“We usually think of friends whenever we eat a good dish. Now we have cooked a dish called YOPE, which is good for health and does not have side-effects. We have been trying to help. Please, help yourself!” said Mizzima Editor-in- Charge Myo Thant, the producer of YOPE, at the launch on June 30.

Ye Yint Htay, who is in charge of the category True Story, said: “The category will comprise young people's hobbies, freedom, job opportunities, hope, music, fashion and so on. For example, some titles of the True Story category are ‘How female tattoo artists try to survive’, ‘How hip hop singers can fight for human rights’, ‘How to prevent the provision of alcohol to young people aged under-18’, and so on.”

Trainers from Germany, South Africa and Malaysia provided training to YOPE members. “We received one-month training. We could learn new ideas, new thoughts, new ways to make presentations and how to shoot videos, and acquired knowledge about video editing,” said Ye Yint Htay.

Yin Mon, who has been working on shooting and editing videos and also acting as a TV presenter, said, “In the training for YOPE, we acquired knowledge about shooting and editing videos, TV presentation, script writing and generating story ideas.”

Currently, the YOPE team has nine members. Thiri, who has been contributing to the “True Story” and “YOPE Star” categories, said: “I have been interested in video journalism for a long time. But initially, I did not have the opportunity to learn. Then I joined Mizzima and got the opportunity. I have become an enthusiastic video journalist due to my hobby and the opportunity.”

Speaking about challenges she has faced in making videos for the YOPE programme, Yin Mon said, “In making videos that will reflect the real lives of the people, we have encountered difficulties related to finding interesting stories and getting to places, but we can overcome the difficulties due to our good team spirit.”

Ye Yint Htay said YOPE will mentor young people in Myanmar. “It will be an outstanding youth programme in Myanmar,” he said.

In response to the question why programmes like YOPE are needed, Thiri said: “Because most young people are not interested to read ordinary-style news. But YOPE will have many categories and it will present news and tips for young people in the form of educational entertainment, so young people will be really interested in watching YOPE. So programmes like YOPE are needed.”

The web address of YOPE is http://yope.mizzima.com/

Yin Mon said: “YOPE will offer guidance for young people and provide outstanding entertainment, so please watch YOPE. We will make TV stories about people from all walks of life. If our audience gets something from our programme, it will be worth trying hard to produce the programme.”

“YOPE will bring a smile to the faces of young people and our citizens,” said Yin Mon.