Freshta Shikhany, aka “DJ Malaika,” is a study in determination.
She fled Kabul in 1992 at age 9 when “rockets were flying all over the city” and sought refuge in the border town of Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Freshta got her early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. A year into the course, Pakistani authorities closed down the school. Undaunted, Freshta and a few other students continued to study with volunteer teachers from the defunct university. Their classes, started in the backyard of a refugee organization, soon grew into a university when more refugee students joined. But two years later, this too closed down.
Freshta had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student and allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. She was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status. Freshta went on to complete the radio journalism course offered by Internews.
Now, Freshta reports for the Internews-supported program, Da Pulay Poray (whose Urdu name means “On the Borderline”). The weekly program, produced by a team of Pakistani and Afghan radio journalists, covers issues affecting populations along the Pak-Afghan border and airs on 15 radio stations in the cross-border region. Freshta also has her own Dari language show on Buraq 104 – Peshawar’s first independent FM station.
“The program is about issues pertinent
She fled Kabul in 1992 at age 9 when “rockets were flying all over the city” and sought refuge in the border town of Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Freshta got her early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. A year into the course, Pakistani authorities closed down the school. Undaunted, Freshta and a few other students continued to study with volunteer teachers from the defunct university. Their classes, started in the backyard of a refugee organization, soon grew into a university when more refugee students joined. But two years later, this too closed down.
Freshta had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student and allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. She was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status. Freshta went on to complete the radio journalism course offered by Internews.
Now, Freshta reports for the Internews-supported program, Da Pulay Poray (whose Urdu name means “On the Borderline”). The weekly program, produced by a team of Pakistani and Afghan radio journalists, covers issues affecting populations along the Pak-Afghan border and airs on 15 radio stations in the cross-border region. Freshta also has her own Dari language show on Buraq 104 – Peshawar’s first independent FM station.
“The program is about issues pertinent
to the large Afghan refugee population settled here,” she says. “With radio, I can give my community a voice.” Freshta believes radio gives her anonymity, yet empowers her to take up issues of relevance to some 3.2 million Afgto the large Afghan refugee population settled here,” she says. “With radio, I can give my community a voice.” Freshta believes radio gives her anonymity, yet empowers her to take up issues of relevance to some 3.2 million Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan. han refugees still living in Pakistan.
source:www.internews.org
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