Youth Media & Communication Initiative (YMCI)

YMCI initiates dialogue and collaboration between media practitioners and children/youth. It trains them to develop media literacy skills to evaluate and respond to the media for a more informed and empowered citizenry. By adding children/youth voices into the regular mix of mainstream media, the YMCI aims to ensure accurate, relevant and fair representation of issues that affect children/youth and their communities.

The organisation is open to every Nigerian child/youth irrespective of religious affiliation, language, or social background. YMCI aims to provide an opportunity for them to examine the country, its strength, and its shortcomings, in a congenial atmosphere devoid of tribal and religious tensions.

YMCI focuses on the following five areas:

• Conflict/Diversity Ethnic and religious conflicts are the major sources of tension in Nigeria. These conflicts have a far-reaching effect on children/youth and they are vulnerable in unique ways. This project will work to help children/youth understand the origin, nature and causes of these conflicts and the impact on their lives. More important, it will work to help them understand the role they can play in conflict prevention and resolution.
• Communication & Development For children/youth to have an impact in society, they must not only understand the issues that affect them, but they must be able to communicate about these issues in a proper and effective manner. This project will provide an opportunity for children/youth to express their views on national issues and child rights issues and seek solutions where necessary.
• HIV/AIDS This epidemic threatens the future of the country as more and more children/youth are infected daily. This project aims to provide children/youth with factual information about HIV/AIDS that enables them to fight against it.
• Environment Organisers believe that it is the duty of today's children/youth to make sure that air, land and water are protected so that future generations inherit a cleaner, healthier society. This project aims to teach children/youth the importance of caring for and protecting the environment. It will help them understand the socio-economic dimensions of environmental degradation and its impact on their lives. It will also teach them how to hold stakeholders accountable.
• Global Outreach This project will strive to provide children/youth with factual and independent information on globalisation and how it affects them and their counterparts in other parts of the world. It will also be a forum for them to interact with children/youth in other parts of the world through exchanges, visits, and sharing of information.

Youth, Children.

The organisation's agenda is not to teach children/youth to become journalists, but to train them as agents for social mobilisation and social change - that is, to develop their capacity for effective communication and self-expression so that they can have a positive impact on their schools, communities, and society.