Journalism workshop” a haven for young refugees”

For Mohamad Al Hraki, 19 years old, a workshop in journalism is a dream that comes true.
“I have always liked to be a journalist since I was a child. I carried my dream with me from Syria to Jordan and waited for the opportunity to achieve this goal,” said Al Hraki who has been living in Za’atari Refugee Camp since 2012.
I wanted to be close to the event, he added. I wanted to look for the truth and write the story to be published in a magazine or newspaper.
“Whenever I heard about training sessions offered in the camp, I wanted to attend them because, maybe, the sessions were about journalism. After a long wait, I found out about the publication of a communal magazine for Za’atari camp. The magazine opened its pages for those who are interested in journalism to volunteer,” said Mohammad.
“I felt even greater joy when the magazine team decided to hold a training course, which specializes in journalism. When I first joined this session, I learned a lot about writing, editing, field work, interviewing tactics and the method of writing investigative pieces.  I also learned about the ethics of the profession, like credibility, balance and objectivity,” explained Mohammad

Last October 2014, JEN started a journalism workshop to train interested people in basics of writing. The 4-part workshop covered basic grammar and punctuation, interviewing techniques, reporting techniques, and ethics of journalism. The series workshop also taught professional news- and story-writing and interviewing skills to participants between 15-24 years old, in response to the repeated interest expressed by them.

Once the participants completed the 4-series course, they utilized the skills learned to collect stories for the next issue of the magazine, under the mentorship of JEN’s professional editor and journalist. At the same time, the JEN professional editor guided the participants through the editing process of their own articles, and JEN’s graphic designer worked together to develop the magazine design. Participants worked under the close mentorship for the following two issues, at which point, they were certified as an independent journalist for JEN’s magazine.

Workshop participants received a JEN certificate and were invited to volunteer as journalists to contribute to the magazine going forward to further hone their writing skills. So far JEN has graduated over 20 participants, most of who have been from the youth community.

[Work shop]

“When I saw one of my friends wearing the journalism badge around his neck and collecting stories from and interviewing the residents of the camp to be published in the camp magazine,’ The Road”,  I decided I want to be like him,” said Malik Alzahra 20 years old.
“I asked him if there will be another workshop in journalism and was happy to know that the magazine team is preparing to conduct a new workshop at JEN tent in district 4, for which I immediately registered my name,” explained Malik who holds a Syrian high school certificate.

“I learned that it’s important to learn and investigate the subject for which you will be interviewing a person, who should be a specialist in this issue.  If you want to conduct an interview with a famous person, you should gather information about him to look professional. At the end, you should always be ready before you interview anyone’” said Asmaa the first female to attend the workshop.

“The lecturer introduced us to the work of journalism. At the end of the session, we did a short quiz which I passed. And I learned that when we want to do a story on an issue, we should learn and read a lot on this subject before we write about it,” she continued.
For each magazine issue, JEN has been engaging 50-60 refugees from all ages and both genders to contribute to the magazine. JEN journalists have reached out to people from various districts to cover diverse voices.

Contents included in the magazine are entirely developed and/or contributed by the Za’atari refugee community and the magazine serves as a forum to highlight and showcase works developed by refugees, interesting services provided in the camp through the participant’s perspectives and share information among the community.
“We are fully aware that the press is a social responsibility and a moral message. We are committed to objectivity, accuracy and professionalism and will not exploit the profession for personal benefit,”  concluded Al Hiraki.

[Completed the 1st workshop]

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