Human Interest Stories

Human Interest Stories

 

Children Call for More Shows on ICDB 2004

© UNICEF Jordan / Mango

Children Call for More Shows on ICDB 2004
“How truthful is the news that we read in the newspapers?” asked Joan Hananiya (15) live on Jordan’s state television. Joan was interviewing a journalist from a local paper as they both reviewed the daily news headlines -The flustered journalist not expecting such a question from the teenager, hesitated for a few seconds and then  explained about journalistic ethics.

And with this frank tone, the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting started on Jordan television on Friday 17 December, 2004: Around 50 kids worked from the early hours of the freezing morning up to late at night taking on the roles of broadcasters, sound technicians, and producers. On radio, television, and internet radio, children from all parts of the country took live calls from Chicago, Bahrain, Dubai, and other areas in the world.

Working under the theme of “Help Us Build a Safer World” kids as young as ten tied in the projects they had been working on all year round with child protection. There were groups from the Hittin Refugee Camp who spoke about the importance of awareness as a means of protection. Zeina Khalil (14) explained how her group produced magazines and documentaries and then disseminated the material amongst children and adolescents.

Other children from the Performing Arts Centre of Nour Al Hussein Foundation spoke of the importance of drama in conveying messages about issues such as child labour, and domestic violence. “What’s your message to young people, how can we work together to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in Jordan?” asked Marwan Rashdan (14) of UNICEF‘s Goodwill Ambassador, Mahmoud Kabil in a live telephone interview on the airwaves of Radio Jordan’s English Service.

When he was not too busy interviewing people and speaking about his project, Marwan (part of the Performing Arts Centre group) also spent a couple of hours working as sound man for both the English and Arabic radio Services. This set the tone for many other children who took courage from Marwan and ran to the French Radio Service to take charge of the phone calls and sound.

“How does Jordanian legislation deal with those who abuse children?” asked Hala Dudin (12) of a lawyer being interviewed live on the Arabic radio. Hala was part to the Intergenerational Dialogue group which promotes communication between adults and children.

Young Girls Speaking Out on the Radio 
On a special television programme “ A Safe World for Children” prepared by young children, Haya Azzeh (12) spoke about some of the challenges she faced at school because of her walking disability.” People look at people and feel sad, I tell them that there is no need to feel sorry for me, but they keep on insisting on doing things for me which makes me angry,” said Haya. She discussed with another six kids issues of concern, such as smoking, drug abuse, and dropping out of school.

Image above shows Haya and Her Friends on the “Safe World for Children”.

Show which they Produced.
The day was wrapped up with Nour Batayneh (15) reading the News At Ten live on televsions. It seems that the anchor was so excited about having a young person on board, that he pressed too hard on the teleprompter when it was Nour’s turn to read the news. Hence Nour’s script just flew by on the screen she was supposed to read from. A few seconds of silence ensued. Very quietly Nour picked up the written text of the news which was in front of her and proceeded to read with great calm.

On Sunday a debriefing was held live on the “Yawm Jadid” local television show, where Raja Qamar  (16)  and Haya called for “definitely more of this.”