The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) has pledged to support the journalism club at Juba Girls Secondary School which was launched last Friday to encourage girls to join the profession.
The school’s journalism club members will be mentored by Viola Mboya Elias, a reporter for Voice of America’s (VOA) Focus on South Sudan program.
Speaking at the launch, UJOSS President Patrick Oyet Charles said the idea is to encourage budding talent.
“We are launching the journalism club in the secondary schools and have started with Juba Girls Secondary School because we want to give opportunities to young people, especially girls to make choices and to look at journalism as a field that they can always choose,” he said. “Young people have to understand this and they have a choice to make and also know that is what journalists do. We want to encourage these young people to be in the club, we want to support them and in the future, we plan to get equipment such as computers and cameras so that can learn how to publish something small for their school so that they learn practically how these things are done.”
Lydia Minagano, the representative of the SWISS Cooperation Agency Office, encouraged the club’s members to make good use of the opportunity.
“It is a great opportunity for all of you to learn as much as possible and for those who have aspirations of becoming journalists in the future, this is the time to start. The earlier you start, the better you position yourself in the field,” she said. “I just want to encourage you to use this platform as an opportunity for you to learn as much as possible. You are among the few schools in Juba and South Sudan that have an opportunity like this and do not take it for granted.”
The club members were briefed about UJOSS’ mandate and given a brief session on basic journalism skills.
UJOSS’ safety and protection officer, Johnson Juma Batal, is the focal person supervising the implementation of the project across schools in Juba.