Lockey's Log

Imagine living in a country where you can’t access the Internet, watch television, read newspapers or even receive mail. Except in Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic (C.A.R.), that’s what life is like for most of the country’s 4.5 million residents. Their lifeline to the rest of the world? Radio.

People in C.AR., a country about the size of Texas, depend on radio broadcasts to keep informed. Almost every village has a radio, and some have more than one. The sets are affordable, costing as little as $6, usually coming from countries such as Nigeria and Niger.

In 2007 a team from HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, IN, spent three weeks at a broadcast site, and installed the first shortwave radio station. They also put in two satellite downlinks that provided access to the Internet and made it possible to receive French-language Christian programming from Trans World Radio, another HCJB Global partner.

Last month HCJB Global engineers returned to C.A.R. to put in two additional regional shortwave transmitters in Boali, similar to the one installed in 2007. The new units will provide more programming opportunities for broadcasting the gospel across C.A.R. in Sango (the country’s trade language), French and various tribal dialects.