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INDIA/NEPAL: Salesian radio station holds historic Indo-Nepalese Friendship Tour

(MissionNewswire) In December 2016, Salesian missionaries at the Salesian College Sonada in Darjeeling, India began regularly scheduled programming for their new radio station with 20 different programs produced in the Nepali language. The radio station (90.8 FM) is the first community/campus radio in West Bengal and the entire northeast India to be operated by a college.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the college and the 25 years Salesian missionaries with Don Bosco Society have been working in Nepal, the radio station organized a historic Indo-Nepalese Friendship Tour. The tour included a team of radio journalists who visited seven institutions in Nepal run by former students of the Salesian College Sonada. The station director and vice-president, Prof. C.M. Paul, program coordinators RJ Samir Chhetri and RJ Sagar Rai, and the driver Kabi Rai made up the team.

The tour also celebrated the first year of programming for the radio station. The tour, which began on Jan. 7, started in Sonada and passed through the Indo-Nepalese border of Kakrabitta near Siliguri and then proceeded to Dharan, which is where the Don Bosco Society began its work in Nepal. The tour concluded in Kathmandu, in western part of the country.

“To promote higher education in the Salesian College Darjeeling and the Siliguri campus we visited the institutions of Don Bosco, as well as two secondary schools,” says Prof. Paul.

Radio journalist Chhetri adds, “We created specific radio programs to celebrate the 25 years of the Don Bosco Society of Nepal and interact with the community radio stations, in particular in Dharan, the cradle of the Don Bosco Society in Nepal.”

Don Bosco Society began in 1992 with the center of Dharan and then Salesian missionaries branched out to other cities including Sirsia in 1996 and in the capital city of Kathmandu with two centers—Lubhu in 1996 and Thecho in 2001. Later, centers in Baroul and Chakkarghatty opened in 2014 in eastern Nepal and finally Biratnagar in 2017. A total of seven houses are now operated by Salesian missionaries.

The Salesian College Sonada in Darjeeling provides 1,400 students opportunities for advanced studies and to complete their bachelors’ degrees. The college offers a variety of programs including communications, communicative English, computer science, math and statistics, travel and tourism management and more. Youth are able to gain the skills needed to be competitive in the job market.

The Salesian radio station at the college provides an opportunity for students and its listeners to tell their own stories and to share their experiences, as well as information on important topics and news affecting the local area. It also allows students to be media contributors. A team of six radio hosts provide 20 shows a week, which take place seven days a week for 12 hours each day. The programs, which run from one, two and three hours, are scheduled as daily, bi-weekly and weekly shows.

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Sources:

ANS – Nepal – Tour of Indo-Nepalese friendship commemorates Don Bosco’s 25 years in Nepal

Salesian Missions – INDIA: Salesian College Launches First Web Radio Programs in Nepali Language