Ukrainian teenager wins Staying Alive Foundation Award
Denis Stepura (19), from Kiev, is among the winner of this year's Staying Alive competition. The awards are given to young people as well as youth organizations engaged in grass roots HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention campaigns. Denis is the only winner from Europe. All other winners come from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Over 200 nominations were received representing 48 countries. SAF worked with international NGO’s to identify exemplary programs at the grassroots level. Finally, 25 young people and 4 organizations were chosen as winners - among them Denis and his idea to develop a specialized informational web-site for children and adolescents on HIV and AIDS prevention. It is not the first time that Denis and his NGO "Children's Voice" is making the headlines. In 2002, they won the OneWorld/UNICEF Award with their radio production "Street Children", a programme featuring powerful interviews with children who live on the street, focusing on their rights and concerns. In 2004, they also won a 5,000 USD production grant from US-based youth media NGO "ListenUp!". With the funding, "Children's Voice" produced a documentary about young people growing up in Ukraine after the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Denis has been involved in children & youth media production for about five years now. The first serious work he did in media was when he was editor-in-chief of the youth newspaper “Un-Post” in 2001. A year later he sent an article to a competition for young journalists which was held by FYCE – (Foundation of Youth Culture and Education) in Kiev. Denis' article was among the finalist and since that time he has been the president of the Independent Children Media Center “Children’s Voice”, a project under FYCE. "Children's Voice" works with different mass media and multimedia projects. Children and young people from the media center create their own radio programs, videos, 3D and web-designs - all closely connected to social issues such as the protection of children and their rights. Denis: "I dedicate my time and intellectual resources to the protection of children and youth rights via mass media because I believe that the mass media can influence the solution of children and youth problems." Check out Denis' photo journal and diary from the 4th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents in 2004 on the UNICEF Voices of Youth website.
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