NEWS / RESEARCH: Sexting and cyber-bullying in South Africa - A new study by UNICEF South Africa explores how SA youth deal with dangers online

A new first-of-it-kind study by UNICEF South Africa explores how the local youth deal with dangers online, as society moves further into an easily-accessible, ever-connected environment of communication.

The report was compiled after holding close to 180 in-depth focus groups at 93 schools across South Africa, covering topics including online violence, abuse, sexting, online risks and real-world consequences and dangers.

The study showed that one in five secondary-school learners have experienced some form of cyber-bullying or other violence online.

Remarkably, however, the report found “substantial” evidence that the majority of young people are aware of the risks they face online, which has allowed them to develop protective measures of their own.

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NEWS / PROJECTS: Youth Journalists Raise Awareness of Children’s Rights (ZAMBIA)

Last week, after months of relative silence, Pastor George Kalamo stepped into a Lusaka courtroom to stand trial for allegedly murdering his teenage niece, Ruth Mbandu. As the news media churns out headlines related to the case, 16-year-old Kanengo Nakamba will be watching – and possibly producing some media of her own.

"It's just this case that has been looked at with attention," she says, lamenting the mainstream media's patchy coverage of defilement in Zambia.

Nakamba is one of 72 young Zambians working with the Children News Agency, a national news crew based in the Chilenje South offices of Media Network on Child Right's and Development (MNCRD). Trained under the aegis of Prisca Sikana – affectionately known as Coach P – school children between 12 and 16 years old dabble in all media streams, producing online content and partnering with mainstream entities like Radio Phoenix, Muvi TV and, most recently, the Times of Zambia. The agency has been in full swing since 2009, and Sikana envisions some form of at least minor partnership with all of Zambia's media outlets by the end of 2013.

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ARTICLES / TRAINING: Journalists attend child abuse workshop

Journalists play a big role in the protection of children’s rights, especially now that cases of child abuse are rampant. Television, radio, and newspaper journalists have been encouraged to do more in highlighting challenges faced by children across the country, hence fast track solutions.

A group of journalists specialised in children stories recently attended a workshop organised by Panos East Africa Media Agency for Child Protection at a Nairobi hotel.

Speaking at the event, Thorn Mulli of Generation Next, urged the journalists drawn from different media houses to use the opportunity to serve the children’s interests.

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PROJECTS: Timveni Child and Youth Media Organisation Media Programme (MALAWI)

The Timveni Child and Youth Media Organisation uses radio and television to give a voice to Malawi's young people, especially girls, on children's rights. The goal of the project is to help young Malawians make a difference in their own lives, create awareness about children’s rights, and build the capacity of children/youth to increase their meaningful participation in advocating for the realisation of their own rights. 

Initiated in 2006 by Plan Malawi with funding from Plan Sweden and UNICEF, Timveni was launched as a Child and Youth Media Organization in 2011. In 2012, Timveni was granted permission for its own child-run, child-focused television channel.

more about the project

NEWS / TRAINING: MISA trains journos on child reporting

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has trained Malawi journalists on child reporting. An initiative MISA programme specialist for Media Freedom Monitoring and Research, Levi Kabwato describes as an on-going effort towards empowering journalists to report informatively and positively on children and child rights.

The training took place this week in Blantyre where journalists were informed about various issues governing child right that focused on ethical guidelines and principles; international human rights instruments such as the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

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NEWS / EVENTS: Africa: Eric Chinje Calls for Youth Involvement in Media Management

Dakar, 8 November — Eric Chinje, Mo Ibrahim Foundation's strategic communications Director has called for youth involvement in media management while urging African media leaders attending the fifth AMLF edition to help young men take over.

According to him, the media have an important role to play in Africa's development. He highlighted the need to check the reliability of news items before they are released. "The private and public media are beginning to lose credibility," he said.

"We thought that by using open data, the production would become more credible," he went on to say.

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NEWS: GNCRC appeals to the media to highlight children's issues

An appeal has been made to the media to do more to help educate the public on issues bothering on child's rights and protection.

Mr Barima Akwasi Amankwaah, Programme Officer of the Ghana Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC), said matters affecting the welfare and growth of children needed to engage serious attention.

This would help to prevent their abuse in the society.

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NEWS: Ghana: Media Urged to Protect Rights, Interest of Children (AFRICA)

Kumasi — THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Association of Ghana (EPAG) and its partners, Ghana NGOs Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) and Plan Nederland have introduced: "The Girl Power Project", to improve the alarming situations of exposed children in Ghana.

The Girl Power Project is currently implemented in 5 communities, and will be running until 2015, with the aim of educating communities on violence against children and women, meeting with boys and men to make them understand their role in empowering girls and women, capacity building for girls and women, meeting with community and district child protection committees, and many other activities, according to EPAG.

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ARTICLES: Young Storytellers Excel in Kenya

Part of InternewsNext, a series highlighting 30 youth-led media initiatives.

Like many young journalists, Rawlings Otieno, struggled to compete with seasoned journalists, who mainly report on politics. Then he began to carve out a niche for himself in health journalism.

“I realized that no one was interested in writing about health,” he says “So I took it up.”

Otieno, 26, writes for The Standard, one of the leading newspapers in Kenya. Internews’ health journalism training has helped him blossom in health storytelling.

In spite of the challenge of selling the health story in newsrooms bent on telling political stories, many journalists who have undergone Internews health journalism training and mentorship have been able to succeed in getting health issues publicized.

Saida Swaleh, a reporter with the Kenya Television Network, is only 23 years but has gained ample recognition for her work. In the inaugural 2012 Media Council of Kenya Awards, Swaleh was second runner up, in the young journalists of the year category.

full article on the Internews website

PROJECTS: New Space for Kenyan Youth to Engage in Health Issues

Part of InternewsNext, a series highlighting 30 youth-led media initiatives.

“Where's my Seat?” is the title of a video post on the new youth online platform K-HUG (Kenya Health User-Generated Content). The post, by Violet Otindo, explores the government’s push to ensure that public transport vehicles are accessible to persons with disabilities.

Another poster, Henry Owino shares facts on the growing number of women infected by HIV and another explores the demonization of individuals with diseases stereotypically associated with their social class.

The site, launched by Internews in Kenya, encourages young people to discuss health matters on a platform that is easily accessible and engaging, so they can ultimately make better-informed decisions about their health. The content contributors tweet, post via Facebook, and add photos, audio, video, and text messages to the site.

full article on the Internews website

New Space for Kenyan Youth to Engage in Health Issues | Internews

New Space for Kenyan Youth to Engage in Health Issues | Internews

“Where's my Seat?” is the title of a video post on the new youth online platform K-HUG (Kenya Health User-Generated Content). The post, by Violet Otindo, explores the government’s push to ensure that public transport vehicles are accessible to persons with disabilities.

Another poster, Henry Owino shares facts on the growing number of women infected by HIV and another explores the demonization of individuals with diseases stereotypically associated with their social class.

The site, launched by Internews in Kenya, encourages young people to discuss health matters on a platform that is easily accessible and engaging, so they can ultimately make better-informed decisions about their health. The content contributors tweet, post via Facebook, and add photos, audio, video, and text messages to the site.

First Central African Journalism University Grads Join Internews Project | Internews

First Central African Journalism University Grads Join Internews Project | Internews

The Department of Journalism at the University of Bangui graduated its first class of professionally trained journalists this month, and celebrated their achievement at an Internews-sponsored ceremony.

“These new graduates will have a challenging job to do, which is to revolutionize the press in Central Africa,” said Jéremie Soupou, one of the graduates of the program.

Soupou is also the coordinator of The Association of Journalists for Human Rights (AJHR), Internews’ local partner in CAR. AJHR employs Soupou and four other graduates from the University. “We are honored by the interest that Internews has shown towards this new generation of journalists,” said Soupou.

NEWS: Angola: Media Role in Addressing Youth Issues Debated in Workshop (AFRICA)

Viana — The vice-minister of Social Communication, Miguel de Carvalho "Wadijimbi", said on Saturday in Luanda that media is a privileged vehicle for divulging information and actions of any kind to the citizens.

The official said so while addressing a workshop on "The Role played by media in handling issues related to youth" in Viana's Youth House.

He said that media organs perform three basic functions, namely information, training and recreation.

To the deputy minister, media is dependent on telecommunications and without the development of these media and there is no media that works."

According to him, the media can be turned into courts for discussing issues that preoccupy young people, encouraging them to interactive spaces for dialogue that help youth meet.

full article on the AllAfrica website

NEWS / PROJECTS: Namibia: Youth Trained in Social Networking

The Namibia Business Innovation Centre, with the assistance of the RLabs Academy, has trained a number of young people to use various social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging to plan and implement online marketing strategies.

In the past, the RLabs Academy has successfully trained hundreds of participants in South Africa. In Namibia, the RLabs programme, first introduced four months ago, has successfully trained fifteen young participants in the fields of internet and social networking.

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NEWS: Zimbabwe: Children's Day Marked

Children in Zimbabwe yesterday joined the rest of the world in commemorating the International Children's Day of Broadcasting. The day is commemorated on March 15 each year.

When The Herald visited Radio Zimbabwe studios in Mbare yesterday, scores of children from as far as Honde Valley, Concession, Mutare and Harare were taking turns to go on air.

Children from various provinces also had the opportunity to broadcast live on television at the ZBC studios at Pockets Hill in Highlands.

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PROJECTS / RADIO: Children in Sierra Leone get a "radio in a box"

The Netherlands has shipped a container with a mobile radio studio to Sierra Leone. The Radio Netherlands' Training Centre donated the studio to War Child, an organisation that assists children and young people in war zones. 

There's a complete radio studio inside the container. Children and young people in Sierra Leone will use the studio to broadcast their own radio programmes. The studio will also enable other children to get experience in making radio. 

Radio is a popular and important means of communication for young people who were traumatised by the civil war in Sierra Leone. They can use it to discuss the problems they still face in their country.

full article and video

NEWS: ICDB: Children must be heard (South Africa)

Are world leaders and the media allowing children to be heard? Or are children just seen as “entities” who come along with problems that need to be fixed?

Twenty years ago, Unicef questioned whether or not children were being represented in the media as often as they should be, thus the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting (ICBD) was born and celebrated annually in March.

Last year, however, Unicef announced that they would no longer be coordinating celebrations around the day since they had met their objective through the success of the programme.

The purpose of the ICBD was to encourage broadcasting with a focus on children’s issues and as the years went by, to also encourage the direct involvement of children in the media.

Global themes around the event were announced and in 1994, in partnership with the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, awards were given to those who best embodied the values placed on the day.

Firdoze Bulbulia, chairperson of the Children’s Broadcasting Foundation, says: “(The ICBD) has been very successful which is why the event must come to an end, but the role of young people in media production must continue.”

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PROJECTS: U-report application revolutionizes social mobilization, empowering Ugandan youth

KAMPALA, Uganda, 14 March 2012 – U-report, a new communications technology developed by UNICEF Uganda and launched in May 2011, is revolutionizing social mobilization, monitoring and response efforts. The initiative equips mobile phone users with the tools to establish and enforce new standards of transparency and accountability in development programming and services.

By sending the text message, ‘join,’ to a toll-free number and submitting a few personal details, anyone with a mobile phone can become a volunteer ‘U-reporter’, sharing their observations and ideas on a wide range of development issues.

In less than a year, the population of U-reporters has grown to over 89,000, with 400 to 500 joining the network daily.

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Gambia: Childfund the Gambia, GRTS Observe ICDB

ChildFund The Gambia in collaboration with GRTS yesterday observed the International Children's Day of Broadcasting (ICDB), with children taking over all the activities of the airwaves for the whole day.

ICDB, a day when broadcasters around the world 'Tune in to kid' was launched by UNICEF in 1991 in order to encourage broadcasters worldwide to create awareness for children issues. Broadcasters would air quality programming for and about children.

A media release from ChildFund The Gambia yesterday stated that a selected group of children supported by ChildFund together with other children from different schools in The Gambia moderated all the programmes of the radio for the day. The release added that children were also given the opportunity to engage stakeholders on key topics such as Reproductive health, children and the law, and the rights of the girl child among other topics.

The National Director of ChildFund The Gambia Eustace Cassell had a 45-minute discussion with children on the role of ChildFund in helping the deprived, excluded and vulnerable children in The Gambia.

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NEWS: Liberia: Children's Voices Should Be Heard

UNMIL Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Moustapha Soumaré has encouraged Liberian children to keep having their voices heard, "The International Children's Day of Broadcasting is a day when people around the world "tune in to kids" to hear what they have to say and on this 'Day', in Liberia, we gathered here to listen to you", Mr. Soumaré said.

The UNMIL Acting SRSG made these remarks on Sunday 4 March when he spoke with children participating in this year's International Children Day of Broadcasting-ICDB 2012 at UNMIL Radio in Monrovia. The day was held under the theme "Our Voices Must Be Heard" and brought together more than fifty children from schools and communities around the county.

In an extemporaneous delivery, which focused on the importance of children in the building of a nation, Mr. Soumaré noted "Children, some of you are young adults, you make up a large part of the population around the globe; you are the future of this nation, your "voices" are the "voices" of the future; you "must be heard", closing with "We "tuned in to kids" today and we are listening!"

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