“
Investing in
a disparate
network of
citizen
reporters
actually
bears a lot
of fruit
”
UK-based charity Radar trains
marginalised communities to
tell their stories to a global
audience. When the Ebola
outbreak became a full-blown
epidemic in Sierra Leone,
Radar’s reporters provided
some of the first on-the-ground
coverage. Radar founder Libby
Powell tells us how the Radar
project came to be and how the
disabled sometimes make the
best reporters
adar is essentially
a communications
hub for groups
that are excluded
from public
dialogue, and that
exclusion group is
growing as we work. It began with
young people with disabilities, and
young women and girls who were
living in traditional communities.
But then as we worked, we realised
there’s very little difference between
being excluded for a social, cultural
reason and being excluded because
of resource scarcity – whether it’s
abject poverty or being in remote,
end-of-the-line communities.
Anyone who is excluded for social,
cultural, political, economic or
geographical reasons we work with.
We work predominantly
through the mobile phone,
because it’s the most prevalent
and accessible communication
tool we have across the world.
Even in the furthest places that we
go, we find that if not privately
owned, there’s certainly
communal ownership of a mobile.
How did Radar get started?
My background was in
supporting humanitarian work in
Palestine and Lebanon. I worked
for an organisation called MAP
(Medical Aid for Palestinians).
And while I was there, after
situations like Operation Cast
Lead and then the refugee camps
in Lebanon, one of the biggest
things that people wanted was a
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chance to record their testimony.
When I finished with MAP, I
retrained as a journalist. I worked
as a freelancer for a couple of years,
reporting on development issues.
But I thought the model was a little
flawed when I was sitting in
Hackney and writing on FGM.
Why was I doing that? The reason
was I understood the audience and
I thought if I could continue to
understand the audience, but
bridge with groups who were
actually experiencing FGM on the
ground, I would be doing a much
more holistic process, than if I was
trying to collect all that information
myself.
The idea for Radar came when I
was on a trip to Sri Lanka, when I
saw how predominant mobile phone
