A Minute of Socail Change

A Minute of Social Change

This Year marks the 18^th anniversary of United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UN CRC) together with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), European Cultural Foundation (ECF), Sandberg Institute and The One Minutes Foundation shaped a workshop called one minute jr. This six (6) day extensive workshop aims to encourage youth expression and motivate youth to share their opinions about their rights, communities, environments, and about life itself. The workshop is a chance for young people to speak out to a broad audience, using their creativity to bridge the gap between themselves and the media. . JVC-Europe a subsidiary of JVC, the audio-visual equipment manufacturer provides much needed digital camcorder equipment to The One Minutes Jr. program, which will allow the organization to continue to host more international workshop.

The Probe Media Foundation a local media organization absorbed this advocacy and aided this to reach the Philippines. Twenty-one young reporters from Baguio, Manila, Sarrangani, Mindoro, Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, North Cotabato, Capiz and Camarinez Norte was chosen to participate in this one of a kind workshop.

Dominate

In Baguio, there were only two of us that was selected from various schools, me (UB) and my friend Kirk (SLU). We left Baguio at around 9:20 in the morning, September 26 an eight-hour bus trip to manila. We reached manila at around 4:30 in the afternoon, a bloody traffic and sudden rain pour greeted us. We rode a cab from Cubao Terminal to Regalia Tower Suites our home for a week. The Hotel was fantastic and lofty. My room was located at the 17^th floor while Kirk was in the 16^th floor. Apparently, we are the "first team to arrive", so we decided to join room instead. Mwahaha!

Orientation and a lot of work

The Workshop was formally initiated, and YES we are all strangers in our own rights, we don’t know the rest except for the few people we met in last year's "Human Rights Training". After a quick bountiful breakfast an orientation came thru, they introduced the people we are working with. The three facilitators are foreigners, Karen, from New York works under UNICEF; she supervises all the workshop schedules and needs.

Evelyn and Eric are from Amsterdam, they are part of the one-minute foundation, Eric is taking up masters in media and sculpture in Sandberg Institute.

Over the week, we will develop our own story, script, and produce a one-minute video, the time may be limited but not the enthusiastic spirits that we have in expressing ourselves – a right for every child. From a list of children's rights we will select a single article that we will transform into a film, but this film should be original and creatively done. The ultimate goal of the workshop is to show participants that their opinions and concerns do matter and that they have a right to voice them.

World wide

The 21 short videos formed in this workshop will compete to join 2007 one minute Jr. festival in Amsterdam, the videos will also be shown in 2007 UN CRC that will be broadcast worldwide. In extension, the videos will join the Tokyo Video Festival (TVF).

Bart Somsen, Communication Manager at JVC Europe said

“We believe The One Minutes Jr. program is a great and worthy initiative and are very pleased to be working with the ECF. We feel privileged to be able to make a contribution that will allow a continuation of this project in the future. As a pioneer in the AV industry, we appreciate the impact that video as a medium has to allow individuals of all ages to express their views and dreams. It is a belief that is close to the heart of our company, which is actively promoted through our own video festival such as the International Tokyo Video Festival (TVF). "

In addition, JVC will offer a chance to go to Tokyo and Amsterdam and the two prizewinners of this year’s festival a JVC digital camcorder each, which will enable them to continue to experiment with the medium of video in the future.

The way I see it

This is a great opportunity to show the world how great Filipinos in the field of media. As a participant, I am pleased and grateful to be part of this innovative workshop. We all did a very good job in creating videos the facilitators were astonished seeing all the final outputs. (Comparing from the previous clips they shown us we are so far out better!). Everything was amazingly different and exceptionally creative. We attained knowledge, gained some friends and all the hard work paid off.

Want to see our outputs visit;

www.theoneminutesjr.org

Writer: Guillermo Ocampo

Photos by: Bam and nicai