Calling all NAMAC members and organizations to help international youth media project
20 May 2010
This summer, AMIGOS de las Americas, in partnership with Plan International, will run a youth media program in several communities in Boaco, Nicaragua.
Youth from rural Nicaragua will welcome 2-3 youth from urban Nicaragua and/or the States into their communities for 6 weeks. During that time, these groups of young people will work with children on media projects (video, audio, photo, newspapers, blogs, etc) about Children's Rights, which is the main focus of Plan International.
They will also work together to identify a topic around which the youth are interested in for video projects. Small groups in each community will plan and produce videos around topics of their choosing. In many of these communities with limited resources, this is being done with only one electrical outlet to charge equipment. In each of the communities hosting media projects, one youth from an urban group of very accomplished radio producers (they have been producing radio shows since they were seven!) will lead the team. The other emerging youth leaders have been through training sessions, and are excited to get to work.
We are looking for support from NAMAC members and other youth media organizations, and/or media outlets, in the following ways:
- Equipment. Flip cameras, still cameras, old(er) equipment that you might not be using. This program is running on a shoestring budget, and any donations would be appreciated!
- Distribution and Exhibition Outlets. We are looking for websites, groups, etc., that might be interested in showcasing some of the final pieces made by the group, including podcasts, videos, and photo essays.
- Collaboration Opportunities. We'd love to link our youth (both US and from Latin American countries) up with other young people doing similar projects. There is no internet in our communities, but the youth come together every few weeks, and would be able to send/receive media pieces-- a sort of penpal system where youth globally exchange work and discuss that work/respond to it, and/or remix it.
This project is part of my dissertation research and part of Plan International's larger project Red Voces. Red Voces attempts to create a network of youth via new media practices throughout Latin America. My dissertation research is on cosmopolitan engagement with networked publics and/via networked media practices and citizenship/civic engagement within those networked publics.
If you or your organization would like to help this effort, get involved, or participate further, please contact me chelseyhauge@gmail.com as soon as possible.
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Chelsey Hauge is the Project Director for AMIGOS de las Americas in Boaco, and a doctoral student in Media Education at the University of British Columbia. Chelsey has run youth media programs in Mexico, New York, and Los Angeles, and is also a practicing video artist.
