From the Blue Community Environmental Defenders, Uganda:
In much of Mahagi, on the border between Ituri and Uganda, a clinic or health zone can be hours away for many villages. Even the ones within reach are short on medicine and on staff to run them. What nearly every household does have is a radio.
The strain of Ebola now spreading through eastern DRC has no vaccine and no cure. In that situation, one thing decides who stays safe and who does not: whether people get clear, trusted information fast enough to act on it.
At Environmental Defenders (ED), our community station Radio Terra has turned its programming toward the outbreak. Every day, in languages such as Swahili, Lingala, Alur, Lugbara, Kilendu, and others spoken by our listeners at home, we broadcast practical guidance on how the virus spreads and how to avoid it, with dedicated slots for those most exposed, including displaced families and the women who carry most of the burden of care. We hand the microphone to health workers and local experts so the message comes from people the community already trusts, and we run early alerts so a village hears the warning before the disease reaches it.
There is a deeper connection here that we have talked about on air and in communities in the Albertine region and the Congo for years. When forests are cleared, the animals that carry these viruses are pushed toward people, and outbreaks like this one become more likely. Protecting the forest and protecting public health are not separate causes. They are the same works that need to be continued to avoid further outbreaks of zoonotic diseases.
The response has been remarkably swift. Families are washing hands, avoiding risky contact, and taking the threat seriously in places where, only weeks ago, many were convinced Ebola was not real. As one listener told our reporter that, without Radio Terra, Ebola would already have reached the last village.
This is what local media is for. Where health services are stretched thin, accurate information is a first line of defense and often the fastest one to arrive.
We are grateful to our staff and media workers across the landscapes who are actively working to ensure that people are informed and are protected from deadly Ebola because information saves lives.
