SRI LANKA DEVELOPMENT JOURNALIST FORUM (SDJF)
‘Role of New Media to capture marginalized voices’, organised by the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) now scheduled to be held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, on 23rd of February, 2019 from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm.
SDJF is an established national level organiation, with more than 9 years of extensive experience in promoting the role of media in democratization and reconciliation. Media for Transformation, Community Media for Inclusive Development & Training and Capacity Building are the major thematic areas of sdjf. In the past one year, in a series of activities under the heading, ‘Digital Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups to Address Voice Poverty in the communities, we have worked with young activists and storytellers to identify the issues affecting their daily lives via mobile storytelling with funding from the Neelan Thiruchchelvam Trust (NTT). Our main focus here was, how to give a voice to the voiceless in a marginalized setting and how to empower them to participate in the governance and decision making process.
These programmes have helped train young activists and storytellers, from affected communities in Jaffna, Matara and Trincomalee Districts. It has facilitated young activists to capture evidence-based stories to promote advocacy with the stakeholders. In the process, our participants have identified 30 issues from their respective districts/cities/ villages and produced videos under their own thematic titles.