What is the project about?
This emergency radio development is being carried out to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and marginalised groups in remote areas. It is an initiative aimed at ensuring the sustainability of a project supported by the UK Aid Digital Access Programme, whose activities will end in October 2021. This initiative seeks to find a solution to the unfulfilled need for digital communication facilities.
People in remote islands and mountainous areas are mostly poor and experience obstacles in accessing the internet, limited access to electricity, and limited ownership of smartphones. This makes it difficult for children to have access to distance learning, also adding to the burden on women, because women in the family are still considered to be the ones who have to meet the household needs. Women are also burdened with the responsibility of providing their families with food. In this already difficult situation, women are additionally at risk of experiencing domestic violence.
The development of this radio infrastructure and programming will respond to this situation, especially in preventing domestic violence, opening access to women’s economic development, and providing a variety of information on social protection for women and marginalised communities.