 All right absolutely fantastic many thanks once again welcome back this is still lying in the morning that is on the hashtag you can find us on our socials and Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well on Instagram is white 2 for 4 underscore channel we are verified with the blue check mark. But personally you can check me out at brand circle 101 now this is our first interview of the day and it is a very it is a very powerful session because it is also marking a wild refugee day and before we get too far just like to actually give you a brief description of what you should expect in today's marking of wild refugee day and maybe what are some of the things for this year and its significance. So this year's theme for wild refugee day I can see my phone is saying to do that thing okay MSMR point I lost so I'm putting you on blast but this year's theme is actually inclusion for refugees how do you actually integrate refugees who are living maybe in Kenya and maybe also outside country and just overseas especially when it comes to accepting them in terms of their needs resources and how does the government actually coming to help especially also with non-governmental organizations as well but today we are taking a different angle we are going to use the tool which is the power of radio how is radio coming in to ensure that it helps the refugees in the country to maybe access information access help and also have conversations when it comes to sensitizing people especially netizens of this country that we should accept refugees and also ensure that they feel at home even though they are away from home feel at home away from home good one right there and during a slav in studio with us today is George Oluanda he's a radio programs manager from REFM he's going to tell us what exactly that means and definitely good morning morning nice to meet you all right you're welcome so tell us a little bit of REF if I butchered that REF simply means simply means it's REFFM which means refugee families it's a short form of refugee so it's a REFKK FM 88.4 these are short form of refugee Kalibei Kakuma so Kalibei is the the camp where the station is located is the only station radio station located in a camp okay so broadcasting within Kakuma and Kalibei that's where their name comes REFKK FM all right all right when was it officially in its inception 2020 that is during the COVID-19 times yes was there like was it like a partial driven station was it like an individual's dream was it like an initiative from the government how did you guys see the need to set up a radio station that will cater for refugees and now since today is also World Refugee Day yes it it it was actually initiated by REF FM Netherlands it's one of the organizations that set up stations in refugee camps so what happens they set up the stations in refugees camp then they run for a few time I'm a they run for some type after after after after after the station is stable they they give out to organizations to organizations actually operating within the same area all right so it was initially it was previously owned by a H and which which which letter submitted the station to Filmade Kenya so currently it's being operated by Filmade Kenya okay yes it's an NGO operating within Kakuma right yeah all right before we talk about how still on the end you're not before we talk about how you and HCR and the rest come again to really help refugees why why target refugees especially today what what what what the station is all about all what the idea was about is having the refugees included having the refugees feel like they're human beings actually what we what we say is Saudi I will say muakos out here I will say muakos out here that's that's our kind of the tagline we're talking about your story our voice so what we're doing is getting the stories of the refugees and actually giving it a voice making sure that they had making sure that their needs are met actually ensuring that we are doing what we call inclusion just as the theme of the day says we are trying to make them feel that as much as although they are away from their homes but the camps are also their homes Kenya is also their home so we're actually making them feel comfortable feel that they're part of Kenya because we are hoping one day if things go well they'll go back to their homes and feel like we went Kenya and this is what we got from Kenya which is the most prominent nationality that you guys are dealing with or have encountered a lot at Kakuma Sudanese Sudanese because recently they had skirmishes that actually had almost half of like other netizens from each country evacuated did that affect did it like maybe trigger a huge number of them coming at Kakuma since that probably did cause you find that in the in the camps around or Kakuma and Calobee most of the most of the people who are triggering in our refugees and after these skirmishes obviously there was an expectation of more of them coming in okay yeah but now that is controlled by the UNCR okay all right I'm also interested to understand like what are the dynamics that happened before a person comes less for example still on South Sudan like is there like maybe a less an immigration an immigration process that happens or it's like immediately it happened like the emergency one where like are you a citizen of another country do you feel you're not safe and all actually it was like declared they're not safe being in Sudan so I remember the US came and picked all their citizens I think it was Larry Madoz watching that feature he was live on CNN and he did a feature on it and he was actually trying to paint for people a picture that you know South Sudan how but then I'm trying to also understand like how did they come to Kenya you look at you can take your name on a rudy on a king and then to dad but there's like a process if you don't mind painting for us a picture of what happens there is a process I what I understand is the government is included UNCR is also included so there is a process you can just come and get into the camp the registration the month is so you have to actually go through a process of identifying your nationality identifying obviously the reasons that's why you are getting into the camp and also you have to be accepted to the camp before you get in so that there's a process there's documentation and they're all that that will actually enables you to get it like we just don't get into it but yeah right there's a there's a reason future that was done by I think it was Nimrod tabu just at last week elastic on Sunday and Sunday where the he was he was trying to bring out how refugees at dad up are going through food short food crisis how drought is affecting them and how in fact the number has massively doubled and in fact the government is now may be enabled to even sustain them and now organizations like WFP UNHCR is coming in to help them have like amicaba stay for your dad up what are you guys doing to ensure that them are having an amicaba stay I think I think that's the basically a role of UNCR and WFP just to ensure that you walk together with yeah they do they do ensure that WFP is playing that part of ensuring that there's a food stability in the camp ensuring that they are getting food and all meals as required UNCR comes in to ensure that they are they are well taken care of actually trying to ensure to let say how like all that the affairs are well taken care of so that's just basically UNCR and WFP's role yeah and back to today's theme or today's celebration which is marking wild refugee day you had mentioned that you're not celebrating it in Kakuma at the event is officially being which is happening literally today but you had mentioned in Kakuma you did it yesterday and what there may be reasons why that happened and not today I think I think the main reason would be most officials might be traveling to Nairobi for the event okay and being being being being a camp the same same leaders are needed to be around on this day so that's the reason that's why they had to do it yesterday so that the leaders be around and just make the refugees feel that this is your day and these we are celebrating you guys we are we are concerned about you and we just make you feel you're so that was the reason that's why it happened it actually happened in Kallubei village too all right have you told us the the majority of the nationalities that you deal with and and how do you guys integrate them with other nationalities you mentioned of south Sudanese, South Sudanese, Congolese, Uganda as well yeah yeah there are quite a number of nationalities yeah they're quite a number over 20 actually over 20 massive that's like all countries yeah it's like Kallubei is a camp that is hosting over 200,000 refugees over 200,000 refugees over 200,000 yes so it's a camp with over 200,000 refugees yeah okay now I'm also interested because these are people who come from different country backgrounds it will live along but also you can integrate that they come from a different nation where they speak a different language it's like for example Kittokapu and a Pari I hate pronouns as Pari the way people in Pari speak you don't know you don't know French you have to learn French you don't know maybe how to speak that kind of English that they speak there so you have to like officially go to some sort of like language training or something how do you guys even start a conversation with a person like South Sudanese I know they speak you say Juba Arabic right Congolese they speak French or Lingala French Lingala people from Uganda they have a very awkward accent good accent by the way good accent I had a Uganda in teacher how do you integrate these people and start a conversation to get to understand them and even explain to you that this is I need this kind of help yeah first of all I will start by saying it's one of the reasons why at Shref FM we have different presenters radio presenters from different nationalities it really helps us in getting our programs in order apart from that we have translators for instance you can get in you can go into you can go to into the field to cover an event and you find that you trying to get a story from someone who doesn't really understand what you're saying right you are using probably maybe English or we are using Swahili so that calls for a translator who will help you get the story done so you may be interviewing someone in English this person is not getting it you're trying Swahili is not trying it is not getting it right so you'll definitely need a translator from the same I'm of the same nationality to get the story done yes so that's how we do it we use most of the time translators but you walk around in the camp and you find that most of these guys are learning English there's schools within the camp so English is being is being taught in this school so that kind of good in English and so yeah yeah all right because that's what we speak yeah I'm also looking at it from a point of like now agenda yeah which is like the majority is it females or male from the start male majority of the refugees yes yes yes to me I thought it was mothers a female mothers of course from no from the last this is it's female sorry for that it's female that yeah yeah the majority are female all right yes and there's a story recently that was done as well that pointed out on child child health care especially for refugees like how do you how do you guys plug in on that to ensure that the kids that have come with the maybe they don't have a father maybe they come with an auntie or just a relative or maybe it's the mother than the father's not there how do you guys like integrate their health welfare to ensure that you know they get immunization they get the right meals also nutrition because it was pointed out that you know most comes and now in food crisis and now they're reaching out to even other higher aid organizations to come in I think I think I might look like one of the challenges that really facing the camps but I believe and I can strongly say that UNCR is really working hard to ensure that everyone is coming in is being taken care of in terms of health they have programs they have programs where immunization is done to children in case of this is like missiles like I think two months two months or one month ago they are doing a missile to tremendous in immunization so that is well taken care of by the UNCR all right yes what about food food is done by WFP WFP is in charge of food distribution in the camps here all right yes a buck to your radio station I'm also interested because very is really intense yes it's interesting how you guys if you don't mind us to take us through the process of how you guys curate programs that specifically target specific nationalities like the South Sudanese Ugandan's because I can imagine this kind of a radio station and it's hostile that can be really hard like the editorial style for radius really intense also choosing the personality the presenter and at some point you mentioned you are one of the presenters initially but now you're like the radio programs manager what what we do first of all or what we need first of all is to do radio calls for research first before you have to first understand your audience so that you know what kind of programs you're giving this audience so you first to understand who am I speaking to what does this person want here what does this person want to listen to in terms of music that doing a research of what what would this person people in the camp specifically because when you are doing radio speaking to one person remember so so when you are when we did the research you find out what this kind of people what what what are the refugees in the camp want to listen to what kind of programs do they love for instance we have a lot of youth we have a lot of youth in the camp so what does this one youth want to listen to what does he like what does he prefer doing at what time is it in the morning what kind of music does he want to listen to what kind of conversation does he want to engage himself into so that's one of the things we did as a refer-femme to find out what audience want before we started doing the programs and again given that we have different nationalities in the camp we have to understand what does Sudanese want to listen to and what time does Sudanese like listening to radio yeah so what is that type of kind of favorite music yes the kind of music does the Sudanese want to listen to what is their genre by the way I really like to know I have like a name for their genre for which which South Sudanese South Sudanese they most most of the guys in the youth most of most of them who listen to radio youth so they like kind of hip-hop music right but I'm looking for like their tradition like for us we have Ganga tour and Kapuka the rest of whatever are you able to like remember from their community of their country I wouldn't I wouldn't really figure that out but I can't respond to that in the course of the conversation but I know a Congolese definitely in Gala yes which was recently included in the grammar just a train doing the research getting the actual statistics of what the refugees want to listen to what they want to hear what the kind of a conversation and from that as when we decided to now start our programming understand right then trying to understand if these water Congolese once in the evening then would it how what what percentage of other refugees would want to listen to the same kind of program in the evening so if it's anything above 80 then that rules out that this will work for the whole audience yes right and still on programming like what are some of the topical like not the nitty-gritties of the program the topical topical choices that you guys display like exactly like for ourselves Sudanese what exactly are they listening to in that program definitely I'll talk I'll talk about programs that programs that talk about cohesion programs that talk about a reconciliation because are these people these are people who are just from kind of a war-torn country or send a kind of a country that is full of scum she's so they want to listen to things that will really make them believe that things that are topics that really give them hope topics that will really make them feel that this day things will be okay topics that really make them feel accepted make them feel at home so those are kind of the topics we give to such kind of national issues yes right which I which I think is is a very key is a very key area yes now in terms of the lesson in terms of our employers employees that is the word do you guys have like a place where like you vet professionally that this person can has the gift of God which is the gift of radio talking like you can vet professionally this guy can talk even though he's hasn't gone through broadcast class and understood the ethics and ethos of broadcasting but this one we can he can maybe sustain a conversation this one can you know can be trained like how do you guys identify it now talent especially for OAPs on a personal on a person I think what what we do at refer family we we first we've given room for volunteerships so we get volunteers from the community who comes in those who feel that they have the talent first of all we we we we get it we get the world out there by probably adverts then we vet them we actually take them through a process that will leave us with a number of which we feel they have the talent they have the talent in terms of maybe production they can learn in terms of on-air programs then from there we now take them through professional training which takes some quite good time we'll train them through training and I believe through the training you'll be able as a professional journalist you'll be able to tell this guy is okay he you will be able to understand this guy is supposed to be put here this one is supposed to be put on production put on air yes so that's the that's the process we use at refer family to just ensure that we have our presenters intact intact yeah all right you had mentioned the station is still community but it has a commercial it has a commercial frequency code which I noted initially they do have like maybe plans of like now fully going commercial or in the meantime it's just still community radio for now reform is a community radio session but in terms of taking to the next level think that I will leave to the management I would actually want to comment on that but what we know is currently we are working on expanding the frequency to the rest of true kind of county that's one of the things that in the process that that's something already on the table of ck so it's a process we are we are having at the moment just to expand the frequency to cover the whole of true kind of right yes good fantastic you had mentioned you are an rpm initially maybe what were you doing before you got to this level of an rpm and also currently what are some of your roles and responsibilities in the Samsung company initially I was working with the CFFM stations as a breakfast show host a news and news presenter and also programs producer and how I got to where I am it was it was just through a normal application job application that I did then I saw an advert of radio manager a station manager so I did that process and and it went through so currently what what what what I'm a task at ref fm as a station manager and programs head of programs is to just to ensure the entire smooth running of the station in terms of programming in terms of HR issues and in terms of just general staff welfare okay yes so how in total how many how many are you I have a team of ten presenters ten presenters ten presenters present of those who will present a producer yes who are present a producer but working on working training on the job or training on the job yes paid or volunteer paid as you sum up on that individual part you can talk about you won an award recently which was by Cousa I talked about how you guys won that award and what exactly do you think made you guys deserve that award first of all I want to say thanks to the CAK for organizing such an event then secondly how we got there it is it's it's it's a Obunifu award okay so that simply means creativity and I believe a traffic family is so creative in terms of doing programs in terms of engaging with our listeners from where we are located remember we are the only station located in our Fiji camp and you can imagine you can imagine how it would be or what it takes for such environment for such a station to thrive for such a group of a team to come up with programs that really impact the society really impact the community so that calls for creativity to we are creative in terms of programs we make sure that our programs are so much impactive through the response we normally get the audience response that really gives us that hope that really gives us an assurance that whatever kind of programs we are doing they are really impacting the community so I believe through the creativity of programs we've been doing is why we go to where we are okay why we got the award and also it's personal I would say I'll give it to the audience I'll give the credit to the audience because they believe in us they actually what's what they're saying or what they're talking to us about is we understand or we really appreciate the creativity you guys are doing as a refer-firm and we really want to award you and that's why I would say we got that award and congratulations thank you so much good luck as well as we as a move away from from that maybe how do you guys plug in to support refugees living with disabilities because it's now like a main issue especially also in terms of inclusion since also this year's theme is all about inclusion how do you guys help refugees with disabilities those who can't hear who can see who can't even completely walk like they need help from one place to another first of all allow me to put it clear that refer-firm KK is under Filmmade Kenya Filmmade Kenya is there's a production of films it's a communication through visual I will say okay on the other side refer-firm is communication through audio so inclusion of refugees living with the disability what we do we are so open to when we are doing when we are doing a recruitment we are so open to giving chances to people living with that or people living in the disabilities and what I will say how we do this is or how we do the inclusion is by reaching out to such kind of groups ensuring that at refer-firm the kind of programs you are doing they are being received by them as well what I mean when I say this I mean when we are doing a community kind of outreach we make sure that we have this special group of our team that reach out to such kind of people just to make sure that we make them feel that whatever we are doing we are doing them we are doing them also putting them in our heart ensuring that they also beneficiaries of our program they also part of our team they also part of the whole community all right yes all right I have two questions for you and then we exit in regards to today maybe what are some of the expectations that you guys how tabled that you feel like today we must achieve this in regards to marking world refugee day the expectations as a refer-firm I think one thing I will say as a station in as we mark this our refugee day just making sure that we include all the refugees in what we do we make them feel included in everything that you do our expectations are as a radio station would be and I will say this as an appeal probably maybe to the other organizations who are listening to this conversation you know running a radio station in such environment is easy we need a lot of support for instance we need the kind of some financial support yes in terms of radio equipment so we need that support so my appeal would just be to the organizations and the government if probably they will come in just to give us a backup on how on ensuring that we get this support to make sure that we do our best in good quality and in kind of comfortability just to make sure that we delivering the best to the refugee refugees in the campers all right before you tell us how people can plug in and support as we exit just on a lighter note radio actually the aim of you being a radio presenter is to make people feel good when they listen to radio like how you talk you must be pleasant to the person like you said you speak into only one person yeah and sometimes that person you sing them in studio with you right so how do you guys you know make people feel good especially now that it's a divergent crowd of people how do you guys make them feel good and warm I will respond to that by going back to our programs we do we make sure that the progress we do our production our production of programs are such inclusive in a way that as Aliah had told you we first do research on what people like so probably we know who we do that by the kind of presenters we have we know who to put in what show for example in the morning probably definitely will have a presenter who is who has a good ground touch because these are refugee camp after the show you can always walk around and interact with the refugees so we do that by actually ensuring that we are placing different presenters at the right shows yeah presenters who have that ground touch you understand what I mean by yeah sure so this really makes the refugees feel part of the station they make them feel part of the RFM yeah and they developed that relationship with the presenter I don't know if you've since you've also been in the space is there may be something that changed in your course radio changes changes your mind changes your projection changes your diction by the time you transition to TV you are actually struggle kiddo go like for you personally did you change is there something that changed there's even also a book about hosting especially breakfast breakfast are called power shows is there something that changed there's something you learn since radio is a theater I think I think at this point what really changed or what I really struggled with for a few a few weeks at my current position is actually shifted from a full gospel a station to kind of a Nikola so that she should that she should really give me some kind of I would say headache kiddo okay because these are the you are you are coming from a fully gospel station to vernacular so the kind of music you listen to this side you're like oh really and be one is just so you have to really you have to really a cop up with it and move on secondly it was from a radio presenter to to a station manager so you you kind of have some little workload to to to to to carry the bag but with time I'm cool and we're moving on we've adapted well and that's why we are able to get that cruise out all right now you can tell people how they can support our EF that's rough rough yes here in the cemetery it's in this image you know how can people support our EF and if maybe there's a rough if you want to reach out and plug in please tell them where they can find you in that camera you if I would first of all I just all the organizations who are watching this and probably the government as well CAK and also media of our media council of Kenya if you you want to find as you you check on our website that's Refefem KK we are open to all kind of support so if you check our website Refefem KK that's Refefem Kakuma or set Refefem KK you'll find all the details on our website yes by the way is the event taking plus today since it's happening in Nairobi the event just to us to get the invite yes I'm waiting for that you're waiting for it yeah all right thank you so much for there for your time and for coming through thank you so much is it okay to say happy World Refugee Day because it is today because it is the World Refugee Day so it's okay for you to say happy because I'm specifically targeting the word happy because you know refugees most of them are not happy yeah it has to be happy because you have to make them feel happy and feel accepted feel at home yes all right okay cool now I have the the part to say happy World Refugee Day thank you all right we have been speaking to George Oluanda who is a radio broadcast journalist and producer at Refefem right thank you so much for coming through and sharing your insights with us thank you for hosting me you're welcome and on what note we're gonna take a very short break and up next is Stephanie Yaita she's coming up with an interesting segment about how do you actually unpack from trauma you know trauma is really is really bad yeah but how do you hear from it there's a funny hard conversation with that he was telling me at some point you need to reparent yourself you could have gone through wrong parenting but also that's a good question are there people that have gone through wrong parenting and it created like some sort of child trauma how do you reparent yourself now that you're an adult but still struggling with things that happen to you at 9 10 12 teenagers so I can't wait for that conversation coming up shortly on that hashtag which is hashtag why in the morning as well as Y2 for 4 channel on the gram Facebook and Twitter as well personally at Brian Soko 101 we take a break we come back with much more stick around and don't touch that dial