Ukraine

Radio: Conflict Resolution Drama

A conflict prevention radio drama for young adults in Crimea has been produced in 2002. Designed to model new ways of working together across social and ethnic lines, the radio drama Nasha Ulitsa created in collaboration with the Youth and Children Theatre on Moskoltso, depicts the complexities of conflict centered around everyday pressures on young adults, including school, drugs, parents, relationships, friends, government and religion.

In 2002 The Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground produced 13 pilot episodes of Nasha Ulitsa. It is the first radio drama produced specifically for young adults, aged 14-21, in Crimea. The series was created in collaboration with the inter-ethnic drama troupe, Youth and Children Theatre on Moskoltso. In winter 2002 the 13-episode pilot series aired on Russian Radio and Gala Radio (Simferopol).

Premise

Vahan, teenager from a quite prosperous family is trying to find himself. His girlfriend and classmate Nina constantly clashes with her parents because of a lack of money. They spend all their free time outdoors on the Street. Nina's new acquaintance, Alex, the leader of the BLACK Club gang, together with Enver, the owner of the Club, and Enver's assistant Marina, plot to try and involve the young people in crime (particularly drug dealing). Vahan and Nina fall under their influence and gradually get involved in this type of life. Nina's sister Anya, together with the talented musicians Del and Vlad -the spiritual and physical leader of the kids, who spend time together in the street -- try to prevent this. The young people get into trouble, but with the help of their friends they finally come to understand that what they are doing is wrong. As a result of their spiritual regeneration, the kids from the street get the idea of creating an alternative Club.

All those characters come from different ethnic groups, and as the story unfolds, the drama deals with interethnic issues and conflicts. Both characters and listeners learn skills for dealing with conflicts in their everyday life, and learn to make hard choices in tense situations, thus developing their set of moral values.

Our experiences in the pilot phase of the Programme demonstrate without a doubt that Nasha Ulitsa has the potential to become a long-term, inspirational, educational institution in the life of youth in Crimea.

Independent evaluation

An independent evaluation conducted by InterMedia indicated that the radio program achieved its main objectives: it focused listener attention on inter-ethnic issues and problems and succeeded in delivering the cluster of interrelated messages that it intended to deliver-for example, that ethnicity should serve neither as a basis for conflict nor as a barrier to resolving conflict situations.

"The most important thing about a person is his soul, not his nationality" and "there are no bad nations, there are bad people" were some typical comments in both the Russian-Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar groups.

Overall, the focus groups showed that the radio drama could facilitate the major goals of the project-the cultivation of inter-ethnic understanding among young people in Crimea, the prevention of conflicts in the local multicultural environment, and the teaching of basic conflict resolution skills. Under the influence of these programs, the focus group participants took an interest in ethnic groups other than their own and expressed a desire to understand them better.

Objectives

At the moment UCCG is seeking funding to reproduce its success in a Ukraine-wide educational radio drama that will aim at reaching the following objectives:

1. To educate young people about how to participate actively in democratic life by accepting and exercising their rights and responsibilities in society. This radio series will address the existing problem in Ukraine of the marginalization of young people, who have little or no access to education, employment or full participation in the social life of the country, by empowering young people to participate in Ukraine's democratic future.
2. To socialize youth into the values of cooperation and friendship between members of different ethnic and social groups and their native communities (to teach them how to become proactive members of society, to take part in positive inter-ethnic social activities, and to adopt constructive and positive models of every day interaction and conflict resolution).
3. To educate youth about the value of other cultures, traditions, languages and ideas in society.
4. To strengthen among young people a feeling of belonging to a wider community (all levels of society, e.g. family, local community, village, city, region, country, Europe) and increase the constructive engagement of youth in their community.