Rising Voices » Feature

A Quick Look at the Rising Voices Microgrant Proposals

Eddie Avila — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:39:16 +0000

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, Rising Voices received 1175 proposals from 124 countries from around the globe. This welcome increase in the number of applications as compared to last year demonstrates the ongoing interest and need in bringing citizen media to local underrepresented communities. While we are reading over these project proposals, we thought our readers might be interested in some of the initial demographical results from this open call for proposals.

The East African nations of Uganda and Kenya led the way in the countries with the most number of applications. For a closer look at what other countries were represented among the applications, please take a look at the word cloud created by the site Wordle. The size of the country name corresponds with the number of applications received from that country.

Countries Represented Word Cloud - Click for a larger image.

Ninety-five percent of applicants submitted a proposal for the first time, meaning that the remaining five percent participated in past Rising Voices microgrant competitions beginning in 2007. We also asked applicants to best describe the focus area of their project, and Education, Women and Gender, Indigenous Communities, and Development were the categories mentioned the most.

It was also interesting to input the text from the project descriptions from all of the proposals. Again using a word cloud, one can see which terms and concepts were used most often.

Project Term Word Cloud - Click to see a larger image

These are just some quick demographical details gathered from an initial look at the 1175 proposals. In the near future, we will be developing a map that will help visualize the specific locations from which the proposals came. We will also help show places around the world that share similar interests based on the topic of their citizen media outreach projects. Only those projects which gave permission to Rising Voices to publicly share that information will be included in the map.

Rising Voices 2012 Microgrant Update

Eddie Avila — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:24:11 +0000

Rising Voices would like to thank everyone for their interest in the 2012 open call for proposals for citizen media outreach projects. This year we received 1175 proposals from over 120 countries with many great and innovative ideas for engaging communities with online citizen media. This is a significant increase from last year when we received 755 proposals from 90 countries.

Over the next six weeks, we'll be carefully reviewing each proposal with our selection committee. Shortlisted finalists will be contacted sometime in late February. We will also contact all applicants that have not been selected. Due to the high volume of applications, the anticipated announcement for the winners will now be mid-March.

We are delighted with the widespread interest in bringing citizen media to underrepresented communities around the world. Around 95% of the proposals were from first-time applicants, meaning most are new to the work of Rising Voices. We strive to be a resource for organizations and individuals like you who wish to bring digital participatory media to their communities. We share news of competitions, contests, funding opportunities, tutorials, and examples of outreach initiatives. We also try to feature the work of other organizations and individuals working in local underrepresented communities around the world to bring the benefits of citizen media to more people.

We hope that you continue to stay in touch and become a part of the Rising Voices community. There are several ways to do so:

Read and participate on the Rising Voices blog for news about grantees, case studies of projects, and news from our working groups. (Please leave a comment if there is something you find interesting).
Join the Rising Voices mailing list where we share links and news about external funding opportunities and resources for those interested in citizen media in developing countries.
Follow us on Twitter (Please say hello! @risingvoices).
Follow us on Facebook (Let us know on our wall that you applied for the microgrant! We'd love to hear from you).

Thanks again for your interest and best of luck!

Ukraine: A Sad Story from The Life of the Substitution Therapy Patient

Maryna Reshetnyak — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:26:35 +0000

Recently two Ukrainian bloggers focused on harm reduction issues. Livejournal users depo3p and zpt_users reposted a story of a patient of the opiate replacement therapy (ORT) from the town of Shostka. The patient appeared to be in a serious trouble, and despite that fact the main reason of the problem was his behavior, the other patients did everything they could to help him.

The story was first published by the blogger vovan9619. He posted:

День добрый Всем !!! Хотелось бы поделиться некоторыми новостями,касаемо Сайта ЗПТ и его Участников.. Есть у нас (в Шостке) такой вот Лёша..На программе он вместе с Женой. Имеют маленькую …. Около года принимал препарат Он , чуть меньше-его жена.. Около двух недель назад,пропустив один день выдачи(по своим причинам..) он пришёл на сайт,через час после его закрытия. Будучи пьяным,он не понимал-почему ему не выдают препарат. Старшая медсестра-отказала в выдаче,.. Тогда он не отдавая себе отчёт в поступке-схватил её за горло и стал душить.., На следующий день,его исключили из программы, мало того-ст.медсестра,написала заявление на него,обвинив в побоях(..??)

Good day to everyone. I just wanted to share the news concerning our ORT site and the patients. There is a guy Lesha in our town, He attends the program together with his wife. They have a little daughter …He is on medications for about a year, and his wife just a little bit less. A couple of week ago he missed the business hours of the site (for his own reasons) and came to the site one hour after it was closed. He was drunk and could not understand why he can not receive the medicine. The senior nurse refused to give it to him. Then he started to strangle her not understanding what he was doing … next day he was expelled from the program and the nurse filed a report accusing him beating her.

In a few days the other patients of the ORT site started to worry about Lesha and his wife and decided to visit him. They found Lesha in a very bad condition, drunk and with severe abstinent syndrome. They decided to help him. Vovan9619 wrote:

В-общем провели с ним беседу,где он клятвенно пообещал-прекратить Пить и извиниться перед медсестрой. После чего было написано ходатайство глав.врачу, с просьбой восстановить его на Программе ЗПТ.. Глав.врач-подписал ходатайство,и спустя несколько дней,-Лёшу восстановили. …. В кругу Тех Людей,кто за него поручился-Лёша клятвенно пообещал не приходить на сайт-в нетрезвом состоянии,зная о том,-что может за ЭТО,получить “по ушам”-от Своих же,которых он может подвести… А мораль сей Истории такова;- ЗПТ и Алкоголь(даже - пиво !!!..)- НЕСОВМЕСТИМО !!!!

So we talked to him and he swore that he would stop drinking and apologies to the nurse. Than we submitted the appeal to the head doctor asking to renew him into the ORT program – and the doctor agreed to do this and in few days Lesha was renewed into the program. ….Lesha promised that he will never come to site drunk again to people who were like him. And he knew that he could be punished by these people and he could not let this people down. And the moral of this story is – ORT and alcohol (even a beer) are not compatible!!!!

After a few days the bloggers posted the second part of this story and it was not a story with a happy and. Vovan9619 posted:

Участник ЗПТ “ЛЁША ВАЩЕНКОВ”, благодаря тому что его все участники ЗПТ взяли на поруки и человеческому отношению главврача Орищак Н.С. Был возвращён на программу ЗПТ. Но … его здоровье было на столько подорвано, что он первый день еле пришел, второй день его привела мать. Лёша реально бредил , по всему видно, что очень БОЛЬШИЕ проблемы со здоровьем. Это не могли не заметить “наши” врачи из сайта и поэтому в срочном порядке он был направлен ….на второй этаж (стационар наркологии). Его осмотрел врач-нарколог … и .. определил, что ему нужно срочное обследование ХИРУРГА! Через 10 мин он уже был у хирурга, (рядом 50 метров поликлиника №1) Хирург в СРОЧНОМ порядке направил Ващенкова Лёшу в приёмное отделение ЦРБ г. Шостка.
НО, КАК ТОЛЬКО УЗНАЛИ ,ЧТО ОН НАРКОМАН, ЕМУ ОТКАЗАЛИСЬ ДЕЛАТЬ ОПЕРАЦИЮ, О НЕОБХОДИМОСТИ КОТОРОЙ, САМИ ЖЕ И ГОВОРИЛИ!
Лёше становилось все хуже , да и мать начала плакать и умолять врачей о помощи… НО, на , что они решились под этим натиском-направить его почемуто в ТЕРАПЕВТИЧЕСКОЕ отделение. Где он в … УМЕР В ТЕЧЕНИИ ДВУХЧАСОВ!

Because of the efforts of the other patients and human attitude of the chief doctor N.S. Orishchak, the ORT patient ‘Lesha Vashchenkov’ was renewed into the ORT program. But his health was so weak that during the first day he could hardly walk and on the second day his mother brought him to the site. He had delusions and it was obvious that he had very serious health problems. The doctors from our site noticed this and sent him … to the second floor (narcology hospital). The narcology doctor examined him and … said that he needed urgent assistance of a surgeon! In 10 minutes he was in a surgeon’s office (the policlinic #1) is within 50 meters from the office. The surgeon urgently sent Vashchenkov Lesha to the Central Regional Hospital of Shostka.

But when doctors of the hospital learned that he is a drug addict they refused to do the surgery which they insisted on before!

Lesha was feeling worse and his mother started crying and begging the doctors to help, but they decided to send him for some reasons to the therapy department where he died within 2 hours.

The patients were sure that the main reasons of the death of his counterparts was stigma towards people living with the drug addiction from he medical personnel. They established the initiative group to attract the attention of the society to their problems and, as they wrote, “to stop the conveyor of deaths”.

Ukraine: Online Interactive Map Helps Fight HIV

Maryna Reshetnyak — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:39:49 +0000

Ukraine has a high number of HIV infected people. To address this problem private Ukrainian Charity Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS foundation in partnership with the Ukrainian office of Google launched the news social service maps.antiaids.org on December 1, 2011, the World Aids Day. The new service will help Ukrainian Internet users easier and faster to find the sites of HIV testing in their region as well as condom vending machines.

The web-site of ANTIAIDS foundation reported that in the framework of the project for the fist time in Ukraine a database 927 sites of HIV testing was created.

The interactive map shows not only the address of a particular site but also telephone numbers and the information about business hours. It also lists whether the site is unanimous or a person needs to present the ID. The database includes 173 sites of fast testing where a person can get the results in 15-20 minutes.

In addition, the HIV Testing Sites map service contains a FAQ section where a user can find all the information necessary for HIV testing such as how long to wait for a test results, is it possible to receive the results via e-mail or telephone, how much it will cots, what is the procedure of the testing and how to interpret the result, what to do if the results are positive or negative.

All this information is available not only in Internet but also on HIV/AIDS national hotline.

The condoms wending machines map helps people of major Ukrainian cities to find the nearest machine and to receive the instructions on how to use it. The advantages of the machines are speed and simplicity and that people can purchase the condoms anonymously, without attracting attention of other people and without and interaction with shop assistance like in supermarkets or pharmacies, ANTIAIDS web-site reported.

According to Google Ukraine blog the future plan of the project includes implementing improved navigation map and preparation of the mobile version of the service.

Hacio’r Laith: Promoting Welsh Language With Technology & Social Media

Rezwan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:17:43 +0000

The 3rd “Hacio’r Iaith” (Hacking the Language) was hosted by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies of Aberystwyth University in Wales on Saturday the 28th of January 2012. Hacio’r Laith is an open conference, and is a meeting place for those who are passionate about technology, new media, and the Welsh language. A large number of participants joined to learn and discuss the latest developments in their fields.

The event was in unconference format where idea sharing, demonstrations and practical sessions were all conducted in Welsh language. The schedules were user-generated, which means that anyone could take part and talk about a subject of their interest.

The subjects discussed included local journalism in the digital age, art and culture online, campaigning, e-books, and developing free software for the Welsh language.

Rhys liveblogged the event (in Welsh language). Here is a summary:

What worked?

Better range of subjects than previous years.

What did not work?

Need more grid

Too cold in some rooms

Not enough tea and coffee

Free Wi weak in some rooms

(translated by machine language)

Hacio'r Laith Conference. Image by Flickr user Lestyn Hughes. CC BY-NC-SA

Here is a storify link (in Welsh language) compiled by Bryn Salisbury describing the reactions of Twitter users on this event.

Carl Morris wrote in the forum blog:

Thanks to all who came to participate in the third Hacio'r Iaith in Aberystwyth yesterday! Thanks also to the sponsors for making this year's admission and food free.

There are more posts to come for the event, including notes, videos and so on.

Check the event schedule and Wiki for the details and here are photos in Flickr taken during the event.

You can find the recorded videos of the event here.

Rising Voices Call for Proposals for Citizen Media Outreach

Eddie Avila — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:06:19 +0000

We are no longer accepting applications.

A major part of Rising Voices' mission to support and nurture underrepresented communities so that they can begin to take full advantage of participatory digital media tools has been our microgrants for citizen media outreach projects. Since 2007, these small grants provide an opportunity for individuals, grassroots groups, networks, and other organizations without significant access to larger funding to be able to pass along knowledge by teaching others in their community in the use of these tools, as well as to provide ongoing support.

Rising Voices is pleased to announce the 2012 open call for microgrant proposals, and we are currently accepting project proposals for funding up to $4,000 USD for global projects.

Who is Eligible to Apply

This funding opportunity is open to private individuals, groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We encourage partnerships between individuals and organizations. For example, if an NGO does not have experienced citizen media trainers on staff, it would be extremely important that it seeks collaboration with the local blogging community to find the right trainer(s) with the necessary skills. Individual applicants might also find it highly beneficial to partner with organizations from the communities they plan to serve in order to strengthen the project's impact and to have access to potential project participants.

There is no requirement for an organization to be legally registered, but we do require selected projects to have access to a bank account that is able to receive international bank transfers.

What Kind of Projects May be Funded

Rising Voices seeks project proposals that share our mission of bringing voices from new communities, as well as underrepresented language groups to the online global conversation through the use of participatory citizen media. The project's primary activities should be to provide citizen media training workshops to the target community, as well vital ongoing support and mentoring. Please see our roster of current and alumni grantee projects for examples of previously funded projects.

Examples of potential projects may include:

Organizing a citizen media “boot camp” with experienced local bloggers to train and mentor participants from underrepresented communities that will result in a local network of support.
Working with an indigenous community to teach and encourage new generations to begin to use Twitter to connect with others as a way to preserve and promote their native language online.
Partnering with a local library with a computer to lab to invite community members to discuss local problems and solutions, and train them how to create a group blog to take these conversations to the wider community.
Organizing a series of digital photography group walks where residents can document life in their community together and create an online Flickr photography exhibit.
Teaching local residents to record and edit audio recordings on Audacity for a community podcast that can be uploaded online, as well as distributed to local radio stations for a wider reach.

Project ideas are not limited to these, and we encourage you to be creative, yet realistic in your proposals.

Application Process

Interested applicants should complete the online proposal application form (link here), which should also include a detailed budget. It is extremely important that applicants follow the word count guidelines for each of the questions.

If you would like to download the application questions to complete offline in order to upload later, please view or download the text document here (Google Doc format). However, all applications must be submitted online, and we cannot accept any additional attachments. Once you have submitted the application, you will see a confirmation screen like this. While we welcome and encourage projects from all corners of the global, all applications must be completed in English due to the common language of our selection committee.

We are no longer accepting applications

Rising Voices outreach grants will range from $2,000-4,000 USD. Please be as thoughtful, specific, and realistic as possible when drafting your budgets. Applicants are encouraged to submit budgets for less than the maximum $4,000 USD as smaller grants allow us to fund more projects.

The application deadline is February 3rd, 2012 at 11:59 PM GMT (Please double check the time zone equivalent in your region). The proposals will be reviewed by a committee of Global Voices staff and volunteers, as well as members of previous Rising Voices grantees. We hope to be able to announce the grant recipients by February 28, 2012.

Expectations of Successful Grantees

Successful projects will be prominently featured on the Global Voices networks. Grantees will be required to sign a grant agreement, which will outline accounting, reporting, and other terms and conditions regarding how funds will be distributed. Grantees will also be required to post regular project updates to the Rising Voices website, be in regular communication with Rising Voices staff, as well as actively participate in the Rising Voices community.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below or by sending an email to eddie [at] globalvoicesonline [dot] org.

Good luck!

Language Tools: Virtual Keyboards & Transliteration

Rezwan — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:47:10 +0000

Imagine you write in a non-Latin based script and you are stuck in a foreign airport internet kiosk trying to figure out how to email in your language. Probably the PC you are using has a different set of keyboard other than qwerty and their is no multilingual support in the OS. There are some online tools which can come to your rescue.

Virtual Keyboard:

A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows a user to enter characters. A virtual keyboard can usually be operated with multiple input devices, which may include a touchscreen, an actual keyboard and a computer mouse. (Wikipedia)

Virtual keyboards are commonly used as an on-screen input method in devices with no physical keyboard, such as a pocket computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet computer or touchscreen equipped mobile phone. There are many forms of web-based virtual keyboards. One such great online tool is Gate2Home Virtual Keyboard.

“This site enables you to write in your language wherever you are in the world, with an online onscreen keyboard emulator.

The main purpose of this site is to let everyone who gets stuck without the ability to write/type/search the internet in their own language be able to do just that (usually travelers/tourists or anyone in front of a foreign computer).”

The main feature is that you can choose from a list of keyboard layouts your base keyboard of the pc and select the keyboard of your own language (which maps perfectly) and can use the pc keyboard as well as mouse to enter the words.

The site and the gadget got “honorable mention” in Google Desktop Gadgets Contest and was a main gadget in iGoogle for a long time.

Another such virtual keyboard is Branah.com which supports 53 languages.

Transliteration

Transliteration is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another. (Wikipedia)

Systematic transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word, or ideally letter by letter. Google Transliteration is one such widely used tool. New Melchizedec Sundararaj, Software Engineer at Google wrote in April 2010:

For many Internet users, it is not always easy to write in languages that use unique character sets like Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic. Most computer keyboards only allow for the input of Roman characters (the alphabet used by most Western languages) and converting between scripts can be difficult. To make this process easier we launched an improved version of Google Transliteration at the end of last year, a service which enables you to phonetically convert Roman letters into a variety of other scripts.

There are multiple phonetic transliteration tools available online. For example in Bengali language there are options like Prabasi and Microsoft Indic language input tool etc.

It is important to enable users to create online contents in their own language as no communication can be meaningful and oriented in absence of proper language. Virtual Keyboards & Transliteration tools helps us overcome the language barrier online.

REPACTED: Looking Back And Learning From The Past

Rezwan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:57:58 +0000

The former Rising Voices grantee REPACTED trained displaced Kenyans (during the 2007 election violence) living in the camps how to tell their own stories online so that their ordeal is not forgotten. They use magnet theater to sensitize and mobilize people and induce behavioral change on certain issues like AIDS. According to a retrospective post in their blog:

More than 1,200 Kenyans reportedly killed, thousands more injured and over 300,000 people displaced and around 42,000 houses and many businesses ending up being looted or destroyed, Bombing, abductions and killing of innocent people by the ragtag militia called Al-shabab kind of became a daily phenomena thereby leading Kenya to taking radical decision in trying to wipe out and end this menace of the al-shabab.

Kenyan men brandish their weapons after Kenya's questionable December 2007 election. Image by Daniel McCabe. Copyright Demotix

This year Kenya's next election will be held. Political stability can steady Kenya's turbulent growth. REPACTED (Rapid Effective Participatory Action in community Theater Education and Development) is now on a mission to make Kenyans learn from the past and not to repeat the same mistakes:

REPACTED has in last few months been engaged in civic education program dubbed ”TUFANYE SOTE BIDII NDIO WAJIBU WETU” a line borrowed from the Kenyan national anthem. The sole aim of the program which is being funded by UNDP Amkeni Wa Kenya is to sensitize Kenyans on their role and holistic participation in constitutional matters pertaining to DEVOLUTION. REPACTED intends to make sure that by the time Kenyans will be going to the ballot box they will have been empowered constitutionally.

Image courtesy REPACTED

Last April, REPACTED hosted a beauty pageant for the high school students of Kenya to provide them a forum to enable them discuss issues affecting their sexual lives. The theme of the event was “Using beauty as a source of inspiration towards behavioral change”.

You can get more updates in their blog and Facebook account.

Ukraine: Photo Art Helps Fighting AIDS

Maryna Reshetnyak — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:46:56 +0000

On the occasion of the World AIDS Day (November –December, 2011) a photo exhibition of the project “AIDS- Open Faces” took place in ‘Lavra’ gallery in Kiev. The exhibition was devoted to people whose life was affected by HIV/AIDS and it was organized by the private charity Elena Pinchuk AINTIAIDS Foundation. The pictures of HIV positive people and their families presented on the exhibition had been taken by a well-known photographer Brent Stirton from New York agency ‘Getty Images’.

The images shown at the exhibition (available online) are fascinating and many of them are not easy to look at. Brent Stirton together with the activists of the foundation and other partner NGOs traveled all over Ukraine and filmed street children in Odessa, gypsy settlements, families with HIV positive children and HIV positive orphans, injection drug users, prostitutes and imprisoned people, reported the web-site of AITIAIDS Foundation. The project contains pictures of very sick people as well as ‘stories with happy end’ – images of people whose lives were saved with the antiretroviral therapy which is currently available in Ukraine thanks to international support or images of people who stopped using drugs or images of HIV positive orphans who found new families.

It was the second time when Brent Stirton came to Ukraine to film people affected by HIV. The first time was in 2005. In his video appeal Stirton compares the impressions from his first and second photo shootings.

A journalist and a blogger Olga Ivanenko who helped Brent Stirton to organize the filming in Ukraine both in 2005 and 2011 shared her reminiscence of work on the project in her blog. She wrote:

В 2005 году я принимала участие в проекте - помогала иностранному фотографу в его работе над документальным фотопроектом о проблеме ВИЧ/СПИДа в Украине. Несмотря на многочисленные ограничения в использовании снимков, фотографии Брента Стиртона до сих пор “живут” в сети своей жизнью. Они достаточно спорны и провокативны, они - “на грани”, и потому вызывают ожесточенные дискуссии и споры.

В этом году Брент Стиртон приехал в Украину снова и отснял еще одну документальную серию об проблеме ВИЧ/СПИДа в Украине. Мы встретили некоторых “героев” первой серии. Встреча с одними радовала - они смогли начать новую жизнь, нашли поддержку, получают антиретровирусную терапию. Встреча с другими огорчила - они не изменили своих привычек, постарели (хотя это странно звучит, когда говоришь о 25-30 летних). Некоторых уже нет в живых. Как и шесть лет назад, мы также встретили невероятных людей. Когда у них диагностировали ВИЧ, от них отворачивались близкие и друзья, их увольняли с работы, им угрожали… Но они выстояли. Доказали себе и другим, что они сильные, и что жизнь продолжается. Хотя теперь она зависит от строгого графика приема лекарств. А также, к сожалению, от того, провело ли государство очередной тендер по закупке лекарств для АРВ терапии…

In 2005 I took part in a project – I helped one foreign photographer in his work on the documentary photo project on HIV/AIDS issues in Ukraine. Despite many limitations on use of the images, Brent Stirton’s pictures still ‘live their own live’ in the net. They are fairly disputable and provocative, they are on a margin that is why they are argued and discussed so much.

This year Brent Stirton came to Ukraine again and filmed one more documentary series on HIV/AIDS in Ukraine. We met with some of the ‘heros’ of the previous photo shooting. It was a pleasure to meet some of them – they had been able to start a new life, found a support, started receiving antiretroviral treatment. Meetings with the other were upsetting – they had not changed their life habits, they get aged (it sounds strange when you use this word talking about people of 25-30). Some of them have passed away. As six year ago we met fascinating people. When they were diagnosed with HIV they were turned down by their relatives and friends, they were fired from their jobs, threatened… But they had survived. They have proved to themselves and to others that they are strong and life continues. However they life now is depends on strict schedule of taking the drugs. And, unfortunately, on the question whether the government completed a new tender to purchase the antiretroviral medicines.

Olga noted that the participation in the photo project completely changed her stereotypes about HIV positive people. She posted:

Некоторые из героев сюжетов переворачивают представление о тех, кого принято считать “опустившимися”. Как бы низко ни пал человек, многие все же способны сохранить человечность - ухаживать за парализованной матерью, переживать за свою жену и ребенка и делать все, чтобы защищить их после своей смерти…

Some of the heroes of story completely turn over my notion of those who considered being degraded. Does not matter how descended people are, many of them can still stay human – to take care about paralyzed mother or worry about their wives and children and to do everything to protect them after they pass away.

Olga thinks that the main task of the project is to make the society to think about the people affected by HIV/AIDS. She wrote:

Вторая серия - не менее провокационна и спорна. Она тоже вызовет бурю дискуссий о людях, живущих с ВИЧ, и о том, нужно ли это все показывать. Дискуссии - это хорошо. Мы все, причастные к созданию этого документального проекта, считаем, что это часть нашей жизни и об этом нужно говорить. Нельзя просто закрыть глаза и сказать “я этого не вижу, значит этого не существует”. Если это заставит задуматься и что-то изменить в своей жизни хотя бы одного человека, значит время и усилия были потрачены не зря.

The second part of the project is not less provocative or disputable. It also initiates a storm of discussions about people living with HIV and about whether it worth to be shown. Discussion is a good thing. All of us, involved in the project, believe that this is a part of our life and it should be talked about. You cannot just close the eyes and say “I do not see this, so it does not exists”. If this make to think and to change something in his life at list one people, than all the time and efforts were spent not for nothing.

Rising Voices Year in Review 2011

Eddie Avila — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:06:58 +0000

The year started out with news from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region about citizen uprisings that would alter the course of history throughout this part of the world. The turn of events in Egypt, in particular, hit close to home with Rising Voices because of our close connection to our three grantee projects in Cairo and in Upper Egypt. Obviously some of the projects were placed on hold during this uncertain time, but many of the project leaders and participants took to citizen media as a way to express their thoughts and feelings about the revolution. In addition, the day before the infamous internet shut-down by the government, we also heard from one of the project leaders via Skype, who spoke about her participation in the citizen action.

Podcast with Nesma by risingvoices

Digital Natives with a Cause?

In early February, Rising Voices partnered with HIVOS and the Centre for Internet and Society to organize the Latin America and the Caribbean regional workshop of the Digital Natives with a Cause? project. The workshop held on February 8-10, 2011 in Santiago, Chile invited 23 young people actively using technology in their daily lives for social action and creative expression to share their experiences with others from their region.

Digital AlterNatives book

Fifteen countries from the region were represented at the workshop, which was the third in a series of regional events that took also place in Tapei and Johannesburg in 2010. The information compiled from all three of the workshops helped form the basis of the final book project “Digital AlterNatives” that was released in September 2011. This book features essays from the workshop participants, facilitators, and others who are working in this space. You can download the entire book here.

Welcoming Newest Grantees

Our first global-wide open call for microgrant proposals in nearly two years yielded an unprecedented level of interest. Rising Voices received more than 750 applications from more than 90 countries from individuals and organizations interested in implementing a citizen media outreach project in their local community. Reading through every proposal each filled with creative ideas, the selection committee recognized the ongoing need in these communities and it was a difficult, yet thorough process to select five projects.

In early March, we announced the five selected projects:

Youth leaders and children in the neighborhood of Enterramento in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

We plan to launch the open call for the next round of microgrant proposals in early 2012.

Blogging Positively

Interest in the Blogging Positively working group continued in 2011 with members of the Global Voices Lingua community that helped with the translation of the e-guide into Swahili and Russian. In addition, several blog posts highlighting the use of citizen media in discussing HIV/AIDS, as well as interviews with bloggers were featured on Rising Voices in 2011. We closed out the year with the commemoration of World AIDS Day in December 1 by promoting the use of the hashtag #BlogPos (blogging positively).

Partnerships

Over the course of 2011, Rising Voices has been reaching out to organizations and individuals that share our mission, and often times these connections result in concrete collaborations to help spread the reach of citizen media in underrepresented communities. One of these partnerships took place in April 2011 with the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. As part of their Human Rights Defenders Initiative, Rising Voices was invited to organize a panel of individuals that have been using citizen media to advance the cause of women's rights around the world. We invited Fatma Emam from the RV grantee project Exploring Taboos and Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise project in India to take part in the event. The attendees of the conference “Religion, Belief, and Women's Rights” came primarily from Sub-Saharan Africa, the MENA region, and Southeast Asia, and were able to hear firsthand experiences and learn how they might be able to use citizen media to further their human rights work. Following the panel, there was a hands-on session to ask specific questions about using citizen media.

Fatma Emam from the project Exploring Taboos project with Former President Jimmy Carter

Underrepresented Languages

Based on some of our experiences in Bolivia of using citizen digital media to promote the use of underrepresented languages on the web, we knew that this type of activity was much more widespread. Over the past year, we've featured a wide range of initiatives using blogs, podcasts, video blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to encourage current speakers, as well as the next generation of speakers to create their own content and connect with others from these language communities. We've featured projects in languages such as Warlpiri, Cherokee, Welsh, Quechua, Chakma, and Nishnaabe.

To bring some of these practitioners together and learn from their experiences, Rising Voices teamed up with the Indigenous Tweets project and New Tactics in Human Rights to organize a week-long online dialogue where participants could share their stories about their work, present some of the challenges they have faced, and help provide some tips for others wishing to embark in the field of language revitalization and citizen media. The entire dialogue is documented on the New Tactics website, and there are plans to collect the information and create an e-guide with the ideas, tips, and suggestions.

Conferences

Invitations to RV grantee projects are frequent occurrences at global conferences, and these events are great opportunities to share their experiences with implementing a citizen media outreach project. For example, project coordinator Jamila Venturini and participants Dener Guedes Mendonça and Soraia Rodrigues de Amorim from the Friends of Januária were invited to present at the annual Cultura Digital Forum held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From the same project, project coordinator Amanda Rossi attended the Mozilla Festival held in London. A representative from each of the three Rising Voices projects in Egypt was invited to attend the third Arab Bloggers Meeting held in Tunisia.

Getting Connected in Bolivia

To close out the year, Rising Voices organized the first gathering of its kind in Bolivia with the support of HIVOS and IBIS. The idea of the three-day event called “Conectándonos” (Getting Connected) was to bring together emerging bloggers and creators of citizen media from underrepresented communities and those working closely with these groups, as a way to begin to build a national network of technical assistance and support. Some of these communities targeted were indigenous groups, those from rural communities, the LGBT community in Bolivia, Afro-Bolivians, and women from lower socio-economic sectors of society. Through hands-on workshops, presentations, and group activities where participants came up with a citizen media outreach project for their local community, the 35 participants from across the country met in Cochabamba, Bolivia to take part in the event. Five experienced Bolivian bloggers also took part as workshop facilitators acting as supportive mentors for the participants, and communication continues to carry on through a Facebook group.

Conectándonos poster

There was also an event open to the general public that stressed the need for a more representative Bolivian digital space with greater participation from all of these communities. Presentations and panel discussions introduced the attendees to some of these initiatives that are attempting to bridge the digital divide in citizen digital media. The three-day workshop and public event was held at the mARTadero project, a cultural arts space located in South Cochabamba. Recaps of the three days can be found on Rising Voices, and there are plans to replicate the event in Ecuador in mid-2012.

Thank you

We would like to thank the entire Rising Voices community, including our grantees that work especially hard to bring the benefits from citizen media to their local communities. We would also like to thank our volunteer authors that have taken the time to share with our readers interesting happenings from the world of citizen media. Finally, this work would not be possible without the interest expressed by our readers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and those who support our mission of working towards a global online space much more representative with greater participation by all.