First of all, I would like to give you a brief background of the Radio Program, called Somali Voice in Sydney. Somali Voice goes on air for one hour every Thursday in the 2000 FM Studio. It was established in 1996 and operats on a volunteer basis. Within the first two years the Radio Program received a small amount of funding from the Community Settlement Service project, funded by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, which paid for the cost of a time slot used on 2000 FM. After that the Program was left to come up with its own funds to cover all cost involved in the radio production. Fortunately , this year we received sponsorship from ACL to keep the radio program going and we thank ACL for their generosity.

Despite a lot of difficulties, a small team of volunteers succeeded in keeping the program on air. Each week numerous Somali voices appear with news and other information to share with Somali speaking people in NSW. It has been tough, particularly considering that our community is very new and each one of us is still engaged in our own settlement problems. But in Somali, there is a Somali saying "God deserts not the courageous man" and that is what happened.

Approximately 12 months ago, the Somali Voice in Sydney was approached by the NSW Refugee Health Service and the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service to discuss the possibility of broadcasting health information on Somali Radio. It was exciting news for us because we know that our community would benefit a lot from this health program. However we faced a great challenge throughout the implementation of the Somali segments.

The production and the presentation of these segments was totally different to our regular programs. Because we were involved with other people as well, including the NSW Multicultural Communication Health staff, we had to have guidelines, set out schedules, develop teamwork skills and work closer than ever. Cooperation, support, all these skills have suddenly been acquired in the process. Four broadcasters were involve and we have all gained experience that we could not possibly have obtained otherwise, thanks to the program.

After the first and second segments went on air, the program successfully attracted more and more listeners every week, as people called our telephone line and the contents of the health segments were discussed in many community gatherings and locations.

These programs have touched on many issues that are important for the newly arrivered during the process of resettlement. For instance, Services that Assists Refugees and Developing Links With Your Community Worker were two segments which had direct

influence on the situation of the Somali Speaking people in NSW. Even though contents of segments was designed for communities like ours, what made it more interesting and captured the mind of the audience was how it was presented. Plays relevent to the Somali culture, testimonial, female voice, cultural music and introduction, were all used to improve the quality of the health segments.

On behalf of the other broadcasters and volunteers, I would like to say that what has driven us, was the satisfaction we felt at the end of the program, the positive feed back from our listeners as they indicate the benefit they feel from the knowledge they have gained, and the quality of what we present when compared with similar programs around the Globe accessible on the Internet.