Local  broadcast through mobile radio involving full participation of remote rural communities.

about this program

Doko Radio was initiated in January 2007. Since then it has traversed hundreds of miles across the mountains, hills and plains of Nepal touching the lives of more than 50,000 rural community people. This outreach programme impact keeps growing as the Doko Radio project creatively evolves with newer innovations, strategies and sustainable outputs.

The first phase was a pilot phase targeted in five FM-Shadow regions of Nepal. Due to the outreach of FM signals in almost all the regions in the plains of Terai and Middle hills. These sample destinations were chosen for their deprived status of any prominent national (SW) or local (FM) radio waves.

Conducting micro-community radio in these five regions gave the team ample experiences and insights to magnify the positive impact of this kind of small radio station with a low budget but high output. The second phase has evolved into 'Doko Media Mela'.


doko media mela

“Mela” in Nepali is a festive fanfare in the villages and has been a deeply rooted cultural practice for centuries. Doko Media Mela is a very lively happening  going on in Nepal that has weaved radio, video projections, reading materials and ethno-music archiving under one tent roof, regardless of season and geographical terrain.

The 'Doko Media Mela' is organised with the active participation of the community radio stations in five regions of the country. It was considered an important approach as the corridor of FM-shadow regions is shrinking.  Now there is a growing need for the existing and expanding number of community stations to maintain the true essence of community services, to assist the locals to solve their local problem locally through community radios and multimedia.


inside doko media mela

Two members of the local community radio station join the Doko crew along with one local resource person and ten local volunteers to organise the Mela.

Radio transmission is three hours of morning (7-10AM) transmission and three hours of (5-8PM) rebroadcast. In the afternoon from 11AM until 4PM, the Doko library opens up to the public. Currently the library is restricted to provide only reference materials for reading-on-location. Some materials like handbooks, audio tapes and CDs, pamphlets, posters and other informative tools are distributed as per the availability and transportation access. Cultural recordings or live performances ensure all forms of people's expression whether it is a serious public and political debate or simple songs about their love, life and sufferings. As the broadcast takes place inside the make-shift studio, children, women and elders are all drawn together in a nearby ground to watch an open air screening of documentaries and awareness-based film series.

Our 30 watt portable FM transmitter is powered by kerosene generator and sometimes with local hydropower supply. But sometimes the transmission hours exceed more than 10 hours due to overwhelming participation.

The 'Doko Media Mela' has visited around 25 remote districts across the country including remote  Darchulla , Humla, Myagdi, Gorkha, Khotang between March 2007 to June 2008.