Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - “News for young people, written by young people; a direct voice from Africa giving an account of the poverty in Nairobi.” This could be the synthesis of the project “Millennium News, giving a voice to the youth on the streets,” which was presented in Rome, in the headquarters of the RAI (Italian Public Television). Africa has a voice, although it may be weak and fragile, but there is a will to survive that emerges with strength, as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Eighty young journalists from the dark, dirty, and many times violent neighborhoods of Nairobi, have created their first “news report” on the poverty in which so many people live. AMREF, the main non-profit health organization on the African continent, has supported the project, in an effort to demonstrate how the Millennium Goals are still far from being reached.
Born into situations of great social disadvantages, and with parents who are oftentimes unemployed or with dysfunctional families, each of these youth “has experienced extreme poverty first hand,” in not having enough money to buy food, nor attend school. These youth have had a first hand experience of violence of all kinds, of the death of children, of the spread of AIDS and other common diseases in the Kenyan capital, in these places in which they must live from a very young age. Creating a news report with a “tabloid” style, the young people (who are between 8 and 20 years of age), like authentic journalists give a first hand account, in their own vocabulary, of the reality in which they live: drugs, violence, solitude, as well as their dreams, thoughts, and solutions they have thought of in solving everyday problems. It is a news broadcast that “tells things like they are,” free from any of the typical stereotypes of Africa.
AMREF General Director Thomas Simmons comments: “The film is the fruit of work and reflection of hundreds of youth living on the streets, who have observed the reality in which they live, with a fresh perspective. They have done so not only to share their daily reality with others, but also to create awareness and inspire the government to make more efforts and investments in favor of Africa.” Thanks to an agreement reached with the RAI, the “Millenium News” will air at 4pm June 1-15, in brief versions, and from June 16-30, in the complete versions. (MT) (Agenzia Fides 16/4/2009)
