2nd Abidjan Blog Camp. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

The event took place on the 14th of November 2009 at the Fondation Les Amis de l'Excellence in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Information about the program and participants can be found here [fr].

The project leader of Abidjan Blog Camps Théophile Kouamouo wrote [fr] about the expected participants in an invitation published in his blog:

The target? People who already blogging and want to share their more experienced “tip”. Stakeholders? Those who have a theme to develop in twenty minutes, and who are willing to distinguish themselves through a comment below this post.

He listed [fr] the program:

There will be four speakers:
- Nadine Kouamouo, who will speak of liveblogging, notably about Twitter and CoveritLive.
- Israël Yoroba of Le Blog De Yoro, who will speak about referencing and maintaining a blog over time.
- Manassé Dehe (cartunelo) will show how to produce audio podcasts and video and publish them.
- Theophile Kouamouo (myself). I will speak of blogging in the workplace.

Register by clicking this link: http://abidjanblogcamp.eventbrite.com

2nd abidjan blogcamp. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

10 participants with blogging experience attended the blog camp. However, Nadine Kouamouo mentions [fr] that they had hoped of more participants. This event was live blogged by Nadine [fr]. The transcript tells that there was a bonus for the participants - a discussion on blogging under pseudonyms.

Here is a video [fr] of an interview with Israël Yoroba, who talks about the blog camp:

Theophile looks back [fr] at the success of the workshop and announces future plans of the project:

It seemed important at the outset to educate journalists, opinion leaders and influential, who have the habit of writing, the practice of the blog. We subsequently created the framework for cross-training of those who are already blogging - and will continue to meet and learn from each other within the BlogCamps.

Now it is for us to go to groups less naturally well disposed but which would benefit from blogging. We want to start by artists, writers and musicians. Perhaps in a single session, perhaps two, depending on enrollment.

We expect bloggers, blog readers and members of these groups they help us to have contacts with writers, musicians, agents and managers. This will help them share our project and to organize the next BlogCamp in early December.

2nd Abidjan blog camps participants. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

In a recent post Theophile wrote about the linguistic barrier which divides the African web (bloggers, developers, entrepreneur) like the “Berlin Wall”.

It may seem almost impossible to read afro-bloggers who write in a language we do not know - although a friend pointed out to me that Google Translate is not for dogs

Beyond what can be considered like interpersonal communication problems, it seems that the linguistic challenge is also a technological and economic challenge for us. For example, large platforms like Facebook and Google are safe to translate their interfaces in as many languages as possible, simply because they want to expand their user base and their financial value, simply.

Should we not do the same? How many Kenyan or South African start-ups are interested by developments in Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon? How many Cameroonian startups would benefit to cross the border and conquer Nigeria? I think that investor’s interest would increase if we could develop online brands which go beyond language barriers. In this regard, the blogging platform Maneno shows the path.

Ivorian Wedding. Image by Elia Varela Sera

It's really a shame that the Abidjan lagoon (named Ebrie), is now extremely polluted and in some parts of the city it stinks like a dumpster. But at night, when you can't see the fowl color of the water and the trash littering its banks, it's really quite a lovely view to enjoy sit on a terrace next to it sipping a beer.

Now let us look at some posts from Ivorian blogs [fr]:

Houedanou explains “how to create a personal website in 3 steps”. The blogger also writes about the African email scams and the Google Money kit scam.

Euclid Okolou writes about the spread of scams via sms to mobile phones instead of emails.

Israël Yoroba informs that Avenue 225, a local radio station has launched the first ever radio webcast in Ivory coast. Yoroba also writes about a debate which took place in the Deutsche Welle akademie titled “New Media for a New World: Democracy and Development“:

Roger Kasse writes a multi part report on the ill practices of private medical clinics and shops in Vavoua region. He also writes about the challenges the African bloggers face to blog - the internet is slow and costly, it takes time to blog, tools like pc and camera are not easily available etc.

Richman posts this interesting picture with the apt title “Sustainable development”:

Sustainable Development. Image by Richman Mvouama

While it can run, let's go. The decor is done with the resources available. It is also sustainable development.

Nadine Kouamouo writes about a local geek who engaged in the community service voluntarily and helped many:

I have learned through Facebook this morning. My friend Manasseh Dehe was made available to all for providing help on how to use the WAP service for mobile phones. [..] He was happy to help twenty people today [..] and I too can now “twitter” on my phone.

Telecommunications companies should support such initiatives. Those of who opens the eyes of users on specific applications. It is not enough to just note that the “customers” do not use many applications available to them by the operators. We must help those who are willing to “educate” … only “glamorous” advertising campaigns are not enough.

Tobias Eigen at Kabissa hails the project:

The founder, Ruthie Ackerman, was recently interviewed on Media Bistro, which you can listen to online here. (via Rising Voices mailing list)

I recommend the interview if you have the bandwidth to listen to it. In it, Ruthie explains Liberia and the project to an American audience - her perspective is very interesting and she's clearly committed to Liberia and to providing a platform for Liberians to have a voice and to connect with each other, both in Liberia and in the Diaspora.

The blogging project is described as “hyper local” which I found illuminating and worth emulating in other communities, the idea being to create blogging clubs in local communities that meet regularly and encourage more people to get involved in blogging - in this case in Staten Island, New York and Monrovia. The benefits then are larger since it is a social media powered online project, so people around the world can participate.

350.org, an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis, thanks Ceasefire Liberia and writes:

On October 24, Ceasefire Liberia, a citizen media project of Rising Voices, joined members of their own community, and the rest of the world, in lending their voices to demand swift action on climate change. The day included a parade, educational programs, and the signing of a global petition, as well as enabled Liberia to connect their efforts to the global 350 movement.

Saki G writes in the CeaseFire Liberia Blog:

In Liberia, the youth of Wood Camp in collaboration with the Youth Crime Watch of Liberia in Paynesville, added their voices to the global chorus, challenging key stakeholders who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009, to commit themselves to the climate deal that will define a new direction in the fight against climate change.  The campaign, which started with a parade through the principal streets of Wood Camp, saw students from three schools in Paynesville forming part of the campaign.

Saki G took this video in the Wood Camp area of Paynesville, Monrovia as part of the day of climate action on October 24, 2009:

In a recent roundup of the project, Ruthie Ackerman notes:

October has proven to be our best month yet (so far). We have hit a new record with the sheer number of blog posts we have published on the site and we are being inundated with requests from bloggers to blog for us. This proves that Liberians want to interact more in the blogosphere and just needed a space to do so collectively. Many of our bloggers are now on Facebook as well so the social media contagion is really catching on.

Read the roundup in details.

Now we will highlight some of the interesting blog posts written and published by the Ceasefire Liberia Bloggers:

Liberia is launching new biometric passports:

The new biometric Liberian passports are being introduced in order to put Liberia on par with all other countries the world over to meet the global requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Compliant Machine Readable Passports.

Photography workshop Monrovia -by Ruthie Ackerman:

Photographer Glenna Gordon recently concluded a UNICEF-sponsored photography training workshop in Monrovia, which trained Liberian journalists on editing, picture taking skills, and street photography.

Glenna Gordon comments on the workshop:

The hardest thing is communicating the idea that you have to spend a lot of time working at taking pictures before you actually take good pictures. And a lot of time in one place, working on one story. Everyone in the workshop wants to do that, but wanting to do that and having the resources to do that are two very different things.

Combating Corruption:

Saliho Donzo urges Liberians to use common sense to combat corruption:

many Liberians are asking themselves this simple question: What is the way out? I strongly believe that there are ways out. Below are some possible solutions:

• 1. Nationalism: We must at all times demonstrate love and devotion to our country. This is the only way forward as a people.
• 2.Government Priorities: One way to minimize corruption is for the government to prioritize the following: construction of infrastructure, building of roads or the reconstruction of already damaged roads, the availability of safe drinking water and electricity, good health system, and education, and paying civil servants on time.

Pavel Kutsev taking medication

A week ago Rising Voices published a story about a visit of a delegation from Russia harm reduction activists to Ukraine and methadone site in Kiev. As it was mentioned, a journalist from one of the biggest Russian news paper Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Anastasia Kuzina was a member of the delegation.

After a visit Anastasia wrote a detailed report about the implementation of substitution therapy programs in Ukraine, concluding that such programs could help to stop HIV/AIDS and the TB epidemic in Russia. The leader of Drop-in Center, Pavel Kutsev featured her article.

Here is what Anastasia wrote about the visit on the Methadone site:

10 AM. There is a short line next to entrance of the pharmacology clinic called “Sociotherapy”. I see a poster on the wall in Ukrainian: “Not all people are alcoholics or drug addicts, but all alcoholics and drug addicts are people”. This is “the site” – a place where patients of substitution therapy receive pills of Methadone and Buprenorphine.

There are no very young people in line. Most of them are in their 30's, but there are a few of 40's and older. Each person has a story. There is a person with crutch, a mother holding a small child …

I am entering the site together with Pavel Kutsev. He is a journalist. He is 48 and he is an opiate addict. He and his wife Yanina, the editor-in chief for a newsletter for drug addicts “Motylek” has been in the program for a year and a half.

“Sometimes I hear that substitution therapy is a legalization of drugs” says Pavel. “No, it is the legalization of drug addicts. Addiction is a snowball of problems. Starting substitution therapy you start dealing with them. Later on you can start thinking about givin drugs up completely.”

“What are the most common associations that people have about drugs?” asked Pavel “Everybody would say: death, crime, children without parents, infections, asocial lifestyle. Now let's take a person taking substitute medications. He will not die because of drug overdose. He does not participate in criminal activity. He re-establishes relations with the family. He is able to treat HIV, TB and hepatitis. Moreover, he stops taking drugs intravenously, thus reduces risks of spreading infection. Substitution therapy reduces the most dangerous consequence of the drug addiction.”

A nurse is greeting us. She has to assess the health of the patient, provide the medication, and make sure the patient has taken it (sometimes she crushes the pill with a glass) and make proper records. The nurse is taking three pills from a bottle and, with a piece of folded paper, put them directly to Pavel’s mouth. He is swallowing them up with a bit of water and showing his tongue to the nurse. There is nothing in the mouth. The nurse is nodding and the next person enters the site.

A significant part of Anastasia’s article focused on analyses of whether it would be useful to implement harm reduction programs in Russia. She writes:

In Russia, Methadone is perceived with bewilderment and indignation. But this is because just a few people know how it works.

All over the world there is a category of people with drug addiction which can not be treated by traditional therapy or rehabilitation. Among the reasons are age and the lifestyle of a person. Here I have the statistics on Ukrainian participants of substitution therapy.

Kiev – 55 people, average age – 32, years on drug – 13, all 55 are HIV positive, 53 are positive on hepatitis B and C, 18 have TB.

Odessa – 55 people, average age – 40, years on drugs – 20, HIV positive -38, positive on hepatitis – 20, TB – 12…

With such medical records a person will not be accepted in any rehab program. Substitution therapy is right for them – for people who were rejected by all clinics and hospitals. For 10-20 years they have been living in a circle “to get money – to inject – to get money –to inject”. But “to get money” means to steal, “to inject” means to transfer infections or receive an overdose of drugs…

When a person comes to the program for the first time, doctors select a dose which fits him/her, a dose which allows a normal life rather than looking for street drugs. Taking opiate medication excludes even the possibility of taking street drugs as they just stop working - they do not have any effect any more.

The journalist continues her article with an overview of the situation with substitution therapy in the world. She wrote:

A person has to choose. That is why all over the world the substitution therapy exists together with prevention programs, clinics and rehab centers as well as a group therapy. In many countries only 20 to 40 percent of the drug addicts go for substitution therapy …

Substitution therapy is not just a tool to stop the HIV epidemic; it also helps revive one's own life: get back personal documents, a family, a job; receive a social security and legal assistance. Substitution therapy can be used to increasing motivation in the treatment of HIV and TB. Normally substitution therapy patients have high levels of adherence to the treatment - they do not miss intake of medications and tests.

Anastasia finishes her story quoting a professor from Kazan State University (Russia) and WHO expert Mr. Vladimir Mendelevich. He said:

A drug addict normally pays 30-50 dollars for a drug. While participating in substitution therapy people stop buying drugs thus taking away millions of dollars from the drug market. The cost of the treatment of one patient is $480 a year. That is why a million of people participate in substitution therapy in many countries, including Muslim countries such as Iran and Afghanistan. There are 500 Methadone centers in China alone.

Hiperbarrio member Camela is appalled by the theft and she calls it a “desecration”. Argos points out what the library means to the community:

This is our workplace, our meeting place and the only place of public open permanently to the community in a territory that has no parks, public spaces or platforms.

The robbers came through the roof and used the shelves as ladder

Catalina Restrepo writes:

“For eight days our souls have departed“, said Gabriel Jaime Vanegas every time they ask him about what happened in the library of La Loma. Today there are many voices calling for the dissemination of this press release through their sites and social networks:

“If you consider the public library as a place of encounter, knowledge and service to the community for over 50 years, it is unacceptable that some take for themselves what belong to another property, intangible assets and property that belong to the community. [..]

“Thus our community today requires and demands the presence of the authorities responsible so that these criminal acts are not repeated.”

Alvaro Ramirez wonders who are behind the robbery:

The theft is consummated and many questions remain in the air. The key may be what motivates these thieves to enter in a library? [..]

As the statuette was abandoned, I think think this may be (the work of) drug addicts. It is very sad to accept, but in Colombia today, they proliferate and their desperation to get money makes them steal, even from their own family and friends.

And he urges that the pain of this tragic event should be converted into action:

It strikes me that if I were now in Medellin, I would go to all the schools in La Loma. To speak with teachers and offer them a class of an hour with each group to tell them about the theft and ask the kids what they think of the event. It is not going to preach the importance of being honest and to respect the community in which they live. We do this often. It is something more radical. To ask questions and engage into deep thinking with them, and let them express themselves with their own mind and think about the future that awaits us.

Suppressing crime is important and must be stopped. But at the same time it is important to discuss these acts of vandalism, with children, young people and older people to find ways to stop this wave of thefts, threats and intimidation within the villages where we live. I think it important to mobilize quickly, and from below, while putting pressure on government authorities to act.

Argos explains how the society has been ignoring the crimes and the pain of the youth:

Every time we see our loved ones suffer. The young people who have seen it grow are those who feel cornered. Without getting more sense in their lives, no future or opportunity in a society that denies them both. A society that is more interested in the further alienation of people by immersing in football, entertainment and media.

Now let us look at other issues the Hiperbarrio bloggers are blogging about.

The flower museum in San Cristobal. Image courtesy Angela Alvarez

Camela writes about the Halloween celebrations and the need to be careful about the safety of the children:

I believe that young people are invincible and do not understand reasons, at least we should take care to children, because this Halloween, they just want to collect their candy and show off their best costumes. Please, make sure to take them out early to collect their candy and be accompanied by their fathers or elders.

Homohabitus

Henry Elsucio writes about a recent workshop on animation, networking and socio-cultural issues held in Medellin. Hiperbarrio participated in it:

HiperBarrio was invited to socialize their expertise in the room 4: The digital information technologies and communication processes applied to socio-cultural. Besides socializing are two experiences that are of much more interest in what has been generating using Websocial tools. [..]

The interesting thing about this socialization was that attendees ranging from community service organizations, social work professionals, leaders and persons from community action boards and rechargeable HiperBarrio interest in how this project uses the tools of new technologies for building construction citizenship, on the other side's bench was very productive where it could make an important contact with hypertrophic project that showed interest in the work being done in HiperBarrio, exchanged emails and phone for a possible exchange of knowledge.

Colonel Murión criticize the local media for the veneration of narcotic and mob culture which are affecting the social psyche of the youth.

Landscape of Ituango

Meanwhile we have got news from Ituango. The town in situated on the North of Antioquia mountains with beautiful landscapes and kind people as this post describes. Several members of Hiperbarrio visited Ituango for a workshop and cultural week activities but a power cut had postponed the events. “Ituango is an amazing town, a municipality that falls with the human warmth of people who have all the resilient capacity of the world,” writes Catalina Restrepo.

(The translations in this post has been done using Google Translate)

Meeting with the Russian Delegation

A few days ago activists from the harm reduction movement in Russia visited Kiev to learn from their Ukrainian colleagues – leaders from the community of people living with drug addiction, and representatives of the Association of Substitution Therapy Participants. The main event of the meeting was a visit to one of Kiev’s methadone substitution therapy sites. Blogger mimozza described the visit on the Drop-in Center blog.

In Ukraine the government and health care authorities have supported substitution therapy programs as a way of decreasing the spread of HIV, but the Russian government has rejected the public health program, citing a belief that replacing one drug with another can’t be considered medical treatment. For many years Russian harm reduction activists have been fighting for the legalization of methadone programs, but have yet to achieve any noticeable results.   

Mimozza goes on to describeher first impressions of meeting the Russian delegation of substitution therapy activists:

 It seemed that it was a meeting of two separate worlds. One world was one reality, the other was its mirrored reflection. In Russia, even combining the words “harm reduction” is considered to be a crime; something that discredits the dignity of “hard working Russian people”… 

After listening of many horrifying stories from Russia we desperately wanted to show the guests something which is not yet attainable for them – how substitution therapy works in practice. So we took them to the methadone site.

At the beginning the group was not received well on the site. Mimozza explains:

On the metahdone site

 We went to the methadone site on the weekend. Out of all medical personnel there was only one nurse, and many patients. At first the substitution therapy patients in line did not even want to let us in. Our explanation that we wanted to show the site to our guests from Russia did not help. We were totally ignored… So, despite the “ Ukrainians' well-known hospitality”, all twenty of us had to stand in line like everybody else….

 When the delegation finally entered the site, the nurse welcomed them as a delegation from Canada, not Russia. After laughing about this, our guests were able to explore how the methadone site worked.

Mimozza reported:

The nurse seemed to be a bit upset that the guests were not from Canada, but later on she switched into pure Russian and let the representatives of Russian delegation, including a journalist from Moskovskiy Komsomolets see and touch the bottles containing “the mortal drug Methadone” and film everything they wanted.  

The guests were impressed how easy everything works. Just come, receive a few pills and go. Super!

 The only question the Russian guest asked after the visit was why the patients were so aggressive. Mimozza explained:

I had to tell them the whole story of how substitution therapy has been implemented. I explained that the idea of the therapy has as many supporters and opponents. There are only three sites in a city of more than 3 million residents. The police come regularly. Often representatives of media who ask to film on the site and record interviews with the patients end up producing very negative and untruthful stories and videos. That is why the patients are fairly negative toward strangers. After all, it is easy to understand their feelings. They are waiting for their treatment , it is the weekend, they have to stay in a line, and the medication they receive is not the best available ….

But at the same time, every patient is ready to come to the site every single day and it does not matter how far the site is. It is better than waking in the morning with horror and only one thought: where to get money for a dose, what to steal, or what else to sell from home.

Yes, the replacement therapy in Ukraine is developing, but the environment is not easy. We would like to change many aspects of the program and we believe that we will able to do this. We are positive that our Ukrainian harm reduction program will be successful.

 At the end of the post Mimozza gives her advice to Russian friends:

I wish success to my Russian brothers. The main thing is not only to convince the elite that it is impossible to stop HIV/AIDS epidemic with repression toward drug addict and pro-Nazi experiments with sick people, but also to gain a support from ordinary citizens….

Now it is unthinkable to stop spreading inflectional diseases among injection drug users without harm reduction programs that also include syringe exchanges, motivational counseling …

The only reasonable solution is the wide introduction of complex solutions that make up the harm reduction program, of which substitution therapy is a vital element. This way it is possible to stop the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculoses, which is growing fast in both of our countries.

By: Ruthie Ackerman

Photo on Flickr by woody1778a

Every month when I do my roundups of what happened on the Ceasefire blog that month I think to myself, “It can’t get much better than this!” And it always does.

October has proven to be our best month yet (so far). We have hit a new record with the sheer number of blog posts we have published on the site and we are being inundated with requests from bloggers to blog for us. This proves that Liberians want to interact more in the blogosphere and just needed a space to do so collectively. Many of our bloggers are now on Facebook as well so the social media contagion is really catching on.

I have also been reading a lot about the trend (which I hope is here to stay) in hyperlocal news. Rachel Sterne’s GroundReport is a great example of the possibilities in this arena. I hope that the funding world catches on so that more blogs like ours pop up around the world. I’m also glad to see that geniuses like David Cohn are thinking up potentially sustainable business models in this realm. We need more of that.

On the good news front: Saki Golafale, one of our star bloggers, led the youth of Wood Camp (in the Paynesville section of Monrovia) in a day of climate action. We are so proud of his committment and are even more proud to let our readers know that his hard work paid off: Saki was recognized by the blog 350.org. In other Saki news, Saki created this amazing photo essay documenting the Red Light Market in Paynesville, Monrovia and wrote an especially breathtaking story on Spencer and Massa, two young Liberians with very different after school lives.

In more good news, which you will hear more about as it develops, is that two different television shows have asked to do small segments on the Ceasefire Liberia project. I will be sure to keep you updated as that progresses.

And the icing on the cake is that Ceasefire Liberia is teaming up with The Niapele Project and New Liberian to do even more work around media justice and citizen journalism in Liberia. An exciting component of this partnership is that Ceasefire Liberia and New Liberian have agreed to cross-post each other’s articles so that our readers can benefit from double the reading pleasure. While Ceasefire Liberia has had fewer posts from the Liberian diaspora, New Liberian has had the opposite challenge: finding consistent bloggers in Liberia. By working together we can bridge those challenges and provide better content for our readers. A little about New Liberian: New Liberian is run by the infamous Semantics King Jr.,  who started The Vision, a newspaper created by Semantics and fellow journalist Jos Garneo Cephas in 2004 while they were living in Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. He eventually received asylum to live in the United States and since has started New Liberian, which recently received 501(c)3 status with the help of The Niapele Project and David Maas, an amazing journalist in his own right.

And I’ll leave you with a quick roundup of news across the Liberian blogosphere (but mostly from our very own Ceasefireblog!): I am most proud of our coverage of the Guinean Massacre this month and what it will mean for Liberia and the West African region. Three of our bloggers wrote about Guinea: Saliho Donzo, Boima J.V. Boima, who took the interesting perspective of how the instability is affecting Liberian businesses, and one anonymous blogger. Another big story was that Firestone was found guilty of pollution at its rubber plantation in Liberia, a story that we even beat the BBC to covering. Boima J.V. Boima wrote a great story about the rift between Liberians over support for Charles Julu, a former general for Samuel Doe who has been accused of numerous murders including burying children alive in wells. Boima also covered the story of Nicholas Buigar, the Liberian who won first runnerup on MTN’s Project Fame West Africa. Saliho Donzo covered the Obama/Nobel Peace Prize controversy, our Monrovia blog manager, Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, covered the plight of Guthrie’s school teachers, Wellington Railey wrote about Liberia’s upcoming presidential elections, and from the diaspora Wynfred Russell wrote about the lack of visionary leadership in Minnesota and Stephen Johnson got a lot of attention for his piece about Liberian youth. There were many more stories, but you’ll have to discover them for yourself by taking a peek around the site!

New Liberian blogger Laura A. Young covered “A House with Two Rooms,” the final report of Liberia’s TRC Diaspora project; Bill Jarkloh covered the Liberty Party’s Darius Dillon’s primary win; Dennis Jah writes about fragmentation among Liberian organizations; Dennis also started a Ning site, called The Liberian Way, which has many blog posts and allows Liberians to connect (way to go Dennis!); Stanford Peabody, the publisher of The Bush Chicken, left for Monrovia and is taking requests for questions readers wants answered or photos you want taken so take part in this interactive news-gathering process; Cafe L.I.B, another blog/Ning site where Liberians can connect, has a very interesting series by Kimmie Weeks of Youth Action International in Liberia, who left the comfort and stability of the US to start his charitable foundation. Another story on Cafe LIB is about Obama’s praise for President Sirleaf  for leading a discussion on job creating at the UN and for her leadership and concern about the violence in Guinea.

Please visit us at www.ceasefireliberia.com and leave comments. We’d love to hear from you!

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Pavel Kutsev is the co-founder of Drop-In Center, a Ukrainian organization which advocates for the rights of the injection drug user communication and for better national policy related to substitution therapy. In this video he gives us a basic introduction to the “harm reduction from injection drug use” movement, and summarizes the outcomes of a recent conference in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine which sought to establish a national network of harm reduction activists.

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Joan Razafimaharo summarizes some of the achievements so far by the FOKO Bloggers:

• FOKO promoted Citizen Journalism during the 2009 Political unrest in Madagascar.
• FOKO's effort in promoting ICT in Education was mentioned in local media.
• FOKO's efforts in promoting social activism in fighting against poverty and climate change got international recognition.

In a latest report Joan reports on the people behind FOKO's success:

There are now bloggers who didn’t have mailbox before a FBC workshop who are very active on our Facebook/Google group mailing lists! There are bloggers who were very shy, who are now updating their blogs regularly! If there is a topic or an event important to be reported (and most of the time forgotten by mainstream media), you can be sure a Foko blogger will write a post, publish a picture, update his Twitter, tell it on Facebook or simply let the word out.

Since January 2009 FOKO Blog Club posted a series of interviews with its bloggers celebrating their first anniversary of blogging. Now let us meet through these interviews some of the enthusiastic and brilliant Malagasy Bloggers who are driving the success of FOKO blog Club.

Tahina:
Tahina, the Malagasy geek, has started blogging in English one year ago with his ICE Club mates. He was also active behind the Ushahidi-Foko and covered the political unrest in Madagascar in his blog.

The name of his blog is Madagascar Not The Movie. His latest blog posts include articles on swine flu outbreak in Madagascar, Afrobasket women championship and recycling and waste management.

You can read his interview here.

Jaona:

Jaona Rakotoarisioa (25) from Fianarantsoa was invited to the Global Forum on ICT and Innovation For Education in Monterrey, Mexico organized by the United Nations and the Global Alliance for ICT and Development.

He blogs in English and French. His interview can be found here.

Ariniaina:

Ariniaina from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar started blogging on September 21, 2008 and emerged as a prolific blogger. The name of her blog is “Dago Tiako”. She explains:

Dago is a nickname given to Madagascar (especially used by Malagasy people living abroad) and Tiako means “I love”.

She celebrates the first anniversary of her blog and remembers:

September 21,2008, DagoMC, Moonlightgirl, Fara, Moma, Tahina, Andry and I were then invited to join the workshop led by David Sasaki and Joan who showed us the way to create a blog. And today, I am thankful to  Joan, David Sasaki, Lova, Tahina, Andry, and all FOKO.

September 21, 2009. What have I realized???

• 103 posts
• 439 comments
• 16,574 hits
• 98 fans on Facebook
• 433 tweets and 141 followers on Twitter

Here is her interview with FOKO blog club. Her Flickr account is here.

Andry (Rakotoniana Andriatahiana):

Andry is a Malagasy lawyer and a blogger from Antananarivo. He is an alumni of the ICE English club and blogs in English at “The Cyber Observer“. He shares his views on democracy and is never afraid to use the right words.

Read his interview. Here are his Twitter and Flickr accounts.

Solofo:

Solofo is a journalist from Antsirabe, Madagascar. He is a student of communication of communication at ESSVA (Ecole Supérieure Spécialisée du Vakinankaratra) where FOKO held its 13th workshop. He imparted photography lessons to mid-schools students at the workshop.

He likes to write about issues relating to the youth. Read his interview here.

Moonlight girl:

“Everyone just calls me the “Moon” because my real name is Volana which means the moon in malagasy,” explains blogger Moonlight girl. She had started blogging in September 2008 with her friends at ICE club. She is writing her first novel and she publishes some snippets on her blog. She dedicates her blog to all short story lovers. Here is a teaser for you.

Read her interview here.

Imahaka:

Imahaka is a student of the ESSVA school in in Antsirabe, the capital of Vakinankaratra and also the pillar of Foko Blog Club in the area. he is from Ikongo (former Fort Carnot), a region that lies between Fianarantsoa and Manakara.

He loves to write about Antsirabe which draws little media attention. He blogs in French. Read his interview here.

Patricia Rakotomalala:

Patricia is one of the oldest of the FOKO bloggers who has been blogging since March 2008 from Antananarivo. Patricia Rakotomalala represented FOKO Madagascar at Interdependence Day 2008 in Brussels, Belgium. Watch her presentation in that event. She later gave a presentation about her experience in Brussels at Madagascar's first-ever Barcamp.

Patricia blogs in French at Pati et Toi. Read her interview here.

Patrick:

Patrick is a blogger from Tamatave, Madagascar and writes about the town and and BUEC (Barikadimy’s United English Clubs) activities. He is a student of management at the University of Tamatave. He also works as a local tour guide.

Blogging is his favorite pass time. He blogs in English. Read his interview here.

Lomelle:

Lomelle is a citizen journalist from Mahajanga. Her writings of exceptional quality have been appreciated by the blogosphere and linked by the media for their relevance and activism.

She blogs in French. Read her interview here.

The 2nd annual conference of substitution therapy program participants took place at the beginning of October in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Pavel Kutsev, a director of the organization Drop-In Center, posted a detailed report of the event on his Web blog.

As per tradition, the conference kicked off with a visit to the methadone site so that the delegates could receive their medications. Pavel was impressed by how efficiently things worked at the site, saying:

A bus brought us to a regular municipal clinic, which had a separate entrance for patients of substitution therapy. There was no line at all. A girl with a 3-year-old child entered the methadone office and was out in 3 to 4 minutes. I was wondering whether it was always like this. When my turn came, I also received my medications very quickly and I realized that this is the norm for this site.

Pavel also posted the key points of his presentation at the conference:

Do not keep silent! The main thing for us is not to stay silent. Our voices have already helped accomplish a lot. Look, when we talk about our needs and concerns, even during our meetings, we can support each other. Nobody cares about substitution therapy as much as we do, so we also need to solve our issues ourselves…

…We realized this during our first meeting a year ago and decided to establish an association or a union. During this past year, we have actively worked to implement our plans. We disputed, discussed, negotiated, suggested. And now we have it – the Association of Substitution Therapy Participants…

Pavel also commented on the diversity of people who attended the conference:

When I realized that each region of Ukraine is represented at the conference, I was amazed. Later on I calculated that if one delegate represents hundreds of patients then potentially we have THOUSANDS of supporters. No doubt, we are strong and have a bright future!…

…Today hardly anyone would doubt the power of the association, which might have a 5 digit number of members in the near future. Thus, this association might soon have a very strong influence on the development of Ukrainian drug policy. The main question is, who will control this powerful tool? Do we fully understand our strength? Will we be able to use our consolidation in the right way? I believe the answers to these questions should define the mission of our association.

The conference was attended by a representative from Russia and a few foreign trainers and observers who, in Pavel's opinion, were very professional and knowledgeable. Here's what Pavel wrote about a trainer named Masha Golovanevskaya:

Masha Golovanevskaya not only represented Open Society Institute, but also bought us a fantastic movie, “FIX: The Story of an Addicted City.” The film is about the formation of a world-known organization VANDU, which unites drug addicts from Canada. We started the conference by watching this movie. It was extremely good! We got a copy of it and I promised Masha that I'd do my best to find a way to translate the movie into Russian and post it in our Internet resources so it will be available to everybody.

The second day of the conference was focused on advocacy issues. Pavel Skala, a facilitator of this session, is an expert in drug policy and a former Interpol staff member. Currently he heads the advocacy department of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. He suggested that participants start creating a list of all the issues that arise in implementing substitution therapy in Ukraine, and then sort the issues based on regional and national problems. Here is what Pavel wrote about this session:

After discussing 16 issues (such as grinding our pills into powder in the hospitals, difficulty in receiving a driver's license, waiting lists for being involved in the program, etc.), we identified three main problems that urgently need our intervention on a national level. They are listed below:

- The continuous process of substitution therapy treatment. Providing the medication every day and even a few times a day when needed;

- Including methadone in the list of medications that are allowed to be purchased by prescription in a drug store. This will improve the effectiveness of substitution therapy and allow people to continue the therapy if they are staying in a hospital where replacement therapy is not provided, or when a person is sick and unable to come to the methadone site.

- Regulating the policy of registering drug addicts and providing patients the opportunity to receive a driver's license on a case by case basis.

That is it! All the other issues were tagged as “local” and solvable at the level of a methadone site or at the regional level.

One question that was discussed was that many medical establishments in Ukraine consider substitution therapy to be a recommendation, not a mandate. This situation was clarified by Dr. Tamara Tretska, deputy director of the Institute of Health Policy Research and the head of the National Substitution Therapy Project. She explained that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is issuing a new order where substitution therapy is regarded as a “medical practice necessary for the treatment of drug addiction… and use of substitution therapy is mandatory.”

Dr. Tretska's presentation

The third day of the conference was focused on public relations and was facilitated by Nastia Bezverkha, one of the leaders of the youth movement “Obyektyvna realnist,” which unites intellectuals, artists and journalists. Nastia was invited as a media relations trainer and gave a fabulous and informative presentation. In the presentation, Nastia said:

Do you know what the main source of information on drug addiction is? The media

Do you know where the media gets their news? First from the police press service, then from public health workers, then from social workers and only then from drug addicts.

Our voices are only in fourth place, but they should be first!

At the end of the post, Pavel wrote about the main conference outcomes:

After the conference I was looking at my friends and realized that we have become much more confident, full of hope and have future plans.

During the conference we finalized and approved our strategy to develop the association. The conference confirmed our ability to make our own decisions and the independence of our association. The fact that the conference united people from 25 regions of Ukraine proved the unity of like-minded people living with a drug addiction. This is the main element needed to have the capacity to solve issues at the national level.

Historically, libraries have been characterized as spaces for the free access to knowledge in the fields of literature, art, and culture, as well as becoming gathering places for the community. In this spirit, two years ago the Public Pilot Library of Medellín, Colombia at the La Loma site welcomed the participants of Hiperbarrio [es], one of the initial Rising Voices projects, where citizen journalism workshops have been taking place.

Photo of La Loma Library by Convergentes and used with permission. Click on photo to see a larger version of photo.

It is noteworthy that this library was created more than 50 years ago, as an initiative of the residents of La Loma, and throughout its service to the community it has offered classes in literature, painting, and music. The importance of its social role was described by Rezwan at the Rising Voices blog, who notes that that librarian's responsibility goes beyond the simple lending of books.

It is with those reasons that there were united voices of indignation surrounding the events that took place on October 13, which is described by @blueandtanit:

Ladrones robaron el equipo administrativo con información de La Loma, caja menor y El nica de Hiperbarrio en un asalto a la bpp de La Loma.

The director of Hiperbarrio, Álvaro Ramírez described his reaction upon hearing the news. He writes about the consequences of the robbery in his blog Ojo al Texto [es]:

Estoy un poco aturdido. Me concentro y trato de visualizar la modesta y hermosa Biblioteca de La Loma, sus estantes, las mesas y las sillas donde niños y grandes se sientan a diario a leer, a consultar libros, y a conversar.

Alcanzo a imaginar los computadores apagados y en la noche. Un par de intrusos llegan y logran penetrar por el techo. Entran con linternas y comienzan a sacar cosas

(…)

A la mañana siguiente llegan Gabriel Jaime y los otros empleados y encuentran el desastre. Un robo consumado. Un asalto a la comunidad de La Loma y un golpe duro para la Biblioteca Pública Piloto que ha venido dotando, con gran voluntad y paciencia a la filial más antigua de su extendida red de bibliotecas públicas: es decir gratuitas y abiertas para que todos podamos acceder a sus servicios.

(…)

Pienso en el daño que eso representa. En las personas que se van a perjudicar por no poder acceder gratis a los computadores.

Photo of La Loma library by blueandtanit and used under a Creative Commons license. Click on photo to see a larger version of the photo.

News of the robbery soon spread throughout different online networks, and the community also received notes from those who expressed their solidarity during the incident, showing that there is a strong network across the internet. For example, from Chile, Enzo Abbagliati sent a message of support on his blog Cadaunadas [es] after reading the post written by Ramírez:

Cadaunadas varias veces ha sido espacio para la alegría que desde una barriada de Medellín hemos recibido cotidianamente quienes creemos en las bibliotecas públicas como espacio de equidad y construcción de sociedades más democráticas. Reproduzco ahora una triste nota publicada por Álvaro Ramírez en ConVerGentes, quien desde el aturdimiento inicial nos avisa que han robado en la Biblioteca de La Loma. En Chile, en nuestras bibliotecas públicas, a veces sufrimos la misma suerte, la misma frustrante suerte.

¡Animo, amigos de La Loma! Sé que la comunidad estará con ustedes.

Locally, the Colombian digital magazine Equinoxio [es] became one of the first sites to publish news about the acts of vandalism and wrote about the efforts to investigate the crime:

El director de la biblioteca se reunió con las autoridades y con efectivos de la Policía Nacional a fin de coordinar esfuerzos para recuperar los bienes que se llevaron los asaltantes y capturar a los responsables.

Fortunately, the Golden Nicca prize was recovered, as it was found nearby, but the other objects remain missing. A member of Hiperbarrio, Catalina Urquijo of the blog $ujetate (Unknown II) [es] thanked those who sent messages through the different social networking sites:

Ofrecemos nuestros más sinceros agradecimientos a todos aquellos que nos acompañaron por diversos sitios de la red dándonos su apoyo tanto cuando creímos que nos habían robado el nica como ahora.

Finally, Libary Coordinator Gabriel Vanegas of the blog Esas Voces que Nos Llegan [es] summarizes the shock in which, as a public employee, he had to find out about the incident:

Duele ver la ignorancia de quienes perpetúan este delito contra el patrimonio de la comunidad, pero preocupa pensar en quienes dieron la orden de hacerlo y quienes sabiendo y viendo que se hacia no procedieron de manera correcta y oportuna ante las autoridades.

EWAMT 7th workshop participants

Napoleon Bonaparte once said: “let France have good mothers, and she will have good sons.” The same is true for every nation. One can hope that the Rising Voices grantee from Yemen ‘Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWAMT)' can make such impact. Ghaida'a al-Absi in collaboration with the Hand in Hand Initiative is organizing new media training course for female politicians, activists, and human right workers of Yemen to bring more women's voices to the internet and empower them. She shares an interesting experience gathered during the seventh workshop of the project:

On Thursday 15 October, 2009 we hold a workshop on blogging and social networking for ten activists. These activists were really talkative and full of energy. It is like a magic, every time you train new women activists, you got some energy from them.

Sadiq al-Samawi introducing Facebook

The day-long workshop anchored by Ghaida'a included tips like how to blog via email and in the afternoon session Sadiq al-Samawi taught the participants how to use facebook.

Now let us look at some of the blog posts published by the participants of the 7th workshop.

Safa writes about an important issue - the spread of drug abuse in Yemen.

Smile To Life discusses the shocking spread of AIDS and how to raise awareness to prevent this disease.

Dove creativity posts a poem called ‘silent heart‘.

Lafraaaaacp adventure defines love:

Love is when all your interest is about the happiness of your beloved without thinking of yourself.

Sarah loves the children stories and drawings and wishes to post about these.

Meanwhile here are snippets from the blogs of some of the participants of the previous workshops:

Pearl, who writes at Shells blog talks about how a women is forced to do something she does not want because she is deemed weaker in the society. She screams:

“Why don't you understand that we have the right to choose.”

Kholoud at Ambitious Project mentions about another kind of rape:

Image courtesy Kholoud

There are raped ideas .. raped success .. and even raped feelings .. usurpation of land and other types of rape. The most hideous of this is the rape of innocence .. the rape of children. Children raped and stripped from all their rights..
The right to play
To learn
To a dignified life and secure … and are locked up in a dark cave, which is located on the sidelines of life
Simply because they are created only to find themselves living a hard life.

Abeer Aeriqi shares a story how it feels betrayed by your sibling. She also posts an interesting story which has the morale that “we always suffer from severe emotional stupidity, which makes us judge things wrong.”

Eman shares the thoughts of an unsuccessful love and whether people should try over and over before giving up hope on love.

The list of participants' blogs of the EWAMT project can be found in this site.

Find out Who is Imahaka? Who is Rasmetal?Who is Moonlight?

Reaching to the provinces was one of the greatest challenges at the Foko Blog Club. We have to thank this time the  generosity of each coordinator who have been the real heroes to Foko's successes. Jaona or Patrick were never afraid to make the long trips from Fianarantsoa or Tamatave to Antananarivo to join the events scheduled by Stephane. They never forget to share with their communities and send news  from their corner of the island. We were very proud when both of them have been selected to join events abroad. Jaona described his Monterrey's trip as a mission to voice out the activism of Malagasy Youth in ICT and Education and this month Patrick was invited at Addis Abebba as a special reporter for the Rising Voices during the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) conference . He also took the time - despite his very busy schedule as tour guide, student in management at the Bsrikadimy's university and BUEC English Club webmaster - to help singer Razia Said find places for her pledge to plant 10000 trees for Zebunation reforestation project.

Looking for the right place where we can plant a trees

Last month, Foko was present at UN summit on Climate Change and it was an opportunity to advocate Madagascar's environmental echues but also its causes. Stephane's work from G20 summit where he met tcktcktck activists was echoed by  the entire Foko community on the Blog Action Day on October 15th. Antsirabe bloggers were the first to update theor blogs thanks to the support of their teacher Randy. At least 8 posts calling for local Action on Climate Change were posted by this amazing group of leaders who have been giving a lot to let the world know that Madagascar's youths are standing proudly and are ready to act more ! and don't forget they were the activists providing first hand news to international media thanks to bridges such as Ushahidi, or Twitter networks, so always keep a careful eye on what Foko bloggers are streaming from Madagascar to the world !

Links and Twitts from Dagomc and Tahina following the Afrobasket Women 2009 competition in Antananarivo.

I’ve seen a better Madagascar
The miracle did not occure. We didn’t expect one but we also didn’t think of losing by as much as +50pts (39 to 90). The Malagasy team was not a match for the Senegalese in the 4th day of the tournament. Senegal remains then at the top of Group A. “Self confidence”, we didn’t have it once we steped on to the court yesterday. We knew it was going to be hard and a win was out of reach but that should not have prevented us from playing a better basketball. It is so frustrating to see your team . Note : Madagascar was supposed to host the FIBA Africa Women Championship in 1972 but could not because of the unrest at the time. This year, almost the same thing was about to happen. A problem of unpaid wages was evoked yesterday as the responsables of the stats claimed what was due to them. It is said that they had a talk to the Federation and everything has been settled.having a poor game though you know they can do better.

Before we started the workshop, there were a discussion between Basheer, who was coordinating of this workshop, and some other trainees about the reasons of focusing on women development.

After this discussion we started the workshop with a fear of electricity or Internet connection cutting. However, this time everything went very well.

This workshop was for one day from 8:30 am until 3:30 p.m. It was a long day full of fun and learning. In this Workshop we have added to the curricula how to prevent the right click in the blog, and how to blog through email. These new tips in blogger were really exciting for the trainees.

After the lunch we continued the session and started to talk about facebook, and the person who talked and explained how to use face book was Sadiq al-Samawi. He  likes facebook very much, and knows a lot about it.

Today is the Blog Action Day and this annual event aims to unite the world's bloggers where they write about a single topic in a single day to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion on the subject. Some of the members of Rising Voices projects are also participating in this event and we bring to you a brief round-up.

One of the main focus of the Rising Voices grantee FOKO is make the citizens of Madagascar a crucial factor in their unique and threatened environment. Tahina from FOKO Blog Club in Antananarivo, Madagascar writes:

Today is the Blog Action Day about Climate Change, thousands of blogs are uniting to raise more awareness and put pressure on each individual and world leaders to take quick and apropriate actions. The fight is worthwhile since the future of our kids is at stake. I’m pretty skeptical on the direct impact of this online activism here in Madagascar but since blogging has once helped Baby Kambana, why wouldn’t it do the same for all of us. We want to tell the World as well that we do care.

He points out to the action required:

How many of the Malagasy homes are using coal and woods to cook? 80-90%? We just can’t afford other source of energy in the long term. And this is where higher responsibles should take actions.

Patrick from Tamatave, Madagascar: Looking for the right place where to plant a tree

Lyva, another member of FOKO writes [fr] from Antsirabe :

We believe that everyone should be concerned by this problem because no one ever knows what season we see. For example, is this spring or summer? The temperature varies a lot because there is no winter. It drops to 3°C while in spring and in summer it rises to 35°C or more. (machine translation)

Ariniaina tells what prevents people from taking action against environmental damage:

I think that the main problem here in Madagascar is that people are so busy to search for what they are going to eat today. We then become selfish and just think of ourselves. We forget our neighbours and our future generation.

I hope that the Bloggers’Action of today will wake up millions… billions of people… governments… poor countries… rich countries… and then, we will altogether rescue the Earth. What I can and already do now is planting my own trees.

Théophile Kouamouo from Abidjan Blog Camps project in Ivory Coast writes about a a private conversation between him and a 70 years old Ivorian politician:

Originally from northern Ivory Coast, he told me about his childhood and told me that in front of his eyes, two rivers have dried up in his village. He saw that as the deep wells have increased the likelihood of finding water by digging decreased. What is responsible for what farmers see as a disaster or a curse? The desert encroachment, climate change, but also agro-industrial policies requiring irrigation works, all are quite dangerous in the long term.

The politician spoke with conviction, even with fear for the future, because he had seen with his eyes the danger. (machine translation from French)

“Africa is one of the places of the world most threatened by climate change,” warns Théophile.

Cartunelo from Abidjan Blog Camps writes [fr]:

As a web developer there are simple actions we can take to save our planet and make us web developers eco-compatible in Abidjan:

1. Turn off the computer: Use the lowest possible standby and hibernation.
2. Turn off your external hard drives at night
3. Use Eco-friendly Bulbs
[..]

The issue climate change is addressed specifically by another Rising Voices project. Nomad Green trains Mongolian citizens how to spread awareness - both at home and abroad - about their country's environmental crisis. Read their blog to learn more about their activism to stop degradation of Mongolia's environment.

Poor nations are the most affected by effects of climate change, something that as prompted African nation to gang up for the Copenhagen meeting. More than fifty Members of Parliament from African countries are meeting for three days at the UNEP Headquarters’ in Gigiri Nairobi with an aim of coming up with a common stand in readiness for Copenhagen after shameful failure in Bangkok. Anyway the Copenhagen meeting could just be one of the many talks shows aimed at audacious nuclear power show of while millions of lives are destroyed daily as a result of environmental pollution form the carbon emission.

Poor environmental management strategies have been cited as the main causes of deforestation. Most developing nations are not governance compliant, good governance is development centered values quality life of its citizens, and respects integrity for prosperity. The legislature, the executive, and the judiciary serving under the banner of ethnicity have done this country (Kenya) a grand environmental defilement. Nearly two years after efforts were renewed to save the water towers of Mau Forest complex, politics has taken the centre stage and little action seems to be taking place. The gluttonous human settlement in the Mau Forest fueled by the politicians from the Kalenjin Community in Rift Valley in the name of saving our people is causing the rivers leaving Mau forests which replenish many lakes including those essential to the tourism industries to dry up.

The gratuitous phenomenon of destruction of the water towers in Kenya is already unleashing ramifications that are beyond redemption. The world greatest spectacle and tourist attraction, the migration of the wildebeest across the Mara River in the Masaai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya is slowly loosing its spectacular magnetism; it is a slap of the unforgiving Mother Nature. Scenes like these will die out if water towers that feed such rivers are not conserved. Some major Rift Valley lakes (Nakuru and Elimentataita) which are also homes to flamingos are at the brink of extinction; among other consequences of climate change in Kenya has been the declining rainfall which in turn has lead to lower resources for hydropower and scarcity of water for agriculture and domestic consumption. As result of persistent drought livestock farmer’s from the pastoralist communities are burying carcasses of dead livestock.

The third world nations should take advantage of the situation by putting there best brains at work. Currently in eastern Africa the drought is causing havoc, no water for the livestock, the water level in the main hydropower dams is down, domestic water supply dams are drying up, soon the El-Niño rains will start and many will be caught unaware. Lives will be lost property worth billions destroyed. Along side the national disaster policy the poor nations should develop national water harvesting strategic policy. The policy should effectively address approaches of reducing effects of drought by storing water during rainy season for use during dry spells. The water banks can play critical role during dry season by offering livelihood to the poor and the marginalized livestock farmers who occupy vast communal grazing fields.

The water banks will successful replace traditional agricultural ideology of depending on the rainfall as the only source of water yet global rainfall patterns are changing. Alternative farming systems and technologies like organic farming should be encouraged among communities. Recently in Kenya the government was buying emaciated livestock from the pastoralist community at a fare price, what a bright idea, but the government should think of more sustainable ideas like livestock insurance policy for the arid and semi arid parts of the republic. The government could also set up state-run slaughter houses at the regional level instead of a meat processing factory in its capital city Nairobi; this will create employment at the community level.

Global warming and man’s social economic activities have led to the degradation of earth’s single most and very significant natural resource, the forests. With increased violation of principles of conserving these regions globally, poverty and unemployment, reduced water levels in reservoirs and non sustainable agricultural practices have rendered many within third world countries to suffer food shortages. With well planed strategies the third world countries will effectively address the issue of food security. With modern technology the sun may not be a problem as such, the question is how do we tame and convert solar energy to domestic and industrial use. Wind energy is also one of the most assumed sources of energy in Africa yet it is a common phenomenon in semi and arid areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

It is time for African states to utilize their technological think tanks to eradicate corruption, dictatorship tyranny and buffoon style selfish and self styled ideologies and principles of leadership. It is also important for developed economies to stop maximizing on the abject poverty in the third world by embracing realistic holistic, inclusive and comprehensive development agendas that are aimed at reducing human suffering. By reducing emission and by supporting developing nations environmental conservation initiatives and by listening to the human suffering and taking preventive action the world will reduce environmental disasters hence reduction of rescue missions.

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Eric Newton is the vice president of the journalism program at Knight Foundation. He describes the annual $5 million Knight News Challenge, which aims to bring about news innovation by supporting new technologies and techniques to bring news and information to specific geographic communities around the world. He offers some examples of projects that have been funded including Rhodes University in South Africa, Freedom Fone in Zimbabwe, Ushahidi in Kenya, and the Sochi Olympics citizen journalism project in Russia, and also provides some tips for applicants seeking funding.

The deadline for this year's News Challenge is October 15 so if you have a good idea, apply now.

Transcript:

Eric: My name is Eric Newton. I’m the Vice President of the journalism program at Knight Foundation. The Knight News Challenge is a kind of open, international, research and development contest for news innovation. And the idea behind it is that the digital revolution has turned information and news upside down and inside out, and things are changing so rapidly that no one - not traditional media companies, not even the entrepreneur community - can keep up with the pace of change. So our foundation thought that if we have an open, international contest and collected thousands of entries and picked the very best ideas for news innovation that it would help speed the process of moving good news and information into the digital age.

David: How does the Knight News Challenge relate to media development? Or does it?

Eric: Well, it relates to media development in that each of the entries needs to have four key elements. 1) It needs to involve news and information. The kind of news and information that people need to run their communities and their lives. 2) It needs to involve specific geographic communities. So it is not about technology platforms that aren’t related to a specific community - a place where people live and work and run their government. 3) It needs to involve digital innovation; something new. And because of the fourth element, it is very helpful for media development because the fourth element is that whatever technology is developed is then free and open source, and usable by anybody anywhere in the world for news and information in their communities.

David: Does innovation have the same meaning in all countries and all contexts?

Eric: No. Things that are new in one culture might be quite old in another. But we don’t think that it’s the job of the News Challenge to try to bring all of the new developments to everyone in the world. We think that the governments will do that and businesses will do that. There are already structures involving millions and even billions of dollars in media that will spread the innovations. What we’re looking for are things that no one has tried before. No one meaning no one. Those innovations can be technological, but they can also be innovations of technique. If someone in a culture outside the United States says, ‘hey, we can combine these technologies in a unique way in our community’, that is innovation.

So, when Rhodes University in South Africa says ‘we can develop a cell phone citizen journalism program in the township, we can create a web platform for the English-language newspaper, we can create a new web platform for the Afrikaans radio station, and then we can digitally connect all three of these things so that for the first time this community can have a unified news system’ - well, that wasn’t any new technology necessarily. That was taking things and putting them into action in specific communities because of the unique characteristics of that community.

David: Can you give a couple other examples of News Challenge winners internationally, from outside the US?

Eric: Sure, in Sochi, where the Olympics are coming, a citizen journalism project is in the process of organizing the community to talk about whether the olympics are a good thing or a bad thing for the town, or something in between. A major citizen journalism project in Russia is not the norm - so that should be an interesting experiment. In Zimbabwe, there is an experiment in mobile news distribution called Freedom Fone. In Kenya, Ushahidi is experimenting with data visualization and real-time mapping of citizen journalism contributions so that if major news events are occurring you can see the reports that are coming in from all quarters and get a visual idea of what is happening. Those are just some of the examples.

The News Challenge is open internationally because the idea is that anyone anywhere can come up with a good idea. We haven’t done as many international projects as we’d like to because a lot of people think that they have new ideas, but really they just don’t know that it is already happening somewhere else and the technology already exists, and in fact models already exist. So nothing new needs to be developed. What needs to happen in that case is that aid programs or the commercial sector or any number of other funders need to step in to spread things that we already know work.

David: We are about one week from the deadline of this year’s News Challenge. What recommendations and advice would you give to applicants?

Eric: Well, I think that the main thing to remember is that we’re looking for projects with all the elements: great news and information, great digital innovation, specific geographic community and free and open source sharing of what is learned and developed. We frequently will get project proposals that are very strong in one of the categories, but weak in the others. The best thing that anyone can do is partner with experts in the other areas and do their homework in the other areas if they themselves are only experts in only one of the areas.

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Amadou M. Ba is the co-founder and president of AllAfrica.com, the largest online aggregator and distributor of news from Sub-Saharan Africa in English and French. He is also the acting executive director of the African Media Initiative, which aims to strengthen Africa's media sector by bringing together owners and operators of major media outlets to collaborate on training programs, seek investment opportunities, advocate for better policy, and improve media research. Amadou tells us about the history of AllAfrica.com, the major challenges facing African leaders in the media sector, and how funders can most effectively support a vibrant media space in Africa.

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Tomorrow marks World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. It is too easy to simply roll one's eyes at the never-ending proliferation of special ‘days' that mark what seem to be a greater quantity of activist causes than we have days in the year. Worse, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that a single day of recognition will automatically lead to greater awareness, better policy, and social change. But when it comes to the movement for palliative care - that is, organizations dedicated to relieving suffering and improving the quality of life for people facing life-threatening illness - there don't seem to be many other options to spread awareness. With very few exceptions, mainstream media has shown no interest in reporting on the rights and realities of individuals who live with life-threatening illnesses. In fact, Google News shows a significant decline in coverage about palliative care from 2006 - 2009.

It is appropriate, therefore, that this year's theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is “Discovering your voice.” Rather than relying on traditional media to pick up the cause, hospices and individuals around the world are encouraged to submit their own stories using digital media. They can submit their stories directly on the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day website. So far stories about palliative care have been shared from Portugal, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Malawi, Argentina, Belize, Nigeria, and beyond.

A significant challenge facing most hospices that would otherwise like to share their stories, however, is that their staff, patients, and volunteers haven't been trained in digital media production or even basic internet usage. It is for this reason that I took a scenic train ride from the Romanian capital of Bucharest to Braşov, where Hospice Casa Sperantei - a leader of palliative care in Romania and Eastern Europe - is training its staff how to use new media to 1.) spread more awareness about the daily realities of palliative care and 2.) tell the stories of patients to enable them to leave behind a legacy of their lives.

Last month Juhie featured excerpts of some of the testimonials from patients at the hospice. As you can see, most of the testimonials focused on the diseases which afflict hospice residents. In this workshop I wanted to emphasize that the testimonies and stories recounted on the project blog could be both fun and informative at the same time.

We decided to collaboratively create a storyboard and produce a video to tell a story in a creative way. After some deliberation the staff decided that they wanted to produce a farewell video for Iulia, the outgoing volunteer coordinator who is headed to medical school.

Later in the day Iulia, who has been involved in Hospice Casa Sperantei's blogging project, told me about some of the challenges they have been having in getting residents at the hospice to share their stories:

Still, the hospice staff is dedicated to moving the project forward to help spread more awareness about palliative care in Romania, and to help preserve the stories and memories of their patients. Anna, who is featured in the video with Iulia, will be taking over the role of volunteer coordinating and says that she is committed to the project.

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Felipe Vaz is the coordinator of Instituto Overmundo, which promotes access to knowledge and cultural diversity in Brazil through innovative practices in communication, intellectual property, and technology. Felipe describes Brazil's “LAN house revolution.” These LAN houses initially began as local networks where (mostly) young people would go to play multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. More recently they have connected to the internet and are used for social networking, chatting, and job searching. The estimated 90,000 LAN houses across Brazil account for 50% of available internet access in the country. These are illegal operations which don't have business permits and don't pay taxes. The Brazilian government so far has taken an adversarial position toward the LAN houses, arguing that they encourage young people to miss class. But others, like Brazilian blogger Jeimy Remir, think that LAN houses have a positive impact both for their owners and customers.

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The Rising Voices Grantee Ceasefire Liberia had a remarkable time last month. Its founder Ruthie Ackerman writes:

Not only have we had dozens of new blog posts from our writers — and several fantastic videos — but we are getting noticed too.

Both Feministing and the Women’s Refugee Commission have mentioned our blog on their sites, widening our audience and ensuring that those who do not usually read about the Liberian community now know where to go for updates. We have also recruited some top new bloggers.

Ruthie Ackerman also introduces us to several Liberian bloggers who have not blogged with Ceasefire Liberia, but she met during her trip to Minnesota.

Ruthie wonders in a Twitter message:

Why are Liberians in Liberia blogging more, with less-access to the internet than Liberians in the Diaspora?

Now let us look at some of the various blog posts published in the Ceasefire Liberia blog.

Ceasefire Liberia has a new sports blogger who writes about Liberian soccer. Roland Mulbah chronicles Liberian International striker Frank Jean Seator's venture in the Middle East. Check more of his posts.

Denna Gibson opines that women must be given chance to “take their rightful places in coaching the female national (football) team, serving as staff on the team and attending workshops or seminars to prove themselves”. She wonders whether the buses from India will last in the Liberia streets as the infrastructures need repairing.

Nat Nyuan-Bayjay mentions that senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy is still remembered in Liberia. He also describes about a mass burial in Central Liberia, which reveals the untold story of Central Liberia’s massacre. He also discusses the increased cases of rape in broad daylight in Liberia.

Stephen Johnson lists the challenges the Liberian youths are facing in the labor market. Wynfred Russell writes about the lack of visionary leadership among Liberians in Minnesota.

Saki Golafale posts a photo essay on the Red Light Market in Paynesville, Liberia.

Saki also explains that the school children in low-income homes in Liberia are a particular target of child abuse.

J. V. Boima reports that a Nepalese UNMIL police officer committed suicide for allegedly being involved in a sexual abuse case.

Graphic Designer Garretson uses video to display his works:

One thing is noticeable here is that most of the Ceasefire Liberia bloggers are male. Ruthie screams in a Twitter message:

And where are all the female Liberian bloggers?

Images courtesy: Ceasefire Liberia.