AID agreement no. 674-0301-G-SS-2052-00 with Media Training and Development Trust to support the media training program in Namaqualand, South Africa

The program, which was initiated in 1989, works as follows. Black journalists from Namaqauland receive 2-month formal training at academic and media institutions in Cape Town in the areas of journalism, publishing, and printing. Topics covered include article writing, theoretical and ethical issues, information gathering (e.g., interviewing), computer use, typing, layout, desktop publishing, and silkscreen printing. Formal training is followed by on-the-job training, during which trainees participate in every facet of the production of "Namaquanuus," a free newspaper which is circulated to approximately 50,000 mostly rural disadvantaged inhabitants of Namaqualand. The paper provides a voice for the region"s disenfranchised majority, and provides the isolated communities of Namaquanuus with political, social, economic, and development information.