Within the regional program for journalism students, a project funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) organized the first regional gathering of Hajde! Teams in Tirana on 7-9 December 2021.
Hajde! Teams made up of participants from this year’s regional program for students of journalism together with their mentors; university professors finally got the chance to meet in person their peers from all across the Western Balkans with whom they’ve been working on regional and team stories during the previous period. Except for the excellent opportunity to meet and share their program experiences, young journalists gathered to give their inputs, impressions, and opinions on how the program for students of journalism can be useful for RYCO and the newly created Hajde! Platform to reach out to youth communities within the whole region.
Hajde! The platform was officially launched during the regional ministerial meeting on youth and education in Tirana, organized by the Minister of State for Youth and Children of Albania, the Ministry of Education and Sports of Albania, and RYCO. The meeting was attended by the ministers and deputy ministers in charge of youth and education of the Western Balkans 6 and the Minister of Education of Italy. Hajde! was a universal launching code for all speakers who announced the platform’s launching that will be the new online meeting point for all youth within Western Balkans.
Ms Branislava Kolarov, a member of the Serbian Hajde! The team shared her experience from the program with the audience: “The Hajde! platform is a new media tool developed by RYCO jointly together with us, young people. We, young journalists from the program, gave important inputs on what the young people need from this platform and how the platform should look like. We also contributed by working on articles, videos and recording podcasts on the topics of our interest. Having an opportunity to cover the stories about the similarities and uniquenesses of our region, we were led by our professors as mentors in this journey which was made possible by the generous support of the Federal Republic of Germany. During this program, we’ve built strong bonds with peers all across the region and this group of people, and the bond we created – we want to share it with our peers within the region through our journalistic work. Thanks to RYCO, its employees, our mentors, and the German Government, this journey called Hajde! is finally possible. Thanks to you all, from today, we’ll have a new media platform dedicated to young people, led and created by young people. So, from youth to youth – Hajde!” Ms Kolarov said in her speech.
Program for journalism students is a 3-cycled three-month Program for Students of Journalism in the Western Balkans within the project implemented by RYCO with the support of the Federal Republic of Germany. This year, students from the 2nd and 3rd cycle, coming from 12 faculties and educational institutions, have participated in the program with their mentors from WB public and private faculties.
