Keep on writing, don’t stop writing

At last, the writing skills workshop is over.

It has not been easy running around, attending to the nitty-gritty of organising this event, on top of my other commitments in my life, personal and otherwise.

However, it was a promise I made to the disability community and have kept.

In a way it was in response to their needs, because , hey! contributions have not really been pouring in from our guys in the Malaysian disability circle.

When asked, the normal responses are:

1.    No time!

2.    Don’t know how to write (for the media).

3.    Don’t want to talk to media because “always get misquoted” or “story came out all wrong!!”

The 1st one is not a valid excuse, but the second and third responses made me realized there is a strong need to train our people with disabilities to write for the public.

 Hence the writing skills workshop.

There were two main objectives:

The first one being that the participants  pick up the requisite skills to write for and in the media on disability –related issues and activities in their community or Organisation, using disability terms that they feel good about.

Sometimes, the only way to get it right, is to do it yourself!!!

And I am glad to see that most of the participants are on track to do that. 

So Keep on writing, Don’t stop writing., You gonna be a star someday, You gonna make a lot of people happy…….(okay, okay, I adapted this from a song, don’t sue me pls , …)

The second objective was to encourage and help develop potential individuals interested in carving a career for themselves in this line.

Some friends think I am crazy. They said, “You are doing all this free of charge. You are spending your time and effort in nurturing them with no conditions attached. What if they don’t write for CHALLENGES; what if they write for someone else?”

To that my response was: “Great! If I am able to help them develop their writing skills to that stage of acceptance by other media, that is testimony that this programme works!   I would wish them well. I would only ask that they offer the same kind of support to their juniors.”

 Pictures of the journalism workshop

 

Daniel Chan kickstarts the Journalism workshop with pointers on news reporting

 

 evin Thomas introduces design and layout, while Joanne Cheah interprets for participants at her table.

Petra Gimbad shares her writing experiences to a engrossed audience.

 

L-R Facilitator Jana (Janatharni Arumugam) helps her group; Elizabeth Ang, Dernita bt. Muhammed, Bathmavathi Krishnan (hidden) and Moses Choo  make Advocacy and PWDs rights issues palatable for media. Moses Choo takes notes on his portable brailler.

 

Teen participants started on their first write-up under the watchful eye of Yasmin Masidi.