Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year 2024!

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Created: Thursday, 21 December 2023 18:22

Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year 2024!
We wish all our friends, partners and funders a relaxed Festive Season and a peaceful and
prosperous New Year! We strongly appreciate your continous interest, collaboration and support,
Thank you!

Flashback 2023: The well acclaimed concert of Mokoomba from Zimbabwe and Austrian
counterparts on 24th June at the Old Sawmill Schoenau 8 in Scharnstein / AT has been celebrating
the building of a Radio Bridge North-South between the Alm and Zambezi rivers. The
communication and exchange of stories between pupils at schools in Austria, Zambia and
Zimbabwe was a lively and inspiring experience for both sides, North and South. It was organised
by Radio B138 on the Austrian, Radio Zongwe FM on the Zambian side, Kunzwana Trust on the Zimbabwean side and co-moderated by Claudia Wegener from RadioContinentalDrift. http://www.mulonga.net/project/news/406-
mokoomba-mulonga-alm
This very special cultural exchange will continue in 2024 in the framework of the project "Radio
Transfer - Communities in dialogue" in the context of the European Capital of Culture Bad
Ischl/Salzkammergut 2024. read on INDABA

Zongwe FM is a Community Radio station in the Tonga area of Sinazongwe along the Northern
shores of Lake Kariba how the dammed Zambezi river is called. Since the radio station was set up
in 2007, there has been an ongoing collaboration with some Free Radios in Austria, facilitated by
Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship Association AZFA in Linz and its partners Kunzwana Trust in Harare
and Panos Southern Africa in Lusaka.
Currently we are on a fundraising spree to support the ZongweFM radio station with a solar PV
system to provide for an independent and sustainable source of electric energy. So far the provision
of electricity is hampered by frequent power cuts and load shedding which negatively affects the
sensitive radio studio equipment. With some solar PV infrastructure installed Zongwe FM will be in
a better position to serve the communication needs of the local community and authorities as well as
NGOs and local business. And play again a vital role in further cultural exchange across the river
Mulonga (how it is called in Chitonga language) and across the continents.
The picture att. shows the Austrian sound artist Wolfgang Fadi Dorninger drumming the call for
support in a radio broadcast by our longterm partner Radio FRO in its studio with a collection box
in the foreground (the box is a container used by the locals to drink - and share - traditional beer).
Your contribution is still most welcome! Bank account details: ARGE Zimbabwe Freundschaft @
OÖ Sparkasse BLZ 20320, IBAN: AT73 2032 0321 0069 9110, BIC: ASPKAT2LXXX