Dheisheh Refugee Camp, West Bank, Palestine
July 2004
100.0 MHz
In September 2004, members of RadioActive set up an FM Radio Station with the Ibdaa Cultural Centre, a youth centre based in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, 4km south of Bethlehem, in Palestine.
To listen to programs produced by members of the station, please visit flashpoints.net
The station is part of Ibdaa’s Media Training Project, an initiative which aims to provide their youth with the means and skills to produce material for radio, television and print publication. The station will be a medium for broadcasting their work to the surrounding regions, which include Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ramallah and parts of Israel.
Ibdaa named their station “Radio 194”, after UN Resolution 194, which gave Palestinians the right to return to their homelands. Radio 194 is the first station to be based in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Dheisheh Camp has a population of 11,000, living in an area slightly under half a square kilometre. There are over 5,500 children and young people living in the camp, which has no playground or other designated place for children’s activities.
Founded in 1994, Ibdaa has spent the last ten years developing educational and cultural programs and facilities for the youth of the camp. These include a kindergarten, nursery, children’s library, boys’ and girls’ sports teams, a dance troupe which has travelled around the world, computer and internet facilities, and a handicraft cooperative. They also organise international exchanges, which give their youth experiences of other cultures, and give people from other countries the chance to experience Palestinian life and culture. For more information regarding the Ibdaa Cultural Centre, please visit Ibdaa’s website.
To give Palestinian youth skills and a platform to tell their stories and share their experiences and perspectives.
Installing the equipment
Training young people in radio and communication skills
Designing and constructing the radio studios
Ibdaa Cultural Center