Cultural Survival’s Community Radio Program team is days away from the final event of our project aimed at improving participation and integration of Indigenous youth from Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador through community radio. With the generous support of our donors and FLACSO Costa Rica, FLACSO El Salvador, PNUD, Unión Europea, and PAIRCA II, we participated in and coordinated two successful events in the past five months and are excited to close our project with what we are hoping to be our most fruitful event yet. This Indigenous Youth Radio Forum is the third and final in the series and will focus on ensuring that the youth participants follow through with action plans and communication after the project comes to a close. The youth will be working in groups to prepare project proposals that they will present during the Forum that will take place on the second day of the event. They will sign up for specific jobs within the projects that they will have designed themselves, making commitments to continue with these projects after Cultural Survival's project has come to a close.
The Indigenous Youth Radio Forum will take place at Hotel Los Jardines del Lago in Panajachel at the beautiful Lake Atitlán this weekend, February 8-9, 2014. The event will include the participation of 55 Indigenous youth from the three Central American countries who have attended the two prior conferences. In total, close to 80 participants, factilitators and coordinators will be in attendance. Ensuring that the experience is summative, this final event will build off of the two previous events.
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On the first day of the Youth Forum, the youth will have the opportunity to work together to define the most pertinent themes and topics from the first two events. They will brainstorm what they learned and decide which topics deserve the most attention in their communities. Next the youth will work together, designing project proposals concerning the most relevant social issues in their communities. On the final morning, the youth groups will present their project ideas to the attendees at the Forum. A few designated youth panelists will provide their suggestions and critiques to each project before the youth sign up for their official roles in each project. To finish off the event, the youth will make an official declaration, demonstrating their commitment to work together across borders for the promotion of their cultures and the betterment of their communities.
The youth from Radio Sensunat in El Salvador will live stream the entire event for their online radio and the youth from Guatemala and Belize will be recording the event to create later radio programming. Our team cannot wait to see the great ideas that the youth bring to the table at the Forum.
