MALAYBALAY CITY (27 January 2025/Bukidnon News) – Aspiring young writers from the indigenous peoples communities will learn about documentation and reporting to combat disinformation.
The training will initially engage a maximum of 10 participants from IP youth of Bukidnon’s seven tribes in a project collaboration of the Kalandang Taw Center for Peace Studies (KTCPS) and the Bukidnon Studies Center (BSC). This is done in cooperation with BukidnonNews.Net, among other community partners. KTCPS and BSC are constituent units of Bukidnon State University.
”It is high time to start this engagement. The IP youth plays a potent role in communicating the tribes’ issues, and aspirations,” said Walter Balane, head of KTCPS.
He said the opportunity will help IP youth hone their skills towards peace and contribute to progress.
Organizers will hold a Pangampu or communal ritual in BukSU on January 28, 2025. They will then proceed to the Tagtigusan Basic Seminar Workshop on February 1. Tagtigusan is the vernacular for “to observe” in the Talaandig communities.
The project aims to train IP youth to be documenters and reporters to serve their communities. The communication aspect is part of their academic support in the university.
The training covers inputs in basic media core competencies. It covers documentation/facts-gathering, news writing, and taking photos and video clips. It will also cover captioning and preparing visual stories, and using social media. There will also be inputs on fact-checking.
An IP youth writer will share about discovering and providing information on indigenous knowledge, systems, and practices. The speaker will share about his experience in documenting his tribes’ struggle in caring for the environment. He documented the tribe’s actions to resolve issues surrounding a dying river in their ancestral domain.
Training outputs of the participants will be published on the BukidnonNews.Net website.
Completers of the training will be encouraged to set up viable and accessible media platforms for their respective communities. They will also consult a knowledge guide in their community for the preparation of content.
Among the thrusts of KTCPS, a research center of Bukidnon State University, is to promote community engagement for peace communication. The Bukidnon Studies Center, on the other hand, seeks to provide support to IP education and culture sensitivity among BukSU students.
Qualifications for participants include: those with writing skills, must be enrolled at the current semester, must be able to go home to the community from time to time, and must be willing to serve as volunteer for the community through the production of community stories for general public sharing.