About Youth Fest - Maldives Online Youth Magazine www.youthfest.mv

HIGHLIGHT ABOUT US 

YouthFest is an E-publication that targets a youth audience and employs youth writers.  The main reason behind YouthFest is to raise awareness of various youth related issues and to provide a safe platform for constructive dialogue and discussion to take place. YouthFest attempts to create opportunity for youth writers to get published, and to engage in productive community building through narratives.

INTRODUCTION

YouthFest is a rebranding of “Furaavaru”. “Furaavaru” began as an E-magazine in 2007, and was also produced as a TV show on National TV, TVM, as a co-production of TVM and the website. The main


reasons for this rebranding is the broadening of audience; as the name “Furaavaru”  suggests, was aimed at a younger audience. Furaavaru E-magazine was the first online magazine in the Maldives that dealt with teen-related issues, and challenged the norms and taboos in that time. Furaavaru was a huge success; not only did we become a TV show, but we also had 11000-15000 hits per day.

In 2008, when “Furaavaru” became a national TV show, it brought with it the controversies it published about before, to a production platform. Before “Furaavaru” TV show, TVM did not allow nick names to be used on screen. Nor did they allow informal dialogue, informal attire or informal seating arrangements on-screen. After having negotiated our own style and ideas, we managed to implement those on-screen. Needless to say, “Furaavaru” was a success.

What brough us here today was our undeterred persistence in our values. “Furaavaru” was criticized heavily for discussing controversial topics such as incest and sex trafficking in the Maldives so publicly, but we continued. We continued to bring constructive and interactive discussions of such topics, with direct participation of survivors and counsellors on such topics. We strongly believe that for a society to become fully aware of these issues, they must also be educated on the narratives of such abuse. After an initial wave of criticism, “Furaavaru” TV show succeeded in gaining a large audience, and fostering critical thinking among its audience.

YouthFest, like Furaavaru, has various segments represented in the writings. From youth related issues to  health and style,  discussions around healthy relationships, and opinon eds, YouthFest boasts liberty of its writers. Instead of having hired writers who are paid, YouthFest pays for the articles. This is to ensure maximum participation and to ensure that anyone who wants to write to YouthFest can do so. If our editorial board approves the article, it gets published. This ensures not just maximum participation, but also equal opportunity and diversity.

HOW IT STARTED

At the beginning we had only 3 members in our team. We first thought of starting a printed magazine. We got the funds for it as well, but decided against it as we didn´t think a printed publication was suitable for our target audience. Since most activity in modern day happen online, we decided to go ahead with our idea of a publication, but instead online.

Thefuraavaru.com
We were first established as thefuraavaru.com on 18th October 2007. After some successful publications “Furaavaru” became its own TV show on TVM. “Furaavaru” was a segmented program and every episode had three different locations. Outside of developing the script for the episdes, the shooting and editing itself took a week. The last segment of the show was always on aired live and interactive.

Dhifuraavaru.com
After finishing the first season of our TV show we rebranded ourselves as Dhifuraavaru.com. We worked only on the magazine for quiet sometime and was offered a second opportunity to go in-screen, this time on YouthTV, the baby channel of TVM. Team “Furaavaru” was also heavily involved in inagurating this new TV channel. We started our second season here.  Apart from “Furaavaru” we created and presented 3 other TV shows on YouthTV. After all such Youth activism, and production we have now rebranded ourselves to be YouthFest, in an attempt to include all our diverse roles and platforms in one.

SPONSORS

Below is a list of our past and present sponcors.
-Whale submarine: Our first sponcor.
-Wataniya: Wataniya was our main sponsor. It was the first time wataniya had given sponsor to an online magazine. We were also offered to cover Wataniya eid celebration events.
-The Human Rights Commission of Maldives:  We have been affiliated with the Commission to present different events and programs.
-NGOs: The NGOs of Maldives has also given us a huge support in what we try to do. They have been of help to improve us too.

ASSISTANCE and FEEDBACK

Journalists from New York Times recently gave feedback on the website and its contents. Their suggestiong which came in verbal and written form, have been incorportated into  the website. One such noteworthy update was the video plugin. For the purposes of this plugin, they presented us with a HD quality camera. We are grateful for such support and feedback.
We strive to promote inclusive constructive dialogue, and to encourage critical thinking and awareness among youth. We believe in fostering a mindset of community, self-awareness and questioning.