Sydney girl tunes in to the West Bank

BY ZEINAB ZEIN
After raising $4000 at a warehouse party in inner-city Sydney, Australian new media enthusiast Daz Chandler packed her bags and headed to the Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories.

Working as a volunteer, in collaboration with the Lajee Centre, the young Sydneysider worked with refugee kids (11-22 years) on an English language podcasting project called Radio Lajee (lajee means refugee in Arabic).

‘The aim of the project was to give kids the tools to tell their stories to the western world and to try to bring about more cross-cultural understanding, as well as [give] a more human face to the Palestinian people,’ Chandler said.
‘The kids were given free rein to tell whatever stories they liked in whatever way they liked. I was there to help them with their English and to show them how to use the recording and editing equipment, how to structure a story, and of course, how to upload their audio to the Radio Lajee website.’

The Lajee Centre, an independent non-government organisation set up in April 2000 by a group of 11 young people from the Aida Camp, aims to provide refugee youth with cultural, educational, social and developmental opportunities.

The Radio Lajee project came about after Chandler met British photographer Rich Wiles, who held a photographic exhibition by Palestinian refugee youth in Sydney last year, and they discussed ways to help Palestinians tell their stories.

The website has been popular with Palestinian refugees and the international community. Podcasts include one by Miras Al Azzeh, who speaks about the importance of the traditional Palestinian dabkeh dance in the days before occupation. There are also introductory MP3s from the team of kids on the ‘Meet The Radio Lajee Crew’ page.

‘At this point in the project, I’m trying to encourage the kids to persevere and to convince them that people are out there listening,’ Chandler said.

For more information visit www.radiolajee.com