily segment of the program offers the refugees the opportunity to share their stories and try to connect with relatives in other camps.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is also a need to address rumors in the camps.\u00a0 Refugees are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking and recruitment by extremists groups.\u00a0 In Bangladesh, they also must deal with natural disasters such as flooding and landslides, especially during the rainy season.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We;ve already had feedback expressing great appreciation for programming in the Rohingya language, and for giving refugees a window to the outside world.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why did VOA choose to use SW and MW?\u00a0 While there is Internet access in the refugee camp, and limited power supply for televisions or computers, the camp-based refugees, however, share a practice that has been common throughout VOA\u2019s history:\u00a0 They gather around shared radios and listen as a group, much as SW listeners did in years past.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rohingya is now one of 22 VOA language services that still broadcast radio programming bia SW and MW frequencies.\u00a0 Most of these are targeting audiences in Africa and South or East Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0VOA\u2019s distribution strategy has evolved over the years to meet changes on the ground in its markets.\u00a0 Where we can get placement on local television, radio, or online affiliates, we do.\u00a0 Where we can build our own FM towers, we do.\u00a0 And in areas where VOA content is aggressively blocked, such as China and Iran, we employ circumvention technology.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A growing proportion of OA\u2019s audience is now accessing content via mobile devices and social media platforms.\u00a0 In fact, while still the smallest share overall, the digital audience is the fastest growing segment of VOA\u2019s audience over the past five years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The weekly radio audience has also grown during that time frame, increasing 23 million to a total of 107.9 million.\u00a0 During that same period, VOA\u2019s television audience has doubled to more than 174 million, accounting for the largest share of audience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0VOA will continue to adapt to changing market environments in an effort to provide truthful, fact-based news and information to those needing it most:\u00a0 those with little or no access to a free press and those who are inundated with misinformation and disinformation from state-run media or extremists groups.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The growing number of refugees and displaced persons are among those with the greatest need.\u00a0 With numbers now totaling a combined 70 million globally – more than the population of France – and with many children knowing no other life than that in a refugee camp, their needs will continue to grow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One other way VOA is helping refugees is through its popular Learning English program – another one of our historic practices.\u00a0 Prior to launching the Rohingya language broadcasts, a VOA Learning English team traveled to the Rohingya refugee camps at the invitation of the\u00a0 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.\u00a0 The VOA instructors offered six days of intensive training on teaching techniques and methods for 100 selected English teachers.\u00a0 The teachers, in turn, will use the acquired knowledge and the VOA curriculum to train another 5,000 of their colleagues in the camps.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE:\u00a0 I had found this piece in my archives and with the situation in Ukraine unfolding on the world stage, it reminded me that the media has always been part of just about every humanitarian crisis since radio was invented.\u00a0 I could not find the right context to use Director Bennett\u2019s comments until now.\u00a0 Ukraine needs all of our support in their time of need.\u00a0 KR\u00a0 George Harrison’s BANGLADESH seemed appropriate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0VOICE OF AMERICA BEGINS ROHINGYA LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING – A Commentary by VOA Director Amanda Bennett:\u00a0 \u201cVoice of America has launched its first radio program in Rohingya, the language of more than 800,000 refugees who fled Myanmar and are living in camps across the border in Bangladesh. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many international organizations are working to provide the 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