When the SW radio broadcast to the Maldives began on April 1st, we’ve received many reception reports from all around the world – India, Philippines, Morocco, Japan, China, Germany, Australia, Austria, and the United States – confirming that our broadcast is being received.

Below, we have a few of those reception reports. 

My shortwave friends in USA and India informed me of the beginning of your new transmission to Maldives. I tried ,and succeeded in listening with good reception. The signal was strong and complete for good reception also in Japan. Please refer the attached Persues screen, and sample mp3 recording. I do not know where this 11620kHz transmission is from. If you beam to Maldives, I presume it is transmit from ******* – as Japan is in the same direction from there.

I hope this is reception report will be somewhat useful for future activity. I this report is found correct, please send me some confirmation for reception, and some information about this new service if possible. I am praying for your dedication and good health.

Listener in Japan

Hello friends, Greetings from India. Just now I heard your broadcast on 11620 khz ending at 1530 UTC . Reception was excellent. Program was in English by male. Please let me more about your station. Thank you.

Listener in India

According to the government, 100% of Maldivian citizens are Muslims. It is illegal to convert from Islam to another religion. If one did so, it would result in the loss of citizenship and additional punishments imposed by the judge per sharia jurisprudence. While the law does recognizes “non-Muslim” foreigners, living in or visiting the Maldives, they are strictly forbidden from expressing their religious beliefs in any public manner.

Additionally, there are a host of laws designed to ensure that only Islamic principles are taught within the country. For example, in order to deliver a sermon or a religious talk, one must obtain a license from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs (MIA). Only a Sunni Muslim with a degree in religious studies from a government recognized university may apply for a license. 

Any criticism of Islam is also against the law, with punishments up to a year in jail. The definition of “criticism” is very broad, with even the distribution of materials promoting another religion considered as “criticism of Islam,” even if the literature had no mention of Islam at all. But if someone was indeed passing out Christian literature, it is likely that they would be prosecuted under a different law and thus face 2-5 years in prison.

On July 6th, 2021 an investigation was announced publicly that Christian literature in the Dhivehi language was being mailed to both individuals and companies in the Maldives. Some of the literature is believed to have been confiscated, but the government was unable to verify the origin of the literature and closed the investigation.

While government laws continue to be a significant deterrent to non-Muslim activity, extremist Muslim activiy has greatly increased in the last few years. For example, on May 6th, 2021, the Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed was injured in an ISIS bomb blast due to comments he made perceived to be critizing extremists.

Due to these and other factors, SW Christian radio is extremely important to ensure that we can not only get Biblical content in to the Maldives, but also that we are able to encourage the underground church that is in the Maldives. 

• Pray for a strong and clear signal for the VOMK broadcast to the Maldives. Despite the many problems this project has already endured, we have been successfully broadcasting for nearly seven months now!
• Pray for new Christian content to be produced in the Dhivehi language. This includes Bible translation and recording, which has been a slow process, over many years, in this language. There has always been a lot of spiritual warfare associated with producing materials in the Dhivehi language.