African Youth Gather in Addis for a Media & Advocacy Training Camp

Posted September 5th, 2008 by speakafrica

Twenty youth from seven African countries attended a five-day Speak Africa media and advocacy training camp in Ethiopia from 22-26 August 2008.

The youth, whose ages ranged from 15-28 and were drawn from Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique and Somalia, all had previous media skills training, with some even hosting their own radio or television programmes back home.

Facilitated by Speak Africa, a multi-partner Pan African child and youth focused communication platform and strategy, the camp gave the young people an opportunity to share experiences on use of media and advocacy programmes in their countries, explore development of advocacy and communication strategies particularly for video advocacy and human rights, and also brush up on their basic journalism skills.

The Camp also looked at the ways open for African youth to engage with the decision-making processes in the continent, current development issues affecting African youth, pending charters on children and youth yet to be ratified by all AU member states i.e. the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) and the African Youth Charter (AYC), as well as continental advocacy campaigns such as the Speak Africa “No Violence against Children and Youth” campaign .

Speak Africa brought in trainers were brought in from WITNESS (an international human rights organization, Youth Media and communication Initiative (an international organization with focus on children and media), and the Africa University College of Communication (based in Ghana). Presentations were also made by the BBC World Service Trust, the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Human Right Human Rights Regional Office for East Africa, as well as from the Speak Africa secretariat based in UNICEF Ethiopia.

Support for the attendance of the youth was provided by UNICEF and Plan International country offices.