OTS youth display @MOTEYS microenterprise day for sports week . lol ?

News from Tonga in Brief. but not in order.

• NZAID Report for Project YEYA 08 almost done and ready to hand in - after many sleepless nights and a frustrating search for a missing 70 cents.

• Mercy , Hiva and Ruha showing great initiative and leadership in Havelu community - running a weekly program for over 40 junior youth. 5pm every Wednesday. They recently planted a vegetable garden and Mercy was especially pleased with the positive interaction from younger boys today in their discussions about school violence and village fights.

• OTS has been asked to provide entertainment for KINGS & QUEENS HIP HOP Competition Friday 5th at Queen Salote Memorial Hall.

Samiu 'Ofa will be singing his popular composition- LOUKULUKONA
and Sarah, Line, Emeline , Nisyola , Minaira and Heimani will be dancing.

• OTS was approached by MOTEYS- Ministry of Trainning , Employment , Youth and Sports to participate in recent Seminar and Micro enterprise exhibition. 1st and 2nd DEC . Our Volunteers went full out - preparing games and icebreakers, as well as artwork and T-shirts to display and sell .Although this years program did not attract much of the public or much youth participation - OTS did a fantastic job and the Ministry has agreed that more young people should be included in the planning and running of future National events by the Ministry.

• Isi Taufahema and Father Hanite- directed and shot the winning short film - titled DISOBEDIENT about fatal consequences of drunk driving - for Tongas recent Short Film Festival. there were 13 entries in total. unfortunately prizes were not presented- but both look forward to producing more short films -October

• OTS wins prizes at recent Aati 'oe Veve competition and goes on an early morning rubbish pickup around the lagoon shore in Havelu as part of the annual Clean Up The World program. October
  

• The group is invited to attend the first WASAWASA festival in Fiji this month by the Pacific Arts Alliance- but unfortunately cannot go because of inability to pay remaining 50% of airfares!!! :-(

• We perform a new piece honoring the women in our society - to an audience of leaders, students and community people- for the ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN DAY. NOV 25th. ( Mercy, Hiva, Stanley , Aiona also do an outstanding job at choreographing their schools dance for the day and performing with fellow peers)

• Domidilla has received a study scholarship. details Yet to be confirmed.

• Yi-Shen visits from NZ. Fun times . group is also encouraged to develop a constitution and registration forms for 2009 members.

• DK could be visiting next year - as well as the New Caledonian Theater group to run workshops and training with local youth.

• Workshops in Popping coming up next week with visiting dancer from NZ-Diana. email, call or post to participate and find out more info.

Shot Everyone. Great Stuff .

... CHris contributes a quote for the month-
" Its better to be yourself becoz everyone else is taken "
poupou.

( PICTURES WILL BE UPLOADED SOON )

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Other PLANS FOR 2009

1. FIND A VENUE- youth Arts centre.-unfortunately the Judo hall will not be our to use next year for our workshops and rehearsal- owners will be renting it our as a wharehouse. We are therefor looking for a new place!! whoop whoop . need everyones help here. One that we can hopefully set up and develop on a long term basis- into a youth Arts/Development Centre .
2. OMAI MEI PULOTU Fashion Show - is scheduled for Jan or Feb to be an annual Fundraiser for group activities. Look out for Tickets- and Get in Touch if you would like to volunteer as a model or be part of the design team.
3. ON THE SPOT has been invited to attend Dreaming Festival in Brisbane - June 2009. Preparations to begin in Feb.
4. Stage Fright will Continue with lots of exciting changes to the usual format.
5. Film footage and photos of 2008 activities and performances are being collected to edit into a TV show for local Television- presenters will be Hiva, Line and Mercy. just hola if you would like to comment, support or give ideas for this project.
6. Chris has developed registration and profile forms and will be collecting data to from a database of group members, their talents , experience and interest.
7. ON THE SPOT - plans to do more outreach programs to schools and villages next year.
8. We are dreaming about having a group Bus -to help transport youth to evening events and support more participation of girls Thanks Dilla for the reminder.
9. Temily will be back next year to continue more exciting art projects.
10. We have our eyes on a few of the blank walls in town for potential murals. Start designing everyone.
11. There's talk about recording an ON THE SPOT album - Volume 1, with all the best tracks from this years youth voices - Courage, So good to be Young, Tongan Boy, Shinning Star, Save me , Loukulukona, Poverty, Ta'ahine Tonga.... just looking for funds or ways to make funds. Any ideas out there?

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Search for the us on facebook groups - . As 2008 draws to a close ON THE SPOT would like to call all facebook members to share highlights of the year and goals for 2009- IN YOUR OWN CREATIVE WAY PEOPLE!!!!-
pictures, videos, slideshow, poems, check out http://animoto.com/ or use good ol paragraphs and bullet form
post it , paste it , send everyone a message.. whatever .
What empowering activities have you been part of and what do you hope for in 2009?
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ONLINE MEDIA TRAINING ~ YUMmmmy

As a young Tongan and coordinator of ON THE SPOT I feel very fortunate to have participated in such a fantastic online media training course. The media snacks we were served and especially the creative ways they were presented were wonderful and extremely inspiring.

From Tongan Participants:

( Pictures: Media Training - Day 1 :reading the MediaSnackers Pacific Youth welcome Page - to quiz eachother on.(see ruha taking notes ;-) ) .. ."WHO IS DK?")

BIG Thank you to the team of facilitators - Mark , Chris , Antonio and DK - who really knew the knitty gritty of what they were sharing with us and were able to answer all our questions with wisdom and encouragement.

Slideshare especially was a very effective tool in communicating to us the objectives of each week. I really appreciated the extra links provided and the downloadable mission documents that outlined our task for the week and provided useful tips from the lesson.
Topics were presented in a logical order that ensured we were confidant at each stage of the journey and ready to snack on new tasty bits.

We are very grateful for the online chats each week which were made possible by YAC. These gave us the dynamic platform to communicate personally with facilitators and our peers in PNG and to share any achievements or concerns as the course developed.

(Picture: From front- Yvane, Mercy,

Thomas, & Sevi completing assignments)

Thanks also to Tau’olunga Computers for use of their excellent facilities and guidance as we familiarized ourselves with using Apple Macs and to NZAID for granting us funding for our YEYA project of which this media training was a part.

Lastly , a special thank you to the YSF team for their continued support of ON THE SPOT and for their hard work to find and develop exciting , capacity building opportunities for Young People in the Pacific The skills that I and my team have learned will help us to enhance our activities for youth empowerment and community development.


I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the training, even the murderously slow video uploading time and connection failures!!! Somehow we still manged to get one video on to You Tube ... and we are working on more !! :-)

Other snacks that i am excited to keep tasting and using are ANIMOTO ( of course!!! - this was a team favourite- we loved being surprised by the end product of each Animoto ) , blogspot (this thing :-) , WetPaint , flicker, slideshare, Delicious and Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, plus any other online tools that I have forgotten to mention in my excitement!

(Picture: Domidilla having fun creating her blogspot)

As well as the blogs we each created, members have also been able to translate the basics we learnt in effective communication, networking, creative presentations into our day to day activities, youth workshops, and workplaces.

The main challenges we had with completing the course were because of our limited resources, slow Internet connection, the weather, and just getting to the training spot on time from each of our villages.

( PICTURE : (from Back) Sevi, George, and Mercy
sharing the only set of speakers & watching Slideshare )

I hope more opportunities develop for pacific youth

to actively and responsibly use

ONLINE MEDIA .

Our Islands may be small but our potential and creative ideas, like the ocean are full of life, power, strength and beauty that can send ripples around the world.

Such participation by Pacific Youth is crucial to collective efforts for a Peaceful, Sustainable, Beautiful * ;-) and Just world.

From ON THE SPOT and myself ~ MALO 'AUPITO (Big THanks) to everyone who was a part of this much needed and very Satisfying, Tasty, Pot luck Meal. ;-P EBONIE

(Picture: The boys on the road to class)

Tongan Youth .OTS!!!

CYF participation

lol. Thought provoking??

What an interesting image.... dont who created it ?? did Nike?? or someone else ??
Either way... Its clever , ironic , interesting.... and reminds me of the tongan version of JUST DO IT- 'OUA( which actually translates- DON'T DO IT! lol , but encouragingly!! )
Invite all to share your thoughts about this image . Just Do It!! :-)

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/6715/nikejustdoitjt6.jpg

starting point

OUR 1st

From: ebonie, 7 minutes ago

| View | Upload your own

The presentation , prepared for our meetings that later became public when presented for MLUF leadership training JAN 2008.


SlideShare Link

1st eva ANIMOTO attempt!!

Cracked!! so lost in the jungle watcin this one.LOL

MEDIA MISSION MADNESS!!

ON the 13th of FEB WE ( youth leaders ON THE SPOT)

officially embarked on our 5 week Media training ( cyber adventure)

with- Media Snakers, YAC~Youth Action fo Change & YSF~ Youth for a Sustainable Future, and the team of youth leaders in PNG!!!

Our Mission- To find out what DK stands for??!! NO really !!! it is , we wanna learn as much as we can from him and his Amazing friends and use the media skills, tools, and understanding they give us to Share Our Stories and WAT WE STAND FOR !!!

TOPIC for WEEK ONE ~ media Literacy.

Assignment -to create our own BLOGS ( such a funi word !!! )

so far

here are the ones I know of...

ruhahaha.blogspot.com

pre-youthforchange-mercy.blogspot.com

thomasjones.blogspot.com

friendlyislandhospitality.blogspot.com

...& this one .. tha one you readin now.