As a program participant, you'll return home with countless stories to help you share your experience with others. What you leave behind is an impact on local storytellers.
Your program fees support local media in two ways:
Community Media Fund: This fund provides media training, mentorship and support to youth and citizen journalists.
Media Professionals: We provide fair compensation for the storytellers we work with, enabling local job creation.
COMMUNITY MEDIA FUND
This fund works to equip the next generation of African storytellers. It enables youth and citizen journalists to receive media training, mentorship and support by local professionals who can serve as positive role models.
The community media fund supports groups like the Creative Writers and Young Debaters Club (CREWDEC). This media and social justice club is an initiative of youth aged 11 to 17 from Old Fadama, Ghana's most populous slum.
Members of CREWDEC meet weekly to discuss and debate social issues. After their group sessions, the young reporters conduct research at Internet cafes and interview people in their community before writing articles by hand.
Left to right: Timothy a journalist and teacher laughs with Frederick and Lydia, members of CREWDEC.
““This slum is the only place we know and call home, but people here are neglected. We want to use media to put a spotlight on this so we can help make a change.””
Many people look down on Old Fadama. The informal settlement has a reputation for being riddled with crime, poverty and disease. The majority of the slum's dwellers are migrants who've moved to Accra for a better life and are hustling day in and day out, while living under the constant threat of eviction.
Life can be especially challenging for these Ghanaians, who are often stigmatized for living in this slum. But CREWDEC is out to change that.
They have plans to start a newspaper to share the stories of what's really happening in their community. Through our community media fund, New Lens Travel provides financial resources and mentorship to this group.
Your program fees directly support these bright, young changemakers who believe in the power of media to create positive social change.
The media club team: (top, left to right) Nkrumah, Lydia, Jacob, Precious, Benedicta, Martha, Emmanuel, GIfty, Soloman, Thomas, Juliet, Vanessa, Mercy, (bottom, left to right) Richmond, Frederick, Hannah.