Young people from the Be a Man Club Sarajevo use online tools to create positive narratives for their peers with a common goal – a non-violent environment!
The situation of COVID-19, which is currently happening in the region and in the world, has not prevented young people, members of the Be a Man Club Sarajevo from actively promoting non-violence and gender equality on social networks. Young people, gathered around the common idea that their peers are building their healthy environment, used all available online platforms to create positive narratives.
The activity that became the most popular during this specific situation – BMC Chat Room, continued to teach young people every Friday on Instagram about the importance of activism for their personal development and the improvement of the local community. “Chat Room” is the name of the show in the form of an interview, which airs live every Friday from 7pm on the Instagram profile of the Association XY’s Be a Man Club and Real Girls Sarajevo (@budimuskoklub). The host of the show is the Youth Coordinator of the Association XY, Amer Džekman, who, through relaxed conversation with his guests, enables young people to be informed but also educated about current topics.
A large number of young people, Bosnian and Herzegovinian activists, shared their experience in the field of activism through the chat room, encouraging and motivating young people throughout BiH to actively participate in activism and thus start creating a healthy environment.
“Chat Room” as an online space was created from the idea of young people, members of the Be a Man Club Sarajevo at an online meeting in the desire to create something different and more fun. In addition to a large number of Zoom meetings, workshops and other online platforms during COVID-19, the youth of the Association XY and BMC wanted to have something like a podcast and/or online show. The first announcement was created already at that meeting, a guest was recognized and on Friday at 7 pm BMC Sarajevo was “online”. A whole series of steps like these talks about the amount of creativity of the members of BMC Sarajevo and the determination to provide young people with fun and educational content.
Members of BMC Sarajevo made an effort to provide their peers with accurate and verified information on protection measures against COVID-19. Thus, they posted information on the protection measures recommended by the World Health Organization on their Facebook and Instagram profiles on a daily basis.
Since the activity of BMC Sarajevo youth has now been transferred to the “online world”, young people have undergone two online trainings where they gained knowledge and skills on using many online tools for creating posters, GIFs and videos, in order to bring this useful information closer to their peers in the most creative and fun way possible.
According to the trainer of peer education Emina Sultanović, these trainings enabled young people to learn another good side of the Internet and awaken the imagination as a basis for creating creative content.
“Most young people watch the Internet through social networks, while various online free tools remain in the field of the unknown. Through these trainings, they gained knowledge and skills in creating various contents with which they can send a strong message in a very creative and fun way. Once they mastered the use of these online tools their creativity had no end. They pointed out that what meant the most to them was that they learned through play and that they also did something useful. “- said Sultanović
In addition to disseminating correct and verified information on protection measures against COVID-19, young people also created posters to convey to their peers the importance of violence prevention and the promotion of gender equality.
Activities are implemented within the project Young Men Initiative II: “Promoting Healthier Lifestyles among Youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Challenging Gender Stereotypes II”, supported by the Swiss Government, OAK Foundation, Austrian Development Agency and CARE International Balkans Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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