Preserve Guatemalan Culture With Community Radio

Hi Everyone!

We hope this latest update from Nawal Estéreo finds you well and hopefully starting to experience a bit of a thaw from what sounds like a snow-filled winter for many of you. 

In the past 3 months Nawal Estéreo has been keeping relatively busy with remote broadcasts (also known as transmissions) in our surrounding communities.  We have been able to provide coverage of local events such as town festivals for patron saints, celebrations for anniversaries of local youth groups and many other activities that have taken place recently in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. 

Since our last update the radio has begun collaborating with Uk’uxb’e, a Mayan cultural organization located in the department of Chimaltenango that promotes the strengthening of indigenous culture among all Mayan communities.  The collaboration has resulted in several training workshops for the members of Uk’uxb’e and the personnel of the radio as well as a radio forum for the listeners of Nawal Estéreo.  The programming has centered on the Mayan history of the highland communities and previous traditions and customs that might be in danger of being forgotten by future generations if they are not recognized and celebrated properly.  Being able to share the history of indigenous ancestors is very important to those working with the radio and the experience has proved to be very beneficial and well received by our listeners.

The radio has also started providing family planning workshops for several highland communities in the past several months.  The workshops take place on the weekends when families are most likely to be available and provide the groups of mostly indigenous women with valuable information regarding this topic.  In much of rural Guatemala it’s not uncommon for women to have up to 10 children beginning at an early age and often continuing well into their forties.  The amount of childbirth can have quite a physical toll on mothers.  The family planning program, with funding from USAID and the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, provides indigenous families with the necessary information to be able to decide how many children they would like to have and better plan for when they would like to have them. 

Nahualá also recently celebrated the beginning of the Catholic observance of Lent.  As much of the population in Nahualá is Catholic this is a very important period of the year for both the town of Nahualá and Nawal Estéreo.  In the coming months leading up to Easter the radio will be covering all of the local events associated with Lent and eventually leading up to Semana Santa, culminating in the observance of Easter.  There will be many processions and parades throughout this time, with relatives of Nahaulenos coming from all over to celebrate with their extended families.  We look forward to being able to provide radio coverage of these activities for our listeners both in Guatemala and other Guatemalans that may be working in the states and listening via streaming radio on our website, http://www.nawalestereo.com. 

From all of us at Nawal Estéreo, thank you again for your continued support of our radio station.  We are eternally grateful for all of your help to assist us in providing our community with an essential cultural source of information and method of communication. 

Sincerely,

Pete McNamee

Pedro Sohom Cotiy

And the Personnel of Nawal Estereo 93.1 FM

Links:

• Nawal Estéreo's Website