Gaza: A new TV and radio station was launched in the Gaza Strip recently tutoring the young population of children in the Gaza Strip that makes up about 60 per cent of the 1.5 million people who are living in desperate and hard conditions.
The multimedia station was founded by the young journalists club, an independent Palestinian non-governmental organisation broadcasting children’s programmes over the radio and via the internet.
The presenters of the TV channel are all young children between the ages of 9-15 providing talk shows discussing life, dreams and ambitions of the children in the Gaza Strip.
Eman Abu Waked, 15, a presenter at the channel, said: “The programmes we work on are not only made by children but also delivered to children to entertain them and fill their time with useful and good programmes that are inspiring and useful for them in their daily lives.”
Some of the crew members have lived through the war on Gaza at the turn of 2009,and have been traumatised, injured or became orphans.
Rana Baker, a producer at the channel, said: ”Most of the children who are working on this channel are victims from the aggressive Israeli actions against the Gaza Strip in one way or another. This channel gives them the space they need to express themselves.”
Almost all the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have faced an unpleasant childhood throughout the years of the second intifada because of Israeli violence or the hard situation in the Gaza Strip.
Baker added: “The aim of our message isn’t only to show the world that we are the only victims. The programmes we provide show that our children are also creators, artists and determined to fight no matter what the Israelis do.”
The new media station is still struggling because of lack of thetechnical equipment and funds which makes most of its crew members volunteers who believe in the message they provide to the Palestinian children.
Gassan Radwan, the manager of this project, said: “What matters most is to provide the children with something entertaining and useful. We therefore try to get through all the obstacles we face in order to make such programmes available despite our small capacity.”
Along with presenting these programmes, some children at this media station perform some technical tasks. They have received some media training in France and Belgium while they were being treated for trauma because of the continuous attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Eman added: “Since the channel started myself and the crew have had wonderful media experience in several fields.”
The founders of the channel believe in using the internet and radio rather than satellite due to the lack of funds and electricity cuts in the Gaza Strip for over 10 hours a day which means that the viewers might not be able to watch its programmes on TV.
Radwan added:”One of the biggest problems we’ve faced was the lack of electricity for hours during the daytime which prevents the children from watching our programmes, which is why the internet and radio are the most practical options for us.”
