Girls from Blackheath High interview top female officials in pilot project from United Nations
Ahead of International Women’s Day (8 March), the UN has unveiled a series of interviews with some of the most influential female officials working in the organisation conducted by pupils from Blackheath High School, London.
Streamworks, a company specialising in live-streaming services, connected the UN headquarters with the school’s own radio studio for the girls - aged nine to 17 – to talk to the women, including UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, deputy executive director of UN Women, Lakshmi Puri and, Chef de Cabinet, Susana Malcorra.
The pupils also worked with Streamworks on the sound bites and images to accompany the films, which will be made available for broadcast to media organisations globally in support of International Women’s Day.
Stéphane Dujarric, director of news and media division for the United Nations' Department of Public Information explained the thinking behind the project.
“Who better to speak of their expectations for the world on International Women’s Day than the young women of the future?,” she said.
“The girls of Blackheath High School GDST have demonstrated just how innovative, enterprising and community spirited their generation can be, illustrating that gender equality is progress for all.”
This is the first time such a project has been supported by the UN, serving as a pilot with a view to including other schools across the globe in the future.
In the longer term it is anticipated that the project will mark the beginnings of the development of a network of schools across Africa, Asia, Latin America, EU and the USA to communicate with one another through radio interviews, collaborating over the production and distribution of programming.