Green light for young journalists

This week has been really exciting. Above and beyond filming some fabulous welly-whacking dancing for our schools exchange programme, the biggest development this week was that the Journalism Academy got its green light for funding from the Silverstar Casino. This means now that the group can go ahead with the necessary equipment: 6 digital cameras, 6 laptops and coursework materials. It’s a great testament to the effort put in by the young people themselves, as it’s their films, newsletters and successful internships that have really shown that this project has merit. With the financial backing, it also means that some of the young people can eventually get a paid stipend for leading the group, after some months of demonstrating their commitment.
The 10-month long course is going to be a joint project between Munsieville and another nearby township Swanieville, catering for about 40 young people in total, giving them a much needed leg-up into finding work.
Even though there is going to be a hectic few weeks ahead of writing the curriculum, training the project leads, and getting media partners onboard, I feel really proud about the accomplishment already. It felt sometimes feels a bit like playing space invaders… as you blast away one obstacle to the project, another one descends in its place. But it’s a great feeling as you get nearer and nearer to the goal. You have to think through all the aspects of the project: rather than increasing the project lead’s cash stipend, I came up with an idea of making a part-time journalism course part of the package. This way we lock in commitment and develop knowledge and skills, which ultimately comes back to benefit the wider group.
The nicest aspect was the reaction from the young people themselves. We met 19 year old Zeblon, a Zulu guy from Swanieville who was part of the pilot journalism project in Munsieville last year , and whom we are giving the chance to develop into one of the project leads. He has no job and can’t get into school. When I told him about the opportunity, he was so excited. I’ve never seen someone try so hard to both contain and express their delight at the same time.
Check out the the Youth Voice Journalism section on our Web site for the first stories from this exciting new project.
Thanks for reading,
Neil