The Role of Community Radio in Disseminating Early Warning Information
Michael Mataki, a community radio host, Bududa District uses community radio to share weather alerts, preparedness messages, and safety guidance with communities living across the mountainous areas of Bushika and surrounding villages.
In the mountainous areas of Shihamosi village, Bushika Subcounty, Bududa district, communication has always been a challenge. The terrain is steep, and often difficult to reach different parts of the village. Yet this is also where some of the most dangerous weather-related disasters occur, especially landslides triggered by heavy rainfall.
Years ago, whenever heavy rain triggered landslides in these mountains, communities often received news too late.
By the time warnings moved from one village to another, crops had been buried, homes damaged, and families already affected.
Michael Mataki, a community radio host in Bududa District, has lived through this gap in communication and its consequences. He remembers how uncertain those moments used to feel.
“We would hear about landslides after people had already been affected,” says Michael Mataki, a community radio host who has lived in the area all his life. “By then, it was too late”
Landslides remain a risk, but communities now have more access to information and preparedness support.
From a community radio station, Michael now shares weather alerts, early action and preparedness messages, and simple safety guidance in the language that people understand and trust. What he communicates is not just information, but timing that can change outcomes.
Although the radio station operates on a small scale, its influence and reach has grown across the mountains. It now reaches communities that previously had limited access to early warning information.
This radio has helped us take information beyond Bushika to communities much farther away.
Community radio equipment and megaphones were acquired to improve the flow of information across this challenging terrain.
This has improved access to early warning information, with radio now serving as a critical lifeline for many communities. It has become an important part of how communities receive information and prepare for potential hazards.
The project has supported 14 community radios across 14 sub-counties to strengthen access to early warning and preparedness information. Preparedness messages and weather alerts are now reaching an estimated120,283 people in disaster-prone communities.
Today, families adjust their plans when heavy rain is expected, and parents keep children away from hazardous slopes after storms. Local leaders use radio updates to quickly share alerts, while everyday conversations increasingly reflect greater awareness of weather risks.
Michael observes a clear shift in behavior. “People have moved away from some dangerous habits,” he explains. “Now, when we warn them not to go to steep areas after rain, they listen.”
But the story of resilience in Bushika is not only carried through the radio. It is also rooted in what communities have done.
Through community meetings supported by the project, farmers and residents work together to better understand their risks and find practical solutions.
But the story of resilience in Bushika is not only carried through the radio. It is also rooted in what communities have done.
Through community meetings supported by the project, farmers and residents work together to better understand their risks and find practical solutions.
On the steep slopes, they dig contours to slow down runoff and reduce the speed at which water cuts through the soil. In other areas, large contours have been created to trap rainwater, reduce its speed, and collect nutrient-rich soil before it is washed downhill.
Michael speaks proudly about those contour pits.
“When rainwater enters these pits, it slows down. The soil settles there, and later we take that fertile soil back to our gardens”
While the work was initially focused on reducing disaster risks, some farmers have also reported improvements in soil retention and crop performance. Fields are now holding more moisture, crops are healthier, and yields have gradually improved.
Alongside this, communities have continued planting trees and establishing local nurseries, helping to stabilize fragile slopes and restore vegetation that had been lost over time.
About the project: With funding from the European Union Humanitarian Aid, Oxfam in consortium with Caritas Tororo and Uganda Redcross Society (URCS) are implementing the Early Warning Early Action, Strengthening Multi-Hazard Disaster Preparedness in Mt Elgon Subregion project to enhance community resilience to shocks and stresses through effective and participatory multi-hazard anticipatory action and Preparedness measures.