War zones: Forgotten diaries find their voice

Nida, 21 is from Kashmir. Alipio, 24, is from East Timor. Amare, who is 25, comes from Ethiopia, where he runs a campaign called Green and Wealthy Ethiopia. Three young people from three distant parts of the world. Geographically and culturally they have little in common and yet they share the same history: they are the children of forgotten conflicts, wars that have lasted for years but that have long lost the interest of the world?s media. Their voices are those that are seldom heard anywhere, as until today they had no where to talk. Forgotten Diaries aims to fill this void by providing the means and the tools for young people born into forgotten conflicts to speak to the world, to explain the world from where they stand and to renew the world?s interest in their cause by giving it the chance to make a lasting difference.

The idea is simple: a website for the young people from Serbia, the Caucasus, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Kurdistan, Ethiopia and East Timor to talk about themselves, their lives and their dreams. A website where people from the rest of the world can talk to them and exchange views. But behind the website lies a project that aims to be more than an information tool of the moment, as the 30 young people that have agreed to participate to Forgotten Diaries (which for some is a risky business) will also be trained in project management and given the opportunity to develop, implement and raise funds for a local project to help their communities.

The minds behind Forgotten Diaries are young ? Selene Biffi, Silvia Raccagni and Sasheen Jayaweera are all under 30. They are all members of Youth Action for Change, a global platform that seeks to empower young people by providing them with the knowledge and tools they need to create lasting change in their communities. But they have the support of award winning war correspondent Kevin Sites, former Refugees International research associate and writer Charles London and the Pulitzer Centre, as well as their own experience with YAC that has led them to win awards from the UN, Oxfam and Ashoka Changemakers in the past.

Forgotten Diaries' project manager and YAC founder Selene Biffi met with us to explain the details of the project.

When and how did the idea behind Forgotten Diaries come about?
The idea to give voice to young people who live in regions that have been devastated by conflicts that no longer catch the attention of the media has been around since 2006, but we were lacking both skills, capacities and resources to set up an independent project. Then in 2008 we came up with the idea of using Youth Action for Change as a bridge to give young people in forgotten conflicts the chance to report on their lives and to empower them to create change in their local communities.

How is Forgotten Diaries funded?
Currently through private donations. But we are waiting for an answer on a funding application sent to the UN Alliance of Civilisations (AOC).

Forgotten Diaries tackles two main issues, reporting about conflicts from a youth perspective and empowering youth with the skills they need to implement change. How do you integrate the two under the same project?
You could say that the project is divided into two main phases. The first is the online stage, which we launched last week and that involves the creation of the website and the start of the first training course called Communication and New Media and that will give the participants the basic guidelines of how to become a journalist, how to report and how to use communication media. The direct actions in the first phase involve posting blogs, reporting, uploading videos and pictures and the creation of 10 digital diaries, one for each region.

The second phase will start in December/January and will involve a second training course in project management and leadership skills This stage is important as it will lead to the implementation and development of development projects or social projects tied to the participants? local communities. There will be a dedicated online section that will describe all the projects guaranteeing maximum transparency. Online donations will enable the participants to raise funds for their projects and bimonthly reports will keep readers updated with the development of the projects.

Thirty young people are taking part in this project. How did you reach them?
Our strategy was twofold: first of all we sent out an open call through youth mailing lists and to local youth organisations in general. Secondly we directly contacted youth organisations that we are in contact with or that YAC?s members have worked for or volunteered for in the past.

What was the response of your open calls?
The feedback was different from different countries. From the start we had decided to have at most 5 people per country, which has been possible for some but not all of the regions covered by Forgotten Diaries. We received most applications from Uganda and Nigeria, but only one from Chechnya and four for Sri Lanka. Gender was another issue, as we wanted to maintain the balance between male and female participants. It was interesting that some conflict situations sparked the interest of all girls and vice versa: for example, the five participants from India and Pakistan are all boys, while the three participants from Kurdistan are girls.

What is a typical Forgotten Diaries participant identikit?
There isn?t one. But there are two features common to all the participants which were also the characteristics that we sought in the selection process. First of all the requirement that they come from areas of conflict ? Chechnya, Tamil, Kashmir and so on. And secondly to already be active in a non profit organisation or in youth groups or to somehow be involved in activism, whatever this may mean. Very few of them have a specific background in journalism so the first course will be really geared at filling this gap.

What makes a conflict ?forgotten? and how did you choose which conflict areas to include?
Forgotten Diaries is the first website of its kind, and many people have asked us why we haven?t included Afghanistan and Iraq, but with Forgotten Diaries we really wanted to give voice to young people who live in places where there are conflicts that have gone on for 20, 30, 40 years, like Columbia and Sri Lanka, that often go unreported. And to reach people that really don?t have a voice in the traditional media.

For our project sheet we relied very much on what international NGOs and think tanks say, like the International Crisis Group, which is our main point of reference. But we are aware that the issue of conflict is very subjective. For example, participants from different sides of the same conflict zone will see things from opposite perspectives: each person will tell the stories that they have lived.

Which perhaps is one of the aims of the project ? to highlight the different conflict experiences?
Yes. Participants will be able to confront their ideas and point of view with people in their own countries, like Kurdistan and Turkey, as well as with people from entirely different regions, like India, Turkey and Sri Lanka. And then they will be able to see what people who aren?t involved in the project have to say too.

What actions can readers take themselves to become involved in Forgotten Diaries?
Lots, and their interaction is vital to the project. They can go online and post blogs themselves thereby creating an ongoing dialogue with the project participants. They can also contribute as volunteers, as tutors or by donating to the projects on the field.

More info

• www.forgottendiaries.org
• www.youthactionforchange.org