MST Brazil

Overview

From October to December 2009, RadioActive worked on four community radio stations in North and North East Brazil with the Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST).

The MST support landless rural workers to help them create new communities on abandoned or unproductive land.  In the last 25 years they have helped 370,000 families gain access to land and create new futures for themselves and their families.  For more information on the MST please visit their site: www.mst.org.br or watch these short films: Part 1 and Part 2.

Radioactive worked on the following projects:

• MST FM, 87.7 MHz, Wenceslau-Guimarães, Bahia
• Radio Cultura Viva, Caruaru, Pernambuco
• Lagoa do Mineiro FM, Itarema, Ceará
• Radio Resistencia Camponesa, 88.9 MHz, Ilha do Mosqueiro, Pará

Main Objectives

• to present the MST a different light to the way the mainstream media presents them.
• to provide a local message board,
• to promote local events and culture, promote community identity and participation,
• to promote the message of the MST,
• to provide young people from their communities with something fun and engaging to get involved in
• to provide young people from their communities with communication and radio production skills

Our Role

RA Director Max Graef teamed up with MST Coordinator Camila Bonassa to visit four rural communities to provide equipment and training for their community radio stations.  In three of the projects this involved installing new stations and in the case of Lagoa do Mineiro FM, they were already on the air, so new equipment was provided and training to improve the capacity of the station staff.

In Lagoa do Mineiro, RA volunteer Ritchie Nicola also came to provide addititional technical support and training.

Topics covered in the training include: What is Community Radio, Conducting a Listener Survey, How Radio Works, How to use the Studio, English Technical Words (that can be found on the equipment/software), Making Cables, Ideas for Radio Programmes, Objectives of a Programme, Elements of a Programme, Interviews and Vox Pops, Making Jingles, Using Audition to Edit Audio, Writing a Radio Script, ZaraRadio for Broadcasting, Communication and Power, Sources of Information and Making Radio Spots.