For Jebunnessa Chapola, bridging the gaps between immigrant students, new surroundings and cultural expression is an important endeavor.

Chapola is a Bengali cultural activist who also hosts a radio show, Banglar Gaan O Kotha — translated to Bengal’s Song and Stories — on CFCR 90.5 FM. Banglar Gaan O Kotha highlights Bengali music, culture and contemporary issues relevant to the community.

Many of the show’s guests are students and professors from the University of Saskatchewan. For Mother Language Day on Feb. 22, Chapola invited students from campus cultural organizations to speak in their mother language and discuss how these languages can be preserved. The guest list included student representatives from the African Student Association and the Filipino Student Association, among other student groups.

This event allowed U of S students to celebrate their mother languages in the same space. Chapola tries to combine various cultural communities by inviting them as guests on Banglar Gaan O Kotha and she translates the program from Bengali into English to make things easier for listeners.

“Since I work on a very local level, I have seen that the main challenge is that people do not have information about their new host country. Maybe it’s because of language barriers, but when I speak in Bangla and then translate in English, it is easier for them to understand,” Chapola said.

Past topics on Banglar Gaan O Kotha have included racism, cultural imperialism, sexuality and Idle No More, a social and political movement headed by Indigenous peoples aimed at putting a stop to the exploitation of culture and land in Canada. Chapola has also invited volunteer coordinators from the U of S Students’ Union Pride Centre and Women’s Centre to speak on issues related to students.

“For a lot of immigrant communities they’re not very open. It’s so hard to talk about sexism, racism or the LGBTQ community,” Chapola said.

Chapola also announces job openings on campus and available options for students who struggle with writing and English. As a result of the show, there have been many success stories for immigrant students gaining access to education and new opportunities.

In 2014, a woman from the Bengali community, Armugan Ashraf — a biology and biotechnology graduate from the U of S — applied and qualified for the U of S Science Ambassador Program. She had only heard of the opportunity because of the show; the previous year, Chapola had brought the entire Science Ambassador team to the studio for a discussion on the Science Ambassador Program.

After leaving her home of Bangladesh in 2003, Chapola studied in Sweden, Norway and the United States before coming to Saskatoon in 2010. She is currently a doctoral student in women, gender and sexualities studies at the U of S. Her radio show began in 2012 as the first Bengla program in Saskatoon, born out of Chapola’s desire to keep her mother language alive and to have an educational outlet for the immigrant community.

Chapola has noticed that many immigrant communities are usually enclaved and uninvolved in what’s happening in their student and wider communities. The main challenge Chapola sees is often a lack of information available to them about social programs, job opportunities or campus events. The objective of Banglar Gaan O Kotha is to educate immigrant students and their communities while keeping their culture and language alive.

“I try to make a bridge between immigrant students and the wider community by giving good information that can help them,” Chapola said. “That’s a big part of the show.”

Tune into Banglar Gaan O Kotha on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on CFCR 90.5 FM or listen online at cfcr.ca/onair. For more information visit the Banglar Gaan O Kotha Facebook group.

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Naomi Zurevinski / Opinions Editor

Photo: Katherine Fedoroff