Video Volunteers Founding Director Jessica Mayberry Honored as an "Outstanding Young Person" by the Junior Chamber International

Ms. Mayberry addressed more than 1,000 young leaders at the Junior Chamber International Osaka's Peace Conference of Youth on the power of media to enable the world's poor to defend human rights

NEW YORK and GOA, India, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Jessica Mayberry, Founding Director of Video Volunteers, the international media organization empowering the voices of the world's unheard communities, was awarded the "Outstanding Young Person" distinction by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Osaka. The JCI is a global federation of more than 200,000 young leaders and entrepreneurs ages 18-40 in over 100 countries, and works in close partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce, UN Millennium Campaign, UN Foundation, and UNESCO, among others.

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Ms. Mayberry accepted the award at JCI's Peace Conference of Youth on September 15th in Osaka, Japan. She also gave a presentation to the gathering of more than 1,000 young leaders on the power of media to enable the world's poor to defend human rights, as well as encouraging young people everywhere to work for social change.

"This is a tremendous honor for Video Volunteers, and I was thrilled to be able to engage with young people in Japan," says Ms. Mayberry. "Japanese technology – particularly cameras – has been a huge part of the story of Video Volunteers. As the Junior Chamber has changed the lives of many young people around the world, so too have young people helped to shaped Video Volunteers."

The Peace Conference of Youth is a part of JCI's Outstanding Young Persons of the World Program that recognizes and honors young leaders who excel in their chosen fields and exemplify the best attributes of the world's youth. This year, the program focused on human rights and peace, with its theme reflecting the program's core mission: to create conditions for a sustainable and peaceful world and realize a secure society.

Ms. Mayberry was joined by four other honorees from International Bridges to Justice, AMURT International, Global Green, and Angkor Hospital for Children, all of whom presented to the JCI members about their work and facilitated workshops on developing action plans for working on peace issues. During her stay, she also met with the Crown Prince of Japan, the mayor of Osaka, the US consul, and Panasonic's head of corporate social responsibility.

About Video Volunteers

Video Volunteers' mission is to empower the world's poorest citizens to right the wrongs they witness by becoming players in the global media revolution. Video Volunteers provides disadvantaged communities with journalistic, critical thinking and creative skills, and creates locally owned and managed "community media units" that teach people to articulate and share their perspectives on the issues that matter to them "on a local and global scale."

Since 2003, Video Volunteers has trained more than 300 people including former diamond polishers, rickshaw drivers and day laborers as Community Producers and Correspondents. Most are working full-time in slums and villages; their media has been seen by more than 250,000 people in thousands of widescreen village screenings. Video Volunteers has also launched IndiaUnheard – the first ever Community News Service.

Based in Goa, India, Video Volunteers is active in India and Brazil and has partnered with several leading organizations, including Witness, the Global Fund for Children, Pangea Day, and MTV.

Video Volunteers has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Knight News Challenge, a prestigious journalism award; an Echoing Green Fellowship, the premier recognition for young social entrepreneurs; a Tech Award; and the Manthan Award, as well as winning the NYU Stern Business Plan Competition. Jessica Mayberry has been recognized as an "Architect of the Future" by the Waldzell Institute of Austria and was named a TED Fellow. In 2008, Video Volunteers was shortlisted for the International Development Prize of the King Baudouin Foundation of Belgium.

For further information, please visit www.videovolunteers.org, follow us @twitter/videovolunteers, or fan us on Facebook. To speak with Ms. Mayberry, please contact Trang Mar at 212-588-8788 or email [email protected].

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SOURCE Video Volunteers