Youth Radio Program

On Saturday September 20, SFCG-Rwanda, the organization's newest country program, launched its first project with the broadcast of its youth radio program, Urungano, or Generation in English. Produced in the national language Kinyarwandan, the thirty minute youth magazine/chat show, is hosted by a team of four girls under the age of 18. Representing a diversity of Rwandan youth, the girls will conduct all the interviews each week as well as plan and lead the show. 

Aimed at youth aged 12 to 20, Urungano, seeks to put young people's voices on air to discuss the challenges and conflicts in their lives. Its objective is to create a space where children of all backgrounds can share their experiences and discuss together possible solutions to issues in their lives as they see them.

The first edition of Urungano's was on the subject of rural-urban migration. Kigali is the world's fastest growing city. The government is trying to remove its slums, while all the while people keep on arriving. It's a subject about which everyone has an opinion. As well as featuring the voices of youth from the countryside and the capital, the young journalists have also interviewed a representative of the Ministry of Youth to ask him about the government's response to the situation. Between popular songs, sound clips and jingles, the show features a studio discussion between two teenagers: One from the countryside and one from the city, who will share their perspective on this trend, and how it affects their lives. 

Urungano is broadcast on both Kigali's Contact FM and Radio Salus in Butare on Saturdays at 5pm (GMT+2), and can be heard online at the same time on www.contactfm.rw

Meet the Team

Urungano is the first youth radio program in Rwanda hosted entirely by girls under the age of 18. Designed to ensure that girls get their fairshare of time on air, the team represents the diversity of youth in the capital, with a range of backgrounds and life experiences.

• Benigne, 16, Lives in Kacyiru in Kigali. She is outgoing and sociable watches TV and loves math. She goes to boarding school and hopes to become a pilot, a journalist or a lawyer in the future. She is a real feminist which she gets from her mother, the president of a women's organization who raises her alone following the death of her father.
• Leonine, 16. Has lived in an orphanage in Kigali for five years and has big ambitions. She dreams of one day visiting America and believes Barack Obama is the most famous person in the world.  Her favorite subject at school is Geography and one day she would like to be a lawyer.
• Josée, 17 is another real leader. Elected her class president, Josée wants to study medicine and be a doctor, although she also loves singing and wants to be a famous musician. She looks up to her mother who raises her on her own by selling food in the market, and the President's wife who she admires for being a strong woman.
• Diane, 16. A big fan of RnB singer Chris Brown, Diane is fashion conscious and would eventually like to be a journalist. The youngest of four children her father is a company director and her idol. She believes in helping others, especially genocide orphans.

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