Answering cross-continental challenges and aiming to prepare for this potent collaboration, AFR.E.S.H project offers training designed to provide practical, hands-on experience. Through international online exchanges, participants can share best practices, gain intercultural perspectives, and consider local implications of global challenges. The courses are flexible and accessible online, allowing you to learn at your own pace and convenience. 

Training Programs Offered by AFR.E.S.H 

 Media Literacy Training for Youth Workers 

Are you a youth worker looking to facilitate more engaging and interactive online meetings and workshops? This training program equips you with the tools and best practices to make digital spaces more dynamic and participatory. Under the guidance of facilitator Rainer Gude, you’ll have the chance to practice new tools and techniques in a supportive environment. 

 Social Impact Evaluation Workshop 

If you’re part of an NGO or association looking to enhance your program evaluation skills, this workshop is for you. Facilitated by Giuseppe Pellegrini, this interactive course teaches you how to develop effective evaluation strategies for your programs. You’ll learn to design and implement monitoring systems and analyze results to improve your organization’s impact. 

The AFR.E.S.H project is more than just a series of training programs; it’s a movement to empower young leaders and foster transnational cooperation. By participating in these programs, you can gain the skills needed to navigate and address the complex challenges facing our world. Join us in redefining the horizon between Africa and Europe—together, we can build a better future. 

L'articolo Building Skills for a Better Future: access AFR.E.S.H training materials proviene da New Humanity.

Join in the AFR.E.S.H ZOOM exchange on May 1 from 11.00 to 12.00 (UCT+2) and then let’s follow the opening of the United World Week 2023 together via live streaming.

Translations available: Swahili, Kirundi, Portoghese, French, English, Italian, Spanish

Register here for the live exchange via zoom <<

L'articolo Networking & International Cooperation among partner organizations proviene da New Humanity.

DIGITAL FACILITATION

WHEN: March 25th – 9 to 11 CET time

OBJECTIVE: give some tools and best-practices for facilitating meetings and workshops online.

It will focus on making these digital spaces more interactive and engaging and will have a space to practice the new tools learned. This is the first of three workshops which will be focused on improving our use of digital tools.

>> REGISTER HERE <<

L'articolo Digital Facilitation first online training – Afr.e.s.h project proviene da New Humanity.

This was made possible through a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union and support, in addition to the Città Nuova publishing groups, from social organizations in the countries involved in the project, among them New Humanity.

Discover:

Copyright 2022 © CSC Audiovisuals – All rights reserved. (2661M)

L'articolo Teens International: an international editorial board made up of teenagers proviene da New Humanity.

 Summary:

The project “Breaking Rays” will be implemented by 10 organizations both from EU MS and partner countries, involving 4 different continents.

In the light of high unemployment rates youth is facing nowadays worldwide, there is an economic as well as a personal cost: young people are not being allowed to work to their full potential and this could often lead to vulnerability and social disengagement of a generation full of energy that should contribute to inclusive growth in their countries.

One particular area today presents an opportunity for young people: In recent years in fact the ICT (information and communication technology) sector has been a large driver of GDP growth in many ACP, Latin America and Asian countries, primarily due to growth in mobile technology and internet use.

Inside the ICT field a sector that shows high potential is the news production and distribution: as the world becomes more globally interdependent, it is vital for people to understand that what is happening outside their countries has a direct impact on their lives and their country (as migration flows towards Europe demonstrates), in order to share problems and best practices, underlining solutions useful to influence decision making processes and prevent crises

For this reason the project aims to combine training activities oriented to develop in young people professional skills on reporting and communication of news, with a very modern approach, together with the civic purpose to offer visibility to local communities’ needs and experiences, giving space and value for citizens’ participation. The project will be developed through 3 mobility training activities in IT, BR and PHI which are complementary in order to build up some film-makers’ professional profiles.

The project title “Breaking rays” (quoting the technical journalism expression “Breaking News”) underlines the will to focus on positive and constructive social commitment of associations and grass roots NGOs, connecting them in an international platform which could amplify the impact of such actions and stimulate the replicability in other communities: this so called “glocal” approach will contribute to overcome a feeling of isolation and “not being listened to” by centres of power that local contexts are suffering and to raise the quality of local reporters in communicating their stories.

In this sense, the established network owns a strong potential putting together international NGOs, an enterprise working in communication/media and local NGOs in 4 different continents, offering a possible way to face educational challenge and unemployment through synergies among various stakeholders.

Acquired skills will foster the quality of staff in partner organization of partner countries and their potentials to elaborate successful projects thanks to a more powerful communication strategy: on the other side local communities’ capacities to influence all levels of decision-making will be reinforced.

Key-words:

Youngsters, Reporter, Audio-Video, Positive news.

Plan of Activities:

3 mobility activities:

• 29 June -7 July 2017: 9 days of  training in Castelgandolfo (Italy) about social documentary and story-telling (goals and production-making). For 22 young people (2 from each partner)
• 3-10 February 2017: 8 days of training at the “Mariapolis Ginetta” Center (Brazil), about social communication, including study-visitis to NGOs engaged into the fraternity promotion and possibility to realise interviews and reports from the local situation. For 22 young people (2 from each partner).
•  27 June – 4 July 2017: 8 days of training in the Philipines, about live communication management of an international event. For 50 participants (40 young people and 10 trainers) during the days before the GenFest event.

Each local partner will realise a least 3 audio-video reports about relevant experiences at the end of the training period.

Audio-visual material about the GenFest will be gathered and produced on the occasion of that international event as well and will promote all the good practices linked with the promotion of the principle of fraternity.

An internet platform will gather and promote such good practices. A mobile/tablet application will be created and further managed by New Humanity.

Project Partners

New Humanity International NGO (Italy), leading partner
CSC Audiovisvi Soc. Coop. arl (Italy),
Starkmacher (Germany),
Opus Mariae (Kenya),
Focolare Ireland (Ireland),
UJ Varos (Hungary),
Pag-asa (Philippines),
Civitas (Brazil),
Focolare Society Bombay (India),
YayasanDuniaBersatu (Indonesia)

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Phase 1

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Phase 2

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Phase 3

Check all the Video realised by the Young Reporters for Change!

More Information

Vimeo

Co-financed by: 

L'articolo Breaking Rays Project: “Young Reporters for Change” proviene da New Humanity.

New Humanity shared its vision on the topic of children’s rights in relations to the digital environment, in order to contribute to the General Comment that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is writing on this topic.

Shared Responsibility. As expressed by prof. Juan Garcia Gutierrez, a New Humanity expert in this area, the NGO of the Focolare Movement believes that the protection and promotion of children’s rights with respect to the digital space should be a shared responsibility among families, educators and public and legislative institutions, and it should follow a human right-based approach.

Priorities. Here are the top priority issues for New Humanity:

•    Considering the right of access to the Internet, including its neutrality, as a right of its own, is particularly valuable to guarantee other rights to children and young people, such as the right to education or freedom of expression;

•    Reflect on the scope of children’s right to play and to free time (as recognized by Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), and its translation into the digital world;

•    Promote a permanent education in the technological field (digital or media literacy, literacy with respect to codes, etc.), as a digital competence that covers in a unified way the various levels of use and meaning.

Download the full text of the contribution offered by New Humanity (Spanish)

L'articolo New Humanity offers its vision on minors and cyber space at the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) proviene da New Humanity.

The Project “Breaking Rays” is completed and it’s the moment to show what the young people involved in the project accomplished.

So far, they put together more than 50 videos to give visibility to the needs of local communities in different areas of the world, in a way that gives space and value to citizens’ participation while developing new professional skills in reporting and sharing news.

Here are the reports made so far:

Breaking Rays Video-summary: First Phase

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Second Phase

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Third Phase

More Videos

July 2017

September 2017

November 2017

February 2018

April 2018

June 2018

Genfest 2018

30-06-2018

05-07-2018

06-07-2018

07-07-2018

08-07-2018

09-07-2018

13-7-2018

18-07-2018

30-07-2018

10-08-2018

 27-08-2018

September 2018

December 2018

L'articolo “Breaking Rays”: Find all the videos that the young people involved in the project made! proviene da New Humanity.

“Breaking Rays”, Third Phase

The third phase of the Breaking Rays Project (composed of 3 phases respectively in Italy, Brazil and the Philippines) ended on 9 July, 2018, in Manila on the occasion of the Genfest event – the international meeting by the New Humanity Youth Section (Youth for a United World), entitled “Beyond all Borders”.

Marco Aleotti, Kim Rowley and Paola Cipollone – the initiative coordinators – provided us with a full report of the event while trying to follow the rules of good journalism, according to the 5 “W”s: Who, What, Where, When, Why.

Why

Genfest 2018. The third phase of the project was strategically planned to take place at the Genfest event: an international youth meeting entitled Beyond all borders.
What a better occasion for an international group of media operators than to work for an event with 6,000 young people from all over the world, from many cultures and religions?

The Genfest provided fertile ground to experience first-hand what it means to overcome stereotypes, to tell real stories that are more convincing than any theories.
The task was to tell why those young people were there, share how they were trying to go “beyond” their differences and expand on the reason behind an experience shared on stage, or a song or a dance, a workshop, or a social project.

The task was also to tell stories that give visibility to important choices that can have an impact in a given territory, stories that tell about small daily gestures of forgiveness, proximity to the poor, attention to the environment.

What

Work Experience in the Field. This phase of the project was clearly different from the previous ones. In fact, the Breaking Rays program in Italy and Brazil consisted mainly in training workshops, while this time it was pure work experience in the field.

The work carried out was primarily the documentation and dissemination of audio-visual content on the Genfest event. Breaking Rays, however, offered participants a new perspective: not so much to document an event but to tell stories, the stories of the young people present, of the promoters of the event, of the actors on stage, of the young people that attended from all over the world.

The purpose? Offer content in which youth can identify themselves and feel challenged by the Beyond All Borders motto.

The program was articulated in a few parts:
– Introduction and getting to know one another (teambuilding with 50 young people from 12 different countries)
– Finalize the communications plan of the Genfest and Youth for a united World event and share it with the whole group
– Breaking up into working groups for video production, photographers, the IT department for recording and cataloguing the main video feed of the event, streaming and publication on YouTube of the entire 3 day event program divided into 56 thematic clips.
– Management of social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) of the Genfest and Youth for a united world event.
– Production of over 30 short videos for YouTube Genfest and Youth for a United World channels
– complete photo documentation published in 8 thematic albums on Flickr on the Genfest website and made available to the press team.
– Creation of a 47-minute video program with documentation and interviews on the Genfest, behind the scenes and parts of the program – and 4 reports on social projects and cultural initiatives in the Philippines :

Genfest 2018 – Video Summary
Genfest 2018 – “Tulong tulong”, Helping one Another
Genfest 2018 – Open Hands
Genfest 2018 – Erick’ s Eatery
Genfest 2018 – “Pag-asa”: There is Always Hope

Who

The 50 participants in the Breaking Rays project came from 12 countries (Philippines, Indonesia, India, Burundi, Kenya, Italy, Ireland, Malta, Hungary, Germany, and Brazil).
They worked together with a large group of about 50 Filipinos youth involved in the media field in various ways. All together they formed the International Communications Team – ICT of the Genfest 2018 “Beyond all borders”.

About half of the 50 participants had participated in the previous sessions of Breaking Rays and were like yeast that positively mixed with the rest of the group offering motivation, teamwork skills, problem-solving and storytelling skills.

In the ten-year long activity of New Humanity as a promoter / organizer of events, it was probably one of the first times when the communication of an event – in this case the Genfest – was managed by a group that was so diverse in age, geographic origin and skills.

The Project participants included filmmakers, photographers, journalists, social media managers and IT experts. Those already established professionally were generous with their knowledge and were constantly available to share, offering support and guidance through the various stages of production. As in the other stages of Breaking Rays, we experienced how working side by side – adults and young people – was beneficial to both groups.

The adults discovered new creativity and communication techniques and the young people matured career choices and learned about the responsibility that comes with communications, including dealing with ethical questions, fostering respect for different cultures and religious affiliations.

When

The Project took place from 2 to 9 July 2018 and was structured in three phases. The first, from 2 to 5 July, was dedicated to content creation to promote and get to know 1) the Philippines as the host country, 2) Youth for a united world who were promoting the event, 3) stories related to the issues that would be addressed at the Genfest, 4) the ‘behind the scenes’ of the Genfest. The second phase, from 6 to 8 July, was dedicated to documenting the event itself along with the immediate dissemination of the contents produced. The third phase, on Day 9, was dedicated to finishing up various tasks and sharing impressions.

Where

In Manila, the ICTeam set up base camp in a conference room at the hotel where the participants were housed, and then transferred to a room in the World Trade Center where the Genfest took place.

Once again the true novelty of Breaking Rays was the attention to relationships. The job of a communicator risks becoming more and more individualistic, dependent on the logic of power and consumption.

Breaking Rays, instead, promoted strong and mature group work in interviewing, choosing images, music, graphics. Every choice was the result of an open exchange in great respect for the creativity of each person and openness to the other person’s contribution.  This created a work environment that was inclusive, attentive to minorities, while also catering to the needs of end-users rather than imposing a message.

So, all-round relationships: within the group, with colleagues from other sectors, with the people interviewed, with the social media users, with the surrounding environment…. This also made it possible to overcome the inevitable logistical difficulties, unexpected issues, tensions due to the workload and pressure to plan, shoot, edit and deliver in a very short amount of time.

During the sharing and debriefing session on the last day, everyone expressed the desire to continue the project. They urged us to continue this kind of work together, since this experience of life within their profession that was so fruitful.

Breaking Rays Video-summary: Phase 3

L'articolo “Beyond All Borders”: Last Phase of the “Breaking Rays” Project proviene da New Humanity.

“Right to Education and New Technologies: a Necessary Dialogue”

Prof. Juan Garcia Gutierrez of National University of Distance Education (UNED) offered his remarks on behalf of New Humanity at the panel discussion organized by OIDEL NGO and the Smart Internet Users project.

Download the Speech (Spanish)

“Where danger grows, safety also grows”. During his speech, prof. Garcia quoted the German poet Hörlderlin, to underline how it is possible to adopt an approach that applies the “spirit of fraternity” contained in the first article of the Universal Declaration. With such approach, a potential risk presented by the introduction of new technologies in the Education field can become a new opportunity to fully enjoy all human rights, including the right to education.

The twofold approach proposed by prof. Garcia foresees, on the one hand, the need to base scientific and technological development on human rights and, on the other, the need for technologies to be at the service of, and promote human values, the “spirit of fraternity” and human solidarity. Internet and digital technologies do not per se constitute a human right, but they are an indispensable means to fulfil other human rights, including the right to education.

A good practice presented in this regard concerns the “Spanish life” project, organized by UNED and the University of Porto-Novo in Benin. It is an innovative virtual learning tool, developed in an educational context at a distance (and therefore based on internet and digital technologies), oriented to the promotion of human values, such as the civic engagement of students, through intercultural dialogue and development of global citizenship.

Knowledge and control. “Mankind has started a new phase of its history – concluded Prof. Garcia – with a growing and rapid development of science and technology, which offer utopian and dystopian possibilities at the same time. In order to fully benefit from them, the essential purpose of education and learning in our century should focus on the knowledge and control of opportunities and risks.”

The event was moderated by dr. Pablo Nuño, First Secretary at Permanent Representation of Spain before the Office of UN in Geneva. Dr. Charo Sébada, Director of Communication for Smart Internet Users and Dr. Renato Opertti of the UNESCO International Education Office also intervened.

L'articolo New Humanity Proposes the “Fraternity Principle” as a Way for Dialogue Between Right to Education and New Technologies proviene da New Humanity.