MAGIC news archive

August 2006

AWARDS
CBA Broadcasting Awards 2007
Applications are invited for the annual CBA Awards for Television and Radio programmes. Applications can be team or individual entries and all programmes or projects should have been broadcast for the first time or completed between October 2005 and October 2006.
More info

ESSAY COMPETITION
This I Believe Essay Project
The Global Youth Fund is pleased to partner with This I Believe, Inc. to launch a new international essay project for youth.
This September, we invite young people (ages 13-25) from around the world to begin submitting short essays about their personal philosophies and the core values and beliefs that guide them day to day. We're especially interested in hearing what young people have to say about our world's most critical challenges. Global Youth Fund's This I Believe project is based on the 1950s radio program by the same name. Hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow on CBS Radio, the original This I Believe invited Americans from all walks of life to stand up for their beliefs - in order to resist the "cloud of fear" that was beginning to envelop them in an "age of confusion."
Today's youth live in equally challenging times. All around them, national, religious, and cultural barriers are breaking down. Identities and beliefs are constantly being tested. Now more than ever, we need to ask ourselves, "What do I believe?"
Global Youth Fund invites submissions from all youth (between ages 13 and 25), regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, or sexual orientation. The essays can be written in English, French, Spanish, or Chinese. All essays meeting our guidelines will be made available on GYF's website. A committee of judges will also select 25 of the best essays to record for GYF's podcast and to distribute through other media outlets.
This essay project marks the official start of Global Youth Fund's revolutionary effort to create the world's first democratic fund, giving young global citizens a forum to set collective priorities and achieve common goals.
More info

NEWS
Youth with disabilities strive to inspire and educate through UN treaty process
18 August 2006 - Youth from across the world are a driving force behind talks now taking place at United Nations Headquarters in New York aimed at finalizing a treaty protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
Born in Venezuela, Vincent Pineda has muscular dystrophy and Svetlana Kotova from Russia has a sight disability. While they come from opposite ends of the earth, with very different personal circumstances, both represent the new generation of young leaders hoping to make a difference through the drafting and, ultimately, carrying out the provisions of the proposed International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.
Full article

COMPETITIONS
2006 UNICEF/OneWorld Radio Competition
OneWorld Radio in collaboration with UNICEF are hosting a contest for radio features and public service announcements to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and highlight young people's participation in the media. The contest highlights OneWorld/UNICEF's ongoing commitment to youth participation and development. The contest will also offer an additional opportunity to promote OneWorld/UNICEF's HIV/AIDS campaign "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS," in which UNICEF played a critical coordinating role.
This year the competition runs for eight months, starting in April 2006. The winners will be announced in December 2006 in conjunction with the International Children's Day of Broadcasting.
This year's competition theme is "Unite for Children. Unite Against AIDS."
More info

DIGITAL DIARIES
Jamaican youth AIDS activist Kerrel McKay tells her story, her way

Kerrel McKay, 20, in Montego Bay, Jamaica © UNICEF video
NEW YORK, USA, 25 April 2006 - Kerrel McKay was 10 years old when her father was diagnosed with AIDS. She lived in the parish of Portland on Jamaica's northeast coast. Her parents were separated, and at age 14 she had to take on the burden of caretaking.
"I had to wash his home, wash his clothes. I had to do his grocery shopping and take him to doctor's appointments," Kerrel remembers. That was hard, but it was even harder when her father became too sick for her to continue caring for him. Then he was moved into a hospice. When he died, Kerrel's initial feelings of despair were soon converted into an energetic vision. "I realized I could educate young people," she says. "I could use my story to help people understand. We are all affected by this disease." In 2000, she started the Portland Parish Youth Committee, an arm of the UNICEF-supported Portland AIDS Committee.
Today, at 20, Kerrel is just as committed to ending the epidemic as she was six years ago. She has branched out from her activist work to a job with a Ministry of Health outreach programme in Kingston, Jamaica's capital. She spends nights working in clubs and on the streets. "We reach out to marginalized people," Kerrel explains. "I talk to the dancers, to the commercial sex workers, about the dangers of HIV infection."
full article
more about the digital diaries

RADIO
UNICEF radio for Malian children
Mopti, Mali, 08/15 - A UNICEF-sponsored workshop opened here Monday to teach children the use of radio as a means of expression and a tool for dialogue.
About 30 children from eight regions in Mali are attending the workshop to improve radio broadcasting techniques and genres, under a project called "Radio for children and by children".
Organised by UNICEF in partnership with the Mali Radio and Television Authority Mali (ORTM) and the Union of Mali Private Radio and Television stations (URTEL), the 5-day workshop hopes to encourage increased social mobilisation for human rights promotion.
UNICEF communication officer Ismael Maïga said the objective of the workshop was to encourage children to talk about their human rights-related experiences and understand the concept of human rights.
It will also promote the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on children wellbeing and the Code of Child Protection.
During the workshop, children will be introduced to production, animation and sound recording techniques.
In order to encourage competitiveness among partner radios, a yearly contest will be organised to determine the best radio programmes produced by the children themselves.
Source

TRAINING
Newly-organized child-friendly press corps commits to uphold child rights
General Santos City, Philippines(15 August) - Children can now find solace in the arms of the Fourth Estate as the newly-formed Child-Friendly Press Corps has committed to protect the rights of the child in whatever way they can.
The press corps vowed to uphold and help promote the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted in November 20, 1989 by UN General Assembly, which spells out the rights of children to survival, protection, development, and participation in governance.
Sarangani provincial government in cooperation with Philippine Information Agency and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)-Sixth Country Programme for Children (CPC 6) organized Thursday a group of media into a Child-Friendly Press Corps to help shore up the advocacy on CRC as well as popularize child-related undertakings in the province.
full article

EVENTS
August 12 is International Youth Day

More info

PRINT
WAN promotes NIE at Kid?s Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina
WAN promoted its Newspapers in Education Development program sponsored by Norske Skog at this year's 3rd annual Kid's Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an event meant to celebrate Bosnian unity among youth. The week-long carnival in Sarajevo attracted some 30,000 Bosniak, Serb and Croat students and their teachers from all over the country who arrived daily by bus and special trains arranged for them. During its four-day visit, WAN also met with officials from the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, local NGOs, and the organizer of the festival for preliminary discussion on how an NIE program can benefit the country's young people.
Full article

FUNDING
Shaw Rocket Fund - Funding application deadline
The Shaw Rocket Fund provides financing for the production of high quality Canadian children's, youth and family programming. Canadian independent producers of film and television projects in this genre are welcome to apply.
Funding guidelines are available at www.rocketfund.ca

ARTICLES
Community radio on wheels
Up in the hills of Kothmale, about 25 kilometres southwest of Kandy in the central province of Sri Lanka, a strange vehicle can be seen sputtering along the dirt tracks of the villages. At first glance, it is an autorickshaw or tuktuk, a familiar sight on the roads of South Asia and as common on the streets of Sri Lanka as sarongs. But this is no ordinary vehicle. This is eTukTuk, the world's first radio-station and multimedia centre on three wheels.
Full article

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Norwegian newspaper looking for "Voices of Children"
The second biggest newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten, have a daily page where young people between 13 and 18 years can write about their opinions, thoughts, meanings etc.
On August 12th we want to celebrate the international youth day by letting youth from all over the world tell us about their lives. But we need to get in contact with young people writing us their opinions. They can write whatever they like, but here are some ideas:

• Describe a normal day in your life
• Write about your dreams
• What did you think about waking up this morning?
• How do you see the world when you are 20 years older than today, how is your life?

The letters will be translated into Norwegian - the texts must not be longer than 800 signs. Pictures are also needed and should not exceed 700 pk.
Send your submissions to liv.skotheim@aftenposten.no before August 9, 2006.

EVENTS
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child - Day of General Discussion
On September 15, 2006, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will hold a Day of General Discussion in Geneva. The topic of the day is "The Right of the Child to be Heard"
More info - PDF one-pager
Website

VIDEO
Check out the "Unite for children, unite against AIDS" video

You can still participate, of course, and send us YOUR version so we can add it to the video.
WATCH THE FILM
MORE INFO in English - Spanish - French

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