We are working in partnership with media professionals and NGOs to raise awareness of the key issues affecting women and children in three Central Asian countries. These include labour migration, domestic violence, human trafficking, child prostitution and child labour.
Start: October 2007
Finish: October 2009
Media types: Television, radio and newspapers
Issue: Human rights and governance
Country: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
Objectives
Women and children across Central Asia will benefit from a two-year initiative aimed at mobilising the media and civil society to help protect their rights.
The initiative aims to strengthen media coverage of the dangers faced by vulnerable groups in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. This process aims to empower beneficiaries to make informed decisions affecting their lives.
Context
Across the Central Asian region, extreme poverty makes women and girls easy prey for human traffickers and drug-runners. In the agricultural sector, children's rights are widely violated by exploitative employers.
The media's ability to play an effective role in raising public awareness of these issues is often undermined by a lack of core journalistic skills and by the poor quality of information provided by the civil society sector.
Journalism training and co-production
Through a training and co-production programme, journalists and NGO workers will learn how to develop joint media campaigns which enable vulnerable groups to voice their concerns and prompt the authorities to take appropriate action.
Outputs will be broadcast both through mainstream and regional media, and by using local dissemination outlets.
This collaboration will work to build bridges between the media and civil society in the three target countries.
Facts
120 media professionals will be trained to provide balanced, objective and thought-provoking coverage of women's and children's issues
At least 48 media managers and senior editors will develop the skills to create a forum where key issues can be publicly debated
18 films and up to 36 radio packages will be produced on the project's key themes
120 representatives from non-governmental organisations will learn how to promote key messages through the media
A dedicated website in Russian and English as the main languages will showcase the project's outputs and host a forum for regional networking and debate
Working in partnership
The BBC World Service Trust is leading a consortium comprising three international and three local organisations. They are:
IREX Europe, an international media development agency based in France
Eurasia Media Centre, a Russian journalism training school created by BBC World Service Training in 1996
Osh Media Resource Centre, a Kyrgyz media training centre
The National Association for Independent Media of Tajikistan
Bereke, a Kazakh NGO working to promote gender equality
