Now that Morgan Tsvangirai has been sworn in as Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, the challenges ahead of him and the unity government are quite daunting. Feba Zimbabwe staff, living in the midst of this, are sharing real hope with listeners in their radio ministry, counselling those who call in and developing new programmes to meet their needs.

Though they have their own concerns over health care, education, and having enough cash to buy food, the Feba programme producers are serving the community with five 30-minute radio programmes every week, including talking with listeners who call in. Kurai Madzonga, National Director, says that the postal system has pretty much collapsed, and most listeners are contacting the office by SMS, requesting a phone call back. This is adding a large burden to costs, as mobile calls are expensive. Even the landline service must now be paid in US dollars, and often these are not available, so the service has been cut.

Feba’s programmes are broadcast on ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation), a good relationship that they hope to continue when Feba’s airtime contract expires at the end of March. Negotiations for a new contract have started.

Kurai is working on a partnership with HEARTLINES in South Africa, to help them get their programming aired on ZTV. HEARTLINES uses the media, technology and partnerships with key institutions to shift social norms by inspiring and encouraging people to become part of a national movement for good.

Feba Zimbabwe programme producers have also developed a pilot programme (a children's programme in the Shona language) for airing on TWR. This will be a partnership in which Feba produces the programmes and TWR airs them on their satellite network that covers all of Africa. Kurai is also looking at producing a Christian worldview series in Shona, also for the TWR network.