About

This website is part of the Minority Voices programme, a 3-year development and training project being run by Minority Rights Group. The overall aims of the Minority Voices programme are:

• To increase the inclusion of minority and indigenous peoples' perspectives in the EU media, particularly in coverage of development issues relating to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• To increase awareness among development policy-makers of the specific needs of minority and indigenous communities in meeting the MDGs.

The aim of this website is to close the gap between journalists and minority activists. Journalists can quickly identify stories and media contacts - with a primary focus on minorities and indigenous peoples and the MDGs - while activists and individuals from within a minority or indigenous community can use this website to engage with EU-based media.

The minorityvoices.org website is just one of a number of exciting initiatives that focus on empowering minority communities, giving them the tools to explore the many ways to disseminate their messages: from building websites, shooting films and using social networking tools to editing photographs, writing press releases and building lists of media contacts. Other activities in this programme include:

Training Events in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas

Minority and indigenous peoples' activists have identified the need for greater knowledge and capacity to engage with European media directly. As part of the Minority Voices programme, MRG facilitate 5-day training courses that include everything from identifying stories that would be of interest to an EU audience, to recording multimedia content and using the internet to reach a wider audience. Participants are also trained to prepare and upload their content to this website and many of the stories you will find here are the direct result of the trainings.

Youth Media Competition

A Minorities in the Media competition will award a student journalist or a journalist under the age of 25, whose work in the preceding 12 months has significantly highlighted the developmental challenges facing minorities and indigenous peoples in the European media or whose work has shown links between minority experiences within the EU and minorities and progress on the MDGs in the South. For more information contact Emma Eastwood or Farah Mihlar, the London media officers (see Contact page).

Two Short Films

MRG are commissioning two 20 minute films focusing on the impact of MDGs on a particular minority or indigenous community. For more information contact Emma Eastwood or Farah Mihlar, the London media officers (see Contact page).

Contact

For more information about any aspect of the Minority Voices programme please get in touch via the Contact page.

Acknowledgements

Minority Rights Group are very grateful for the support of the European Union, without whom this website and the Minority Voices programme would not have been possible. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Minority Rights Group International and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

About the Minority Rights Group (MRG)

Minority Rights Group International campaigns worldwide with around 130 partners in over 60 countries to ensure that disadvantaged minorities and indigenous peoples, often the poorest of the poor, can make their voices heard. Through training and education, legal cases, publications and the media, we support minority and indigenous peoples as they strive to maintain their rights to express their religious and cultural traditions, to the land they live on, to the languages they speak, to equal opportunities in education and employment, and to full participation in public life. For more information visit the MRG website: www.minorityrights.org