By
Dominic I. Sanchez
ZAMBOANGA
CITY – About 15 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) from the
transitory sites in Buggoc, Tulungatung and Mampang were trained to be citizen
peace journalists on Jan. 15-16 at the Marcian Business Hotel, through a
project of the Integrated Resource Development for Tri-People (IRDT).
Carlo
Benitez, project coordinator said that the activity’s objective is to enable
IDPs to “appreciate the important role of community peace media, operationalize
said media to help the city effectively rehabilitate and rebuild their
communities, and develop a working relationship with the City Information
Office (CIO) and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).”
The
participants were oriented on the basics of news gathering, news writing and
also on the proper use of social media such as Facebook. Through workshops,
they were able to understand how it is to properly report events and
activities.
Hadz,
one of the participants expressed her gratitude for being included in the
training, saying that “it is very important for us to learn of such to be able
to report what the situation is in the transitory sites.”
Another
participant shared that the IDPs in transitory sites face many issues that
sometimes do not reach the government. “We need to share our problems [through
social media] so that the agencies will be aware of them and to properly
address them.”
The
participants were made aware of the existence of an inter-agency Communications
Working Group (CWG), which primary aim is to ensure that information regarding
recovery and rehabilitation reaches the IDPs, as well as to create a feedback
mechanism in which prevailing IDP issues are aired.
Towards
the end of the workshop, the community peace media group was formed. Their
representative will be joining the CWG in its meetings to share
communication-related issues among IDPs.