WORKSHOPS: OneMinutesJr workshop in Ust-Kamenogorsk - Day 5

Final day of the blog from Kazakhstan is here

UST-KAMENOGORSK, Kazakhstan, 7 September 2012 - The last day of the video workshop in East Kazakhstan has arrived and we are working with the 16 teenagers on the finalization of their OneMinutesJr films.

It always seems like things are done when you have filmed the material and edited it, but then you have to do all the "little things" like titles, subtitles, video and audio transitions and so on. Multiply this by 16 and you know how long the to-do list is - deadline 2 PM today...

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.

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WORKSHOPS / VIDEO: OneMinutesJr workshop in Ust-Kamenogorsk

UST-KAMENOGORSK, Kazakhstan, 3 September 2012 - 16 teenagers from East Kazakhstan are meeting this week to participate in a OneMinutesJr video workshop. They will write, film and edit short movies around the topic "disaster risk reduction".

East Kazakhstan is prone to natural disasters. While the earthquake danger in the country is higher in the Almaty region in the South, the border-region with Russia, China and Mongolia frequently witnesses extreme temperatures in the winter, flooding, landslides and wild fires in the summer. In addition to that, Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk were closed cities during the Soviet times and testing grounds for nuclear materials. Kazakhstan remains one of most prolific uranium providers in the world with the East of the country being the center of the heavy industry.

Against this backdrop, we start the workshop with eight boys and eight girls aged 14 to 17 in School No. 45 in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Half of the participants are local children from Ust-Kamenogorsk, the others have arrived from Semipalatinsk, a three hour drive from here.

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ONEMINUTESJR / WORKSHOPS: Armenian teenagers share their experiences with juvenile justice in one-minute videos

YEREVAN, Armenia, 9 April 2012 - Sixteen teenagers from different cities in Armenia have come together in the capital Yerevan this week for a five-day video workshop as part of the OneMinutesJr initiative. Their aim is to write, film and produce movies that tell about the experiences they have made when coming in conflict with the law.

The young people are from Gyumri, Alaverdi, Kapan, Ijevan, Vanadzor, Chambarak and Yerevan. Most of them have been arrested by the police in their towns and cities at least once for petty crimes, robbery, stabbing other teenagers with knives or in one case also for alleged rape. Since they are all still minors and their crimes were either not severe enough or could not be proven, they were not sentenced to serve time in prison. Instead, they were all handed over to community centers by the police to receive psychological help and/or do community work.

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Stranger Exhibition in Gyumri, Armenia

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REPORTS / NEWS: Stereotyped reporting on children dominates the Georgian media, UNICEF report says

Stereotyped reporting on children dominates the Georgian media, UNICEF report says

TBILISI, Georgia - 20 February, 2009

A UNICEF commissioned research revealed that Georgian media lacks overall professional standards, which should be used by journalists and media managers while reporting on children. A research on protecting media ethics and journalistic professional standards while reporting on children called "Ethical reporting on children in Georgia - Situation Analysis" was presented at the media forum attended by leading journalists and news producers of Georgia on 20 February. The main idea of the media forum was to generate a discussion on the topic and to identify next steps on how to further enhance child-friendly reporting in Georgia.

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