Cebu City – NNC 7 team conducted monitoring of Radyo Kahimsug, one of the Nutriskwela Community Radio Network Programs (NCRNP) in Central Visayas. The unannounced activity was held on 05 September 2022 via Google Meet. PDO I Noah Vincent D. Gallo and DMO II Gab Flores comprised the monitoring team. Radyo Kahimsug’s CRC Chair Mary Jane Miraflor, Program Manager Valerie Pascual, and Program Handler Charjoy Caruana joined the team and responded to the queries raised by the assessors.
Radyo Kahimsug YNE-FM 97.5 MHz located in Barili, Cebu was established in 2013 and is part of the third phase of the NCRNP of the National Nutrition Council. This is a joint undertaking between NNC and Cebu Technological University. CTU is responsible in managing the day-to-day operations of the station including hiring of personnel consist of a station manager, program managers, announcers, writers and licensed radio technicians. NNC for its part provides training on nutrition and community radio broadcasting, offers basic radio station equipment, holds the NTC license to operate, gives broadcast materials for airing, convenes annual national conference, and conducts regular monitoring visits and provides technical assistance.
During the early stage of the monitoring, an assessment of equipment for both functional and non-functional items in the station was done to give a better perspective as to where the station currently situates in. Nutriskwela radio programming before the typhoon was also discussed in the meeting which assessed the airing time, how often nutrition programs and developmental programs were aired in 1 week. The program’s livestream platform was also monitored and their video quality during the stream. Also, the meetings of the station personnel as well as that of the Community Radio Council was checked noting the documentation of minutes of meetings.
The monitoring team dug deeper as to why the station was still off-air. It was ascertained that typhoon Odette affected the whole operation of the station, which was very devastating because not only the station was affected but also the personnel. With the antennae still to be repaired, the assessors learned that broadcasts shifted to a Facebook modality airing some of the in-demand programs such as One Nutrition, One Nation.
Areas for improvement and the immediate next steps were agreed upon by the monitors and the radio personnel with the objective of resuming the operations the soonest. Major findings of the monitoring were also shared to Barili Municipal Nutrition Committee to generate their support. // PDO I Noah Vincent D. Gallo, RND, MSPH
