Unite and give power to the voices of teens
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© Children's Voice, Ukraine - 2006 |
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Ludmila from Ukraine at the IIYMS in LA in July 2006 |
Young people from all over the world gathered in Los Angeles (USA) in July 2006 to exchange their views and produce films together. Ludmila Danylyuk (22), member of the UNICEF-supported Young People’s Media Network in Europe and Central Asia (YPMN), accompanied Valeriy (16) and Iurii (19), two youngsters from the Children’s Voice Media Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, to the youth media event in LA.
Here is Ludmila’s report from the Irmas International Youth Media Summit.
Unite and give power to the voices of teens
From 21-30 July, 2006, the Irmas International Youth Media Summit (IIYMS) took place in Los Angeles, California, with participants – 2 youngsters and an advisor each from 26 countries (Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belize, Bolivia, Egypt, England, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine and United States of America). The summit was organized by Teen International Media Exchange and sponsored by The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, Listen Up! and Health Net. Its aim was to encourage young people to become actively involved in creating change through the media.
Unfortunately, the students from Afghanistan could not come as they were not granted visas, but all delegates from the countries that had arrived to the IIYMS sent them warm letters wishing not to despond and believe they would come to participate in the next summit taking place in Australia.
All delegates were separated into seven issue groups, such as Racism, Poverty, Violence, Health, Environment, Women’s Rights and Youth Empowerment. During the first five days, each issue group had to visit organizations working to find solutions and implement change. Organizations such as Inside Out Community Arts, ONEGeneration, Heal the Bay, Friends of the L.A. River, Crossroads School – the UCLA AIDS Ambassadors program, USC Medical Center, The National Center On Deafness, Los Angeles Commission of Assaults Against Women, The Museum of Tolerance, Office of Americas were visited by the participants of the summit. It was very interesting to compare them with the ones in the delegates’ home countries.
On the sixth day, the teenagers were involved in preparing for their final projects: filmmakers wrote their public service announcement (PSA) scripts and “diplomats” voted for their resolutions. The script-writing process as well as the film-making for each issue group was supervised by the Cleveland High School teachers Dick (Cedar) Oliver and James Gleason and/or the country advisors.
One of the tasks for delegates of each country was to create a one- or two-minute film on the topic corresponding with their issue group. Finally, all films produced by the teenagers were screened in one of the Los Angeles theatres. The task of the “diplomats” was to prepare a research project, which they presented to the other participants of the summit.
In addition to the work, the delegates also had time to get to know each other in recreational activities and games; visits to movie studios, shopping malls and amusement parks. They became a family, celebrating their differences, marveling at their similarities.
The Irmas International Youth Media Summit (IIYMS) was a great opportunity for young people from around the world to work together for achieving one important goal – making the world we live in better and give a chance to the voices of youth to be heard.
Written by Ludmila Danylyuk
(Advisor of the Ukrainian team participating in the Irmas International Youth Media Summit / Independent Media Center ‘Children’s Voice’, Kiyv, Ukraine)
