The final day of the OneMinutesJr workshop in Port Moresby has arrived. Hard to believe that it has already been five days since we started working with the teenagers here in the YWCA office in "Mosbi" as Port Moresby is called in Pidgin English.The day has a very simple structure: Get ready before 5 PM! Many of the films still need a voice-over or subtitles. There is music to be chosen, the teenagers sing songs and for one film they even write their very own song in the morning. The computer room has been turned into the "audio studio". It is by far the most quiet room in the building so it is here where we capture the voice-overs with the cameras.
The trainers have almost worked through the night to get the rough edits on the way and now it is all about putting the last touches on the films. Names and titles have to be added, certificates of participation need to be filled in and so time flies by and the big moment of the final presentation comes almost unexpectedly in the afternoon.
The screening of all 15 videos the children produced this week is - as always - quite an event. Their parents have come to watch the films, the YWCA staff is there and UNICEF staff members from different programmes have also come to see what the children came up with.
The result is a stunning display of creativity, but it is also a mirror image of childhood in PNG, which is not always just happiness and joy. A lot of problems remain for young people in the country - violence, neglect, gender problems, etc - and the OneMinutesJr films we produced here should not be seen as remedy but rather a method of showing the symptoms. Getting the right help that is needed is not in the hands of the children in most cases, but when they work together with the adult, there will be ways of improving the lives of the children in PNG.
Port Moresby, PNG - November 20, 2009 - Chris Schuepp
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