The radio station that was set up in summer 2019 in Musanze, Rwanda with support from the UMH Board of Trustees, collaboration from Radio UMH, and coordination from the Vice Rectorate for International Relations and the UMH Headquarters in Rwanda Chair, has restarted programming after Covid-19 suspended operations for some time. From May 19 – 26, the small station at the public and mixed high school in the city of Musanze, commemorated the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, where about 800,000 people were murdered by ethnic Hutu extremists.

Rwandan journalist at Radio Musanze – RBA and coordinator of the training program at ESSA UMH Radio, Beni Habayisenga, explained how because of the Covid-19 pandemic and to respect social distancing measures, the mayor of Musanze and other local authorities utilized the small closed-circuit broadcaster so they could issue statements to that school’s students and employees, who listened to the addresses from their respective classrooms. The main objective of this was to pay homage to the teachers, administrative staff, and students who were victims of the 1994 killings.

Between April and June, Rwandan schools, health centers, and businesses dedicate a week to commemorate and remember the victims of the murders in the genocide committed against ethnic Tutsi 27 years ago.

ESSA UMH Radio programming began in September 2019 after three months of theoretical and practical training given by local journalist and alumnus of that school, Beni Habayisenga, along with three UMH journalism graduates who were in that country as participants of the UMH volunteering program there.

Although for a few months radio broadcasting ceased along with the closures of schools as a consequence of Covid-19 in that country, broadcast programming has progressively restarted at that small station, and more students there are becoming participants in the initiative in order to ensure a space with a clear vocation of outreach and to also serve as a training vehicle for new generations of information professionals in that country.