Somali Youth Gain Media Skills For Peace Advocacy

“I’m not necessarily a journalist,” says Fozia, a Somali youth activist, “but I now know how to use media equipment, develop scripts and tailor my message for peace advocacy to reach my targeted audience.”  Fozia was one of fifteen youth from around Somalia to take part in an IREX-led six-day training on “Media Tools for Peace Advocacy” between September 25-30, 2010 in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

During the six days of intensive media training, participants gained in-depth experience in a variety of topics on media and conflict resolution, including interview skills, story writing, editing and production of short videos as well as dissemination of peace advocacy via public service announcements.  The training combined practical and theoretical components and was highly participatory, with participants gaining hands-on experience working with laptops, flip cameras, digital recorders and editing software.

Hussein Jabiri, a media professional and director of Somali Development Trust (SDT), an IREX partner based in Puntland, said: “Media tools are a most viable strategy in preventing the ever-inflammatory clan-related conflicts in the sense that the same youth who were previously exploited to fan the flames of these conflicts are now skilled at putting that tradition to an end through powerful and proactive media tools.”

Participants had previously undergone peacebuilding training; the recent media training built upon that foundation while adding practical media skills in scriptwriting, radio production, new media and filmmaking.

Fozia, the youth activist, noted the professional value of her growing media proficiency. “Each and every day,” she said, “I meet ordinary people who are spurned, discounted and deliberately ignored despite their astonishing lives and ideas they have for the simple solutions that we lack.  I wonder how I shall ever be able to put their stories into the minds of the big guys in the office.  I think this workshop is placing me in a position to bridge that gap.”

The media tools workshop was part of the Uniting Communities to Mitigate Conflict (UCMC) program, which is funded by USAID and implemented by IREX.  The UCMC program uses media tools to promote peaceful approaches to clan-related conflict by training women and youth activists on media and peacebuilding skills.  Partner organizations will produce media messages promoting peaceful approaches to conflict, followed by facilitated community conversations on sources of and solutions to clan-related conflict in Somalia.