Voices of Youth Digital Diaries are all about young people who want to know more…do more…and say more about the world. These reports are first-person accounts by young people from around the world.
 |
|
© UNICEF/HQ07-1792/Markisz |
|
Fatuma speaking on a panel at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. |
Fatuma’s Digital Diary: Daily life for girls in the slums of Kenya
NEW YORK, USA, 24 October 2007 – Fatuma Roba, 20, lives in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Deeply concerned about the rights of girls and women, she is a founding member of the Binti Pamoja group – a girls’ centre in her community.
AUDIO listen
Tsholo’s Digital Diary: Tapping the potential of youth to change lives in Botswana
NEW YORK, USA, 10 August 2007 – Tsholofelo Selufaro, 18, is excited to be behind a microphone and takes every opportunity to interview members of her community on such topics as poverty, girls’ rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.
AUDIO listen
Jane’s Digital Diary: Malawian girls’ rights on the line
NEW YORK, USA, 31 July 2007 – Jane Kachitenji is passionate about girls’ rights – to education, safety and the same opportunities as boys. She’s an active participant in the Kaufulu Girls Foundation, a girls’ club in her home community of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
AUDIO listen
Chinyanta’s Digital Diary: A Zambian teen fights for child rights and gender equality
NEW YORK, USA, 6 June 2007 – Chinyanta Chimba has a lot of energy. At her school in Lusaka, Zambia, she’s active in the Student Alliance for Female Education, which advocates for the rights of girls. She also travels around the world, speaking about children’s rights.
AUDIO listen
Ecuadorian youths at UN forum speak out for indigenous rights
NEW YORK, USA, 30 May 2007 – Three young people from Ecuador presented their agenda on securing the rights of indigenous children during the Sixth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which ended on 25 May. The presenters – Nadino Calapucha, 16; Jessica Penafiel, 13; and Lourdes Yamberla, 18 – outlined ideas that had come out of meetings with a larger group of youths in Ecuador.
AUDIO listen
Nicaraguan Digital Diarist interviews peers about abuse and discrimination
NEW YORK, USA, 30 March 2007 – Jorge Luis Contreras, 16, who lives in Esteli, northern Nicaragua, is an avid interviewer. For several years now, he has been part of Radio Cumiches, a youth radio group.
AUDIO listen
Namibian Digital Diarist talks to other young people about AIDS
NEW YORK, USA, 17 January 2007 – In her latest Digital Diary, UNICEF Radio youth reporter Livey Van Wyk, 21, takes her recording equipment into the streets and youth centres of her community outside Windhoek, Namibia. She asks young people to talk to her about their country’s future and their thoughts about HIV/AIDS.
AUDIO listen
Two US youths with HIV join the fight against AIDS in Ethiopia
30 November 2006 – UNICEF Voices of Youth Digital Diarists Elias Perez and Kimberly Canady report on their trip to Ethiopia to meet with other HIV-positive young people.
AUDIO listen
UN Global Youth Leadership Summit energizes a new generation of activists
NEW YORK, USA, 1 November 2006 – Zerihun Mammo of Ethiopia and Pham Thi Thanh Nhung of Viet Nam, two participants in the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit, talk about their experience as activists and their goals for the future.
AUDIO listen
Two girls in Lebanon and Israel discuss post-war concerns
NEW YORK, USA, 30 October 2006 – During the war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended with a ceasefire in August, young people in both Lebanon and Israel suffered while watching parts of their homelands attacked and people there displaced or killed.
AUDIO listen
Jamaican AIDS activist Kerrel McKay talks to other youth leaders
NEW YORK, USA, 19 October 2006 – In her latest Digital Diary, UNICEF Radio Youth Reporter and Jamaican AIDS activist Kerrel McKay interviews other young leaders she met at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto.
AUDIO listen
A youth anti-violence activist in the Philippines tells her story
NEW YORK, USA, 10 October 2006 – Cora Buala, a 19-year-old activist in the Philippines, spent several weeks using a MiniDisc recorder to document her thoughts and conversations on violence against children for UNICEF Radio.
AUDIO listen
Two teenage girls in Israel and Lebanon find common ground
NEW YORK, USA, 14 September 2006 – Two teenage girls, one from Israel and one from Lebanon, had an opportunity to speak on the phone last week and tell each other about themselves and their recent experiences in the war between their two countries.
PART 1 listen
PART 2 listen
Young people in the Middle East talk about the toll of conflict
NEW YORK, USA, 14 August 2006 – Yasmin, 13, lives in the Gaza Strip. She says her life used to be beautiful, without the fears she has on a daily basis now. “I can’t go swimming, I can’t go anywhere, can’t look at the Internet because of the electricity shortage,” she says. “I can’t even take a bath because of the water shortage.”
AUDIO listen
Youth in the Middle East tell their stories of conflict... and hopes for peace
NEW YORK, USA, 1 August 2006 – Omer lives in Haifa, in northern Israel. She’s 15 years old. “After the siren we have about a minute to get into shelters. And usually we hear booms and faraway echoes. It’s kind of scary.”
AUDIO listen
Jamaican youth AIDS activist Kerrel McKay tells her story, her way
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.
Thembi’s AIDS Diary: A year in the life of a South African teenager
NEW YORK, USA, 18 April 2006 – For the past year, Thembi Ngubane, a 19-year-old from the township of Khayelitsa, South Africa, has been recording a diary of her struggle to live with AIDS.
Shamima’s story: Bringing clean water and hygiene to a Bangladesh slum area
New York, USA, 11 April 2006 – Shamima Shetu, 17, goes door to door in her home community of Comilla, Bangladesh, armed with a set of simple instructions and a watercolour painting. The painting has two sides depicting two versions of the world – one where water is dirty and sanitation practices are unhealthy, the other where water is clean and community sanitation is very good.
Young people help improve water safety in their communities
MEXICO CITY, 4 April 2006 – At the Children’s World Water Forum, held in Mexico’s capital from 16 to 22 March, children reported to one another on their water and sanitation projects around the globe – including some important initiatives in Latin America. Following are profiles of two such projects in Nicaragua and Colombia, and the young activists behind them.
Singing for sanitation: Teen in rural Nepal teaches her village about water safety
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, 27 March 2006 – At the Children’s World Water Forum here last week, children from around the globe reported to one another on their water projects. Some of them were shy at first, but over the course of the week they became more and more outspoken. One impressive young person was Shanta Chaudhary, 14, who comes from remote Dhikpur village in the Dang District of Nepal.
At the Children’s World Water Forum, a girl from Kenya shares her views
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, 20 March 2006 – Yesterday, a delegation of African children attended the 4th World Water Forum, where adult decision-makers are meeting to raise awareness about global water issues. The young people have been participating in the Children’s World Water Forum, which is also being held here this week. They were determined to draw attention to their concerns as young people about water, sanitation and hygiene on their continent.
Berenice’s story, a six-part radio series
ACCRA, Ghana, 16 January 2006 – Berenice Akuamoah used a mini-disc recorder and microphone to document her life in a six-part series for UNICEF Radio and Voices of Youth. Berenice is a very unusual 18-year-old young woman who hopes to become a lawyer, a sociologist, a political scientist and a journalist. “As you can see,” she says, “I am a young woman with many aspirations for my life.”
Violence against children - ‘Xchange’ strives to end the scourge
BELIZE CITY, 16 May 2005 – Marleni Cuellar, 20, has dedicated herself to building a new youth movement called ‘Xchange’ which is launching in Belize and the rest of the Caribbean Region over the next few months. Xchange is all about building harmony and commitment against violence one person at a time, through musical events, dramas and other participatory methods.
Voices of Youth members plan newsletter
NEW YORK, 2 May 2005 – Luciana, Jennifer, Laura, Camille, Fatima and Zuhur are hard at work inventing their own means of expression: a newsletter that will be published online through Voices of Youth.
Youth reporter from Ireland on how sports can help both children and nations
NEW YORK, 22 March 2005 - This year, 2005 has been named the Year of Sport by the UN, and UNICEF’s work around the world reflects that focus. In countries from Colombia, in South America, to Rwanda, in East Africa, sports is being used as a tool to educate young people, and to offer them a way of settling conflicts and a tool for relieving their own pain as a result of regional wars and other problems.
A young Iraqi girl describes her family’s preparations for the coming elections
AMMAN / NEW YORK, 28 January 2005 - With the situation in Iraq on the eve of the elections growing worse each day, 17-year old Sara and her mother and brother have temporarily left Iraq for the neighboring nation of Jordan. In Baghdad, Sara and her family faced rising violence, a lack of electricity and water, and a strict curfew imposed on Baghdad residents.
Young people from around the globe contribute to the tsunami relief effort
NEW YORK, 19 January 2005 - Throughout the world, governments and aid organizations have been working around the clock to help the victims of last month’s tsunami. But what is equally amazing, and less well-documented, is the determination of individual young people from Bogota to Jakarta to help in whatever way they can.
West African youth on one health problem that is on the rise in the region, polio
BENIN/CAMEROON/NEW YORK- Thirteen-year old Danielle lives with her mother and brothers and sisters in a quiet neighborhood in Benin. She participated in the December 22 web chat about polio, put together by UNICEF’s Voices of Youth.
Ugandan youth describe experiences living in nation divided
KAMPALA/MUBENDE/NEW YORK, 15 December 2004 – In Uganda, the northern section of the country is still embroiled in civil unrest, as it has been for the last 18 years, with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in violent battle with the Ugandan army. Unfortunately, it is the civilians, and mostly the young people, in the region who suffer the most, far more than the soldiers on either side of the conflict. The LRA uses violence, abduction and rape to subjugate the children of the villages in the region, and force them into their ranks as soldiers.
An Iraqi girl describes the first day back at school
BAGHDAD/NEW YORK, 15 October 2004 - With parts of Iraq still in conflict, the school year has begun with some schools opening later than usual. Parents are concerned about their children’s safety and many were kept at home.
An Iraqi youth reporter describes life during war
NEW YORK, 27 September 2004 – UNICEF is always interested to promote the participation of children in matters that concern them. In a new effort to publicise the opinions of young people around the world we’re reaching out to those who want to contribute to the UNICEF website as youth reporters.
