Is the radio a way of expression and a means of social inclusion?

“Yes, it is”, she replies.

Katerina Kafentzi (a.k.a Kafka), Music Curator/Founder, CEO @Kafka Takes Notes, describes her experience with the SolidarityNow beneficiaries who participated in the radio trainings and podcast production.

“A few months ago, the SolidarityNow team approached me and proposed to me being the instructor in a course for refugees residing in our country. The original idea/proposal concerned the development of a course on how to set up a radio show. After giving it some thought and because of my long term experience on radio documentaries (also known as podcasts), I decided that it would be much more useful to involve young refugees in the creation of 5-minute podcasts where they would not only talk about their favorite subject in any language they want, but mostly they would listen to their own voice “wandering around”  their thoughts that they cannot express.

I named this podcasts series, ‘Τhe Melting Pot’. After many years in radio and in every single place I have been, I don’t remember feeling more useful and at the same time more ignorant of what was discussed while we made these podcasts. Apart from the difficult content of the recorded descriptions, it was powerful to hear the silent recording of kindness in the lives of the young refugees and migrants. The lives of people who lost almost everything, but they stand upright, very proud and with a strong voice into the microphone. Young people with old stories; stories we sometimes forget because we have the luxury, even when we move due to economic hardship, to go back to a home, to a homeland. I can only be grateful for this encounter and for their voices”