In 2025, more than 400 journalists participated in training sessions organized by Vikes’ East Africa project. These training sessions led to the production of hundreds of programs and articles on disability, climate and environmental issues, and daily life in rural areas.
In Vikes' partner countries Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, the majority of the population lives in rural areas and earns their living by farming. Basic services such as electricity or running water are often not available. Radio is the most important media and source of information in rural areas.
Thanks to the radio portals built in Tanzania and Uganda with Vikes’ support, local community radio stations operating in rural areas have been able to go online. This has allowed them to reach a wider audience as well as new partners and funders beyond their local coverage area.
The radio stations supported by Vikes have over 15 million listeners in rural areas of Tanzania and Uganda. In 2025, the community radio websites had just under 300,000 active users in Tanzania and Uganda.
In 2025, a total of 407 journalists participated in the training sessions organized by Vikes’ East Africa project, 37 percent of whom were women. Over the course of the project, 1,114 journalists in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya have participated in the training sessions.
Training on disability reporting in Tanzania
In Tanzania, 46 community radio stations published a total of over 5,000 articles and programs on the Radio Tadio radio portal. Most stations also streamed their radio broadcasts via the portal. The programs were also broadcast locally over the airwaves.
229 journalists from rural radio stations participated in training sessions covering news writing, professional ethics, improving the quality of radio work, online publishing via a radio portal, social media marketing, and more equitable reporting on people with disabilities. Thirty-five percent of the participants were women.
Following training sessions on disability reporting, community radio stations in Tanzania published 78 articles and programs addressing people with disabilities, their rights, their special needs, and stories from their daily lives.
Vikes also supported the radio station Jamii FM in Tanzania and its ten young journalists, half of whom are women. Operating in the Mtwara region, Jamii FM produced and broadcast 32 thematic documentaries in 2025, in addition to its daily programming, covering topics such as women and girls, people with disabilities, climate change, and other environmental issues.
Trainings on climate reporting in Uganda
The Ugandan radio portal Radio Comnetu included 25 rural radio stations, five of which joined the portal in 2025. Eighty-four percent of Ugandan radio stations reported that their fundraising had improved significantly thanks to the online visibility provided by the radio portal.
In Uganda, 111 journalists participated in radio portal training, 30 percent of whom were women.
The training sessions also delved into climate reporting, and radio stations were supported in the production of climate-related programs.
In 2025, the Ugandan radio portal published more than 2,500 articles and programs. Of these, 162 dealt with climate change and its impacts on rural Uganda.
Mentoring for rural journalists in Kenya
In Kenya, young journalists trained by Vikes’ partner organization, Development Through Media, produced and published 46 reports from rural areas.
The articles and programs addressed topics such as the development of agriculture and entrepreneurship, water supply and sanitation, forest conservation, mental health and sexual health, and the impacts of climate change.
The audio pieces were also compiled into radio magazines for the online media outlet Radio Baraza and social media channels.
In 2025, 67 journalists from rural Kenya and the slums of Nairobi participated in the mentoring program. Fifty-four percent of the journalists who took part in the training sessions in Kenya were women.
Text: Peik Johansson
