A total of 48 magazines and 48 talk shows titled of “Prochesta” were conducted by two Community Radio Stations – Radio Borendro 99.2FM and Radio Sarabela 98.8FM located in northern part of the country in the month of September to December 2017 with the technical support of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) for Preventing Violent Extremism (CVE) through Community Radio in Rural Bangladesh.

The objectives of the events are to enhance skills of young community radio producers to address violent extremism and raise awareness and strengthen community resilience in preventing violence and extremism.

The magazine programs and talk shows have been contributing for better understanding on ideological conflict, social harmony, family ties and community role in reducing the extremism and violence. These programs have been promoting social dialogue as well.

The magazine program was for 20 minutes that includes Vox-pop (Peoples immediate reaction), Song, Discussion, Drama/Natika, Special Radio Bulletin, Interview, PSA (Public Service Announcement) and users’ comments etc. To make the program interesting to the listeners, there was a quiz contest in each program.

Simultaneously, the talk show was for 25 minutes. There were three local guests discussed on background, cases and way of prevention of extremism and violence, the role of family and communities for preventing extremism and violence, social psychological context and use of Social Media and Communication to reduce extremism and violence. They were youth, students, teachers, religious leaders and representatives of professional groups, journalists, parents, social-cultural activists, lawyers and local community representatives. The dialogue session was moderated by a skilled radio presenter.

All-focus

The events were held under the project “STRIVE – Strengthening Resilience to Violence and Extremism through Community Radio” under the coordination BNNRC in collaboration with Democracy International.

It is expected that at least 50 young Community Radio Journalists and Broadcasters, 3,000 rural community people special the youth and youth women directly and indirectly 20,000 listeners in the two community radio coverage areas will have the strength of resilience to response, protect, pursue and prevent violent extremism. Ultimately, this initiative will contribute to strengthening their resilience by equipping them in 04 key areas; those are: Response, Protect, Pursue and Prevent from radicalization and violent extremism.

Mentioned that the activities are contributing towards SDG 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere and 16.a :

All-focus

Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacities at all levels, in particular in developing countries, for preventing violence and combating terrorism and crime.