Ten journalists from twelve community radio stations in Liberia have completed a five-day training workshop conducted on producing documentaries.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, the coordinator of the INFORMOTRAC project of the Liberia Media Center, Mr. Lamii Kpargoi admonished the participants to view themselves as ambassadors of their various radio stations.

Mr. Kpargoi told the four females and six male participants, who were drawn from Radio Piso, Super Bongese, Radio Kakata, Peace FM, Radio Nimba, Voice of Tappitta, Radio Kergheamahn, Voice of Sinoe, Rivercess Broadcasting Service and Radio Life, that the onus was now upon them to transfer the knowledge they attained to their co-workers upon their return to their various stations.

He regretted that so often people who participate in such trainings do not serve as a source of knowledge transfer to their workmates.

For his part, Mr. Franklyn Kamara who facilitated the training stated that he was very impressed with the level of commitment that he noticed from the participants.

Mr. Kamara who has vast experience in the community radio sector of neighboring Sierra Leone noted that the skill level of the trainees he encountered were surprisingly quite developed, considering the relatively short history of community radio development in Liberia.

During the training, which was done at the Liberia Media Center, participants were coached on writing scripts for radio, interviewing techniques, identifying issues for documentaries and production skills.

The training is part of a four-year program under the banner Initiative for Mobile Training of Community Radio (INFORMOTRAC) that is being implemented by the Liberia Media Center. The INFORMOTRAC program is implemented in 6 countries in West and Central Africa and is being funded by the Radio Netherlands Training Center (RNTC) based in The Netherlands.

Since 2007, the Liberia Media Center has signed partnership agreements with community radio stations in rural Liberia to provide technical and logistical support. As a result, the LMC has provided transmitters; digital broadcast equipment including computers and regular on-location trainings for staff at the radio stations.