Live on air as a presenter. Children from low-income families tried it out with Beats for Love

The organisers of the Beats for Love dance festival held a crash course in radio presenting for socially disadvantaged children. After the DJ workshop at the grammar school, this time they focused on young people from the low-threshold facilities of the Vzájemné soužití organisation. They invited them into the live broadcast of Radio Helax, which is among the most listened-to stations in the Moravian-Silesian Region and whose most frequent fans are precisely young people.

Over the course of a single afternoon the young people found out how things actually work at a radio station. They tried out presenting live on air, tested all the studio equipment and even recorded a radio advertisement. „Together we also searched the internet for interesting news, came up with competitions and chose music for our listeners. Of course we also walked through the whole building, and showed them the studio and the facilities for recording and preparing broadcasts,” describes DJ Kmin, one of the members of the Beats for Love organising team, who has been presenting on Radio Helax for 10 years and for the last 3 has also worked as its music programmer.

The low-threshold facilities of the Vzájemné soužití organisation are located in the socially excluded localities of Liščina, Zárubek and Hrušov. Their staff look after leisure activities for children aged 6 and over, most of whom come from very poor families. „The children are clever, active and full of energy, but they have few opportunities to use their free time meaningfully, to gain positive experiences and role models, or to form an idea of their own future. That is why this activity absolutely thrilled us. For the children in our care it was not only a great afternoon programme, but also enormous motivation and a driving force to find something in life worth devoting themselves to,” says Hana Žurovcová, a social worker at the Vzájemné soužití organisation.