PUTTING ON THE HATS OF CHILDREN

By Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong - Communication Officer, UNICEF Viet Nam
““Take off our grown-up hats and put on the hats of children.” That is the most interesting thing I learnt from the workshop” said Thanh from Vietnam Television. That was also what Barbara Kolucki, a children’s educational media specialist told the participants of the Media Production Workshops organized last September and early October 2004 by UNICEF and Viet Nam Women’s Union in the capital city of Hanoi and Hue – a central province of Viet Nam.
Since 2001, with the strong support of its government counterparts, UNICEF Vietnam has been supporting an Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) project. Using a holistic approach, the project includes everything from hygiene, father's role, child protection issues and the importance of play and psycho-social needs of children. The project aims to fulfill all of a child’s rights to the best start in life. A key component of this project is developing communication media that reaches young children and their families. Staff from various government agencies, media producers, musicians, painters, and photographers participated in these workshops.
People were divided into small groups and asked to develop media products. They were asked to develop a photo book, illustrated book, Public Service Announcement, or a radio or television spot depending on their backgrounds and experience. Each group was given a specific topic on child development and they had to find the location, characters, and materials for their assignments. Everyone was busy shooting, recording, painting, writing, taking photos, composing music, singing and even acting. “It’s really interesting to apply what we have learnt from the workshop directly into practice. Our group assignment was to produce a TV spot on a father nurturing his small child. At first, we had a lot of ideas but the child is only four months old and he did not do what we planned in our “scenario”. We had to wait for a long time, playing with him, talking with him and let him guide us. Finally we were able to get enough shots and the final product was good but totally different from what we originally intended. It’s challenging as we only had one day to do the assignment – but it was great fun and I learned a lot” said Thu Minh from Viet Nam Television.
“I was amazed to see the quality of the products. I couldn’t believe they could produce such good media only in one day. With only a little editing, many are of a standard that can be published or broadcast” said Barbara Kolucki, facilitator of the workshops. “I am really impressed with the photo book – My Wonderful Mum. It is a moving story about a disabled mother who tries to take care of her son like any other mother. That book showed that the participants were really on the right track in producing media for, about and with children” Barbara continued.
My Wonderful Mum (see below) was produced by a group consisting of a photographer, medical doctor, education expert, social worker, painter and poet. “The workshop gave us a new way of looking at disabled people. Media often stereotype them as being sad and having unhappy lives. Now we know that we should look at the positive side of the story” said Khanh, the photographer of the photo book.
UNICEF will work with its government counterparts to publish or broadcast the materials produced at these two workshops including this photo book.

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