Radio Lumière, an evangelical cultural network based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, suffered extensive damage during the passage of Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 4.
With nine radio stations, one television station and eight studios, the broadcaster reaches 90 percent of the Caribbean island. According to Radio Lumière’s website and external reports, the station’s antennas, transmitters, towers, studios and generators were heavily impaired or completely destroyed during the devastating hurricane. In addition, many of its employees have been affected by the loss of personal belongings and by destruction to their homes.
Linda Burk, a former missionary, reported that roads in the area were barely passable and there was limited electricity and communications. She said Radio Lumière engineers have not yet been able to measure all the network’s damage but that several towers were down. In addition she added that many of the denomination’s churches and schools had also been damaged or destroyed.
Radio Lumière General Manager, Pastor Varnel Jeune, has called for solidarity and donations. “Currently, engineers are assessing the situation but the cost of destruction is already estimated at several thousand U.S. dollars. The Evangelical Network and Haitian culture is thus in a very critical situation,” he stated on the network’s website.
“It is in this perspective that we address you, Christian organizations, evangelical churches, brothers and sisters in faith and friends and children of Radio Lumière, to claim your prayers and material and financial assistance. Do not forget that Lumière is our evangelical heritage and that this “light” must continue to shine until the return of Christ.”
Owned by the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti but operated as a service to all evangelical churches, the broadcaster is made up of AM and FM stations connected by relay sites placed on mountain tops nationwide. The network produces a majority of its programming, which comprises local and regionals news, in Haitian Creole and French.
