Young People’s Media Network

One of the longest-running initiatives involving kids and media, at least within the international development community, is the Young People’s Media Network.

I had the privilege of helping to set it up in 2002, when I was UNICEF’s regional communication adviser for Central & Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  It continues today as a UNICEF regional project, going strong with Chris Schuepp as it’s tireless, multitasking point person, but also involving a range of other partners in dozens of countries.  It has gradually crept out of Eastern Europe and I guess it can be considered a more or less global project by now.

This is especially true of one of its components, the excellent youth video project (see www.theoneminutesjr.org)  that has been embraced by UNICEF globally and holds workshops in many countries.  Like haikus, the 60-second videos made entirely by kids distill and intensify visions and issues in ways that touch the heart as well as the intellect.

In this media-driven world, kids — especially children in poor communities — are fighting to have a voice.  Hat’s off to YPMN for giving them a platform and teaching them to use the new technologies.