In Kosovo, one media company is trying to break down barriers and get people talking about their issues. Meet Ceredrum Podcast!
They will welcome everyone who visits them with a cup of coffee in a cosy environment with bean-bag chairs.
This is the pleasing working environment of Ceredrum Podcast, which I had the pleasure to visit recently.
Co-founded during a time when people were struggling amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, by two young men from Kosovo, Besnik Leka and Lulzim Bucolli, the Ceredrum Podcast is a multimedia platform that surfaces societal problems through inspiring and entertaining videos.
“We don’t follow the trend, we SET it.”, is a description one sees on its webpage.
Leka and Bucolli bring this saying to life, and much more, while discussing with Youth Time in this exclusive interview about how they started, how it’s going and to what extent young people are educating themselves through the phones.
Believing that it is important to understand the impact of social media in education before using it with their shows, they are raising awareness by tackling crucial thematic areas for society.
Seizing the Right Moment
With a background in social education, non-formal education, Leka wanted for a long time to do something different.
“The pandemic gave us a boost knowing how many people use social media. We wanted to at least step into the game with more authentic and engaging content where people can relate to us from their daily lives,” he says.
“For us it was about catching the moment,” Leka adds.
As Ceredrum Podcast serves as a platform to enhance judgment, reasoning, and societal problem-solving, he further shares their key initiatives in supporting this mission.
One of the key initiatives was starting their show.
“We built a network of a couple of podcasts, which are led by public figures. In their conversations, they often break taboos and topics that are not talked about in normal life.”
Ceredrum Podcasts’ second pillar is producing educational videos for children, young people and any other target audience. Its network has a range of different topics hosted by public figures, according to their field of experience, combined or opposed with another guest.
Opening Doors
Targeting young people through forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video, and interactive content is impressive, yet challenging.
On this note, we further discussed how Ceredrum is fitting into Kosovo’s youth platform – where just like almost everywhere, young people are sort of educating themselves through the phone.
Technology, Leka goes on, is there and will always be one of our best invented tools, especially phones.
“Now it all depends on people about the time they choose to dedicate to them. We saw a need in the market for authentic content.
“We already have a decent number of followers already and every day keeps growing.”
Leka, a young entrepreneur and activist, shares a message for young people all around the world.
“I believe we have a duty not just for ourselves to solve a problem in the market, but open more doors and opportunities for other possible young entrepreneurs,” Leka concludes.
The Power to Create
In this part of the interview, we spoke to Bucolli, an actor and writer who believes that young entrepreneurs are a blooming market.
“The Ceredrum Podcast offers education and entertainment in one package,” he asserts.
“With this initiative we created what was missing. Nowadays, many young people create their own virtual world, and we are here to help so that world is filled with good things and a healthy lifestyle.”
He has been actively involved in developing strong and healthy teams of businesses, institutions and NGOs using activities that tap into the co-operative instinct of the individual in the team, and one thing he enjoys most about Podcasts is that people feel free while being part of it.
“Podcasts are a friendlier platform for people. It [podcast] makes people more comfortable, compared to any other traditional media.”
Ceredrum is eager to develop and record your podcasts around the themes of your projects and programmes. Not only are they passionate about their podcasts, but they also feel that the medium is a great format for positive impact in our society, therefore they want to make this accessible to everyone.
Festivals
Ceredrum has also started working with festivals, as a form of street action and breaking taboos.
Recently, in June 2021, Ceredrum and SIT co-hosted the second edition of the Father Festival – the first festival of this nature in Kosovo, highlighting the importance of a father in a good and more effective parenthood.
This huge festival promoted the engagement of fathers in parenthood, and the crucial importance of men being part of the endeavours towards gender equality.
This festival included an online awareness-raising campaign, father’s exhibition, and other positive activities, such as; the reading corner, the painting corner, movie time, games and quizzes.
Besides, Ceredrum team is already preparing to mark uniquely the 12th of August – International Youth Day.
This will be the first youth festival shining light on the importance of physical and mental health, aiming to encourage the young people to live healthy and introducing them to a daily routine on how they can achieve this.
Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all, shift to sustainable consumption patterns, advance fair livelihoods, and build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress are some topics characterising the upcoming festival.
You may not have enjoyed the bean-bags and the lovely atmosphere at the Ceredrum Podcast’s office, but you can reach out to them via hi@ceredrum.net or visit their webpage.
Follow Ceredrum on Instagram and on Facebook.
Want more podcast stories? How about this from the Podcast Movement?
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