Archive d’étiquettes pour : Radio

Successful Training Session Conducted by Médias Ebène's Radio Technicians in Lomé

The Francophone African Christian Media Forum (FOMECAF) has just successfully concluded a series of training sessions led by two renowned experts, Christian Gaspoz and Denis Steffen, who were sent by the Association Médias Ebène. These training sessions, which took place from May 7 to 9, 2024, at the HEST campus in Lomé, brought together sixty-nine (69) Christian media professionals from about ten Christian, state-run, and even commercial radio stations in Togo.

Christian Gaspoz, a seasoned radio engineer, led a workshop on transmitter maintenance methodology, sparking joy, a sense of accomplishment, and relief among the participants. Despite initial challenges related to varying levels of knowledge, Gaspoz captivated the audience with a dynamic teaching approach. Participants gained an in-depth understanding of technical terminology and were introduced to identifying the various functional modules of FM transmitters. In addition, Gaspoz expressed his gratitude for having identified participants with prior experience, thereby paving the way for future collaboration on continuing education via distance learning.

For his part, Denis Steffen shared his expertise during a workshop focused on the use of digital tools in Christian broadcasting. Over the course of three days, participants were immersed in the fundamentals of Christian communication, incorporating the latest technological advancements available in sub-Saharan Africa. Topics ranging from creating program schedules to the use of artificial intelligence were covered, offering participants a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape.

The training concluded with a book signing for Denis Steffen’s book, *Christian Radio: A Handbook for Building in the Digital Sphere*, as well as the presentation of certificates to the participants. A WhatsApp group was also created to facilitate the sharing of resources and maintain the network of contacts established during the event.

“I remain convinced that the future will reveal the changes brought about by these three days,” said Denis Steffen, reflecting the optimism shared by all participants regarding the lasting impact of this training.

FOMECAF thus continues to play a crucial role in capacity building and professional development for Christian media professionals in Africa.

TVT Togolese News Program

About the Médias Ebène Association

In a spirit of solidarity and a shared vision for the future of Christian media in French-speaking Africa, two pioneering organizations, “Radio Réveil France” and “Radios Ébène Développement,” have merged to form a new entity: “Médias Ébène.” This strategic union, formalized in March 2024, marks a decisive turning point in development assistance and training for media in French-speaking Africa.

On March 16, 2024, the French association “Radio Réveil,” known for its radio content creation, broadcasting, and training programs, adopted new bylaws and a new name. A week later, on March 23, “Radios Ébène Développement,” which specializes in supplying technical equipment and providing support to radio stations, voted to dissolve itself and transfer its assets and projects to “Médias Ébène.”

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Togo: “Religious media have an important role to play in the education of young people,” according to a representative of the Ministry of Communication

"We expect a great deal from faith-based media in the education of young people," said Franck Missité, Chief of Staff to Togo's Minister of Communication and Media. He was speaking on Monday, November 22, at the inauguration of the fourth edition of the Lomé meetings, organized by FOMECAF (Forum of Francophone African Christian Media).

Faith-based media reaching out more to all citizens

"Faith-based media should reach out more to all citizens with themes that are not 100 percent religious," added the trained journalist. "It's important to vary the content. 75 percent prayer and preaching is enough. 25 percent culture and ethical and moral education would be good!"

This edition of the Lomé meetings will address the theme "Media & Generational Divide," with Abdoulaye Sangho, Director of Transworld Radio West and Central Africa (TWR), as the main speaker. Around fifty representatives from Christian media in Francophone Africa, including Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Rwanda, and others, traveled for the training week. Additionally, about a hundred people are registered to follow it online.

"Media, make room for young people!"

"64 percent of the West African population is under 24 years old," stated Emmanuel Ziehli, president of Radio Réveil France, "and our media do not speak the language of young people. Furthermore, we do not cover topics that interest them. Let's be models of generational transition," he emphasized. Consequently, he asked radio managers to make room for younger people in their programming and among their journalists and presenters.

Emmanuel Ziehli also highlighted the dynamism of CICERI, the International Christian Center for Study, Research, and Information in Lomé, which, thanks to a team of young people aged 18 to 30, transparently organizes the Lomé seminars each year.

In addition to Abdoulaye Sangho, the main speaker, Juliette Kpessou, presenter at Radio Hosanna in Benin; Olivia Adiko, editor-in-chief of Radio La Voix de l'Espérance in Abidjan; Etienne Kiemdé, director of Radio Evangile et Développement in Burkina Faso; Illia Djadi, head of African relations for the NGO Open Doors; and Alphonse Teyabé, a media consultant in Cameroon, will also speak.

Meetings launched by Radio Réveil

The “Lomé” meetings were launched in January 2019. They offer Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa the opportunity to participate in a week-long training program and to network in order to foster dialogue among professionals from different countries.

In January 2019, the Radio Réveil association in Switzerland, which produces radio programs for all Francophone regions, decided to invite its radio partners in Africa to a training session in Lomé to mark its 70th anniversary. About a hundred people participated in the event and signed the Lomé Declaration. The signatories committed to abandoning competition between evangelical and Protestant radio stations and to pooling resources to improve the quality of their programs. (c)

The FOMECAF website with the Lomé 4 program.

https://medias.africa/lome4
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French-speaking Africa: From November 22 to 26, Lomé 4 will focus on the theme “Youth and the Media”

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Press Release

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, FOMECAF officials have decided to hold the fourth edition of the Lomé Meetings from November 22 to 26, 2021. The event will focus on the theme “Youth and the Media” and will feature Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, director of TWR Africa, as the keynote speaker. The event will be streamed publicly online, though the number of in-person participants will be limited to about 50.

Registration is now open for the Lomé 4 seminar

The fourth annual gathering of Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa will take place November 22–26, 2021, in Lomé. The theme will be “Youth and the Media.” “We are seeing a generational divide in the French-speaking Christian world in Africa,” explains Pastor Etienne Kiemdé, director of Radio Évangile Développement in Burkina Faso. “The older generation no longer speaks the language, listens to the music, or uses the communication tools of young people—63% of whom are under 24 in West Africa!(1)” For many Christian leaders, the risk of failing to pass on the faith is now very high. “It’s time to reach out to young Africans, and it’s up to radio to lead by example,” adds Pastor Etienne Kiemdé.

Etienne Kiemdé (left, FOMECAF) and Abdoulaye Sangho (TWR speaker at Lomé 4) flank Emmanuel Ziehli (Radio Réveil France).

Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho as the keynote speaker

Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, director of TWR Africa and a recognized and leading figure in the African Christian radio landscape, was unanimously selected as the keynote speaker. Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, originally from Mali, lives and works in Côte d’Ivoire. He is the author of several books. He has also been awarded the rank of Commander of the National Order for his contribution to the development of the Christian faith in Côte d’Ivoire.

Number of speakers recorded on video

Lomé 4 will be similar to Lomé 3. Fifty (50) carefully selected participants will be invited to attend in person for plenary sessions and workshops. These sessions will be broadcast live and on-demand on the various social media channels of FOMECAF (Forum of Christian Media in Francophone Africa), particularly Facebook and YouTube. For the record, about 100 people participated in these training sessions online in 2020.

The afternoons will provide an opportunity for FOMECAF leaders to continue laying the groundwork for the forum’s activities and to develop a program for 2022.

Most of the speakers will be recorded on video. In this way, they will continue to contribute to the radio and press training video library launched in 2020 by the previous edition of the Lomé meetings (2).

Despite the difficult health situation

The decision to hold Lomé 4 was made by FOMECAF leaders who met via videoconference on Friday, July 30. They assessed the health situation in West and Central Africa as well as in Europe. For the time being, travel remains very difficult and particularly expensive due to the pandemic. Despite this, the FOMECAF leadership confirmed that Lomé 4 will take place and has reasonably postponed the “FOMECAF Benin” national event until spring 2022. FOMECAF leaders have entrusted CICERI Lomé and Radio Réveil France—specifically Messrs. Koffi Ahonon and Emmanuel Ziehli—with the task of organizing the event. (c)

The FOMECAF (Forum of Christian Media in French-Speaking Africa) website: https://medias.africa/

More information:

Africa: Pastor Étienne Kiemdé, director of Radio Évangile Développement in Burkina Faso. Tel. +226 70 38 81 83. Email: ekiem1[at]gmail.com. Website: https://medias.africa/

Europe: ÉEmmanuel Ziehli, Director of Radio Réveil France. Phone: +33 06 52 02 89 42. Email: emmanuel.ziehli[at]radioreveil.ch. Website: https://radio-reveil.org/

Notes:

1 See: https://www.populationpyramid.net/sources
2 See: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkEVvei_tLkEfTaJn31DTsQ/playlists

Sidebar
The Lomé Meetings at a Glance

The “Lomé” meetings were launched in January 2019. They offer Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa the opportunity to participate in a week-long training program and to “network” in order to foster dialogue among professionals from different countries.

In January 2019, the organization Radio Réveil en Suisse, which produces radio programs for the entire French-speaking world, decided—to mark its 70th anniversary—to invite its radio partners in Africa to a training session in Lomé. About 100 people took part in the event and signed the Declaration of Lomé. The signatories committed to ending competition between evangelical and Protestant radio stations and to pooling resources to improve the quality of their programs.

At the second edition of the Lomé Meetings, the approximately 170 participants engaged in a discussion on the theme “Let’s Invent Integral Radio!” They also decided to create the Forum of Christian Media in Francophone Africa (FOMECAF), with the following members on the founding committee: Olivia Adiko, journalist and editor-in-chief of La Voix de l’espérance (Ivory Coast); Dr. Alphonse Teyabe, communications consultant (Cameroon); Timothée Amegan, pastor and executive director of Médiafrique (Togo), and Emmanuel Ziehli, director of Radio Réveil (Switzerland).

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lomé 3 offered a series of discussions on “Media Convergence and the Versatility of Professions” to about 50 in-person participants and about 100 online participants.

The Lomé 1 report: https://bit.ly/lome-1 
The Lomé 2 report: https://bit.ly/lome-deux 
The Lomé 3 report: https://bit.ly/Lome3 

Sidebar
Members of the FOMECAF Committee

The following individuals are members of the FOMECAF core network or steering committee: Olivia Adiko Beugre(Radio la Voix de l’Espérance, Abidjan), Timothée Amegan(Médiafrique, Lomé), Etienne Kiemdé(Radio Évangile et Développement, Ouagadougou), Koffi Ahonon(CICERI and Compassion Togo, Lomé), Dr.Abdoulaye Sangho(TWR, Abidjan), Dr. Alphonse Teyabe(media consultant, Yaoundé), and Emmanuel Ziehli(Radio Réveil France).

Download the Press Release as a PDF
Registration is now open for the Lomé 4 seminar
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Tribute to Alain Normand, 1939–2021

Radio personality, pastor, evangelist, film producer, musician, writer…AlainNormandpassed away on June 29, 2021, at the age of 82.

Alainwas born on May 21, 1939, in the French city of Cannes, four years after his brother Guy and four months before the start of World War II. His father was called to arms. After being taken prisoner of war, he returned ill from a German camp and died a few months after the war ended.

Alainregularly accompanied his mother to an evangelical church, and at the age of twelve, he decided to become a follower of Jesus Christ. A year later, he moved to Geneva because his mother had remarried a Swiss man.

In Geneva,Alaindiscovers a new evangelical church. He earns a Federal Certificate of Competence (CFC) in administration, takes up the guitar, and wins a championship with a junior team at Servette Football Club.

In 1958,Alainbegan theological training in England at the International Bible Training Institute. Upon completing his training, he was summoned to the French Consulate in London to begin his military service in the French Army. Because he was a conscientious objector, he was enlisted as an unarmed paratrooper-medic. Trained in parachuting and nursing, he was deployed to war-torn Algeria, where he primarily cared for soldiers. This period gave him the opportunity to experience many human and spiritual adventures. He reflected deeply on this saying of Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

After being discharged from the military,Alainleft for Frankfurt. He wanted to learn German there, but also to learn to love the Germans in the name of Christ. There, he worked at an American bank, attended an evangelical church, and continued studying the guitar. Upon his return to Geneva, he decided to commit himself more radically to serving God. A friend from his church told him, “Radio Réveil in Lugano is looking for a staff member. You’re really cut out for this!”

Read his complete biography, written by Claude-Alain Baehler and published on July 4, 2021, on lafree.info

Listen to these four short stories produced by Alain Normand, taken from the Service Cassettes archives.

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FOMECAF to Host Two Online Meetings in May

Lomé, May 21, 2021,

With the aim of strengthening ties among members and continuing the training sessions that began in Lomé, FOMECAF is organizing two online meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 25 and 26, 2021.

What's on the agenda:

Tuesday, May 25, 2:00 p.m. GMT:

The Principles of Effective Communication

Loosely based on Valérie Geller’s bestseller *Puissance radio*. Some of the topics that will be covered:

  • Tell the Truth (Fact-Checking)
  • Give the listener good reasons to listen to you
  • Never be boring
  • Use vivid language so that the listener can visualize what you're describing
  • Start with your best topic
  • Speak as if you were addressing a single listener
  • Create Engaging Transitions
  • Highlight your colleagues' achievements
  • Be yourself on the air
  • Take risks

Speaker: Denis Stephen, Director of Stephanas Conseils in Lyon

Denis entered the world of radio as a co-founder of Radio Certitude in 1982 (now Phare FM Grenoble)—in other words, he’s no spring chicken.

After two years of audiovisual studies at the University of Grenoble, he moved to Paris and was elected secretary and then president of the FRTC (Federation of Christian Radio and Television Stations). He also served on the board of directors of the CNRA (National Confederation of Community Radio Stations). Currently, Denis Stephen advises radio stations on their applications to the CSA (Higher Audiovisual Council), a government regulatory body, and is developing a training course titled “Create and Manage a Christian Radio Station,” the first two lessons of which are available online.

The link to the training session will be shared in the FOMECAF WhatsApp group on Tuesday morning, May 25. If you are not a member of FOMECAF but would still like to participate in this training, please provide your contact information here https://medias.africa/contact/ A valid email address + a phone number = a guaranteed response.

 

Wednesday, May 26, 2:00 p.m. GMT:

Full Radio Broadcast: It's Your Turn to Speak!

In January 2019, about 100 radio stations and media outlets based in Lomé 1 took concrete steps to fulfill their desire to work together http://bit.ly/lome-1 without competing with one another. On that occasion, they signed the Lomé Declaration  http://bit.ly/DeclarationLome  arguing, in particular, that “The programs of Christian radio stations in French-speaking Africa should focus more on the concrete needs of the people.” The proclamation of the Gospel is carried out in a holistic manner, in the image of Jesus Christ, who touched the lives of his contemporaries by meeting the needs of the body, soul, and spirit.” That same year, these stakeholders came together around the concept of “holistic radio” http://bit.ly/lome-deux . It is now May 2021—so what’s new? During this online seminar, you will have the opportunity to share your experiences and testify to how you have put “integral radio” into practice.

Host: Etienne Kiemdé, CEO of Radio Évangile et Développement in Ouagadougou

Pastor Etienne Kiemdé, CEO of Radio Évangile et Développement—which operates eight stations based in Burkina Faso—was tasked with moderating this debate http://red-burkina.org . He is a driving force behind the Lomé seminars, a member of the FOMECAF working group, and—likely more than 20 years ago—the originator of the concept of development tailored to radio broadcasting. At 58, this family man is also a pastor, having been trained in Denmark, France, and England. Upon his return to the African continent, he embraced radio ministry as a matter of urgency. Before FOMECAF, he spearheaded several efforts to network French-speaking Christian radio stations in Africa.

For more information: https://radio-reveil.org 

The link to the training session will be shared in the FOMECAF WhatsApp group on Tuesday morning, May 25. If you are not a member of FOMECAF but would still like to participate in this training, please provide your contact information here https://medias.africa/contact/ A valid email address + a phone number = a guaranteed response.

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DRC: “Ever since Lomé 2, people have been calling me ‘Papa Météo’”

From November 23 to 27, about 60 media professionals traveled from Lomé, Togo, for a week of training. During this third edition of the program, several participants shared their experiences of the changes brought about by this new initiative launched by Radio Réveil (Bevaix). Here is a testimonial from the president of a radio station in Kinshasa, Congo. This written contribution is accompanied by a radio program produced byDodji Juliette Kpessou (Radio Hosanna, Porto-Novo, Benin) and Benjamin Holl (Radio Vie nouvelle, Douala, Cameroon).

His name is Johnson Kipesse. He is the president of Hermon Evangelical Radio and Television for Development (RTEDH) in Rutshuru, a city in North Kivu located about 70 kilometers north of Goma. This citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo participated in Lomé 2 in November 2019, a conference organized by the Francophone African Christian Media Forum that addressed the theme: “Let’s Invent Integral Radio!”

Listen to the interview
Read the rest of the interview on lafree.info

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Ivory Coast: “Lomé” Seminars Lead to the Formation of an Association of Christian Media Professionals

Following the Lomé 1 and 2 conferences organized by Radio Réveil and its partners, Christian media professionals in Côte d’Ivoire recognized the urgent need to come together and stop operating in a fragmented manner. With this in mind, two broadcasters founded the Union of Christian Journalists and Broadcasters of Côte d’Ivoire (UJACCI) in August 2020.

Christian media outlets in Côte d’Ivoire have long suffered from a climate of competition and a lack of collaboration among the various individuals working within them. The Lomé 1 and 2 seminars, organized by Radio Réveil in Lomé, Togo, in 2019, helped these media professionals understand the similarities in the challenges they face: radio station funding, precarious staff salaries, and the lack of effective evangelism strategies… In light of this, Christian journalists, hosts, and broadcasters decided to establish an association that will address the various problems they face.

Read the rest of the interview on the lafree.info website

Zenabou Ndocki (Radio Bonne Nouvelle, Douala, Cameroon)

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