Afghanistan: Afghan Youth Voices Multimedia Festival · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

In Afghanistan, Internews network is ramping up their efforts to train and motivate Afghan youth to share their perspective on issues that matter to them for the Afghan Youth Voices Festival and Media Camp.
Afghan Youth Voices Festival
Afghan Youth Voices Festival is a place where young Afghans can express themselves, whether it is through filmmaking or Facebook, through new media tools like blogs or traditional ones like theatre.
Afghan Youth Voices Festival is a forum where creative young Afghans can get together, produce stories, collaborate and have fun.
To do this, we provide trainings in a variety of multi-media courses. If you are interested in producing something, get involved today! Everyone is welcome, as long as you are young.
They already have many videos documenting different ways in which Afghan youth are reaching out to others: whether training them in new skills, expressing their thoughts and wishes or exposing issues that concern them.
This first video shows children working at a brick kiln:
Thousands of young Afghans work in brick kilns around the country, working long hours in harsh conditions to provide for their family. In this touching video, Afghan Youth Voices Festival participants Safitullah and Safiqullah document the lives of such child labourers in a brick kiln in Jalalabad.
The Daily Life of Mohammad  follows a 20 year old who is now responsible for his whole family after the death of his father. Raising chickens and running a small grocery store is how he manages to support his younger siblings.
Living in a Hostel shows us a different aspect of youth life in Afghanistan: in this video we can observe a day in the life of a young girl who studies away from home and lives in a hostel with other female students.
For some youth, music is their passion. This next video shows a young man playing a harmonium and singing, afterwards, another young man joins him on a tambourine.
The Afghan Youth Voices Festival site also has online training resources available for any other Afghan youth between 15 and 25 years of age who wish to get involved. You can also check out their YouTube channel and flickr photo page, and browse all the other content that already fills their site made by Afghan youth.