This week our theme is Youth Voices and we’re focusing on two interesting events.
Posted on May 20, 2010, are notes from Global Voices Citizen Media Summit.
Global Voices posted notes from a session in which youth exchanged ideas about digital media from the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010. Participants in this discussion hailed from Hungary, Pakistan, Malawi, India, the USA, and Spain, to name a few of the countries.
Overall, the discussion focused on youth engagement in digital media, how to include youth in mainstream media, and some of the pros and cons of digital media for youth, including more freedom of expression versus online bullying and related issues.
One of the participants, Issa Villareal, explained that she engages with several youth groups and has been teaching “digital online tools” free of charge for the past three years. She’s also involved in holding “rap” workshops for youth to encourage young people to read more and learn about verse.
Marietta from Hungary explained that she’s been working with NGOs who are “struggling with communicating with young people. Even if they [the NGO] have a Facebook or Twitter account, it [communication] doesn’t work. This suggests that, even though youth are actively engaged on Facebook and Twitter, attempting to communicate with youth through those platforms is not a short-cut to effective communicating strategies with youth. Adult-managed NGOs still need to find alternative solutions to communicate with young people.
Emily made an observation that young people may not have political rights and asked the question, “Having a voice in the media is important. Is there a space for teens to say what they want to say?”
Victor from Malawi explained the platforms of choice in Malwai in which youth want to express themselves are: “In Malawi, being on Facebook is the “in” thing and everyone wants to be there. For others radio is the “in” thing and they don’t want moderated radio, they want to have free reign. Both groups want space of their own.” He also mentioned a project engaging youth in the mainstream media in South Africa: Grocot’s Mirror. “Young people send SMS to the newspaper, contribute to the story and get published in the process.” He mentioned that young people are involved in editing these, too.
And a couple of weeks ago in Austin, Texas, USA, youths aged between 15 and 25 performed their hearts out in a show that included hip hop, poetry and writers from The Cipher hip hop project, Texas Youth Word Collective, and Rhythm Writerz.
The youth, who would normally be labeled by mainstream commentators as “disadvantaged,” “at-risk” or “hopeless,” use words and performance to carve their own unique identity and create opportunities for a brighter future which were showcased at the Austin performance space to let the youth express themselves and give the public an opportunity to experience youth-oriented community development.
In their report on the event, The Austin Times quotes one young female performer as saying, “I am…a poet, a person who takes responsibility, a daughter, a son…my own person, an artist…”
“The Cipher is an award winning group of young leaders who are on a mission to build community and engage hip hop artists to strengthen the East Austin community,” in Austin, Texas, USA. Their website explains that the platform for creative expression and performing in public provided by involvement in The Cipher “creates a group of confident and engaged young people.” After their involvement in the group, youth leave the group with enhanced confidence, self-esteem, better academic performance and more hope for the future.
Texas Youth Word Collective conducts “city-wide poetry slams and open mics for youth to compete and communicate on issues important to them.”
An open mic refers to an “open microphone.” In other words, a microphone which is “open” to the public to come up and perform with. “Open mic” nights are common events in cafes, bars and pubs where singers, musicians, writers can perform.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Young People Speak Out
From now on, once a week we'll be doing a round-up of what's going on in youth action around the world since this is directly connected with what we do at YPWC. Here's our first post.
Here is an excerpt:
“Welcome to the Afghan Youth Voices Festival, the first youth media festival in Afghanistan. The Festival will provide an opportunity for the country’s youth to express their ideas and dreams about their future through the media.
The festival will empower the next generation of leaders to discover the power of their creativity and learn to express their voices through different mediums including radio, television, the internet, blogging, photography, posters, art and music. If you are a young person (aged 15 to 24) you will have access to training, grants and there's a competition with special prizes. So we invite you to expresses your big idea.”
The blog Political Flirt just published an article about youth empowerment in the Niger Delta entitled Political Process Urban Youth Development in Niger Delta 41. The post discussed the number of young people not enrolled to vote in Nigeria, putting the figure at around 20 million young people (or just less than the entire population of Ghana)! It also mentioned that many of those youth do not have birth certificate. The point of the article is to raise awareness about the disempowered youth. The latter part of the article raises strategies that could be employed to overcome the youth problems in Nigeria. Here is an excerpt:
“20 million youth aged 18 and above have no Identity cards automatically eliminating them from the voting process.
A significant number of them have no birth certificates therefore they do not exist.
Majority (34.3%) of the youth who have votes are apathetic to the whole process. They feel their voting would not make a different.
“Welcome to the Afghan Youth Voices Festival, the first youth media festival in Afghanistan. The Festival will provide an opportunity for the country’s youth to express their ideas and dreams about their future through the media.
The festival will empower the next generation of leaders to discover the power of their creativity and learn to express their voices through different mediums including radio, television, the internet, blogging, photography, posters, art and music. If you are a young person (aged 15 to 24) you will have access to training, grants and there's a competition with special prizes. So we invite you to expresses your big idea.”
The blog Political Flirt just published an article about youth empowerment in the Niger Delta entitled Political Process Urban Youth Development in Niger Delta 41. The post discussed the number of young people not enrolled to vote in Nigeria, putting the figure at around 20 million young people (or just less than the entire population of Ghana)! It also mentioned that many of those youth do not have birth certificate. The point of the article is to raise awareness about the disempowered youth. The latter part of the article raises strategies that could be employed to overcome the youth problems in Nigeria. Here is an excerpt:
“20 million youth aged 18 and above have no Identity cards automatically eliminating them from the voting process.
A significant number of them have no birth certificates therefore they do not exist.
Majority (34.3%) of the youth who have votes are apathetic to the whole process. They feel their voting would not make a different.
For the youth that vote, majority (32 million) vote for the wrong reasons such as: electing leaders from their ethnic groups even though they do not merit, electing those who have dished out the most money, peer pressure and often pressure from one’s family to vote for particular leader as a block.”
On the other side of the world, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition
have been busy writing letters to their elected officials, including the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Kevin Rudd, about climate change concerns affecting their environment.
In their most recent blog post, they profiled a year 10 (4th year of high school) student named Jarrah Gosbell about his decision to join the coalition and how he's taking action. Here's an excerpt:
“In year 10 at school, Jarrah hasn’t had any local climate action groups to be involved with. Instead, he’s just had the never-ending view of coal ships coming in to Australia’s largest coal port, Newcastle, to load up and head off to China. The sight of those ships, and the knowledge that the amazing Great Barrier Reef is deteriorating as a direct result of our huge fossil fuel consumption, was too much for Jarrah to take.
Jarrah found the AYCC through online searches and also the advert we ran on Channel 10 calling on world leaders to take action. But before he found the AYCC he was already taking action. In 2008, Jarrah embarked on an ambitious campaign to write hundreds of letters to politicians with his views on how inadequate their climate decision were. He said he got started with some auto-generated ones, but took the idea and ran with it.”
Meanwhile in India, the Indian Youth Climate Network held a conference in March this year to try to find solutions to the rapid climate change taking place in their beautiful Kashmir region:
“The Kashmir valley, often known as Paradise on Earth, is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape; in recent years though, Kashmir's environment is undergoing rapid change and pollution. These changes are happening due to various reasons such as deforestation andmelting glaciers combined with depleting snow cover. These lead to shrinking water supply and shrinking water bodies and wetlands, soil degradation, etc.”
And during June the Philippine Youth Climate Movement will actively participate in Philippine Environment Month during which a range of activities to heighten environmental awareness and find solutions to evnironmental problems are planned across the country.
Here is an excerpt about the Philippine Youth Climate Movement:
“WHAT is PhilYCM?
Philippine Youth Climate Movement is an environmental youth network that unites and mobilizes Filipino youth towards environmental activism and responsiveness.Our goal is to mobilize youth all over the Philippines to take action on Climate Change.
VISION
We envision a country where Filipino Youth is in the forefront of nation-building to take action on Climate Change.We work in close cooperation with the global youth climate movement to empower Filipino youth and take their voices into decision making platforms.”
Finally, in January 2010 the blog Conversations for a Better World published a post about a UN report that collected the voices of 1700 children living in conflict. Here's an excerpt from the post describing the report:
“Will You Listen, the companion to a United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children, is a compilation of the views of over 1,700 children and young people in more than 92 countries. Their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas were collected through focus group discussions and questionnaires and reflect what young people living in humanitarian crises have experienced.”
“The Kashmir valley, often known as Paradise on Earth, is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape; in recent years though, Kashmir's environment is undergoing rapid change and pollution. These changes are happening due to various reasons such as deforestation andmelting glaciers combined with depleting snow cover. These lead to shrinking water supply and shrinking water bodies and wetlands, soil degradation, etc.”
And during June the Philippine Youth Climate Movement will actively participate in Philippine Environment Month during which a range of activities to heighten environmental awareness and find solutions to evnironmental problems are planned across the country.
Here is an excerpt about the Philippine Youth Climate Movement:
“WHAT is PhilYCM?
Philippine Youth Climate Movement is an environmental youth network that unites and mobilizes Filipino youth towards environmental activism and responsiveness.Our goal is to mobilize youth all over the Philippines to take action on Climate Change.
VISION
We envision a country where Filipino Youth is in the forefront of nation-building to take action on Climate Change.We work in close cooperation with the global youth climate movement to empower Filipino youth and take their voices into decision making platforms.”
Finally, in January 2010 the blog Conversations for a Better World published a post about a UN report that collected the voices of 1700 children living in conflict. Here's an excerpt from the post describing the report:
“Will You Listen, the companion to a United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children, is a compilation of the views of over 1,700 children and young people in more than 92 countries. Their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas were collected through focus group discussions and questionnaires and reflect what young people living in humanitarian crises have experienced.”
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
YPWC holds 3 Day Programme for Global Youth Service Day
Mr. Matthew Nyannube Yosah, YPWC’s MDGs Co-ordinator, led a 3 day programme in Bunkpurugu in Northern Region, Ghana, for Global Youth Service Day between the 23rd and 25th of April, 2010. The programme was held both at Jilig Junior High and Bunkpurugu Central Assemblies of God Church and focused on tree nursing and planting and skills training workshops. Programme participants included 150 volunteers from YPWC Development Education Club at Jilig Junior High School together with Bunkpurugu MDGs Club members. In addition, interested individuals from Bunkpurugu community including teachers, pastors and members of the Forestry Commission also participated and assisted in the programme.
The aim of the tree planting project was to help “green” the dry northern community, to provide shade in years to come, and to help reduce erosion and desertification. YPWC’s MDGs club also believes it will help to combat climate change and encourages other communities around Ghana to take similar initiatives to green their environment. The programme taught students to take responsibility for their work, promoted leadership and team work, and respect for the local environment. The volunteers will nurse the trees until the rainy season begins around early June whereby the seedlings will be transplanted and nursed by the students and volunteers.
The one-day training workshop was led by experienced community leaders including teachers and government officials from the Forestry Commission. The workshop topics covered environmental sustainability, girl child education, tree nursing and transplanting, and the MDGs themselves, particularly Goal 7, Environmental Sustainability.
CONTACT: Mr. Matthew Nyannube Yosah
Young People We Care
+233249431332
matthew@ypwc.org
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