via CAAI News Media
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 15:01 Tha Piseth
Support Children and Young People (SCY) is cooperating with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to pilot “Youth Today”, a discussion forum that will be recorded at TVK studios. The event, which will be aired on February 15, is meant to show people how important youth can be in social development.
SCY will conduct the TV programme to provide young Cambodians with the opportunity to participate in media advocacy and to illustrate the contributions that youth can make within society. The forum will support SCY’s vision that youth can play a crucial role in the development by giving young people a tool to share their perspectives with the masses.
“We can see that throughout the world, especially in the United States, young people are encouraged to participate in social development policy,” said Em Chan Makara, executive director of SCY. The main purpose of the upcoming forum is to “provide commune leaders in the provinces with examples of what our organisation has done with youth so far”, explained Em Chan Makara. “We believe that young people can make the society change through their commitment, participation and voice.”
In the forum, SCY will select youth representatives from three different provinces, including Kampong Thom and Battambang, and ethnic minority youth from Ratanakkiri province. SCY will also invite commune leader and university students in Phnom Penh to participate in the upcoming programme, hoping to bring together 65 people in all.
Phnom Penh officials have also been invited to the event to observe and to provide ideas for how youth can be involved in the development of the Kingdom.
There will be a one-hour discussion based around two documentaries made by volunteers from youth organisations. Those documentaries are about the educational sector, as well as activities of youth in the provinces working to inform people in their communities about reproductive health, traffic rules and the human rights situation among ethnic minority groups in Ratanakkiri.
“One of the main purposes is to show that young people can be an examples for youth in other provinces, letting them know what they can do toward social development,” Em Chan Makara said. He added that many young people in Cambodia do not have opportunities to get involved in media activities and need access to these types of outlets.
Besides the two documentaries, there will also be a circus featuring young representatives from Ratanakkiri, which will also be about education.
SCY is cooperating with community radio in Ratanakkiri to broadcast the forum to minority ethnic groups. The organisation also has young reporters to translate the documentaries into ethnic minority languages.
Greg Lavender, civil Society liaison and media development officer at UNDP, told Lift: “SCY has extensive experience in helping Cambodian youth to get involved in media production. UNDP is excited to be supporting them to help young Cambodians make their voices heard.”
Ly Chhay, an 18-year-old cameraman, said students should pay close attention to the documentary because they highlight the cooperation among youth in social development.
“They raised money among youths to construct roads in their community. They raised chickens and used the money to help poor people and people living with HIV,” Ly Chhay said.
Youth have the power to improve their community, with support from the UNDP, SCY hopes that by promoting those efforts that have been made in the past, it can encourage greater participation of young people in the future.
Now it is in your hands!
Support Children and Young People (SCY) is an organisation that is giving young Cambodians the opportunity to participate in media advocacy. The organisation gives young people a chance to raise concerns, speak their minds and express interests.
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