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| A dance troupe kicks off Radio Veritas Asia’s 50thanniversary celebrations at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB) center in Dhaka on Nov. 1 (Photo by Stephan Uttom/ucanews) |
In 1983, 10-year-old Ashik Iqbal was given a small radio and
a list of stations to listen to by his elder brother to overcome times of
boredom in their village in Bangladesh's northern Rajshahi district.
One
of the stations was the Bengali Service of Radio Veritas Asia (RVA).
Iqbal,
a Muslim, found the RVA programs very interesting, and became a regular
listener of the Philippines-based Catholic shortwave radio service.
"RVA
programs can attract and hold a listener's attention for ages. It is a voice of
people like me. There are various religiously-affiliated media but the RVA is
different. It is Christian but doesn't limited itself within religious
boundaries," Iqbal, now 47, told ucanews.
RVA
first went on air in 1969, while the Bengali Service stated in 1980.
