Wake Up Call Segment Host/Producer, MK Mendoza speaks with former political prisoner Issa Nyaphaga from Cameroon. Once imprisoned for his political cartoons, he was tortured to reveal his sources and refused. Invited to Santa Fe via the Santa Fe Institute for his work, he now lives in Santa Fe and continues the fight for freedom of expression in his native country. By using his art, which he attributes to his survival, he raises money which he then reinvests in two of his non-profit organizations. One is "Radio Taboo" where he has built a solar powered mostly female operated and run radio station in Cameroon, reaching 250,000. His goal is to reach one million listeners. The station provides education to many who have no other means of receiving any other form of information. He also dedicates his resources his other organization, HITIP which he also founded. Hope International for Tikar People, is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide medicine, clothes as well as emergency medical and educational supplies to the people of Tikar, which is his original tribal community. Since 2002, HITIP has provided medicine, emergency medical supplies, shoes, books, school supplies, school bags, clothes and toys to seven villages in the Tikar region. All of these supplies were recycled and HITIP only had to cover the cost of shipping and transporting them. He has also raised money to help build countless drinking wells for clean water in his communities.
More on Radio Taboo below: