September 5, 2012

WORKSHOPS: OneMinutesJr workshop in Ust-Kamenogorsk - Day 3


UST-KAMENOGORSK, Kazakhstan, 5 September 2012 - Day 3 of the OneMinutesJr workshop in East Kazakhstan and today we spend the whole day out "in the field" with the teenagers, filming at least six to eight stories so we can meet all the deadlines for the final presentation on Friday.

Filming in Ust-Kamenogorsk near the UMW factory - UNICEF / Chris Schuepp / 2012
For the first two films of the day, we go out into a small forest near the city. Since there are many wild fires in the summer in the East of Kazakhstan, this is one of the issues the participants of the workshop have first-hand experience on. Additionally, it has been a topic of the DRR training they have received in their school and is part of a board game on disaster risk reduction called "Riskland". Both Tamerlan (16) and Daryn (14) have chosen this as there stories and Daryn even shows us how children who are "in the know" can successfully educate their parents.

The next stop is the top of a mountain overlooking Ust-Kamenogorsk. It shows us that while there is a lot of natural beauty around with the river Irtysh at its center. However, we really came up here to see the extent of heavy industry that is part of the city's skyline. The Ulba Metal Works (UMW) is one of the biggest employers in Ust-Kamenogorsk and has been actively putting out uranium products since the Soviet times. As we can see from the top of the mountain, UMW is also responsible for a high amount of air pollution in the city.

No comments: