Raising Their Voices - Philippines Best Practice
RAISING THEIR VOICES - TAKING IT GLOBAL
Together with a group of friends from all around the world, Angelicum Oda has started a web-centered project called “Young MDG” to educate children and young people about the MDGs.
The YOUNG MDG team met in the virtual world for the first time and brainstormed their ideas through an online forum. It is there that they drafted ideas and finalized decisions on what to include on their MDG website. Angelicum, responding to the question of “why another website,” says: “Knowing that this new generation of young people can maximize and minimize Internet Explorer windows and surf the net for cool games even before their moms stop spoonfeeding them, I first and foremost believe that if there is a medium to publish educational material for children around the world, it is the World Wide Web. It is the cheapest, as well as the most accessible and engaging. I feel it is essential to have a website about the MDGs specifically targeted for children simply because I haven’t seen one yet. Children, especially those who don’t use English as their first language, will find it hard to understand what is offered when you presently search for the MDGs on search engines. Who wants formalsounding explanations anyway? Young people are easily bored and the issue of the MDGs is so important that we have to find ways to make these people interested in reading an MDG site. That’s why we are developing the Young MDG website in a way that it will be colorful and interactive.”
The group that is working on the Young MDG project is now composed of 11 young people between 14 and 19 years old from the following 11 different countries: The Philippines, Jamaica, Finland, Australia, Egypt, Romania, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, USA, and Vietnam. The team believes that with the MDGs being a global issue, they should also have a global perspective when trying to explain them to children in all parts of the world by making a website that is of international quality. “Being on an international team made us realize different aspects of life. It’s also a benefit to have members from under-developed, developing, and developed countries, because we were able to share different points of views in constructing the site,” explained Angelicum.
The website is already being extensively schools around the world by children from 196 countries worldwide, and in 2005, the Young MDG project received awards of international recognition at the Cable and Wireless Childnet Academy held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and the Oracle Education Foundation’s ThinkQuest International held in San Francisco, California.
The project team doesn’t want to limit itself to the Internet platform, though. At this time, the team is already drafting other reference materials like books, brochures and CDs – all targeted at children and young people as well. The team is planning to have these materials distributed to those who don’t have Internet access and computers to further widen the information outreach of their MDG campaign.
More information on Young
MDG can be found online:
www.youngmdg.com
Together with a group of friends from all around the world, Angelicum Oda has started a web-centered project called “Young MDG” to educate children and young people about the MDGs.
The YOUNG MDG team met in the virtual world for the first time and brainstormed their ideas through an online forum. It is there that they drafted ideas and finalized decisions on what to include on their MDG website. Angelicum, responding to the question of “why another website,” says: “Knowing that this new generation of young people can maximize and minimize Internet Explorer windows and surf the net for cool games even before their moms stop spoonfeeding them, I first and foremost believe that if there is a medium to publish educational material for children around the world, it is the World Wide Web. It is the cheapest, as well as the most accessible and engaging. I feel it is essential to have a website about the MDGs specifically targeted for children simply because I haven’t seen one yet. Children, especially those who don’t use English as their first language, will find it hard to understand what is offered when you presently search for the MDGs on search engines. Who wants formalsounding explanations anyway? Young people are easily bored and the issue of the MDGs is so important that we have to find ways to make these people interested in reading an MDG site. That’s why we are developing the Young MDG website in a way that it will be colorful and interactive.”
The group that is working on the Young MDG project is now composed of 11 young people between 14 and 19 years old from the following 11 different countries: The Philippines, Jamaica, Finland, Australia, Egypt, Romania, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, USA, and Vietnam. The team believes that with the MDGs being a global issue, they should also have a global perspective when trying to explain them to children in all parts of the world by making a website that is of international quality. “Being on an international team made us realize different aspects of life. It’s also a benefit to have members from under-developed, developing, and developed countries, because we were able to share different points of views in constructing the site,” explained Angelicum.
The website is already being extensively schools around the world by children from 196 countries worldwide, and in 2005, the Young MDG project received awards of international recognition at the Cable and Wireless Childnet Academy held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and the Oracle Education Foundation’s ThinkQuest International held in San Francisco, California.
The project team doesn’t want to limit itself to the Internet platform, though. At this time, the team is already drafting other reference materials like books, brochures and CDs – all targeted at children and young people as well. The team is planning to have these materials distributed to those who don’t have Internet access and computers to further widen the information outreach of their MDG campaign.
More information on Young
MDG can be found online:
www.youngmdg.com
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