Communication Centres

‘The child has the right to express his or her views, obtain information, make ideas or information known, regardless of frontiers’ (Article 13 about Freedom of expression. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child)

This section is the heart of the web site. The network of Youth Reporters is linked to the organization of Communication Centres or Media Clubs at a selected number of schools in the Southern Region of Sri Lanka.

A Communication Centre has several functions:

To provide tools and skills for the the Youth Reporters to express themselves therough various media, from wall newspapers and web sites to radio programs.
To serve as a focal point for training on communication skills.
To be able to listen or download information from the Internet.
To link school reporters, the weekly radio magazine and the web-site.

In some cases the Centres will function as experimental “school radios” to narrowcast information internally through a system of loudspeakers, supported by a system of wall newspapers and other simple print materials. This activity would benefit all the students, who will listen to the programs produced by their peers.

The Centres will be regularly visited by a special tuk-tuk, adapted to serve as a mobile telecentre. A laptop computer is located inside the vehicle as is a battery operated printer, camera, telephone and scanner. Internet is provided via a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) enabled wireless connection.

The School Centres are supported by Plan Sri Lanka, which promotes child participation in the media throughout a number of communication projects around the world (see Other Media Projects).

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