Radio Evangelium
RADIO EVANGELIUM: THE ONE FAMILY RADIO OF THE DIOCESE OF MAMFE
- AN OVERVIEW RADIO EVANGELIUM MAMFE
Radio Evangelium Mamfe: The One Family Radio of the Diocese of Mamfe is a Catholic Radio service set up for the primary purpose of evangelization. It is a Mamfe diocesan endeavour realized under the supervision and patronage of the bishop of Mamfe, Mgr. Andrew F. Nkea, in line with the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Provincial Project of Radio Evangelium.
Radio Evangelium went on air for the first time on Monday 15th August, 2016 (Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) at 6:00pm and has, for over one year, made appreciable stride in its efforts to carry out its mission of evangelization.
Coverage area and broadcast hours
Radio Evangelium: The One Family Radio of the Diocese of Mamfe currently operates on a 500W FM Transmitter with an estimated coverage range between 60 – 75KM sqr., covering a significant portion within the territorial circumscription of the Diocese of Mamfe: cutting across Manyu, Lebialem and parts of Kupe-Muanenguba (precisely Nguti sub-division) and Radio also reaching parts of the Archdiocese of Bamenda (precisely Widikum and Batibo).
Radio Evangelium Mamfe, currently operates two shifts of broadcast daily: morning (4:55am – 12noon) and evening (4:00pm – 10:00pm), amounting to a broadcast time 13 hours daily, 91 hours a week, 364 hours a month and total of 4,368 hours a year. However, plans are under way to enable the radio run 17 hours every day (that is from 4:55 am – 10:00pm).
- THE NECESSITY AND ROLE OF THE RADIO IN THE RELIGIOUS, SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND GEO-POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF THE DIOCESE OF MAMFE.
The diocese of Mamfe is immense and so diverse, striving for growth yet preoccupied with the situation of a great deal of its population (particularly the youthful population) in the semi-urban areas as well as in the rural hinterlands. For many people in Manyu Division, Lebialem Division and Nguti sub-division of the South West Region of Cameroon (which constitute the diocese of Mamfe) – most of which are enclave, void of a good road and communication network, electricity and even basic social and health facilities and who also live under the burden of poverty and illiteracy, the radio really becomes their only connection with the world outside – a source of information, education, evangelization, entertainment and consolation.
For many youths in the diocese of Mamfe, and particularly those in the forest regions with poor communication and road network, no social centres and amenities, the radio has become their only connection with the world outside. The radio thus becomes their only source of information, evangelization, education, entertainment and consolation. There are villages with no electricity and a majority of the people in the rural hinterlands don’t read and write. But they can listen to the radio even without electricity, with battery-powered or solar-powered radio sets. The radio need not to be read and the radio touches the most elemental and emotional heart of the human person. It reaches places where no other media will reach, and makes huge effects on the life of the people who listen to it.
For many priests who find it so difficult to visit most parts of their parishes (at specific periods of the year) and for many communities cut off from the life of the diocese due to poor road and phone network, Radio Evangelium has become their only connecting link which allows and enable them to feel as a community, and to be part of the Church, and linked with other communities and the rest of the diocese.
The Radio and Evangelization
The poor communication network in the diocese, and particularly the poor road network makes it difficult (and practically impossible) for priests and other pastoral agents to reach certain areas of the diocese (and particularly during the rainy season), thus depriving them of the message of the Gospel and the Sacraments. The Holy Father, Pope (Saint) John Paul II in Ecclesia in Africa lists the means of social communications as one of the main areas of activity in which evangelization must be expressed in order that it may reach individual human beings and society in every aspect of their existence. Thus, through the programs of Radio Evangelium we intend to make Christ known, loved and followed without and outside the Catholic Church. We aim at teaching the doctrine of the Church, influence and change individual lives and communities in and out of the diocese.
We see the urgency and necessity to use our radio programs to teach basic Catholic doctrine to youths who are now the target of the Pentecostal movement and cults, and married couples who are being lured by the dangerous ideals of postmodernism.
However, our Radio equally seeks to influence the lives of the people of the local communities in all spheres of their lives. We run programs that ensure the integral formation of the people enabling them to improve in every aspect of their lives and commit themselves in the transformation and development of society.
CONCLUSION
The active presence of a Catholic radio in the Diocese of Mamfe is an absolute necessity, not just to meet and compensate the absence of a proper communication network but also to enhance, strengthen and further the process of evangelization within and around the diocese, and well as consolidate the presence of the Church within the territory.
It is our hope that through these radio programs we will reach thousands of people, especially the young, help them face their numerous religious, cultural, economic and socio-political challenges and overcome the hurdles that confront them daily in their desire to discern God’s plan for their lives, ensure their own social and economic stability and contribute their quota in nation building.