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.

Of the 270 project proposals, the following five are most representative of the innovation, purpose and goodwill that Rising Voices aims to support.

Abidjan Blog Camps

Théophile Kouamouo has long been one of Francophone Africa's leading bloggers. Based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Kouamouo is one of the founders of the Ivoire Blog network and started the wildly successful meme “Why I Blog About Africa.” (Elia Varela Serra summarized many of the resulting responses in a two-part series on Global Voices.) Kouamouo is now trying to bring many more of his countrymen and women to the blogosphere by organizing a series of “blog camps” around Abidjan in which current Ivorian bloggers can discuss the issues affecting them and show new bloggers how to join their ranks. Kouamouo first proposed the idea on his blog back in August last year, which attracted a number of enthusiastic commenters supporting the idea. Blog Camps have a long history of attracting new citizens to the participatory net. A number of blog camps have taken place in India, including in Chennai in 2006 and, more recently, in Mumbai. Blogcamp CEE last October brought many new participants to the Russian-speaking blogosphere. For the most part, however, West Africa (and particularly Francophone West Africa) has been left out of the booming global blogosphere. That is starting to change. Panos West Africa, in partnership with Highway Africa and Global Voices, recently announced the winners of the Waxal - Blogging Africa Awards. Next year we can expect to find many more Ivorians on that list as Théophile Kouamouo sets out to organize a series of events that will bring dozens if not hundreds of Ivorians to the blogosphere. Abidjan Blog Camps will also promote more pan-African online interaction by teaming up with existing blog camp movements in Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, and South Africa.

Ceasefire Liberia

Just west of Ivory Coast lies Liberia and its roughly 3.5 million inhabitants. Settled by free slaves from the United States in the early 19th century, Liberia fell into a 14-year dark period of civil war and lawlessness that concluded in late 2003 with the presence of ECOWAS and the United Nations. Today Liberia is slowly recovering despite inadequate infrastructure, unemployment at around 80%, and former combatants (many of them minors) who must be re-integrated into society. Many unemployed Liberians have put their hopes in friends and relatives living abroad in the United States. However, there is often a lack of communication and understanding between Liberians at home and those living in the diaspora. By partnering with African Refuge - a drop-in center for West African youth - and the Century Dance Complex in Park Hill, Staten Island (the largest Liberian community outside of Africa), and Amnesty International in Monrovia, freelance journalist Ruthie Ackerman aims to help foster a transatlantic Liberian blogging community.

Those Liberians who lived through the war — whether soldiers or not — experienced some type of trauma or displacement. By creating a community and sharing experiences with others, it has helped give these youth a purpose and vision that there is something larger than themselves. This will benefit the community (on both sides of the ocean) on many levels: Liberians, many of whom have difficulty adjusting to life in America, can reconnect with their families and dispel myths about what life is like in the U.S. There are also left-over tensions from the war, which may be able to be diffused through the dialogue created between the communities.

Real Experience of the Digital Era - China

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Shenyang, literally meaning “the city to the north of Shen River” and capital of the Liaoning province, is touting itself as China's “next tourist destination.” But whether you are visiting the ancient pagodas of Old City or the official “High-tech Industrial Development Zone” the tourist brochures won't mention the city's male and female sex workers who mostly come from poor rural communities in search of talked-up urban opportunities. In partnership with the Ai Zhi Yuan Zhu Center for Health and Education documentary filmmaker Wei Zhang will train male and female sex workers who use the AZYZ center how to maintain a blog and upload short video documentaries to share their experiences, opinions, and troubles in order to promote more understanding of the region's sex worker population.

Nomad Green - Mongolia

Environment officials from throughout Northeast Asia met in Ulaanbaatar this week for the first time to discuss climate change and how to enhance energy efficiency in the region. Mongolia's capital city was a fitting location for the meeting as the country's environmental deterioration has accelerated recently due to rapid urbanization, industrial growth, and increased coal consumption. Ulaanbaatar is frequently shrouded in a haze of thick pollution:

Desertification from climate change is threatening the livelihoods of nomadic Mongolian tribesmen and the country's saiga antelope was just named the most endangered antelope species in Asia. It is amid so much negative news that Portnoy Zheng, in collaboration with the Mongolian and Tibetan Foundation and the Mongolian Green Party, will train Mongolian citizens how to spread awareness - both at home and abroad - about their country's environmental crisis. Nomad Green aims to 1.) train citizen journalists how to use blogs, digital video, podcasts, and map mashups to report on environmental news, 2.) create a network and community of environmentalists sharing and spreading information about related threats, solutions, and opportunities, and 3.) translate content into Chinese and English to promote more regional and international cooperation in facing Mongolia's environmental challenges.

Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques - Yemen

With international coverage of the Middle East focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the war in Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, and the financial markets of the Persian Gulf States, little attention is given to one of the region's poorest countries, Yemen. The few spikes in media coverage of Yemen over the past few years are all related to fears of al-Qaida presence.

In collaboration with the Hand in Hand Initiative, Ghaida'a al-Absi will organize a new media training course for female politicians, activists, and human right workers in order to bring a new perspective to the Arabic-language blogosphere and to build an online network of Yemeni gender activists. It is fitting that today, on the 98th anniversary of International Women's Day, we announce al-Absi's initiative to bring more women's voices to the internet. The deteriorating status of women's rights in Yemen is frequently documented and discussed, but rarely do women themselves take part in those discussions. By reaching out to NGO's and political parties throughout Yemen al-Absi aims to change that.

Please join me in congratulating and welcoming the newest five grantee projects to our community.

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

As the internet becomes more accessible to more people, including mobile phone users, the so-called digital divide seems to be narrowing. In its place, however, we see a participation gap in which the vast majority of blogs, podcasts, and online video are being produced in middle-class neighborhoods in major cities around the world.

Rising Voices aims to help bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the conversational web, by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities in the developing world. Please visit our current list of grantees for project examples.

The sky is the limit, but unfortunately funding is not. Rising Voices outreach grants will range from $2,000 to $5,000. Please be as thoughtful, specific, and realistic as possible when drafting your budgets.

Successful projects will be prominently featured on Global Voices. Grantees are expected to host regular workshops to train participants how to start and maintain a weblog, upload and share digital photographs, and produce basic videos. Grantees are also required to post regular project evaluations and updates to the Rising Voices website.

Completed applications will be accepted no later than Sunday, January 18. Please submit your completed application on the Rising Voices apply page.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below or by sending an email to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org.

Global Voices' citizen media outreach project, Rising Voices has been nominated for a “Best of the Blogs Award” (B.O.B.) in the category “Best Weblog”. More than 8,500 weblogs were suggested for nomination and a jury selected the final 11 in each of 16 categories. Anyone can cast their votes online for their favorite blogs until November 26, 2008.

Deutsche Welle wish to give special attention to the promotion of freedom of information and expression around the world.

Rising Voices is a project that has provided micro-grant funding for more than a dozen community blogging projects in some of the most under-represented parts of the world (thanks to a grant from the Knight News Challenge).

Through the people in this amazing community, we've learned about social unrest in Bolivia through Voces Bolivianas' bloggers, we've gotten to know the new bloggers in Nakuru, Kenya from the REPACTED project, and in Romania from the Blogging the Dream project.

(Watch this video, and you'll know who to vote for…)

In an email to all of the Rising Voices community (join here) on October 27, David Sasaki, Global Voices' Director of Outreach said:

Get this: some kind soul nominated Rising Voices as the Best Weblog (in the world!) for this year's BOB's contest. (That stands for Best of Blogs.) I am sure that many of you are aware that there are almost as many blog awards as there are blogs, but the BOBs contest has long been the most recognized internationally. We are tremendously proud to be listed among such fine company as Generación Y and Scienceblogs.de. You can cast your votes here and view the results here.

The B.O.B. competition recognizes blogs and podcasts produced in Arabic, Chinese, German, English, French, Dutch, Farsi, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. You can see a world map of all of the proposed candidates on the awards website.

On Global Voices, Juliana Rincon has written about some of the nominated video bloggers.

Cast your votes before November 26!

In Brasov, Romania, the Casa Sperantei hospice center will train its nurses, doctors, and staff how to use audio and video recording equipment to share the direct stories of patients with life-threatening illnesses. The center's staff will also take advantage of their online media training and interactive website to explain the objectives, successes, and challenges in palliative care, which focuses on improving end-of-life care for patients and their families, with a special focus on vulnerable populations including the elderly, children, and patients with cancer or HIV/AIDS.

In the township of Kwa Mashu, on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa, the Kwa Mashu Community Advancement Project (K-CAP) will use its Ekhaya Imagination Lab to train 20 new citizen journalists from within the township how to report on local stories related to local health issues affecting the community. In 1998 Gugu Dlamini was stoned to death in Kwa Mashu after publicly declaring her positive HIV status. The twenty citizen journalists trained at K-CAP will aim to counter such severe stigma to HIV and AIDS while also bringing local health issues to an international audience.

Pavel Kutsev of the Drop-in Center will use blog posts, photos, podcasts, and online video to share his experiences working at a harm reduction facility based in Kyiv, Ukraine. The blog will open a window to the daily reality of drug users and describe how that reality affects public health throughout the country.

The Orizonturi Foundation in Campulung Moldovenesc, Romania will create a blogging club for mental health service users which trains them how to maintain a weblog, upload videos to online sharing sites, and use social networks. The technical skills will enable the participants to share their own stories and forge their own online identities.

In Brazzaville, Congo the AZUR Development organization, as part of its AIDS Network Africa initiative, will “train communication officers of local AIDS organizations in digital story telling, podcasting, and the creation of blogs to document the stigma and discrimination of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS in Congo in order to use them as a tool for advocacy, education, and the promotion rights of people infected with HIV.” Each communication officer will describe how the AIDS pandemic is currently affecting the local community where he or she works and what daily life is like for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Last, but not least, the FrontAIDS project based in St. Petersburg, Russia will use citizen media to monitor accessibility to treatment for people living with HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, and TB in 20 regions around Russia. The interactive blog-based site will become a an aggregator and go-to resource of citizen media information related to health issues around Russia.

The six projects are diverse in their geography and their strategic approach, but they all share a desire to train health activists to use new media in order spread awareness about their work and the communities they serve.

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It has been one year since Rising Voices awarded its first round of five outreach grants to project in Sierra Leone, Colombia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and India. Those first five grantees where then joined by five more projects in December, 2007. Today, as we are about to announce our newest round of six more citizen media outreach projects, we would like to take the time to step back and reflect on all that the first 10 projects have accomplished over the past year.

Nari Jibon aims to provide alternative education and skill development programs to the poor and under-privileged women of Dhaka. They teach them Bangla, tailoring, English, computers, ICT and photography among other things. From its website:

Nari Jibon has established a blog in English, titled “Bangladesh from Our View” and Bangla “Amader Katha (Our Stories)” to increase students’ & staffs’ creativity on different areas. Nari Jibon’s blog efforts have resulted in a two year grant from Global/Rising Voices to improve students’ blogging skills, including interviews, photos, and video training.

The Nari Jibon bloggers have so far produced almost 300 posts (both in Bangla and English) in these blogs. In Rising Voices archives you can read features with photos, watch videos and listen to podcasts about the Nari Jibon citizen media outreach project to learn about its progress, its challenges and successes.

We have asked the people behind Nari Jibon, its educators and a participant how was their ride in the world of citizen media during the past one year.

Kazi Rafiqul Islam, Project Director, Nari Jibon

* What were the major challenges of the Nari Jibon Blog project you faced and how did you overcome them?

a. We started our blogging activities with limited resources: a few cameras, an old video camera and our computers did not have the required capacity to do blogging, video posting etc. well.

With the Rising Voices fund we could buy additional digital cameras, video camera and could upgrade our computers and that helped the bloggers and our trainers to continue editing, uploading/posting articles, photo and video etc.

b. One of our biggest challenges was to receive constant and reliable electricity amidst frequent load-shedding (power cuts).

We have bought a powerful UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) with the Rising Voices grant that helped a lot to continue our staff/students blogging activities and also continue their classes on time. We still could not solve the problem completely and we are seeking more funds to buy an additional UPS/IPS.

c. Our computer graphics teacher started the blogging activities and played the main role in setting up both the English and Bangla blog for NJ. But within a few months from the start of the program he left for personal reasons placing us in a difficult position to continue with our blogging activities.

We then asked our computer teacher Taslima Akter to take responsibilities to continue blogging. She had a little knowledge about citizen media tools so she had to work hard (read many journals, Books and practice on videos, photos) to get the things under her control. Later the Rising Voices citizen media guide also helped her a lot. I must say she played a prominent role in continuing and developing our blogging activities.

d. Many Bangladeshi women have limited education and don't have access to computers; especially they are weak in English language.

We have now three English and computer teachers including a visiting English teacher from USA who are trying their best to make the students conversant in English and make them computer literate so that they can give their best efforts in blogging. We also have staff development classes on English language and computers and they are gradually developing in those areas.

e. Some of our students’ guardians started to ask “what is the (monetary) benefit in writing in blog?” “Why they are giving extra time at Nari Jibon in blogging?” etc.

To solve the problem we arranged meetings with the students’ guardians every 3-4 months to describe our students’ blogging activities and highlight our best bloggers. We started awards for best blogs in English and Bangla and given free cyber café passes to our best bloggers that are encouraging others to write in blogs. We made students’ guardians understand that they are not wasting their times. They are increasing their skills through blogging that would help them to make them self-reliant in future.

f. Security was a very big issue as the neighborhood cybercafés are insecure for women. Female staff/students were feeling insecure going out side to interview, to collect information for the blogs.

To solve the problem we are providing a secure space to express their voices/experiences- activism through blogging. We have a equipped cyber café which is only for women where they can practice, brows safely for collecting information to write in the blogs and that are broadening their knowledge and developing skills. We also provide safe transportation and accompany female students during field trips.

* How do you feel about the success of Nari Jibon Blog?

I do not want to say that our blogging project/activities are completely successful but I must say that we are on the right track that might lead us to reach to goals and successes in future. We need to recruit more bloggers, increase community awareness to reach to the goals.

I would say through blogging, our women students have increased knowledge on different blogging software, camera operating, video making, writing skills in English and Bangla and also have increased their level of confidence to communicate with others and to work outside their homes. Now they can go outside to find job, take interview for blogging without fear. Now students’ have increased awareness on their lives, rights, and responsibilities, what to do, how to do and what not do, and how to make their voices heard. They have also learned more about other bloggers and people around the world. In turn, the over 23,000+ readers of our English blog have learned much about Bangladesh: cyclones, culture, songs, favorite places and foods, animals, and issues concerning young women as well as wives and mothers: education, security, violence against women, and prospects for change.

Although some of our staffs have their own blogs but we are yet to arrange setting up students own blogs as some of our senior bloggers had to leave Nari Jibon as they had completed their courses. Some are busy with their job and some can not come due to their exams and they do not have computer of their own or internet connection in their residence. Still we are contacting them and assuring that they have free access to our computers and internet facilities as and when they can come to blog. We do hope that in near future some of our students will be able to set up their own blogs.

Taslima Akter Tama, ICT Educator

* Tell us about your experience in bringing the women of Nari Jibon into blogging.

For the last one year I am training the students on basic of blogging; from the technical part of blog publishing to maintenance, photo, video, developing their personal voices, methods of writings etc.

At the initial stage of our blogging activities we got very few students who were interested to write in blogs and also some others saw it as a burden. But as the time progressed we continued to encourage our students for writings in blog and we emphasized reading other blogs so that they can learn more about blogging, its necessity and importance. We also have made them understand that blogging increase their personal efficiency and develop them in various accepts of their lives; it can change their lives and develop themselves. Blogging can help them move up quickly and it is good for their career and also they can use their free time creatively.

To recruit more bloggers we gradually have incorporated blogging in every course curricula and accordingly we started to give them blog related homework/assignments. So students are submitting their writings as class assignments. After receiving Risings Voices mini grant, we arranged our first workshop on Blogging and invited a Bangladeshi professional blogger Razib Ahmed. Through this workshop our staffs and students have learned many things about blogging and also this workshop encouraged us to go forward with blogging.

We had our second blog workshop with Mr. Shawn Ahmed of the Uncultured project. We learned many new things like photo and video blogging. This workshop encouraged our students and staff about doing video and photo blogging. To get our students more involved in blogging we also started awards for best bloggers in English and Bangla that made the students interested to blog. We also got to know much about Flickr account, face book, photo blogging and benefit of blogging etc from Ms. Kira Karikar who is a Venezuelan journalist/blogger. Rising Voices citizen media guide played an important role in recruiting students’ bloggers, training on blogging etc.

* You have been instrumental in providing these students a powerful tool for self expression. How did you break their shyness and minimized their frustrations? Do they cherish this voice?

It is true that students were feeling shy to write and submit their writings on different topics. They were confused whether their writings are ok, what the readers will think or comment reading their writings etc. and for that reason we hardly get their writings. For example Mony didn’t want to sing in front of camera. She felt embarrassed but I encouraged her to sing. When she got good response from readers like David, Kathy and others she was very happy. That made her more confident to go forward that we have seen in her role in our pohela boishakh (Bangla New Year) program. In my “first day of spring” video Sherin Sultana and Mahfuza Parul hesitated to stand front of camera and then I insisted them to imitate journalists taking interview for TV news. Finally they did it and received good response from readers/viewers. Now they are not afraid of raising their voices that we have seen in the drama where they acted on Pohela Boishakh celebration program, which will be posted soon.

I am trying my best to express/share my thoughts, experience and knowledge with my students/ bloggers so that they can change their attitude, get rid from shyness and frustrations. I always listen to our students problems, thoughts etc. carefully and answer their all queries to improve their blogging skills. We assure that their mistakes in writings will be edited before posting. Seeing some of our students successfully writings in our blog site most of other students became interested to write in the blogs. Now they are confident in writing, taking interview, creating ideas for blog etc.

Mohtarimun Nahar [Bipa], Supervisor of English Section & Editing

* What did you learn from blogging?

Now I know what Blog is and how to post articles because I have my own blog. I also think I have improved my English and Computer skills from Blogging.

Whenever I go to anywhere I try to capture natural beauties on my camera. I want to share my thoughts and memories with the readers through Blog which I didn't do before.

Md. Golam Rabbany (Sujan), Research and Field operation Lead of Nari Jibon

* Do you think that bogs can be a powerful tool in raising concerns and awareness among Bangladeshis regarding the anomalies in the society you portray in your blog?

I think blogs can be a powerful tool in raising concerns and awareness among Bangladeshis regarding these issues. But it is also true that still now most of the educated people in Bangladesh are ignorant about blogs. Very few people get the scope to browse Web Pages because internet connection is not widely available in our country till now. But the internet usage is increasing day by day and we can hope that within a few years a large number of people will be introduced to blogs and blogging. And then blogs will be a powerful tool in our country.

Firoza Begum Poly - Student/Blogger

* Tell us about your happiest moments in blogging?

I went to the Ekushey Book Fair 2008 and submitted a post on the fair. There I met some writers. It was my happiest moment.

* Do you get comment from the readers about your writing?

Yes, I got encouragement and good comments from the readers.

Is social media actually changing the electoral landscape in emerging democracies like Armenia, Kenya, and Venezuela? Has the promise of an international, barrier-free, multilingual conversation finally become reality? Most importantly, where do we go from here? How do we encourage dialog in times of heated international debate? How do we bring new voices from new communities into the universe of web 2.0? And how do we protect their rights to free speech once they begin participating?

All of these questions will be discussed, debated, and digested at the 2008 Global Voices Summit in Budapest, Hungary on June 27 and 28. During the first session of day two, five representatives from Rising Voices will present their experiences - either as trainers or trainees - in citizen media outreach projects in Colombia, Bolivia, Madagascar, and Kenya. They are all working to extend the conversation taking place online via blogs, podcasts, and video- and photo-sharing sites to communities that have traditionally been ignored by both mainstream and new media.

Catalina Restrepo, an enthusiastic new blogger from Medellín, Colombia's peripheral La Loma community, will describe how a group of young library users in her small hilltop community have commanded the respect of local leaders and attracted the attention of regional and national media outlets after establishing a name for themselves using blogs, photographs, and short video documentaries. Restrepo will also describe how the group of young bloggers decided to come together and build a new house for the subject of one of their online video documentaries. You can read a translation of a recent post by Restrepo on the HiperBarrio project blog.

Collins Dennis Oduor, co-founder of REPACTED, will describe how new media tools can be combined with participatory street theater to encourage distinct groups of a local community to come together and peacefully discuss the most pressing and controversial topics. For Oduor's hometown of Nakuru, Kenya, those topics frequently include AIDS, poverty, and ethnicity. We will also learn about REPACTED's role in promoting peace during Kenya's post-election crisis earlier this year. You can read a Rising Voices interview with Oduor's colleague, Dennis Kimambo on the REPACTED website.

Cristina Quisbert, one of the most active participants (and now a trainer) of the Voces Bolivianas project in Bolivia, will explain how, in less than one year, she has managed to create an important online resource and space of conversation for anyone interested in topics related to indigenous peoples in Bolivia, Latin America, and around the world. In addition to maintaining her prolific Spanish-language blog, Quisbert has also begun writing in English. She presented at the We Media conference in Miami about the potential of blogging as a means of inclusion for indigenous communities in Bolivia.

Mialy Andriamananjara is one of three Malagasy coordinators of the FOKO Madagascar project. She will provide an overview of how diaspora communities can use online tools to promote social change in their home countries. Using Skype, video-chats, and translated tutorials, Andriamananjara helps coordinate the training of new bloggers and vloggers in Toamasina, Majunga, and Antananarivo. Herself a published writer of fiction, Andriamananjara was born and raised in Madagascar, but now lives with her family in Washington D.C. She blogs in English and French, and recently recorded the first performance of the Vagina Monlogues in Malagasy. You can see a brief video interview on Rising Voices.

The session will be moderated by Lova Rakotomalala and aims to outline a framework of best practices for overcoming the many obstacles that stand in the way of narrowing the online participation gap around the world. Stay tuned to the Summit 2008 website to learn how to participate in the discussion via IRC chat. Or, even better, join the ranks of hundreds of bloggers from around the world, and come to Budapest to discuss in person the cutting edge issues surrounding how the global village communicates in the 21st century.

THE JOB: The Public Health Editor will be responsible for writing weekly articles which cover the latest discussions and topics related to public health and human rights in the developing world from citizen media like blogs, podcasts, and video-blogs. S/he will work closely with the rest of the Global Voices editorial staff (managing, regional and language editors), and will also be expected to attend regular online editorial meetings.

As GV is a virtual organization, the Public Health Editor will not be expected to relocate. Regular access to high-speed internet connectivity will, however, be a key factor in being able to carry out this job.

The position involves:

• Surveying the current citizen media space to find blogs, podcasts, and vlogs focused on public health issues in the developing world.
• Introducing Global Voices readers to how health activists are using citizen media to spread awareness about public health issues.
• Interviewing and introducing the grantees of Rising Voices' latest health-focused grant competition.
• Liaising between public health bloggers and journalists looking for stories to report on.

This is a part-time position with modest compensation, for somebody who is passionate about helping to amplify the voices of health activists concerned with human rights from the developing world. It is also a great opportunity to become involved with a global community of bloggers who are working on the cutting edge of citizens' media.

THE REQUIREMENTS: Our ideal candidate has an international outlook and solid experience both in citizen media and public health. Solid English-language writing editing skills are a must, and a strong familiarity with the current tools, web sites and trends in citizen media worldwide is important. Familiarity with the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia is particularly desirable. S/he has the ability to work independently and responsibly with only remote supervision.

Ideally, s/he will have the ability to read and write well in at least one language other than English and have a working knowledge of other languages. Preference will be given to candidates from outside the United States and Western Europe.

To apply, please send your CV and a letter of interest to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org. The application deadline is Saturday May 24, 2008.

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, in collaboration with the Open Society Institute Public Health Program’s Health Media Initiative, is now accepting project proposals for the third round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects focused especially on public health issues involving marginalized populations.

Ideal applicants are dynamic NGOs or individuals who:

• Represent the vital voices of communities affected by stigmatized health issues whose stories, viewpoints, and experiences are often marginalized, unheard, or misrepresented in mainstream media. These communities include people living with HIV and AIDS and/or tuberculosis, people with mental illnesses or intellectual disabilities, injecting drug users, sex workers, LGBTI individuals, people in need of palliative care services, and Roma facing discrimination in healthcare settings.
• Are enthusiastic about using new, interactive modes of communication to build relationships and establish dialogue on the important advocacy issues of their community.
• Envision and highly prioritize media and communication strategies to achieve the advocacy goals of their organization.

Pre-requisite for the competition:

• Organizations must have their own website or participate in a network website.

Rising Voices and OSI aim to bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the conversational web, by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities. Examples of potential projects include:

• Working with a tuberculosis or HIV clinic or local drop-in center with the offer of training health workers, local harm reduction or sex worker outreach workers, patients, and their families to blog and upload video, in order to document their work, their experiences, and their community.
• Use blogs, podcasts, and online video to help give voice and representation to LGBTI communities and advocate for their rights.
• Distribute mp3 recorders to a local NGO working on palliative care issues, and help them produce monthly audio testimonials and/or interviews featuring stories and experiences of participants, for uploading to the NGO's website.
• Organizing a regular workshop on blogging and photography at a legal aid center representing the rights of people living with mental disabilities. Part of the budget could be used to purchase affordable digital video cameras and internet café costs, so that participants can describe their challenges and life experiences to a global audience.
• Purchasing an affordable digital video camera and teaching a group of local Roma community outreach workers how to produce an ongoing video-blog documentary about their work, which could then be posted to the organization's website and linked to other networks' websites.

Rising Voices outreach grants will range from $1,000 to $5,000. Special consideration will be given to proposals from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucusus. Please be as thoughtful, specific, and realistic as possible when drafting your budgets.

Successful projects will be prominently featured on Global Voices.

Completed applications will be accepted no later than Sunday, June 1st in either English or Russian. Please submit your application on the Rising Voices apply page. Russian-language proposals should be submitted here. All applicants will receive a confirmation email by June 3. Grantees will be announced on June 28 at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Budapest, Hungary.

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The OSI Public Health Program’s Health Media Initiative aims to increase public awareness of health issues, especially stigmatized health issues involving marginalized populations. The initiative focuses on supporting health NGOs to develop their relationships with journalists across all media platforms so they may communicate health and human rights issues effectively with the public. Where the media environment is especially hostile, OSI also supports “community journalism” initiatives to encourage NGOs to use digital technology to communicate their stories and issues to each other and to the world at large. The initiative also seeks to build the capacity of media professionals to report responsibly on public health issues.

Rising Voices aims to help bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the conversational web, by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities.