4. Media Child Centers
The aim of this project is to establish experimental communication centres in (rebuilt) schools, dealing with topics such as psycho-social relief and disaster preparedness, children rights and positive Lifestyles in Hambantota area.
Media may be used to shift Sri Lanka from crisis to rebuilding, a transition to action by providing the necessary motivation, tools and skills to rebuild. For children, media can provide the continuity that has been shattered by the disaster rendering an unpredictable world more predictable and safe, thereby countering the tendency to demoralization and inaction that could ultimately lead to economic and cultural decay. TV, radio, print and the performing arts can be an extension of the needed psycho-social relief by providing positive role models and examples assisting collective healing and community resilience.
Media can therefore act as a broker to interpersonal experience, facilitate discussion by providing a voice to the unheard and security by means of “inoculating” against future trauma. In this way media grasps a "learning moment” for the population as a whole as it emerges from mourning and despair to renewal and development.
School communication centers will be established in 17 schools in Hambantota in 2006. A next phase is foreseen to establish 18 more communication centers in an additional 18 schools for 2007.
The project is being implemented with Plan Sri Lanka. |
