Since 2016 Youth Media Action, a youth-led media initiative headquartered in Monrovia works with cross section of young people. Currently, YMA works with at least 700 children and young people between 5-21 years in 47 high school press clubs in Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Bong and Grand Kru counties to provide the platform were their stories and issues are known through the media, and solutions met.
With the mission of building the next generation of journalists and leaders and vision of inspiring media reforms for professional journalism and vibrant democracy, over the last six years YMA has trained 1,000 young people through its four core programs:
Child Broadcasting Program: inaugurated in 2018 and modeled after the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting is a month-long journalism program organized by YMA every December in partnership with the Liberia Broadcasting System. The training offers children between 5-17 years intensive exposure and introduce them to media programming. Children are train to broadcast news, conduct interview with stakeholders, host talk shows on both television and radio through the program. Child Broadcaster reads news alongside Journalist Zoquay Beysolow Konneh at ELBC 99.9 in 2021
High School Special: is a weekly news magazine radio program aired on ELBC 99.9 every Saturday, featuring news from high school press clubs across Montserrado.
Vacation Journalism School: a six weeks journalism training program held every August to introduce young people aged 5-21 to journalism, sharpen their public speaking skills during vacation for immediate high school graduates and students to acquire basic journalism skills
National Press Club Exhibition: is a news reading competition held annually in June to celebrate the Int’l Day of the African Child. Press clubs from elementary and senior high schools compete in news writing, and presentation.
