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Profile: José Luis Aguirre, President of WACC Latin America |
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By Lavinia Mohr, Deputy General Secretary of WACC
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José Luis Aguirre, President of WACC Latin America also new WACC Global Board Director, is the Director of Servicio de Capacitacion en Radio y Television para el Desarrollo (SECRAD), a unit of the Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) in La Paz, Bolivia. He has been involved with WACC since the 1990s when he was directing Radio San Miguel de Riberalta, a church radio station in the Beni area of the Bolivian Amazon. The radio joined WACC and José himself became a personal member. He has actively advanced WACC in Andean regional and Bolivian gatherings. Some of WACC’s Andean sub-regional meetings have been held at the UCB. During all this time, he has found WACC publications to be very useful. |
José was elected President of WACC Latin America at the August 2011 members’ assembly in Costa Rica. In his view, WACC’s visibility in Latin America has dropped significantly in the last few years. He plans to promote WACC during his tenure as president of the region.
Being named to WACC’s global board is a lot of responsibility and an opportunity, José says. As a communicator, he has many dreams: he wants to enhance an understanding of communication in the context of cultural diversity. He also wants to expand communication that includes marginalised people such as people with disabilities. He emphasises the need for respect and reinforcement of their own ideas about communication, rather than seeing it as a message delivery process.
About the WACC Board meeting held 9-14, October 2011, he said, “I am optimistic about the newly adopted goals and directions for the future.” He is happy to see a renewed emphasis on transparency and effective action. He noted that all organisations have risks and highlighted is the current economic environment and how that affects the resources that WACC needs. But he said WACC can learn from the principles of popular communication in Latin America. Many popular communication initiatives flourish without a lot of funding. They arise from the will of the people. He feels that now is a time of hope.
During the meeting, José told the other Board members that the new Bolivian Constitution not only recognises the right to communicate but is the first to make specific provisions to support that right. José himself was very involved in the effort to get communication rights included in the new constitution. |
WACC promotes communication as a basic human right, essential to people's dignity and community.
The World Association for Christian Communication is a UK Registered Charity (number 296073) and a Company registered in England and Wales (number 2082273) with its Registered Office at 71 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6DX. It is an incorporated Charitable Organisation in Canada (number 83970 9524 RR0001) with its head office at 308 Main Street, Toronto ON, M4C 4X7.
