World Family of Radio Maria Africa

According to the World Family of Radio Maria Annual Report (2016), the World Family of Radio Maria ONLUS is an association with its registered office in Via Rusticucci 13, 00193 Rome. Its main operational offices are located in Via Mazzini 12, 21020 Casciago (VA). Since the beginning members of World Family of Radio Maria (hereinafter, WFRM) are associations from several countries which share the same mission of serving people by providing radio programs that are a source of spiritual and human growth. Their programmes are mainly based on spiritual issues to Christians and specifically the catholic denomination.

The WFRM is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which was legally established in 1998 and its founding member is the Italian Association of Radio Maria. The family which owns Radio Maria worldwide, as of 2007 was composed of forty national associated members present in different countries in various continents; eleven of them are in Africa. The first Radio Maria broadcasting station was founded in 1983 as a parish radio station in Arcellasco d'Erba, in the province of Como in the Catholic diocese of Milan.

The purpose of the radio station was to provide news for parishioners and help them in prayers, by broadcasting the Mass and Rosary. Radio Maria maintained this characteristic until January 1987, when the Radio Maria Association was founded. The Association was composed of married and single people, religious brothers, nuns and priests with the aim of making the station independent from the parish and involving it in a broader plan of evangelization.

According to WFRM Annual Report (2016) currently, World Family has also the task of following the various radios in four fundamental areas: editorial production, associative and administrative management, promotion and dissemination. Besides, it works with other organizations in developing projects and activities in developing countries to improve the life of their people.

As compared to other religious radio, World Family has started to cooperate with Universities by supporting them in training journalists and students interested in communication to become communication agents for peace. For instance, in Tanzania a course in Peace Journalism has already started and it will be exported to other developing countries.

The main stakeholders of the World Family of Radio Maria are the Associations that share the same purpose of World Family and work with her to realize her mission. They are 79, distributed in 72 countries; roughly 50 of them are in developing countries.

Financially and technically, the WFRM supports communication media projects in developing countries through the promotion of volunteering spirit and development programmes as means to self-sufficiency and development. Radio Maria as a project of evangelization through mass media is based on volunteer work whereby its members with their different qualifications, volunteer in the daily running of the stations. Due to its spiritual nature, Radio Maria excludes all types of commercial advertisements; financing comes exclusively from listeners’ donations (Ng’atigwa, 2013).