Bpeace Official Blog

Broadcasting success in Mazar

Posted on 03. Jun, 2010 by Bpeace in 1. Afghanistan, Bpeace Blog

We were invited to lunch and tour Radio Rabea Balkhi, operated by Mobina, our 2007 Bpeace Fast Runner from Mazar. In just five years, this 31 year-old journalist and entrepreneur has expanded her radio station into one of the most successful in the region.

Remarkably, she has over a half a million listeners, despite focusing most of her programming content on informing women on social and economic issues. The radio station is named after a famous Afghan female poet, Rabea Balkhi, known for her beautiful poems about love and feminism.

Mobina beamed with pride giving us a tour of her radio station, which was fitted with modern radio broadcast equipment juxtaposed against home-made sound proofing made of egg crates, foam and fitted sheets. She talked about how she has applied what she learned 18 months ago when Bpeace arranged for her to visit radio stations in New York, D.C., and Allentown, Pa. Today, Mobina has 26 employees and we are pleased to accept her marketing manager into our 2010 group of Fast Runners, believing we should help our most successful entrepreneurs also develop their middle management.

Just recently Mobina acquired a second radio station—this one focused on farmers. Like we did with Radio Balkhi, Bpeace created a logo for the new station.
We were delighted to see the advances she has made to her business and her family with a recent addition of her first child. To our surprise Mobina was back at work a month after delivering her son!

Mobina was born to an illiterate father and spent her entire life in Afghanistan. However, she pursued her education, which gave her the confidence and knowledge to seize the right opportunity and become an economic success and a force for social change.