Youth e-Perspectives on Migration is one of our favorite projects. Why? Because it is about young people, digital skills and media literacy, about refugees and migration, mutual understanding, history and future. All at the same time.
But let’s start from the beginning.
The idea was to create a methodology for a short training course on digital photography, storytelling and journalism for young people. The topic is migration and the refugee crisis. The objective – to empower young people to approach and tackle sensitive issues from the world around them with digital tools. How?
The partners put their heads and hearts together to develop the training, which follows the read line Find-Tell-Act.
Find
Young participants learned different ways to “find” a story. An online magazine on refugees and migration was created with FlipBoard, combining and comparing different sources of information.
Participants then learned how to make a story through photography. They visited a refugee facility and took interviews from representatives of organisations working with refugees on the field.
Tell
With all this experience as a background, they then worked on their own personal digital stories related to migration. And guess what!? They all had one! Together they applied what they had learned to create a picture of migration, reflecting on how they see it through their own eyes.
Act
Last, but not least, they learned about the digital opportunities to raise awareness and start an initiative online, using for example social media platforms not only for posting pictures of their whereabouts, but bringing their friends’ attention to something meaningful. They learned to write a blog and express their ideas.
Thus, they approached the topic from many different perspectives, at the same time acquiring valuable technical and digital skills such as video editing, sound and video recording, using advanced features of professional cameras, or their mobile devices.
This was not all done during the 6 amazing days spent in Croatia in July, but also through online collaboration through the project training platform, facebook group and google shared drives.
The methodology will soon be published for all interested organisations working with young people, accompanied with a hands-on guide on how to implement it. Stay tuned!