Story and photos by Choy Arnaldo

Our first visit to Kothmale was in 1984. At that time, this rural village was tucked in the rolling hillsides along a small river. Terraced rice paddies climbed up the hillsides shadowed by an occasional coconut tree. In the late afternoons, water buffaloes wallowed in the mud and birds sang. Even through the thick forests, they could be heard sharply.

Sunil Wijesinghe, Controller, checks the day’s operations with one of the technicians.

But we said goodbye to Kothmale then, because in a few months the river would swell to a lake and the whole town, the rice paddies and the coconut trees would be under water. The villagers had to move up hill to where the new Kothmale lives today.

The first big change in 16 years was  that Kothmale had its own community radio station, under the project of UNESCO and DANIDA, Mahaweli Community Radio, with an additional input from the Government of the Republic of Korea for the new equipment. Since 1989, community radio oriented the people more directly to tapping the riches of this new land, ensuring irrigation and regular watering, availing of the services and knowledge of agricultural technicians.

Women fulfil an important role in Kothmale and share the work of broadcasting – announcing, hosting, interviewing, ‘radio browsing,’ a term unique to Radio Kothmale.

For the last 11 years Kothmale Radio has shown itself to be a full development partner.

Not content with that, Kothmale went further to explore new communication technologies and to experiment how community radio might be able to ‘interface’ between the people and the riches of the Interorg. Wijayananda Jayaweera, UNESCO Regional Communication Adviser for Asia and formerly Controller of Mahaweli Community Radio, recalls his conversation with Martin Allard, an electronics engineer who designed the first FM radio transmitters of the Mahaweli Community Radio in Guirandurokotte. They were discussing ways to bring the educational and cultural benefits of the Interorg to the rural folk. “What would it be like? Suppose you took a farmer from Kothmale and opened the doors of the US Library of Congress, and said to him, ‘Well, there it is, all the knowledge in the world to become a successful farmer, all you have to do is read it.’”

Jaya was used to Martin’s joking.  “No,” he said, “you need an interface. Someone who can surf on the air and explain to the radio listeners what’s happening.

Radio Kothmale announced one day that those who wished to come to the station to use or learn how to use computers to surf on the Interorg should come and register, and check possible time schedules. On the appointed day, More than fifty youngsters showed up, many of the walking several kilometres to get to the station.

Take their questions from letters, telephone calls, or right in the studio and search the answers with them on the Interorg. Radio has to be the facilitator.” And that’s exactly the role that Kothmale played.  Community radio became the means for adapting the new constructs of the Interorg to the cultural and educational understanding of the villagers.

But what happened since then?

Young students came every day to the station. One eight year old boy follows his school courses until 3 PM, then sells vegetables and herbs for the family until 5:00, but right after goes to the station and works on his website everyday for a few hours. Each session, he learns more. “But what are you actually doing?”

“Everyday, I write down [in Sinhala] legends and stories I hear from my grandmother and the old folks. Then I write it in English on the Interorg."

Young Sashi fixing his website.

Another wrote about the beautiful temple in his village, Ambakka, a cultural site not too well known because his village is off the usual tourist routes. Another created a site on poisonous snakes, where to find them, what they look like, how to avoid them, how to use antidotes in case you get bitten!

Andrew, who also likes to learn studio mixing, created  website on the boy scouts, including a short life of Baden Powell. He even incorporated graphic animation. “How did you do that?”

  “Easy, I download from the Interorg.” Most of Andrew’s English vocabulary has been taken from the terminology of the Interorg – surf, download, ‘cut’n’paste,’ open window, flash, quit!

Andrew, cueing the performers in the studio, with his fingers ready to click on the tape recorder.

One of the secrets of Kothmale is its ability to attract volunteers. Most of the people working in the station are volunteers. Only five of the staff are under Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. But there are also international volunteers and one of them is Tanya Notley, from Australia. Tanya has worked for a year and a half in Kothmale, slowly introducing the younger generation to the ins and outs of surfing, making and maintaining websites, introducing innovations like animation. Her steadfast work has paid off, every day young kids come to ask Tanya to help them or to show her their latest creations. Even though she has finished her assignment in Kothmale, the young folk are always there to welcome her back.

Tanya, coaching one of her many students..

One of the differences of kids surfing in Kothmale is that they are not spending their online time, actually quite expensive on a local farm economy, to download music or images of their favourite movie or singing idols. They are putting information and images on the web. As Eric Fernando, Director-General of SLBC puts it, “They are contributing to what the web is. They are creating the web and in their own languages.”

Eric Fernando, Director-General of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation checks latest gift form UNESCO, a digital camera and a computer toolbox. With him are Ranjit Perera, M.J.R David, SLBC consultants, and Sunil Wijesinghe, Controller of Kothmale Radio.

One of the most useful gifts to the project was a simple digital camera. Now all the young kids and even the staff take the camera every day and put new images on the screen. The camera gave occasion to organise a trip to the Vedda territory, make interviews and photograph scenes and people from the area. This would provide materials for a radio documentary and a new page on the website.

  Certainly Kothmale’s young people will never be the same after their encounter with radio and with the Interorg. They are active participants in cyberspace, and not merely spectators or consumers.

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About the author

  Choy Arnaldo was formerly Chief of Communication Policies and Research, in UNESCO’s Communication Division. Now retired from UNESCO, he was in Sri Lanka in November 2000 on an assignment with UNDP to evaluate the communication component of the Area Based Growth and Equity Programme of Uva Province which proposed a community radio, like Kothmale’s. ‘There’s a lot to learn from the Kothmale experience,’ says Choy.  ‘Community radio has not only led the development process but has also evolved to be an interactive interface between the rural people and the benefits of the Interorg.’