Five organizations join for a diploma in Journalism and Children's Rights
Santo Domingo. UN Women, through its Training Center; UNICEF; Dominican Republic Plan; World Vision and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) through its Center for Gender Studies, signed the 17 of April 2013 a Cooperation Agreement whose main objective is to train journalists in a rights and gender perspective, when children and adolescents are subject to news .
The Diploma in Journalism and Rights of the Child will award scholars to 35 from all over the country, who will be selected based on agreed criteria (geographical, gender, type of media and work status) and through previous interviews to take classes between July and July. September.
The initiative comes at a time when the Dominican government announced the restructuring of the early childhood protection system that implies important changes in institutions such as the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI), following the promulgation of Decree 102- 13 of President Danilo Medina.
Other institutions that are part of the system are the Ministries of Education, Health and Women, as well as the National Council of Social Security, the Directorate of Special Programs of the Presidency and the Program Progressing with Solidarity, among others.
The diploma course is an academic training space that seeks to ensure a rights-based approach in publications on the subject, promoting understanding of the meaning and scope of the rights of children and adolescents within the framework of a gender perspective that contributes greater quality in the construction of different media narratives and in information, and influences the promotion and guarantee of children's rights.
INTEC will work on a Curriculum that incorporates the normative and conceptual frameworks of international treaties as tools for the exercise of a journalism that is guarantor of the rights of children and adolescents such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the country in 1991 and, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), ratified in 1982.
The call is open to the entire national geography and interested parties may apply during May and June through the Center for Gender Studies of INTEC, which will take the academic coordination.
The participants will make visits and meetings to localities where the organizations that sponsor the diploma have projects, so that they know in situ the impact of these programs on the lives of children and adolescents.
During the development of the Diploma, journalists will be motivated to participate in the Journalistic Contest on children and adolescents that will take place in October, organized by UNICEF, the Dominican Republic Plan and World Vision.
Modality of the Diploma: The Diploma will offer 80 academic hours through weekly meetings (on Saturdays and 2 Friday) on the INTEC campus. The methodology will be dynamic to encourage the active participation of journalists and the appropriation of the rights and gender approaches that will be worked on (with the provision of audiovisual and research resources). The ultimate goal is to install capacities so that communicators can be allies for the defense of children's rights. The specific themes and objectives will be agreed among the organizations.
Teachers: The team of teachers will be integrated by facilitators and teachers suggested by the five organizations.
The agreement was signed by:
María Jesús Conde Zabala, UNICEF Representative
Clemencia Muñoz-Tamayo, UN Representative - WOMEN
Carolyn Rose-Avila, Director of World Vision
Brechtje Van-Lith, Director of the Dominican Republic Plan
Rolando Guzmán, Rector of INTEC
At the signing ceremony were present:
Lourdes Contreras, General Coordinator of the Center for Gender Studies of INTEC
Desiree del Rosario, Coordinator of the Center for Gender Studies of INTEC
Patricia Portela, Executive Director of Development and Institutional Relations at INTEC
Catalina Encarnación, National Advocacy Coordinator - World Vision
Naivy Frías, Communications Manager - World Vision
Solangel Díaz, Marketing and Communication Coordinator - Plan República Dominicana
Paloma Ruiz, Press and Media Officer - - Dominican Republic Plan
Rossanna Gómez, Communications Focal Point - UN - WOMEN
Vianka Olivero, UNICEF Communication Officer for Development
Francisco Leonardo, from World Vision