Curtin, eBario, association ink MoU

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/09/07/curtin-ebario-association-ink-mou/

Posted on September 7, 2013, Saturday

MIRI: Curtin Sarawak is extending its expertise in the development of student learning activities, training, research and collaborative projects with eBario Sendirian Berhad and Rurum Kelabit Sarawak.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the project was signed recently between eBario chief executive officer Councillor John Tarawe, Laila Raja for Rurum Kelabit and outgoing Curtin Sarawak pro vice-chancellor Professor Ian Kerr.

Present to witness the signing were incoming pro vice-chancellor Professor Jim Mienczakowski, Curtin Sarawak Research Institute (CSRI) director Professor Aaron Goh, CSRI senior research fellow Dr Lisa Marie King and Supang Terawe of Rurum Kelabit Sarawak.

Mienczakowski said the MoU marked an important milestone for Curtin Sarawak and demonstrated its commitment to engage with local communities in its pursuit of academic excellence.

King, who was instrumental in establishing the cooperative relationship between the different parties, echoed Mienczakowki’s sentiments.

“As a member of CSRI, I am keen to apply my knowledge and expertise to enhance the well-being of communities in Sarawak. Our close engagement with eBario and Rurum Kelabit Sarawak will lead to significant activities and joint projects that can have a positive impact, both on the university’s learning experiences and the communities,” she said.

eBario Sdn Bhd is an award-winning initiative that runs projects and activities such as the eBario Telecentre, eBario Innovation Village, Radio Bario, eBario Knowledge Fair, Bario Slow Food Festival and eBorneo Research.

New Radio Bario hits the airwaves at 94.5 MHz FM

http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/10/15/new-radio-bario-hits-the-airwaves-at-94-5-mhz-fm/

Posted on October 15, 2011, Saturday

BARIO: The Kelabit community of Bario became better connected on Thursday when their brand new radio station hit the airwaves. Radio Bario is Malaysia’s first community-run radio station, and the Kelabit community never had their own broadcast media, until now.

Representing a milestone in Malaysia’s broadcasting and media development, Radio Bario is a project by eBario Sdn Bhd, the organisation which operates the eBario telecentre, with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) — under their Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility.

It is operated ‘by and for the community’ and has a limited radius of between 20-30 kilometres from the station, serving the scattered longhouses and farms.

The creation of Radio Bario is highly significant. Not only will the station broadcast in the Kelabit language, but for the first time listeners will hear news, interviews, stories and music with direct relevance to their culture and history.

Radio Bario has also been successful in mobilising the local community to make the station their own.

The people of Bario undertake every role, from on-air presentation to collecting local news and encouraging the participation of the whole community.

It is the product of four years of planning by eBario Sdn Bhd, which collaborated with RadioActive Ltd. RadioActive is a UK-based company with a strong track record in installing community radio stations.

They provide equipment, training and technical assistance to help build community radio stations around the world, having previously worked in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Community radio is a not-for-profit low-cost limited reach broadcasting facility providing a variety of information and entertainment services to the residents of a restricted geographical area.

Normally operated by volunteer programme producers drawn from within the community itself, its function is to supplement mainstream broadcasting with local news, entertainment and cultural programming, mostly in the local language.

John Tarawe of eBario expects that the success of the Radio Bario launch would lead to the launch of other community stations in Malaysia. He said in a press release, “our work with eBario has demonstrated a successful track record with community mobilisation. Radio is one of the best examples of that.”

RadioActive director Max Graef says; “Radio Bario is our 50th project. Each one is unique, but Bario has been a memorable experience because of the warmth and commitment of the local community.

“After just a few training sessions we’re already hearing some great results on air. Community radio can have a great impact, especially considering the low costs involved in getting a station started. We hope to see many other communities in Malaysia benefiting from this technology in the near future.”

As national radio does not reach many of the isolated and remote rural parts of Sarawak, and with its assortment of mother-tongue languages, community radio opens up a new channel of communication for the State’s underserved communities.

Moreover, it provides opportunities for conducting public debates on issues of local interest.

With the widespread use of hand phones these days, listeners can participate in phone-ins from wherever they happen to be.

Useful information can now be easily spread throughout isolated communities in a faster, more timely and economical manner than ever before.

Stanley Isaac, the station manager, is one person who’d endorse this view. A former schoolteacher, Stanley presented Radio Bario’s very first live programme in his native Kelabit.

“For three years it was a dream. Now people are blinking their eyes and saying “Is it true?” he enthused.

Ex-Pemanca Ngimat Ayu added: “This is a very important thing because the indigenous communities don’t hear themselves in the mainstream media and now we feel connected. This will help to conserve and preserve our language and our identity.”

Given the positive experience of Radio Bario’s launch, eBario and RadioActive have formed a joint venture to install more radio stations in Malaysia.

At a recent dialogue in Miri, several representatives of other indigenous groups in Sarawak expressed their interest in establishing their own community radio stations.

Anyone interested to do so can contact John Tarawe on 0194381777 or by email at john.tarawe@gmail.com.

Malaysia’s first community radio station to broadcast from Kelabit Highlands

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/22/sarawak/9547543&sec=sarawak

Thursday September 22, 2011

By CINDY LAI
sarawakstar@thestar.com.my

MIRI: Bario Radio, the first community radio to be established in Malaysia, will broadcast in the Kelabit language by the end of next month.

This non-profit radio station will be managed by eBario Sdn Bhd, the operator of the award-winning eBario rural telecentre.

A dialogue organised by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to discuss the station’s policies and practices here yesterday garnered the participation of 20 interested parties from Bario and Miri.

The dialogue was aimed at stimulating public debate among the stakeholders on policy formulations and related practices that would allow further applications of community radio stations in Malaysia.

The station has received a RM50,000 funding from the International Fund for Agriculture Development and Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics and will be managed by volunteers.

Bario Radio will be implemented next month with the installation of equipment followed by training of local Kelabits in the operation of the station.

The programmes will be conducted in Kelabit by volunteer broadcasters drawn from the community.

According to Unimas Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations director Professor Alvin Yeo, the station would reach out to people in remote areas in Sarawak, initially around Bario.

“The dialogue was to raise awareness and understanding of guidelines for implementation among potential adopters of community radio stations.

“It was also an effort to initiate momentum for the wider deployment of community radio stations in Malaysia as a means of achieving the national development goals.

“Hence, it will create awareness among policymakers on the need of Malaysia’s indigenous people, particularly the Kelabits, to have their own media to overcome their vulnerability and marginalisation,” said Yeo.

The eBario project was started by the local university in 1998 to provide computers and the Internet to the remote and isolated highland community in Bario.

The project has had a considerable impact not only on the residents but also on the development of Government policies to provide similar facilities for the rest of rural Malaysia.

In 2002, the eBario facilities were handed over to the people of Bario and eBario Sdn Bhd was established as a vehicle to continue its operations and management.

The eBario telecentre was meant to provide communication technology for Bario to reach out to the world.

Under a new policy by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Comission (MCMC), other communities in Malaysia, especially isolated kampungs and ethnic groups that are starved of information, are assured of enjoying similar benefits.

Under this policy, MCMC granted the licence for the first community radio station to be operated as Bario Radio.

Bario Community Radio a possibility by year-end

http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/07/13/bario-community-radio-a-possibility-by-year-end/

Posted on July 13, 2011, Wednesday

KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) expects to launch its pilot project, Bario Community Radio, by end of this year.

Associate Professor Dr Alvin Yeo from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) said the Kelabit-language station would allow Bario residents to communicate with each other.

“It’s like a one-stop centre for information. Let’s say someone out there don’t have Internet access they can call the station and ask for information about a certain topic. The person at the station can go online, look for the information and share it through the radio,” Yeo said.
The project, an extension of the e-Bario centre, is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

According to Yeo, they already had the licence to operate the community radio but they first needed to talk with the federal government, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture.

The university’s vice-chancellor Associate Professor Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid added that the project was the university’s initiative to bring technology into the rural area.

“E-Bario is a good lab for innovation. We’re now upgrading the infrastructure the first one since we introduced e-Bario. We have introduced a long range Wifi. From Bario, we can connect to a number of longhouses and villages in the (Bario) area,” he said during a press conference after the launch of the 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) 2011.

He added that Bario was very well aware of the available technology and were pushing for them to introduce those technologies into the area.

Bario Radio on air soon

http://tribune.my/prime/2246-bario-radio-on-air-soon.html

Bario Radio on air soon

Thursday, 02 September 2010 11:58

KUCHING: eBario Sdn Bhd, a social enterprise established to operate the remote and isolated eBario telecentre located in the Kelabit Highlands, became the recipient of Malaysia’s first license for a community radio station issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Aug 31.

MCMC described community radio as “a small scale, low cost, not for profit radio broadcasting system designed to deliver content that has specific interest to the community it serves.” Acknowledging the recent interest in the provision of such services, most notably by eBario Sdn Bhd, MCMC pointed out that the concept is relatively new to Malaysia.

Accordingly, the regulatory body has recently issued new guidelines for applying for a community radio license.

Community radio stations have blossomed in much of Africa and Latin America and have sprung up in neighbouring countries in Asia.

Within their limited reach of 15-30 kilometres, and the relatively low cost of setting up and ease of use, they are used by communities to broadcast information of local interest.

Broadcasts are usually prepared by the residents themselves and are often conducted in local languages or dialects that national media do not cater to.

The Bario community radio station is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), under its Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF).

According to John Tarawe, CEO of eBario Sdn Bhd and a research fellow and consultant at the Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI) at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, the proposal to set up the station was one of forty successful submissions to the IPAF out of more than 800 from around the world.

He added that the proposal was an initiative which took two years of lobbying by the community with support from Rurum Kelabit Sarawak Tarawe, who is also a Kelabit resident of Bario and district councillor, stated that the station is intended to serve the people within the Forum of the Indigenous People of the Highlands of Borneo, known by its acronym Formadat (Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi).

“The eBario telecentre currently provides information services to the Bario community via shared public access to the internet.

“Having won multiple awards for its innovative approach to the use of Information and Communications Technologies for the social and economic development of the people living in the remote Bario area, the radio station is seen as a natural extension by delivering information right into the homes of the residents,” said Tarawe.

The station will be managed and operated by the community themselves, broadcasting much of its material in the local Kelabit language.

With their internet connection, it also planned to broadcast programmes on the internet to provide information services to the wider Kelabit diaspora living throughout Malaysia and beyond.

Members of the Bario community have been involved in every step of the proposal and they are enthusiastic about the prospect of operating their own radio station.

Expressing concern that the Kelabit language is dying as the younger generation moves away from the area, Tarawe said, “It is expected that the radio station will contribute towards the revival of the language.” The station will also broadcast local news collected by the residents themselves as well as facilitate debate on issues of local concern.

It will also provide a channel for public service announcements in the local Kelabit language, including the relaying of national news, providing information to promote better agriculture, encouraging commercial enterprises, preserving the local culture, extending education and improve public health.

The initiators of Bario Radio expect it to herald more such proposals for community radio stations to improve information flow to Malaysia’s isolated rural and indigenous communities.

For more information on eBario, call John Tarawe on 019-4381777 or email him at jtarawe@ bario.net

eBario Sdn Bhd miliki stesen radio komuniti pertama di Malaysia

http://sarawakupdate.com/home/berita/zon-utara/ebario-sdn-bhd-miliki-stesen-radio-komuniti-pertama-di-malaysia/

eBario Sdn Bhd miliki stesen radio komuniti pertama di Malaysia

KUCHING, 1 Sept (Bernama)

Sebuah perusahaan sosial, eBario Sdn Bhd, yang diwujudkan untuk mengendalikan telepusat eBario yang jauh dan terpencil di Tanah Tinggi Kelabit di Sarawak, muncul penerima pertama lesen bagi sebuah stesen radio komuniti di negara ini.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutifnya, John Tarawe berkata lesen untuk mengendalikan stesen Radio Komuniti Bario itu dikeluarkan oleh Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia (SKMK) semalam.

Tarawe, seorang fellow penyelidik dan perunding di pusat kecemerlangan informatik luar bandar, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), berkata:

“Cadangan untuk mewujudkan stesen itu adalah antara 40 permohonan terpilih daripada 800 dari seluruh dunia, kepada kemudahan Bantuan Masyarakat Adat (IPAF), dan merupakan inisiatif yang mengambil masa dua tahun untuk komuniti itu melobi dengan mendapat sokongan Rurum Kelabit Sarawak,” katanya dalam satu kenyataan di sini hari ini.

Tarawe, daripada suku Kelabit yang tinggal di Bario dan seorang ahli majlis daerah, berkata stesen itu, yang berhasrat memberi perkhidmatan kepada penduduk dalam lingkungan Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi (Formadat) — dibiayai oleh Dana Antarabangsa bagi Pembangunan Pertanian, di bawah IPAF.

Ekoran kejayaan meraih pelbagai anugerah kerana pendekatan berinovasi dalam penggunaan teknologi komunikasi maklumat bagi pembangunan sosio-ekonomi penduduk di kawasan pedalaman Bario, beliau berkata stesen radio itu dilihat sebagai sambungan semula jadi telepusat eBario dengan menyalurkan maklumat terus ke rumah mereka.

Pada masa ini, telepusat itu menyediakan khidmat maklumat kepada penduduk Bario menerusi perkongsian akses awam ke internet.

“Stesen itu akan diuruskan dan dikendalikan oleh komuniti itu sendiri, dengan penyiaran sebahagian besar daripada bahannya dilakukan dalam bahasa Kelabit tempatan,” kata Tarawe.

Dengan perancangan untuk menyiarkan program di internet untuk menyediakan khidmat maklumat kepada sejumlah besar perantau Kelabit yang tinggal di seluruh Malaysia dan sekitarnya, beliau berkata stesen radio itu juga dijangka memberi sumbangan ke arah menghidupkan semula bahasa.

Selain menyiarkan berita tempatan yang dikumpul oleh penduduk sendiri, stesen itu akan menyediakan saluran untuk pengumuman khidmat awam dalam bahasa Kelabit, termasuk menyampaikan berita nasional, selain menyediakan maklumat bagi menggalakkan pertanian yang lebih baik, menggalakkan perusahaan komersial, memelihara budaya setempat, memperluas pendidikan dan menambah baik kesihatan awam.

Sementara itu, SKMK menggambarkan radio komuniti itu sebagai “berskala kecil, kos rendah, sistem penyiaran radio yang bukan bermatlamatkan keuntungan direka untuk menyampaikan kandungan yang mempunyai kepentingan khusus kepada komuniti yang diliputinya.” — BERNAMA