Twenty-eight young women and men from all parts of Costa Rica recently learned how to produce their own radio messages on preventing violence, through a training programme organized by UNESCO and supported by the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F).
The training workshops took place at the Omar Dengo Foundation from 8 to 29 March and covered radio production in digital formats. It also taught the participants how to use information and communication technologies (ICT) as instruments for searching and producing new content that would transmit messages on preventing violence in their communities.
The participants worked during 12 days on contents and formats that allowed them to depict their own realities, opinions and dreams, and share their personal experiences. They produced a 30-minute radio programme, eight radio dramas and five spots for radio campaigns. Their programmes are now being broadcast by the radios in their communities and distributed through the networks of Radio Netherlands (RNL) and the Instituto Costarricense de Enseñanza Radiofónica (ICER). RNL and ICER, together with the National Commission of Costa Rica for UNESCO, provided trainers for the workshops.
The promotion of respect for cultural diversity, peace building and conflict resolution, strengthening freedom of expression through the local content created by youth for youth, as well as ways for preventing violence were the main topics the participants included in their programmes.
This radio training for youth was carried out in the framework of the two MDG-F Joint Programmes:
Youth, Employment and Migration: A One-Stop Shop for Youth Employment, and
Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding: Networks for Coexistence, Communities without Fear.