16 Feb 2021  |   04:58am IST

Susegad Danpar: A year of making global waves in Konkani

An Auckland based community radio channel and Youtube channel keeps the diaspora connected around the world and it involves coordination amongst professionals based in two different continents. And yes it can proudly celebrate its first anniversary with many more to come, in uniting Goans across the world and helping them keep in touch with their roots

Team Café

Getting an unlikely team of

different professionals from two different continents to present weekly news in Konkani for an Auckland-based community radio channel and a YouTube channel is an achievement in itself.

Getting that endeavour to successfully complete one year is a milestone indeed.

‘Susegad Danpar’, a Konkani radio news show for the Auckland-based community radio PlanetFM 104.6 and on YouTube channel has completed a year of existence and the initiative has been drawing interest from across the globe.

The team consisting of Reggie D’Souza, Shamir Deniz, Salus Correia and Frankey Fernandes along with the Susegad Danpar team from Auckland have displayed their commitment and dedication since the last one year.

According to the Susegad Danpar team, the exercise was not about breaking stories like most news channels, but an attempt to keep the Goan diaspora across the globe informed in Konkani language about events in Goa and about Goans overseas, whose contributions hardly get noticed in the mainstream media.

Over the past 52 weeks, some of the diverse issues highlighted in Susegad Danpar included the Goan seamen stranded on cruise ships around the globe due to the lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic, protests in UK due to three controversial linear projects coming up in Goa, a former international soccer player starting a soccer academy in the Middle East, a veteran musician calling it quits after sharing stage for over 4 decades and another musician starting a guitar museum, the first of its kind in Goa.

Though the team comprising Reggie D’Souza, Shamir Deniz, Salus Correia and Frankey Fernandes have full-time jobs elsewhere, their dedication and passion in presenting news every week has been widely appreciated by the Goan diaspora.

Reggie D’Souza is a full-time musician with the band ‘Archies’ in Goa, Shamir Deniz is Technical and Creative Head at CCRTV Goa who does the radio edit which goes on PlanetFM 104.6 in Auckland every Saturday morning (India Time), Salus Correia is a retired senior management executive in Melbourne who creates the YouTube news bulletin every Friday night, and Frankey Fernandes is a full time Community Mental Health Practitioner who has the task of gathering information on news and current affairs not just from Goa but throughout the world.

Other than PlanetFM 104.6 in Auckland, the Susegad Danpar news bulletin is available on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp, the subscribers list has also increased over the last one year.

“The best satisfaction is when a Goan subscriber of our YouTube channel sitting in Africa, Switzerland, UK, USA, UAE or even in Goa hasn’t received the news update on a Friday due to technical reasons and is anxious to hear of stories related to Goa,” said Frankey Fernandes.

Having completed one year of Susegad Danpar, the team is determined to keep the Goan diaspora updated with regular weekly news on Goa and Goan in their beloved Konkani language.