There’s a radio station in Chiconono, a town in the Niassa Province of Mozambique, that operates by the power of the sun and wind. There is still no grid electricity in this part of the country. It is coming, one day, but for now the voices in the radio are delivered by transmitters using solar panels and a couple of wind generators.

The villagers here all speak chiYao, a language spoken in Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania. The Yao people have little by way of audio content in their own language, and so Radio Chiunjota is a magnet for the few hours they are on air each day.

‘Chiunjota’ means ‘Water of Life’ in chiYao. The station was started by missionaries Normand and Henriette Saindon. Malawian, Aubie Banda, works with them, and is the station’s main presenter. He says his life changed as a young labourer when he heard the gospel being explained in his own language. His work today is centred on delivering interesting and helpful radio content that his listeners enjoy and gain by. In their own language.

There are more than 60 officially licensed community radio stations in Mozambique, but many of them are off the air. Well-meaning NGOs have started them - built studios, trained staff, been involved at the beginning, before handing them over to local community committees. Equipment breaks, staff move on, diesel for the generator runs out, and sadly stations go off the air.

It is amazing how some of these stations stay on the air - with the most basic of equipment, ’studios’ that have little or no sound treating, and staff who work for almost nothing. But the spirit of community radio is there. Family announcements are read out on air, often for a small fee to help keep the station going. Every now and again a local businessman or woman will buy advertising to publicise their shop or restaurant or service. It is all very small potatoes compared to the fast-paced and cut-throat world of commercial radio in the developed world, but radio is a wonderful tool for development.

Back in Chiconono, the radio has gone off the air because the transmitter has a fault. Local villagers walk long distances to the mission station to ask what has happened the voices on the radio - they are missing them. Feba Radio, who partner with Radio Chiunjota by providing technical help and expertise, have fixed equipment here a few times, and soon the station is back on the air, and locals are smiling.

Do they really like their radio station? Recently, the solar panels that power up the transmitter were stolen, and the station went off the air. Aubie Banda and Normand Saindon put the word out in the town what had happened and they were sorry that the radio could not continue - within a couple of days, the panels were quietly and anonymously returned.