Despite the challenges of working in Sudan, the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) continues its operations in the country with a brand new series of Darfur Lifeline radio programmes.
David Mowbray reports from Juba.
The voice and the message are powerful. They are first-person testimony to the impact of radio and the value of the BBC World Service Trust's humanitarian broadcasts.
"My name is Mohammed Mohamud from Boromedina camp. I send greetings to my family in Nyala and also in Selam camp. Fond greetings to my brother."
"I am Fatima Abdula. I send all greetings to my family in Nyala, especially to my sister."
Fatima and Mohammed live in the Boromedina IDP camp in Southern Sudan. Years of conflict and unrest in Darfur have scattered their families across a million square miles in camps from south Sudan to Chad.
Messages like theirs to loved ones are an important way to deliver hope across distance and boundaries. They are crucial elements in a brand-new series of Salaam il Darfur (Peace in Darfur), the daily, shortwave broadcast for the people of Darfur.
For more than three years it has made important contributions to the well-being of people in camps and in the communities near the camps. The broadcasts, which focus entirely on non-political issues, present vital, survival information to the more than two million internally displaced.
More than a year ago the government of Sudan insisted the BBC WST suspend the production of new programmes in Darfur while our registration was being finalised, and so the team scheduled relevant rebroadcasts of earlier programmes.
In April 2008 the production team moved to Juba, where the BBC WST has international NGO status with the government of Southern Sudan. The team intended to produce the programme from Juba until they could move back to Darfur.
Setting up a new studio and production capacity in a location itself still recovering from decades of civil war was a major task. It is more than 1,000km from their home in Nyala, south Darfur and more than 500km by helicopter and mud roads to the Boromedina and Raja IDP camps where displaced Darfuris live.
They knew about the production being stopped and the repeats. But they still listened
Mohannad Merghaji Ome, producer
The producers, Darfuri themselves, knew how important the voices of people living in camps in Southern Sudan would be to the broadcasts.
Gaining access to the camps in Southern Sudan was a challenge but after a great deal of patience, being bogged down in mud on the treacherous road, having their cameras seized by security personnel and being warned that their safety was at risk, the team succeeded.
The lifeline continues
Instead of danger in the camps they faced a boisterous welcome.
"They even knew our names, all the presenters, from our voices," beams Mohannad Merghani Ome, producer of the youth segments. "They knew about the production being stopped and the repeats. But they still listened. "
The people of the two camps had a great deal to tell the Lifeline team and microphones and recorders were kept busy recording stories, messages to distant family and discussions about issues relevant to the displaced wherever they were. There was a lot to say and these people, who had not had a voice before, wanted to say it.
The result is a brand new series of Lifeline programmes and a new set of insights about the lives of the displaced. This is not a permanent solution to continuing the broadcasts, just a stopgap, but the team has found new stories and listeners that they will not forget in the future.
"They said they never expected the BBC World Service Trust to come so far to see us," says Mohannad. "The hardest part for them and for us was when we left and had to say goodbye."
The Darfur Lifeline project had never been able to promote the broadcasts or establish listening groups in Southern Sudan. Nevertheless, Salaam il Darfur has found an audience there, and most importantly the audience has found Salaam il Darfur. The lifeline is now stretched, connecting people separated by the continuing conflict in a way only radio can.
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Click here to view in Real or Windows MediaThe BBC World Service Trust's current projects for Darfur are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Christian Aid.