Adolescents speak out at UNICEF workshop

Aspects of the contents of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Convention on the Rights of the Child are now better understood by those who participated in the just concluded media training workshop which ended here last Friday, August 29.{{more}}

The week-long workshop was organized for the establishment of an Adolescent Media Network which will allow young people to use various forms of media to reach policy makers on issues which affect them.

Participants were put into two groups: print and broadcast journalism.

Junior Jarvis, SEARCHLIGHT reporter and facilitator, explained that the participants were given the opportunity to write stories, and that they created a blog which captured their thoughts, feelings, and also expressed what issues they felt were most important to them.

“Over the past couple of days we gave them (the participants) the tools to show them that their concerns can be heard and that they can make changes,” Jarvis explained.

Participants, according to Jarvis, wrote on issues relating to child abuse.

Julius Gittens of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the broadcast facilitator said in his closing remarks that participants also chose matters relating to physical, sexual and mental abuse.

“Participants chose what aspects of the Convention of the Rights of the Child they thought was most applicable to them,” Gittens said.

The group produced three videos which dealt with issues ranging from incest to invasion of privacy and sexual abuse.