Tribals air concerns on own TV show

Tribal youth have found a new forum to voice their perspectives on life concerns – by producing their own television show.

To promote a culture sensitive to children's rights, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) selected 30 young people in the Philippines for training in video production and child rights advocacy.

Those selected include Lycha Kiniway, 16; Juan Jose David, 16; Karen Wendy Brett, 15; Ayree Lacbawan, 14; and Alejo Terrence Tabur, 14-all high school students in the highland Mt. Province, home to several indigenous tribes.

Unicef has allotted a P 2.5 million fund to finance the show 'Kabataan (Youth) News Network or KNN' and had solicited the help of a local television magazine production outfit, the Probe Team, to help train the children on the technical issues in running a TV news programme as well as basic broadcast journalism.

Aside from that in the Mt. Province, KNN has set up several bureaus located in Metro Manila, Capiz, Zamboanga del Sur, and the cities of Davao and Cebu - all are managed by non-TV professionals in Unicef s partner agencies, such as thee Philippine Information Agency.

And the approach is hands-on: the children themselves are choosing the topics, shooting the pictures, recording the sound, conducting the interviews and writing the scripts.

Of particular concern to the youth of the Cordillera is tribal conflict, a subject that Kaniway of the Mt. Province General Comprehensive High School, has been documenting and whose effects on children she wants "to show to the world."