THE CAMPUS radio of the Visayas State University launched its first community drama program to tackle disaster preparedness.

“While the official launch was held in 2020, the re-airing of the radio drama was continued in January up to February of this year via a replay broadcast of a partner community radio station. East-West Center in Hawaii funded the radio drama with support from the University of Montana in the United States and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative,” VSU said.

Dr. Christina Gabrillo, the Head of the Department of Development Communication and the concurrent Station Manager of DYDC-FM, was the main proponent of the project as part of her short-term fellowship program with the Asia Pacific Leadership Program in 2019.

Gabrillo said the radio drama was inspired by the struggles of the survivors of super typhoon Yolanda.

“My initial idea was to come up with a story that directly hits home for greater relatability from our target audience. I thought that among all the disasters that we’ve experienced, nothing is more comparable to what we went through during Super Typhoon Yolanda,” Gabrillo said.

“The story followed the tragic story of a couple, Maricel and Bryan, and their son Samuel, as their family was torn apart by a typhoon. It includes their family struggles they encountered in recovering from a disaster,” she added.

For a greater audience reach, the VSU partnered with the local government of Baybay City in Leyte.

“Aside from the premier broadcast aired in DYDC-FM, the radio drama was also simulcast at GROOVE-FM with broadcast coverage that can reach all the 92 barangays of Baybay City,” the university said.

The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, community leaders of Barangay Candadam, and the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation helped implement the project.