Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

CAYES-JACMEL, Apr. 3 (IPS) — A group of young people in south east Haiti are plotting a new future for their district as they try to launch a radio station to pull villages together and encourage residents to participate in local affairs.

They have no money or the technical knowledge necessary to set up a radio station. All they have is the will to do so, they admit, and a handmade transmitter. The transmitter belongs to 30 year old Crispin Magloire, a cabinet-maker. Magloire's transmitter was made from an old receiver he got for a little less than $60 U.S.

It has a broadcast range of 10 kilometers without amplifiers. The transmitter's life began out of Magloire's frustration with being shunned because he spoke only Creole. "In 1989 I was doing some work for Cultural Club Radio, a local FM station. The people there only wanted to speak and broadcast in French and English. I only spoke Creole so they humiliated me. I decided right there and then to build a radio station of my own for people like me. "I didn't know anything much about radio broadcasting but that didn't stop me. I worked many nights and finally one evening I sent out a weak signal. That was my first broadcast."

Later, working along with two technicians, Magloire managed to get the broadcast range to 10 kilometers. Magloire's radio station was shut down during the three years of military rule which ended last October when President Jean Bertrand Aristide was returned as head of the government by a U.S.-led multinational force. But the cabinet-maker, who did not go beyond fourth grade in school, says he is determined to re launch the radio station.

He faces several major hurdles, the most daunting of which is the lack of money. There has been no electricity in the district for the past four months and solar power systems cost a lot of money, he admits.

Fundraising is not easy, especially for poor people, he says. "I started a fund-raising campaign for the radio station but all I was able to collect was $1.20, while the owners of the FM radio station across the street from mine received 50 times more money," he laments. The general refrain in the meeting was how expensive it was living in today's Haiti.

The country, which shares the northern Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is one of the poorest in the region. In 1994 unemployment and underemployment affected some 85 percent of the labor force and the average per capita income is less than $100.

The return of Aristide to the presidency has not significantly improved the life of Haitians and many in the grouping argue that certain areas such as security have worsened since he came back from exile.

Hardly a week goes by without some news of an attack by gunmen. In the nearby village of Peredo, for example, says James Toussaint, two people were killed and 17 others wounded in a Voodoo Temple during the last week in February. "The disarming is not effective. Soldiers dismissed from the army have come here to hide. The local barracks has been closed for several months now, and arrest warrants are difficult to execute," Toussaint said. Origin: //

----

[c] 1994, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)

All rights reserved

May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service outside of the APC networks, without specific permission from IPS. This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast. For information about cross-posting, send a message to <ips-info@igc.apc.org>. For information about print or broadcast reproduction please contact the IPS coordinator at <ipsrom@gn.apc.org>.