Gaza Media Aid Project (GMAP) – West Bank Initiative

The GMAP & West Bank Initiative will provide a series of workshops together with local partners, such as PCR—Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in Bethlehem (www.pcr.ps), TAM—Women, Media & Development (www.tam-media.org) and Sharek Youth Forum in Ramallah (www.sharek.ps), to give rise to a new network of citizen journalists in an extremely underrepresented part of the world.

Barefoot will offer comprehensive training of trainers (TOT) programs with and through these local organizations, so that media skills can be housed locally, and training can be cascaded to others, particularly women and youth.

The concept of citizen journalism is not new; however, this program aims to couple low-cost digital tools such as FLIP cameras (http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra.shtml), with media training and lessons in online distribution—including video blogging.

The project aims to give young people, ages 18–24, a strong role in the community as citizen reporters capable of publicizing a wide array of important issues.

A secondary outcome of the program will be to educate and inform the international community and news media outlets by exposing them to first hand opinions and accounts of life within the Palestinian Territories. It will also bridge communities in the West Bank and Gaza through collaborative media exchanges.

The result will be to strengthen the role of citizen journalists in creating a free and independent media, to support moderate voices to be heard, and to encourage a more balanced dialogue internationally and among Palestinians, about possible resolutions to internal and external challenges.

 

For more information, please contact Alison Fast at alison.fast@barefootworkshops.org.