On August 3, over a thousand rural people rallied in Guatemala City in support of a bill that was introduced to the Guatemalan Congress to legalize community radio. The bill, which was the product of months of work by Cultural Survival staff and radio station volunteers, has now been assigned to two committees (Communications, Transportation and Public Works Committee and Indigenous Peoples Committee) for review. Tino Recinos, our lead lobbyist, met with presidents of both committees last week. Forty-five radio volunteers are aggressively working to push the bill though.

Behind the scenes, keeping up with new radio technology is a major part of the project. With the advice of Cultural Survival Technology Committee member Nathan Felde and a group of 11 technical specialists at Alfred University in New York state, we worked out a plan to test the use of new Wi-Fi antennas in Guatemala. We selected a station in Todos Santos Cuchumatan and another in San Pedro la Laguna.

Baka Gbine, a Baka Pygmy music group from southeast Cameroon, will perform for international audiences for the first time in a series of concerts scheduled for April and May in England, Survival International reports. Baka Gbine, who traditionally perform at weddings and funerals, are composed of seven male and female musicians and dancers. The group will tour with Baka Beyond, an Afro-Celtic group based in England, to promote the release of their album, Gati Bongo. The album is slated for wide release on April 24.

In the story about violence against indigenous women that appeared in the March 15 Weekly Indigenous News, the article failed to credit the international women’s human rights organization MADRE, from which much of the information was taken. Cultural Survival regrets the error. To learn more about the subject and read the original source material, visit the MADRE Web site: http://www.madre.org/

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is accepting applications for its remunerated 2006 Special Youth Program fellowship through February 17. Qualified candidates will be between the ages of 20–24, currently living in a developing nation, and will have some previous experience working on development issues. Accepted fellows will begin with a six-month fellowship at UNFPA headquarters in New York City.

The second Indigenous Peoples Summit of the Americas, hosted by the Organización de Naciones y Pueblos Indígenas en Argentina (ONPIA) and the Assembly of First Nations in Canada (AFN), took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October 24-29. Indigenous groups met at the summit to draft a Declaration and Action Plan of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.