Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 George Atkins Communications Award!

Kasooha Ismael joined Uganda’s Kagadi Kibaale Community Radio (KKCR) in 2005 as a volunteer news anchor. The station management quickly recognized his talent for radio and promoted him to assistant news editor. He was then assigned the role of lead presenter for Participatory Radio Campaigns (PRCs) on improved beekeeping, disease-tolerant cassava, and composting and environmental conservation. The impact of these high-quality PRCs is visible in the target communities to this day. Currently Ismael is the producer and presenter of the quality-protein maize PRC at KKCR. He has shown a tremendous effort in making the PRC interactive, entertaining and educational.

Anthony Lwanga is the director of KKCR in Uganda, a Farm Radio International partner for more than a decade. Anthony collaborated with Farm Radio International on the Linking Agricultural Research and Rural Radio in Africa (LARRRA) project. He was also an active participant in our script-writing competitions. Through his leadership, KKCR was a key partner in the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI), a 42-month research project that assessed the effectiveness of farm radio in meeting the food security objectives of rural African farming households. The radio programs that Anthony helps to produce are responsive to community needs and popular with farmers.

Lydia Ajono, director of Radio Gurune in Ghana’s Upper East Region, is one of Farm Radio International’s senior in-station trainers. She has been involved in our work since the early 1980s when she was with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. During that time, she contributed many high-quality scripts and was a keen participant in the gender workshop in Ghana, where she mentored younger broadcasters, and women especially. Lydia was a successful participant in our 2012 e-course on farmer radio program development. Lydia’s was one of the top program designs created over the 12-week course.