Secondary school students from different countries are reporting multimedia stories on issues of interest to them as part of the inaugural PEARL Online Journalism Festival. Their reports will be posted here on July 1, 2009.

In the meantime, here's a look at what they are working on:

Politics and Accountability
Teachers in Brasilia, Brazil, walk out for more pay, an election heats up in British Columbia, Canada, leaving students wondering how their education will change, and students in the US are forced to watch and speculate as their new president decides the fate of their education. All around the world, students' educational development is being affected by older generations' politics. This story article will show the often ignored teenager's perspective on whether their leaders are helping or hurting them with their respective education policies. 

Social networking and its impact on youngsters
The Internet is growing tremendously and social networking has now become a powerful tool in this digital world. This story will cover all the factors that are affecting teens in their social networking world. Interviews with youngsters will cover how these sites help them in their daily life and how much they are concerned about privacy issues.

Water usage and deforestation
This story will take a comparative look at the destruction of forests and how this affects water resources in Uzbekistan, Kenya and Moldova. It will also examine what youth in these countries are doing to save forests and water resources.

Solid waste disposal
Unattractive sights of garbage strewn on streets, roads, parks and other public places are a common observance in various countries. This story takes an in-depth look at how youth of the affected countries consider this problem of disposal of solid refuse; its causes, relevance, consequences, and possible solutions. It will include pictures that illustrate disposal problems in Pakistan and Brazil, views of the youth of the two countries, and an exclusive video that highlights the otherwise overlooked, but appalling extent of the problem as seen on one occasion.

Child labor
Do you know where your T-shirt came from? Your tennis shoes? Quite often the most basic things in our lives were built with the tiny hands of a child laborer with no family, no education and no future. Read this story to find out more about child labor in Ghana, Brazil, US and the Philippines, with stories of several child laborers and even interviews with a few.

Come back soon to read the complete stories!

By Meredith Rutland

FLORIDA, USA – With medical concerns like pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases looming over their heads during abstinence-only sex education classes, teenagers across the U.S. are calling for a more comprehensive sex education policy. They say that sex education that also focuses on contraceptives, condoms and understanding one's body addresses teens questions while soothing emotional concerns that many students believe are all too often left unaddressed.

Katherine, 16, who asked that her full name not be used, wasn't offered a sex education class while studying in a Catholic school in Miami, Florida. She said the only mention of sex was for students to avoid it at all costs.

By Abhinav Tripathi

Uttar Pradesh, INDIA – India is getting ready for its next general election in April. But politics seems to have lost its appeal among India's youth. If you ask a young person if he or she would like to enter the field, many will say no.
 
Nitesh Mishra, a 17-year-old student of Draupadi Devi School in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, is one of a few young Indian political aspirants. Explaining the unpopularity of politics among his friends, he said: "The main reason for not seeing young faces in politics is that from our childhood our parents and society tell us to focus on our studies and to get a so-called respectable job. Those who want to be in this field are, many times, teased or boycotted by society.”

By Jenny Pilecki

CALIFORNIA, USA – Winona Hudak, 15, is an evangelical Christian who advocates for changing the curriculum at Huntington Beach High School in California, U.S., to include Intelligent Design in the science courses. Proponents of Intelligent Design claim that the universe was created by the Christian god and not by the processes identified by scientists, such as evolution by natural selection.

“If Christians have to learn atheistic views, then they or other people should learn Christian views,” Hudak said. The pastor of her church, the Forsquare Christian Church, preaches often about Intelligent Design and what Hudak called “evidence that proves evolution’s falsehood.”