Rising Voices » Interview

Ukraine: The Role of the ASTAU Information Manager

Maryna Reshetnyak — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:14:46 +0000

Svetlana Sharamok is an information manager for the Association of Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU), of which the Rising Voices grantee project the Drop-In Center is a member. The ASTAU has also been a driving force behind many of the citizen media initiatives that we have been featuring over the past year. Svetlana recently started her position with ASTAU in late 2011. With her background in journalism, she is responsible for updating their website, Facebook account, and for promoting the work of ASTAU among the Ukrainian public. In this email interview with Rising Voices, she talks about herself, her job in the association, and her future plans for using citizen media to raise awareness about her organization and the people they serve.

Svetlana Sharamok, information manager for ASTAU

Rising Voices: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Svetlana Sharamok: I am young, beautiful, and happy. And I worked as a journalist before. I like to create and implement various social projects, to do something that makes people to look at the ordinary things from a new perspective, such as garbage or asphalt or to place gloves and hats on the trees to keep them warm in the winter. I also adore traveling.

RV: How did you join the Association and what do you do as the information manager?

SS: Working as a journalist, I never thought that I would join the Association, I did not even know about its existence. When I came to meet with Olga [Olga Beliayeva, the head of the Association] and when I saw my portrait published in the ‘Konoplianaya Pravda’ [newsletter, published by the Association], I realized that perhaps somehow I would work there. But it has happened much faster than I could even imagine. I started to work in the Association just for a few months, but I was able to realize that there is no such word as ‘impossible,’ we can do everything, if we do not know something – we can learn. Perhaps this philosophy is what I like the most in my work.

I must stay in touch with the members of the Association, update the Facebook page of the Association, update the news page on the web-site – these are my main job responsibilities. I have a lot of work to do, but it is diverse and interesting. Now I often go to the substitution therapy sites, meet the doctors, nurses, patients, and I have a feeling that soon I will meet the police as well. Now, before the elections of the Board of the Association, I met with many of the activists and the regional representatives.

RV: Could you please describe your typical working day?

SS: I am an information manager. For example, today on my agenda I must call approximately 80 members of the association meaning that about 50 people will wish something good for me, and I am waiting until all these wishes will come true. Some people will share with me the news that their child went to school, somebody will tell me that they have found a job, some members are preparing to be on the TV talk show about drugs. Often I call a person for the first time, but I have a feeling that I am talking to my old friend.

In the morning, I often visit ORT sites and meet with doctors and the patients. The patients are in a hurry, they need to take the medication and then to run to their jobs. Some people are coming to the sites with their relatives, not because they force them to have the treatment, but just to protect them from the police, but this does not always help.

RV: What are your future plans as an information manager of ASTAU?

SS: I would like to produce a short documentary about people who take part in the substitution therapy. I do not understand why there is so much discussion about the opiate replacement therapy (ORT), I often meet these people and they more look like users of insulin than users of drugs, but of course you can find various personalities… My other plan is to increase the internet activism of the bloggers – ORT patients both on the Facebook and our web-site as I believe that their experience is interesting and useful.

Svetlana Sharamok, information manager for ASTAU

RV: How you would describe the members of the association?

SS: Once I was asked how I would describe a former drug addict. I thought much before answering this question. Really, who are the patients of the substitution therapy? They do not look like a community of bikers, or bicyclists or a community of marijuana lovers. These are people with various life stories and from various professional backgrounds. Igor makes documentaries about the lives of women, the family of Sergey and Lena works at a charity fund and helps other people to reduce the harm from drug usage. Eugene is a pharmacist; Olga is a director of the charity fund. Life is life and it does not give any credit to people who used to take drugs.

RV: What do you think the Association does for its members? How does it helps them?

SS: For some people, the Association is their life. Sometimes you call such people and hear about how they fight for the continuity of treatment [availability of Methadone in other medical establishments], and then in a few days you see the news that in this particular town the first patients received the medicine in the hospital. Some people have joined the Association just to know where to go and who they should address when they need assistance. We are a sort of buffer between medical personnel, health care officials, and people who receive the substitution therapy or just want to start receiving it.

Languages: Preview of Online Dialogue on Global Voices Podcast

Eddie Avila — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:33:17 +0000

In the November episode of the Global Voices podcast, the topic of discussion focused on the use of languages that are hard to find on the internet. The podcast also previewed the online dialogue “Using Citizen Media Tools to Promote Under-Represented Languages” that Rising Voices is co-organizing with Indigenous Tweets and New Tactics beginning on November 16.

One of the featured guests on the podcast, Kevin Scannell, was interviewed by host Jamillah Knowles about his work with the project Indigenous Tweets and some of the challenges facing underrepresented language communities. Here is the extended version of the interview, which can be found on Global Voices' SoundCloud page.

Global Voices interview: Kevin Scannell talks about indigenous tweets and blogs by globalvoices

Ukraine: ASTAU Adds Blogging Workshop for Members

Maryna Reshetnyak — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:07:41 +0000

The Association of the Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU) was created in 2009 and currently unites harm reduction activists from almost all the regions of Ukraine. The Rising Voices grantee project the Drop-In Center is part of this association. Most of the members are people who live with drug addiction and who are patients of opiate replacement therapy. The goals of the Association are to fight against stigma and discrimination of people living with drug addiction, to promote the idea of substitution therapy in Ukrainian society thus, reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB and Hepatitis C epidemics. The Association advocates for the interests of the patients of opiate replacement therapy in government and health care authorities and provides various kinds of support to its members. In 2011, members of the ASTAU have taken part in a number of citizen media workshops as a way to share their personal stories. The activists of the association consider blogging to be a very effective tool to achieve some of these goals.

2nd ASTAU ConferencePoster, photo from ASTAU web-site

In our e-mail interview with the head of the Association, Olga Beliayeva talks about why the Association was established and how it helps its members. She also discusses how citizen media has helped in promoting the idea of substitution therapy in Ukraine and how blogging could help the replacement therapy patients to better express themselves.

Answering a question on the history of the Association, Olga said:

Идея родилась на одном из тренингов в Днепропетровске, когда утром пациенты ЗПТ из других городов получали лекарство на нашем сайте. Сразу же завязались жаркие разговоры о самых волнующих темах в жизни каждого, чье спокойствие зависит от приема лекарств. Люди не могли поверить в то, что в нашем городе работают и рецепты и беспрерывность. Изначально мы создавали Ассоциацию, чтобы закрепить достижения Днепропетровска по всей Украине. Вот так мы увидели, сколько людей готовы учиться и работать, чтобы изменить свою жизнь.

The idea of the Association was generated during one of the training sessions in Dnepropetrovsk when one morning, the patients from other cities came to our site to receive a medication. We started a hot debate on topics of concerns for people whose well-being depends on daily intake of a medication. The people could not believe that in our city, both the provision of medication through a pharmacy and continuity of [Methadone] treatment while staying in a hospital exist. So, originally we created our association to spread good practices throughout Dnepropetrovsk and in other regions of Ukraine. Then, we realized how many people are ready to work to change their lives for the better.

Olga also talked about the association's accomplishments:

Когда есть где собирать и обобщать опыт, единичные случаи выстраиваются в стройную систему. Люди видят свои победы и что их усилия не напрасны. А кто еще разделит радость, как не такой же как ты сам. Только за сентябрь в двух регионах участники ЗТ добились обеспечения беспрерывности лечения и это вдохновляет других не жаловаться, что все плохо, а действовать самому, делая свою жизнь комфортнее и спокойнее.

When there is a platform where you can collect and summarize the experiences, the single fact transforms into a logical system. The people see their victories and understand that their efforts bring results. And the best way to share your happiness is to share it with like-minded people.

Sharing these experiences with like-minded, as well as those that may not agree with their mission are some of the reasons why the ASTAU added citizen media to the programs offered to its members. The ASTAU website has a section where each member can start his or her own blog. Those activists who were interested in becoming a citizen journalists could participate in a special training in on-line story telling. Talking about why blogging is important for the patients, Olga said:

Блоги могут быть исключительно полезны для формирования внешнего имиджа пациентов ЗПТ. Например, пишет журналист материал, гуглит и выходит на блог и видит не отписки чиновников, не умные слова медиков, а реальных людей, которые пишут о своих проблемах и их решениях, о радостях и печалях. А если блог тематический, как в нашем случае, комментарии могут оказаться весьма полезными. И для самого блогера дневник – это возможность посмотреть на себя со стороны. Что задумывал, чего добился, своеобразная социальная интерент-терапия.

Blogs can be very useful for forming a positive image of patients of substitution therapy. For example, a journalist working on an article uses Google finds a blog where he can read not just official documents or ‘smart’ words of doctors, but words of real people who post about their problems, ways to solve them, their joys and sorrows. If a blog follows a particular topic, then even comments to a blog posts could be very useful. Having a blog gives the patients an opportunity to look at themselves from a different angle, to post on a diary what was planned, what was achieved, so it is a sort of social Internet therapy.

Languages: Phil Cash Cash and Nez Perce

Eddie Avila — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:18:09 +0000

Phil Cash Cash estimates that approximately 20-25 fluent speakers of the Nez Perce language remain. It is something that concerns him as a linguist pursuing his PhD at the University of Arizona, but more importantly, as a member of the Weyiiletpu (Cayuse) and Nuumiipuu (Nez Perce) Indigenous tribes of North America.

He has been taking an active role in promoting the use of language preservation and revitalization efforts of all indigenous languages through the use of participatory web 2.0 tools. Currently he is one of the list administrators of the Indigenous Languages and Technology listserv, which provides a space for discussion and information exchange between “community language specialists, linguists, scholars, and students.” He is also has been curating videos related to language preservation efforts on his YouTube channel called Weyiiletpu.

In addition, Phil has also been taking a more active role in encouraging fellow speakers of the Nez Perce langauge in participating online. On his personal Google+ page, Phil has been writing bilingual updates, such as these related to his recent trip to Quito, Ecuador where he gave a keynote talk at the annual Foundation for Endangered Language Conference:

watíisx wíhnenu’ ’íin koná Quito Ecuador-pa.
kawó’ c’íiqin ’ew’níiyu’ wiwaqititóoqana (kaa linguists).
kaa ‘íin ciklíitoqo’ kinú’ Sept 18th.
páay’s kiyéeyiku’ yóX wéetes hiwe’nikíin “amazon.”

Tomorrow I will travel to Quito Ecuador.
I will give a talk to the indigenous peoples (and linguists).
I return here on Sept 18th.
Perhaps I will wander around that land named “amazon.”

All of this work is something that Phil calls “e-Language 2.0,” which during his talk he described as:

the idea of language learning through digital connections and peer collaboration enhanced by technologies driving Web 2.0. In such an environment users are empowered to search, create, and collaborate in order to fulfill intrinsic needs on being exposed to an endangered ancestral language.

Ségou Villages: Hacking Together Rural Internet Access

Claire Ulrich — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:26:35 +0000

One of the main goals of the Segou Village Connection project, a Rising Voices grantee in rural Mali, is to train youth and villagers to join a team of local correspondents and send updates on local life and news via SMS or a second-hand laptop, to feed the project blog [fr].

How do you connect to the web in rural villages when there is often no cybercafe, no electricity, or computer? Segou Village Connection has opted for a grassroots solution. Thanks to the Rising Voices grant, a few pieces of equipments were bought by project leader Boukary Konaté and a mobile Internet unit set up. In this interview, he describes how he has been working towards the goal of amplifying voices from the rural villages despite these infrastructure challenges.

Solar energy is key: trainees of the Segou Village Connection discover the brand new solar panel

Rising Voices: Hello Boukary, what do you need to be connected to the Web in rural Mali?

Boukary Konaté: Our mobile internet unit is composed of a second-hand laptop and a smartphone, a solar panel to power them with electricity, a battery to store electrical power, and a converter to have the correct voltage needed for the laptop and smartphone. We also bought a connection drive (shaped like a USB drive) to connect to the local GSM mobile network. It can be credited with minutes every month or when you need them.

RV: Are you satisfied with this mobile outfit, now that you have tested it during training sessions in a few villages?

BK: Definitely! As long as the sun is shining, you will have no problem. When the sun is shining, the battery is charged to the hilt and you can spend several hours on end surfing the Internet.

On yours marks, surf : Boukary Konaté checks the mobile internet outfit

RV: Have you encountered problems occasionally?

BK: The only problem is the speed of the Internet connection via the mobile phone network. In villages where a 3G network is available, it works fine. In more isolated villages in Mali, you can connect only via the EDGE network and the signal is really weak. The other problem is the price of those equipments: thanks to the Rising Voices grant, we were able to spend more than 300 euros but it is way above the means of a village.

RV: Does it require special technical knowledge to rig the solar cell to the battery and laptop?

BK: Not really. You don't need a lot of time or many people to install the solar cell. Any person with basic knowledge of electricity or cars or motobikes, something manual, can connect the different devices. You must check carefully before buying a solar panel that its capacity is adapted to charge a laptop battery to the full.

RV: Is it heavy? Can you travel from village to village with this system on a bike or a motorbike?

BK: No, unfortunately no, you need a car. The solar cell is not heavy, but it is too big to attach it to a bike and risk breaking it.

In between training sessions, this mobile outfit is stored in Cinzana-Gare, easily accessible from Bamako, via the tar-road to Ivory Coast. Local villagers have seized this opportunity to experiment with it. This summer, a local farmer, Mr Mobodo Traoré, has become really keen on the Internet. On August 29, he has sent to the capital Bamako, via Internet, his monitoring sheet of rainfalls through summer, a topic of burning interest to Malians, because next winter's food autonomy and food prices depend on it.

Languages: Jean Came Poulard on Haitian Creole

Kevin Scannell — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:51:12 +0000

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Indigenous Tweets project and republished with permission

Our second interview in this series looks at the Haitian Creole language (Kreyòl Ayisyen), which is spoken by more than 10 million people around the world. Most, of course, live in Haiti, but there are also substantial speaker communities in the Dominican Republic, Canada and the US (in New York and South Florida especially), and in several other countries as well. Haitian Creole is something of an exceptional case on the Indigenous Tweets web site, as it does not fit any known definition of “indigenous”, having its roots in the colonial language of French going back to the 18th century. Nevertheless, the language fits well with our mission, as it is facing many of the same obstacles as indigenous and minority languages in other parts of the world, competing as it does with standard French as the language of education, literature, and computing in Haiti. It does have some legal status, being an official language of Haiti since 1987, and being taught in primary and secondary schools in the country.

For almost two years I have been working with the company Logipam [fr] in Haiti, helping to develop and promote open source software and resources for Haitian Creole. The massive earthquake that devastated the country on January 12, 2010 disrupted this work for time, but over the last year Logipam has returned to work with renewed energy and dedication. Below is a picture of the Logipam team; from left to right, Jean Came Poulard (@jcpoulard), Monstapha Hilaire (@pwal2k_rot), Eder Hilaire (@kannkale), Metuschael Prosper, Erick Toussaint (@rickytweetht), Emile Poulard (@pouledge), and Jean Baptiste Marc (@metminwi). Jean Came Poulard is an IT Manager at HELP and the Developer Manager of Logipam; he spoke with me about the current state of Haitian Creole and his work with Logipam.

Team Logipam. Photo via Indigenous Tweets.

Kevin P Scannell: What opportunities are there to use Haitian Creole online? Is internet connectivity or access to computers an issue for your community? What kinds of software and web sites are there in the language?

Jean Came Poulard: As Haitian Creole is spoken by all the citizen of Haiti, Haitian Creole websites and social media in this language can be considered as an element of inclusion for the population. This inclusion will create a new era in some domains such as E-Learning, E-commerce, etc.

Internet connectivity remains a serious issue in Haiti — it is poor and very expensive (US $60 per month for 256 Kb/s). One hour of connectivity in a CyberCafe costs one US dollar. The majority of social media users post messages from their phones as smart phones become more and more popular, costing US $25 a month for smart phones.

In late September 2009, the Logipam team started work on an open source Haitian Creole Spell Checker, with your help. One month later, we had released the first version of the spell checker (named “Korektè òtograf kreyòl (KòK)“), compatible with Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice/LibreOffice. Now the Logipam team is localizing Firefox using Narro and 36% of the work is already done.

Organizing editing work for the KòK spell checker. Photo via Indigenous Tweets.

KPS: I know many readers of this blog who speak other languages will be interested in translating programs like Firefox. You mentioned Narro, which is a web site that allows you to translate Firefox in your browser; nothing to download or install, just register and start translating. What are your impressions of it?

JCP: It's great, a really good tool. A slow connection can sometimes be a problem, but otherwise we can translate just as fast as with offline tools.

KPS: Many speakers of indigenous and minority languages are reluctant to use their languages online because they don't know computing terminology, or they don't have good keyboards, or they are simply more comfortable in a language like English or French. What is the general attitude toward using Haitian Creole online?

JCP: The Haitian Creole speakers have similar issues to the ones listed above given that many computer users have learned to use computers in English or in French. With that comes the problem of Creole computing terminology. Nevertheless many signs show that the use of Haitian Creole online is increasing. For example, the Indigenous Tweets site proves just how many Tweeter account holders use Haitian Creole on the platform. Many other blogs, forums, mailing lists have plenty of Haitian Creole messages.

KPS: I mentioned above that many indigenous languages lack computing terminology. Is this an issue for your language? How is/was terminology developed? Is there a “language board” or are terms developed naturally by the community? If there are official terms, how are they communicated to the community?

JCP: Creole computing terminology is an issue that can be resolved given that a large majority of Creole scientific terminology is derived from French or/and English. For instance, people currently use either “Prent” or “Enprime” to say “Print”. The first one comes from the English word “print” and the second from French “Imprimer”.

The Haitian Constitution recognizes a Haitian Creole Academy which must, as the French Academy, monitor and regulate the language; but this institution never concretely came to life. Therefore, the terms continue to be developed naturally by the users. The chaos is such that computer classes are taught in Creole with French books supported by English computer software.

KPS: Are there other special challenges your community faces in terms of developing technology for the language and/or communicating online? For example - differences in dialects, different spelling systems, problem with fonts, lack of computing expertise in the community, lack of interest from software vendors like Microsoft/Apple/Google.

JCP: In general, there are few scientific productions in Haitian Creole. In the technology field the main challenges for Haitian Creole are both a lack of computing expertise and a lack of interest from major software vendors in Haiti and abroad. Logipam strongly believes that Open Source can be an alternative to this situation. So far as I know, Logipam, which has a very small team (less than 5 active people), is the only institution that has an interest in localizing Open Source Software in Haiti. Big vendors such as Microsoft or Apple, even if they are relatively well represented in Haiti, don't really show interest in developing solutions in Haitian Creole. Google is the only one that has published two solutions in Haitian Creole: a search website and the Google Translator, but as of today no spell checkers are available for Microsoft or Google Chromium.

KPS: Are young people using the language online? Do you think social media sites like facebook and twitter are helping encourage language use by younger speakers?

JCP: The majority of Internet users in Haiti are young people. Facebook has a lot of comments and messages in Haitian Creole. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Haitian connection, Sakapfet give a solid push to the use of Haitian Creole online. With at least 500,000 people using Twitter in Haiti, social media really enhances the presence of Haitian Creole online.

KPS: What is your vision for your language in ten years, both in general terms and in terms of software/online use?

JCP: A vision in ten years! This is a very difficult question for me to answer considering a long list of unknown parameters I would have to deal with. But I really would like to see greater implementation of Haitian Creole in the education system in Haiti; and also see more publications in Creole in the scientific arena, as we are starting to see in literature. As a matter of fact, more books have been edited lately (even classic translations) in Haitian Creole. Moreover, a daily newspaper in Haitian Creole would be great boost to the language. In term of software, my team and I would like to see an operating system such as Ubuntu entirely translated in Haitian Creole. Our aim is to work to make that happen.

Featured Blogger: Oumar Dembélé

Thalia Rahme — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:26:02 +0000

Following the interview with Yaya Coulibaly, Rising Voices would like to introduce you to Oumar Dembélé, a primary school teacher at Zambougou public school located in the town of Cinzana-Gare in Ségou Region of Mali. Oumar is also a part of the Ségou Villages Connection project one of RV grantees that started in 2011. Being a teacher presents an advantage for Oumar since he is accustomed to communicating with his students and their families. And he is using these communication skills when he communicates with others, in this case, with the villagers. He has been collecting their stories to send them via SMS to the project leader Boukary Konaté, who publishes them on the Ségou Infos blog [fr]. Aside from his job and training in technology, he enjoys playing sports and reading. He also likes to stay busy, and during school vacation he works in the field of agriculture.

In this email interview, Oumar who tweets on @D1Oumar, shares with us his hobbies, his journey with the the project, and about the positive impact as a result of the training.

Oumar Dembélé - Ségou Village representative in Zambougo

Rising Voices: Tell us about your journey with the Ségou Villages project. Why did you join? What is your role in the project?

Oumar Dembélé: I joined the team thanks to Mr. Boukary Konaté - @Fasokan during his trip to Cinzana-Gare. He suggested that I join this project consisting of sending information by SMS, then we underwent training on the internet in Dioro. I became interested in the project because I noticed that we don't speak much about what is happening in rural localities. Media often ignores realities of the rural world.

RV: How do you collect the information? Are the people willing to share information?

OD: Making contact with the people does not represent a problem for the moment, since I am an educator, so I know how to approach people.

RV: You are a schoolteacher, to which extent you think that your career is benefiting from the training you received? How do you think you can make your students and colleagues benefit from it?

OD : Evidently, I often ask myself the same question. We take part in good initiatives but we lack means to implement them. I am quite involved despite my resources and I have two other colleagues who are very committed as well. I think that our goals shall be reached with commitment and collaboration of each one of us.

RV: Segou Infos was created because of the lack of contact or communication in Mali, mainly between cities (especially the capital city of Bamako) and the country's rural communities. How do you think this initiative can be improved and developed in order to have a wider reach?

OD:This initiative cannot be improved and developed without the multiplication of efforts to access devices and materials that will help us to publish photos and information on the internet. I say photos because images provide much more detail. The goal of this project is to connect the rural world with current events and to have the same consideration on all levels. If all participants fully carry out their roles, Ségou Infos will have a larger reach.

RV: Can you describe what life is like in the Ségou region?

OD: Ségou is a historical city with big heroes such as Binton Coulibali, N’Golo Diarra, Da Monzon Diarra, etc. It is composed of the Bambara ethnic group, De Bozo, Sarakolé, Peulh and other groups. Agriculture, cattle raising, farming, fishing, and commerce are the activities there, with agriculture being the most prevailing and most important activity.

The Market in Ségou Région - Image from Ségou Infos Blog.

RV: Anything you would like to add as a last world to Rising Voices readers that are from all over the world?

OD: First of all, I salute Boukary Konaté who suggested this initiative to me. I ask Global Voices readers to come and visit Ségou to learn about many things that are not often talked about. Thanks to all.

Playing Tamtam. Photo by Ségou Infos

Interview originally conducted in French

Featured Blogger: Yaya Coulibaly

Thalia Rahme — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:39:52 +0000

Yaya Coulibaly is an agronomist at the Cinzana-Gare Agricultural Research Station located in Cinzana-Gare, a village located 37 km from the town of Ségou. The Station's mission is to improve crops to help out the local rural communities for their agricultural practices. Yaya is also a participant in the Rising Voices grantee project Ségou Villages Connection, where he has taken part in various trainings conducted by Boukary Konaté, as a way to tell some of the stories of these rural communities in the Ségou region despite many difficulties in regards to internet connectivity. He has created a Twitter account (@YCoulibaly), where he has started to tweet about in French about this part of the country that he knows so well because of his work. He has also contributed to the project's blog at Ségou Infos [fr].

Yaya Coulibaly from the Toujours Pas Sages

In this email interviewed Yaya, who shares his experiences, future visions, and the need for new technologies in rural Mali.

Rising Voices: Tell us about your journey with the Ségou Villages project. Why did you join? What is your role in the project?

Yaya Coulibaly: I met Boukary Konaté, the founder of the project, during one of the internet training workshop for the local population. After learning about the aspired goals of the Ségou Villages project, I decided to join the team. Given the need to establish a way to inform, communicate, and share experiences in this space, I found that this idea can help address the misinformation about the villages, and above all else, inform city-dwellers and those living in other countries about the daily activities in our communities. The relevance and originality of the initiative are two factors that motivated me to take part with Ségou Infos.

My role in the group is just like the other members, which consists of collecting information on the current events, current affairs, traditions, cultural activities, traditional ceremonies, and send them to Boukary via SMS, who in tern, publishes them on the Ségou Infos blog. Even though it is not easy, we do our best to send a photo to complement the sent text.

RV: How do you collect the information? Are the people willing to share information?

YC: Information gathering happens in different ways. Things can happen right in front of us, and we can this information without having to resort to others' report because we witnessed it. Things can also happen in the far-away villages, and once we find out about these things, we can go to the villages to collect the information directly from the source. Sometimes if transportation is not easy, we can call someone from that village, who can provide us with a concrete version of the story.

As for traditions and culture, we speak to the elderly residents who are the guardians of those customs. As African children, we had some notions of these stories that we learned since we were very young. We can share those stories with other persons through SMS. It is not very easy to contact these people because our rural society is not used to this kind of activity. It is not easy for them to understand why they should provide this information. This, by the way, is what often explains the slow speed of sending information to the blog. But since we are determined to make this project successful and with Boukary's strong will, little by little we shall manage to help the population understand the initiative. What we do is a bit similar to journalism, but here it is a very modern and new idea.

RV: You are an agronomist and it is a bit different from your activities with Ségou Villages. Therefore, to which extent do you think that your career is benefiting from the training you received? How do you think new technologies can help in our daily life?

YC: I am the primary beneficiary, but these group activities involving phones allowed me to pursue other activities, in addition to voice communication. At work, I sometimes have access to machines and the internet, but I didn't have much idea how to best use them. But thanks to the SMS, photography, and video-filming workshops with mobile phones and digital cameras held in Cinzana-Gare and Dioro given by Boukary, I am much more informed, which allows me to easily perform certain activities within the framework of my own job and my own daily activities on the internet. Thanks to those different trainings, I discovered that new technologies can enable villages to communicate with the rest of the world, and take part in the sharing of information, experiences, and knowledge in the modern world.

Photo from the training in Dioro - Image by Ségou Info Blog on Rising Voices

YC: The daily activities of the Malian cities are regularly covered by the media, such as television, radio, and newspapers. When it comes to information and communication, radio also plays an important role in rural communities. Despite all this, there is a big gap between cities and villages. The Ségou Infos blog intends to break down the wall between the Ségou villages and the capital Bamako in terms of information about the daily activities of the local populations. Currently, information is only sent via SMS using less-than-appropriate phones with small buttons. Our job would be much easier if we were using smart phones with larger keyboards. 3G options with smart phones would reduce sending time to the blog administrator especially for images. The mobile internet multiplication designed by Boukary is an important system that makes the job easier. If each participant had at his disposal the material of this internet connection system in the villages, we would would be able to update the blog, just as it is done in the city.

Cinzana Gare in Ségou - Image from Ségou Infos Blog on Rising Voices

RV: Can you describe what life is like in the Ségou region?

YC: Ségou is the 4th region in Mali with a lot of mixed ethnicity: the Bozos, the Somonos, the Bamanan, and the Peulhs. The main activities are agriculture, livestock, and fishing. There is a culture of rice-growing, fishing, and gardening that are favored because of the Niger River. The Bambara language is widespread in the Ségou region. In addition to those activities, trade is well practiced at the weekly fair in Ségou and in other villages around the region. Those markets allow the people of the Ségou region to contribute to the development of the region. Ségou is an ancient kingdom, the region contains touristic sites that are worth being discovered. One of Ségou's strengths is the sense of sociability, mutual support, solidarity, and hospitality towards all that visit us. In certain families in some Ségou villages, a house built only to host foreign visitors.

RV:Anything you would like to add as a last world to Rising Voices readers that are from all over the world?

YC: As a last word, I would like first of all to thank Boukary Konaté, who with his courage and commitment to his native community, helped us discover new ideas on the internet. It is an opportunity for me as well, to say that those activities have been an opportunity for the participants to discover Global Voices and Rising Voices, and their important activities achieved in terms of the promotion of information and new technologies. I ask the readers to help support us with mobile phones and used computers so that we can reach the aspired goal: to inform the rest of the world about our activities.

Interview originally conducted in French

Argentina: The Cultural Shed of Piedrabuena Neighborhood

Eddie Avila — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:24:06 +0000

Rising Voices note: This continues our series highlighting projects that previously applied for an RV microgrant, but continue to use citizen media to tell the stories of their community.

In Villa Lugano, located on the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, there is a neighborhood called Piedrabuena, which has become a hub for community engagement with the arts, music, and citizen media. At the center of this neighborhood comprised of 2,100 households and approximately 20,000 residents, sits the Galpón Cultural Piedrabuenarte [es] (or the Piedrabuenarte Cultural Shed). At one time, this Shed was used to store sets and other items from the famous Colón Theater. And once the Shed became unoccupied, some artists living in the neighborhood imagined that it could become the foundation of a thriving cultural community for the children, teenagers, and adults of Piedrabuena.

Piedrabuenarte Cultural Shed

Beginning in 2006, the Shed started to offer workshops in diverse subjects such as drawing, photography, theater, drumming, and even the construction of musical instruments from recycled materials. The Shed is open for individuals or groups in the neighborhood, as well as from outside, to come and share their knowledge and expertise with area residents. The Shed is also where artists plan the murals that decorate the ground floor of the neighborhood housing blocks.

The activities that take place inside and around the Shed are well-known around the neighborhood, since it has become a regular meeting place throughout the year. In addition, news about upcoming workshops and events is often spread by word of mouth, but increasingly also through the use of social network sites such as Facebook. However, the group's leaders believe that more people should know about the activities taking place, which provides a different perspective on how the neighborhood is often portrayed in the media. Through the use of a YouTube channel called Piedrabuenarte TV, regular episodes depict some of these activities, and shows what life is like in the neighborhood on a daily basis. These videos also reach former residents that now live abroad allowing them connection with their neighbors.

There are plans to work more closely with the youth in the neighborhood, showing them how they can use the cameras on their mobile phones to contribute to the YouTube channel. This would allow for additional perspectives on the diverse Piedrabuena neighborhood. In the following video, two of the founding members of the Shed, Juan “Pepi” Garachico and Lucian Garramuño, talk about what the Shed means to the residents and how they use citizen media to tell the stories of Piedrabuena.

Argentina: La Flecha Engaging Youth Through Citizen Media

Eddie Avila — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:38:11 +0000

Rising Voices note: Our last open call for proposals for citizen media outreach projects resulted in an outpouring of interest from around the world. Even though we were unable to fund each and every good idea, we would like to feature some of these projects that continue to do great things in their communities related to teaching others how to create citizen media. We will try to showcase as many of these projects as possible.

La Flecha [es] (The Arrow) is an organization based in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina founded in 2001 that began with the production of a free pamphlet that discussed issues relating to youth participation in society. It came at a time when the country was experiencing a serious economic and social crisis, and the creators of La Flecha felt that there needed to be more, not less participation from the youth. The project has since expanded and is working to engage with youth in various neighborhoods of the city teaching them how to create their own media to begin and sustain conversations about issues that affect their daily lives.

Through existing relationships with various public schools in the city, the staff of La Flecha, as part of their “Otros con Voz [es]” (The Voice of Others) project, provides workshops in graphic arts, radio, and digital photography. The content produced by the youth is often featured at open community events, but also online through existing social networks. The youth are quite active on platforms such as Facebook, which allows them to share their artwork, photograph, and stories with their friends, where they receive instant feedback from other like-minded young people.

Many of these workshops are run by volunteers of La Flecha, and the organization has been selling t-shirts [es] created by a community member as a way to raise funds. La Flecha updates their blog [es] with recent activities, and can also be found on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.

Here is a short interview with Pablo Moschen, one of the coordinators of the organization, who provides more information about the project's activities.