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Street kids in Odessa plan to publish their own newspaper

29.03.2007    source: www.imi.org.ua
The first issue of the paper may already be produced by the end of the month, for the moment in electronic form.

In Odessa some young homeless people are already preparing articles and learning to take photographs.

There are several computers in a small room. The editorial team boasts four people. Serhiy Davidov and Serhiy Lipatov have similar stories with both having run away from home because they couldn’t endure their parents’ pressure on them. They are now involved in preparing a newspaper.

Serhiy Davidov: “This is really interesting. I’ve written two drafts for it. This is our way into the cinema and about ourselves. I haven’t written any more, but I’m planning to write about a lot in the future”.

Serhiy Lipatov: “I’ve offered to do something like a sports column to share my knowledge of the sports I played. Maybe my knowledge will come in handy for somebody, and they’ll also want to try them”.

The idea of creating a newspaper for street kids came from volunteer Ksenya Mashykhynia, under the influence of a novel she read. The Odessa publication is a more serious publication and the kids make the decisions in the editorial team.

Ksenya Mashykhynia: “I suggested voting, i.e. choosing several alternatives for a name, and then putting them to the vote. In principle, it’s not 100% definite, but we have the name “Our home”. Because they’ll write about this centre which has become a second home for them. Or a first. It depends on the person.”

The real life of these kids is being videoed by an American photographer, working as a volunteer.

Robert Gamble, photographer: “When Ksenya suggested creating a newspaper, I immediately agreed to help the kids. We’ll begin working on this really simply video recorder with a normal cassette. The main thing is that they learn to see the picture and create it with photographic equipment”.

Robert already has one young homeless student. Olena Bambul is dreaming of her first very own story.

The first issue of the paper may already be produced by the end of the month, for the moment in electronic form.

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