Young Colombians from one of the most dangerous parts in southwestern Colombia have taken up cameras and microphones to promote a message of peace in an international reporting competition financed by Disney Latino.
Students aged 8 to 18 from Tumaco in the Nariño department on Colombia’s Pacific coast competed with students from Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in a youth leadership initiative called “Transmit a message of peace,” supported by the NGO, Save the Children, and Disney Latino’s “Amigos por el Mundo.” Through radio, television, press, and internet, the participants have proposed peaceful solutions to the issue of violence in their communities.
The students “are taught how to do television, how to operate cameras and technical parts [and] write the scripts,” said Marcela Forero, Save the Children’s director of communication.
Tumaco is Colombia’s second largest pacific port city. Due to its proximity to the ocean and to nearby coca leaf plantations, the city in ensnared in persistent territorial disputes between drug trafficking groups. Insight Crime reported on the high incidence of youth recruiting by such groups in Tumaco.
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