To commemorate World Radio Day on 13 February, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is highlighting its ongoing support for Catholic radio, an essential tool for both spreading information and evangelising throughout the world. In 2024, the charity committed over €550,000 to 22 radio projects in 19 countries.
Hundreds of Catholic radio stations are operating in the most forgotten places on the planet. Many of them do so thanks to the benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which in 2024 financed broadcasters in 19 different countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. These stations are key to transmitting the voice of the Church and bringing hope, especially in countries affected by conflicts and wars.
In many cases, they are the only contact between isolated communities in the five continents. For example, in Burkina Faso, West Africa, the radio station « Radio Notre Dame » is in Kaya, one of the regions in the country suffering the most from jihadist violence in recent years. Its director, Father Alexis Ouedraogo, is, a courageous priest who does not want to abandon his mission to be a bridge of dialogue and to sow peace, demonstrating alternatives to hatred.
«This terrorism we’ve been witnessing in Burkina Faso for some time now is evident in attacks on places of worship,» says the priest. » From the beginning, their strategy was to divide the Burkinabè and to make them fight each other. My role is to strengthen dialogue between members of different religious denominations. This dialogue of life, for me, is our daily coexistence. This can lead us to establish relationships between each other and to serve each other, and by doing so, help us to live in in solidarity.»
Key to interreligious dialogue
In Burkina Faso, jihadist terrorism has forced around two million people to flee their homes, driven by the threat of killings, fires, and attacks. As a result, tens of thousands of families, including the elderly and children, have lost everything. Amid the crisis, a local radio station in Burkina Faso offers a place to connect and have conversations that help build understanding and friendship. To promote dialogue, they invited Imam Ibrahim to join the Notre Dame de Kaya radio station. In a programme featuring interviews with Father Alexis and Imam Ibrahim, he shares his experiences of living alongside Christians. Together, they set an example for their neighbours, showing them how to overcome the hatred spread by radical jihadism.
«In our families, we have both Christians and Muslims, and no one harms the other,» recalls Imam Ibrahim. In the radio talk shows, they deal with topics such as tolerance between the religions, the value of forgiveness for both Christians and Muslims, and how to live together and grow in tolerance.
In Europe, ACN has provided support in Ukraine to Zhyve Radio, the station of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is also essential for keeping the community informed and united during the conflict.
And from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where violence remains a constant threat, the Radio-Television team of the Diocese of Nguizani, expressed its gratitude to ACN, with the team of technicians and journalists writing a personal handwritten testimonies to ACN:»we thank in a special way all the benefactors who have made this formation possible, which is fundamental for our service.” .
In Haiti, a country with excessive violence and where the population suffers terribly, the Word of God can reach the poorest through the airwaves. This is especially important when criminal gangs block people’s access to move and travel, with even going to church being very dangerous.
19 countries and 22 projects to give voice to the Church
ACN’s support for radio stations in the last year has reached 19 different countries: Lebanon, Lithuania, Guinea Bissau, Chad, Brazil, Kenya, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Philippines, Romania, Ukraine, Burundi, Chile, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Kosovo. In addition, the charity has been supporting the Catholic radio station Radio Veritas for years, which broadcasts to the entire continent of Asia.
Among the 22 projects are also the purchase of equipment for Radio Maria in Kosovo, support for the Mazoji Studija radio station in Lithuania and the programming of Radio Maria in Latvia and Chile. In Africa, ACN has supported the production and broadcasting of religious programmes, the construction of radio towers and the installation of solar panels in countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Liberia and Chad, where radio is the only way to connect the most isolated communities. In Kenya, after losing its facilities to a fire, ACN financed the reinstallation of Radio Bayana.