On the radio in Papua, young Andre is making waves
By Shintya Kurniawan, World Vision Indonesia
Smile and laughter, those are the most obvious impressions we get from Andre, an eleven-year-old radio announcer. We can almost hear him smile if we stay tuned to the Voice of Baliem Children radio, 88.8 FM in Wamena, Papua.
The 5th grader’s introduction to radio production started about a year ago when he participated in an education competition, held by Wahana Visi Indonesia and his school.
On the same day, he was offered an audition for a radio announcer position. With his mother’s support, he passed the test and attended training as both radio operator and announcer. The rest is history; he fell in love with the broadcasting world.
“I really enjoy my role as an announcer since it enables me to make friends with kids from different schools. I also learn a lot from Miss Silfa, our caretaker who prepares the script. There are times when I am asked to prepare my own script too,” he said.
"Of course I got cold feet when interviewing older people, but when I remembered my motivation to share information with my friends, I got excited again."
In his hands, any kind of topic can be an interesting talk show material. Be it the names of planets, short story narration, children rights, even the “heavy” topics such as HIV and AIDS.
On top of that, he never hesitates to interview people who are much older than him, including government officials from Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and the Jayawijaya District Secretary.
“Of course I got cold feet when interviewing older people, but when I remembered my motivation to share information with my friends, I got excited again. However, my favorite interviewees are my peers. I can ask them about school, their favorite subjects, their best friends, and of course about the top scorer in their class,” Andre grinned widely.
The joy of broadcasting is not kept to himself. Pauline Tinggi, Andre’s mother, feels the positive impact of Voice of Baliem Children radio.
“Since he joined this radio, he becomes more creative and confident. He often writes and sketches until the papers are scattered across the living room. I got tired of cleaning it, but I better let his creativity flow,” Pauline explained proudly.
As much as he enjoys the role as announcer, Andre aspires to be a doctor. He is also curious to become a singer.
Hmmmm… maybe Andre can become a doctor who also sings to the patients to relieve their illness. Why not?