Echo of unheard voices
CREATIVE PURSUIT
Adobe Youth Voices helps young people from disadvantaged background engage in community activities.
School children in the age group of 13-18 years from schools in the outskirts of Bangalore gathered together under the banner of Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), a global philanthropic programme, to showcase their creative work in the City.
Completing its third year of working in collaboration with leading non-profit youth media organisations, Adobe Youth Voices helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to engage with their communities by providing them with access to multimedia tools, training, and a worldwide network of youth, teachers, and programme leaders.
Across the country, AYV reaches out to more than 1,000 children and this year, the completed projects included photo essays, documentaries and animation films.
“AYV-India programme is a partnership that empowers disadvantaged youth to comment on the world around them by using video, audio, digital photography, animation, and web-design cutting edge technology as their tools of communication and thereby take an active role in their communities,” said Rashmi Soni from Adobe.
The results were there for all to see. Powerful issues close to their lives like domestic violence affecting the development of a child, lake pollution, power cuts and the misuse of electricity, discrimination against the girl child within the family, changing social values, cleanliness and hygiene were highlighted and aired through their individual and collective efforts very effectively.
“The Adobe Foundation will host the first Adobe Youth Voices Summit, a three-day workshop at Stanford University aimed at empowering youth to create media for social change. Eight children and two teachers will be attending from India this month, where they will meet 60 youth from 16 countries around the world and interact closely with top-notch professionals in the field of film making and multi-media,” Soni informed.
“Through this global exposure and interaction they will develop their critical thinking and collaborative learning methods. AYV employs an integrated approach in and out of the classroom to show the power technology brings to learning and enable middle and high-school-aged youth to think creatively, communicate effectively and work collaboratively. Hopefully, programmes like these will gain them the confidence to develop into community leaders with strong voices that can be heard effectively for the benefit of society at large,” she added.
