Urdu
Feature Service Launch
Urdu
Media Scene
Sasakawa
Peace Foundation-
Strengthening
Charkha's
Feature
Service
Overcoming
Barriers
Ek
Duniya Fellowship
Kashmir
Earthquake Relief
Features
Letters
to the Editor
Charkha
Staff
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EK DUNIYA KAYEE KAHANIAN WORKSHOP
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Reporting
from the Field : Ek Duniya fellows at Kalu village, Bikaner
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Charkha organized a two-day workshop, between 30 th
September and 1st
October, 2005, amidst the desert environs of western Rajasthan at
Lunkaransar, Bikaner. The objective was to select 30 participants
who will work as "Ek Duniya" Fellows and will write
stories reflecting grassroots concerns of village
communities related
to the Millennium Development Goals. This is part of an initiative
supported by One World South Asia (OWSA), a network which uses a
variety of media to promote interaction between people and
organisations working for human rights awareness and fighting
poverty worldwide.
The workshop was held in coordination with Urmul
Setu, a leading NGO in the region. Participants, of which around 35%
were women, came from a background in community work and were drawn
from various regions such as Bikaner, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and
Churu. They were given a brief orientation on the objectives of this
initiative and the expectations from them. Through the two days,
they were taken through a series of activities and exercises to
provoke thinking on issues, build confidence to interact and express
views and test their skills in presentations, group discussions and
interviews. Social issues like public health, women’s empowerment
and caste-based discrimination were identified which led to intense
discussions among participants. Resource persons with media
backgrounds and rooted in social activism, played a minimal role in
the discussions giving only an occasional hint or suggesting a
direction. This allowed the full expression of the participants’
thoughts and ideas.
This workshop was followed by an intensive
five-day workshop from 12th
–16th
October at the same venue in which resource persons drawn from the
media and development sector gave training in journalistic skills.
The workshop focused on developing local talent and knowledge of
issues among the fellows and raising the level of understanding and
articulation for them to be able to produce stories for the media.
The programme schedule included sessions on different aspects of the
media as well as on the nuances of feature writing and reporting,
group discussions on a number of social issues, creation of wall
newspapers and magazines by participants and field visits to nearby
villages followed by reporting. Resource persons kept a close watch
on each of these activities, guiding participants and giving inputs
without disturbing their natural flow. Interspersed with these
knowledge-cum-activity-intensive sessions were spaces for the
participants to mingle, share perspectives, voice opinions and
generally develop their interpersonal and communication skills,
which are essential to the task ahead of them. A cultural programme
of local songs and skits and a film show on Charkha’s Community
Radio initiative in Jharkhand created the ambience for mutual
learning and sharing.
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A session
on media by noted development journalist,
Ms. Annu Anand |
The selected Fellows have been prepared for a
programme in which for a period of four months, they will be
required to generate and send stories from their regions to the
Coordinator of the programme. They will then be taken through
further training by One World South Asia in both creative and
technical skills to enable them to access diverse media tools namely
the computer, the internet, community radio and reach an audience
far beyond the frontiers of their village or district. Charkha is
engaged in consultations with OWSA to evolve and fine-tune this
process.
Back to Home
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NEW! We welcome two eminent
persons, Mr. Ajit Bhattacharjea, Former Director, Press Institute
of India and Mr. Rajeev Thakore, Managing Director, Jacob Ballas
Capital India Pvt. Ltd., to the Board of Charkha.
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In
case you are interested in sending articles (in
English/Hindi/Urdu) on development issues that reflect the
voices of the grassroots, we would be delighted to receive the
same (preferably along with photographs). For further
guidelines and queries, write to us at:
charkha@bol.net.in
Charkha
Vikas Samvad
Read
the past issues of our e-Newsletter "Charkha Vikas Samvad"
July
2005
May
2005
March
2005
December
2004
October
2004
August
2004
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