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Rising Voices: 2010 In Review

Rezwan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:57:27 +0000

2010 was an eventful year for Rising Voices and its community. Théophile Kouamouo, one of Francophone Africa's leading bloggers and the project leader of the Rising Voices grantee Abidjan Blog Camps, had been arrested for publishing a newspaper report and was released after spending two weeks in prison. HiperBarrio from Colombia won the First Community Journalism Award given by Antioquia University in the category of Best Community Web platform.

The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila.

This year Rising Voices, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, awarded microgrant funding of up to €2500 to three Egyptian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train citizen media to underrepresented groups in Egypt so that they can voice their opinions.

Now let us look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.

Featured Bloggers:

Throughout the year we interviewed bloggers from different Rising Voices projects and here is a list of those features.

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Olzod Boum-Yalagch from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Saki Golafale from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nat Nyuan-Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nora Catalina Urquijo from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Yesenia Corrales from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Edgar Andres Yana Lisme from Voces Boliviana in Bolivia
Getutza from Blogging The Dreams Project in Romania
Tahina Rakotomanarivo from FOKO in Madagscar
Ahmed Awadalla from Exploring Taboos project in Egypt
Randa AbulDahab from the Women of Minya Day by Day project in Egypt
Sara Abd Al-Maktari from the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWMAT) project in Yemen
Award Winning OLPC (XO) laptops Bloggers from Uruguay - Part 1, Part 2

The New Grantees Of 2010:

Barcamps And Conferences:

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place in May at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit. Here is a two part report (Part 1, Part 2) highlighting the presentations and the reactions from the members who attended the conference.

Photo of Catalina Restrepo speaking at BarCamp Santa Cruz. Photo used with permission by BarCampSCZ.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia was invited to speak at BarCamp Santa Cruz, Bolivia in January. The event also featured Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas from Bolivia.

This year members of HiperBarrio were invited to the Campus Party in Colombia and was told to do something different, use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog.

Contests:

In February the Best Of Malagasy Blogs (BOMBS) 2009 awards were announced. Several bloggers from FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee in Madagascar, won the awards.

Empowerment Of Women:

With the help of a Rising Voices microgrant, the project “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” is teaching blogging to female politicians, activists, and human right workers in Yemen to bring them in global conversation.

Ghaida'a Al Absi, the project leader, says: “EWAMT project is like a candle with other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen.”

Blogger Ahmad Awadalla of “Exploring Taboos” project conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt and wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.

Language:

Ruben Hilary of Voces Bolivianas project, with some local volunteers of El Alto, Bolivia, established the virtual community Jaqi Aru. The goal of the Jaqi Aru website is highlighting and spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, which involves translation, use of multimedia and social media tools.

Culture, Travel And Lifestyle:

Bus shaped balloon at the Festival de globos de La Loma 2010

The citizen journalists of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio shared some photos and videos of the Balloon festival of La Loma (Festival de globos de La Loma 2010).

Nine citizen journalists from Nomad Green in Mongolia visited Taiwan to learn more about Taiwan's social and environmental issues and local cultures and receive citizen media training.

Sustainability:

Hiperbarrio from Colombia finally got its legal identity this year as a nonprofit corporation. This allows the organization to continue to grow as they can be hired by public and private institutions for outreach activities. According to an agreement between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio from Colombia, citizen media outreach activities in 3 new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and EPM) were started in 2010.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Ceasefire Liberia project a $10,000 grant to start a new arm called Ceasefire. This project will focus on creating a citizen media project for African immigrant and African-American youth in Staten Island based on the Ceasefire Liberia model.

Thanks to the bloggers of the different projects of Rising Voices we could read many stories from Liberia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Romania, Colombia, Yemen, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Bolivia, Ukraine, Uruguay, etc. Some Rising Voices bloggers also participated in and contributed for the Blog Action Day 2010 and the One Day On Earth initiatives. We hope to continue hearing from them. The ‘Introduction to Global Citizen Media Guide' has been translated in Macedonian and Albanian.

We wish the members of the Rising Voices Community and our readers a happy and prosperous 2011.

Ceasefire Liberia: Thoughts On The 163rd Independence Day Of Liberia

Rezwan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:01:55 +0000

Map of Liberia. Image by Flickr user MercyWatch. CC BY-NC-ND

Africa's oldest republic Liberia celebrated its 163rd Independence anniversary last month (July 26, 2010) and it is disheartening to see that after all these years Liberia is still is a developing country with all its problems. “The war-torn country is the first independent country in Africa, when it declared its independence in 1847″, notes Nat Bayjay at the Ceasefire Liberia blog. From Wikipedia:

It was founded and colonized by freed American slaves with the help of a private organization called the American Colonization Society in 1821-1822, on the premise that former American slaves would have greater freedom and equality there.

These colonists formed an elite group in Liberian society, and, in 1847, they founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States, naming Monrovia, their capital city, after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization.

So what are the problems in this war-torn country that had kept it from progressing? In fact Liberia started to walk backwards after the military-led coup in 1980. The country struggled with two civil wars which have killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the country's economy.

Now the country is battered with many problems including corruption. Nat Bayjay quotes Father Tikpor, the National Orator of Liberia:

Unless the government buries the deadly corruption virus that is currently eating the energy of the government, all else achieved will go down the drain.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia. Image by Flickr user Bahia. CC BY

The Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called on the Liberian people to be united in the midst of county’s engulfed land disputes.

The issue of land disputes became a post-war crisis in Liberia, with Nimba County at the center of it, causing several misunderstandings that have led to fears of a potential return to war.

Although debt reliefs can be a boost for the country, they are not a panacea for Liberia’s considerable challenges, which are, according to Jahbulleh Cicero Dempster:

A sense of common national identify is required for the Liberians engaged in sectarian disputes.
There is this misconception among Liberians that aged old problems can not be solved. This needs to be changed
Many policy makers and planners propagate a system that exhibits cruelty towards the weak.
The difference between rich and poor is extreme- the privileged one percent, the rich and powerful, are negligent about the plights of the 99 percent of population, who live in abject poverty without sufficient food, water, health, education and sanitation.
The Liberian people must become active participants in the nation building process rather than being passive spectators.

A street in Monrovia, capital of Liberia. Image by Flickr user Tweefur. CC BY-NC-SA

The citizen journalists of Rising Voices grantee Ceasefire Liberia are doing their parts in addressing the challenges by providing news and information on the anomalies in the society and the government. Nathan Patio Charles writes in Ceasefire Liberia Blog:

An independent investigation conducted by Ceasefire Liberia, in collaboration with Liberia’s Journalists for Human Rights and Good Governance (a) four month justice reporting workshop for students from several universities in Liberia, has discovered that the Monrovia Central Prison, popularly known as South Beach in Monrovia, is overcrowded. [..]

Crime continues to increase and the justice system in Liberia is notoriously slow, leaving the prison overcrowded with pre-trial detainees.

The Justice system seems to be a problem for the country. Nat Bayjay reports that Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) submitted its findings and recommendations to the National Legislature and accused the justice system as a hindrance to peace and reconciliation in Liberia:

“Reconciliation is a process, not a commodity that can be purchased in the absence without the building of a just and equitable society founded on the rule of law. There can be no peace without any justice”.

However, there are signs of progress in the justice system as the Liberia National Police have finally charged and sent to court a 48-year old, who raped a 13 year old girl in Central Monrovia, which sparked fresh violence.

Read more such stories in the Ceasefire Liberia Blog.

Ceasefire Liberia: New Milestones

Rezwan — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:48:56 +0000

The Rising Voices grantee Ceasefire Liberia, which celebrated its one year anniversary in April, has reached some new milestones in recent times. Ruthie Ackerman writes:

Ruthie Ackerman & Nat Bayjay
We have formed partnerships with other fantastic organizations, we’ve been profiled a number of times in the media, we have raised friends, recruited bloggers and even were in Santiago, Chile earlier this month for the Global Voices Citizen Media summit. One of the most exciting moments was when I met Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, Ceasefire Liberia’s blog manager, for the first time in the year we have been working together online. Isn’t it amazing when online and offline worlds converge? I met so many online friends in Chile, many whom I only knew from the Twitter handles. Another bonus from the trip: Global Voices donated a video camera to the Ceasefire project so our bloggers can start to work on video. So look for those soon!

Kim Chou at Think Social posts an interview with Ruthie. An excerpt:

“My hypothesis (of why bloggers in Liberia are blogging more) is because of a sense of urgency,” Ackerman said. “Those in Staten Island, because they have so much access, and so much to read and do on the internet, think it’s not so important for them to share their stories … In Staten Island they think nobody cares about their stories, but in Liberia [they] think people will want to hear their stories.”

Now let us look at some of the stories published by the Ceasefire Liberia bloggers. Saki G. posts some random photos from Liberia.

This young girl has a newspaper business on the University of Liberia’s campus during normal school hours. While others are just bread eaters, she is a potential bread winner.

Denna Gibson writes:

There is a tendency in Liberia that has to do with men being fully in charge when it comes to sports and that should not be. There are competent young women who played women soccer and are high school and college graduate fit to be part of the technical staff of the women national team. Let chance be given to those interested.

Dennis Jah aka Gbakukenju posts his response to President Sirleaf's 162nd independence day speech.

The Liberian war has ended and hopefully it has ended for good. We are all scared to death when there is even a faint mention of another war as we have not even buried all the casualties of the long one that just ended or completely healed from all its wounds and cuts. But it is how we deal with the aftermath of this very ugly war that will go a long way in mending our broken pieces and writing off any form of violence as means of changing governments or fostering our economic and political agendas. If perpetrators of this tragic part of Liberian history will continue to justify their participation as prudent ways in standing up to “dictatorship” or quip that they did nothing wrong because their actions were endorsed by a vast majority at a time, they are re-killing those who died, re-inflicting the sores of the wounded, re-leveling our cities and towns, closing the doors on genuine healing and reconciliation and setting the stage for more bloodshed and revenge.

Unification Monument in Voinjama, Lofa County

Nat Bayjay writes about the much praised unification policy which is now struggling to fully unify its people, particularly along ethnic lines.

Ceasefire – a new project to launch this summer – seeks to draw African and African-American youth in equal numbers for a sustained, year-long program, prompting participants to tell their own stories. Its objective is to unite the two groups by turning participants into citizen journalists.

Meeting twice a month at the African Refuge youth center in Clifton, about 25 students participating in Ceasefire will use computers, cameras and Flip video cameras to compose short documentary films about their lives and neighborhoods.

Ms. Ackerman will lead workshops along with guest mentors, including journalists, photographers, musicians, poets and videographers.

Rising Voices At The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 In Santiago, Chile (Part 2)

Rezwan — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:50:28 +0000

Gabriel Vanegas, the librarian of La Loma Public Library at the Summit hotel. Photo by Alexey Sidorenko. CC BY/NC

Several members of the different Rising Voices Projects were present at The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Santiago, Chile. In this post we will highlight some of their reactions about the summit.

Catalina Restrepo of HiperBarrio writes in Convergentes Blog [es]:

Since the beginning of the week, three members of HiperBarrio have been participating in the Summit that Global Voices is organizing this year in the city of Santiago in Chile. A meeting that brings together people from many countries of all continents, to discuss about new Internet applications. (machine translation)

Yeskenia Corrales, who presented HiperBarrio in the summit, writes:

2010 Summit consisted of a great number of participants with stories and projects that are concrete and others have been only in the ideology of the “failures”.

The Library of Santiago de Chile is endowed with good space that allows thousands of users working simultaneously. No services varies greatly with the Colombian librarians. (machine translation)

Catalina Restrepo, Juan Arrelano and Yesenia Corrales. Image by Alexey Sidorenko. CC BY/NC

Catalina adds in her Blog Cosas Del Almas (Things Of The Soul):

I must also add that it greatly pleased me that we can give a face to the experience of Blogging Since infancy (a Rising Voices project). It was one of the presentations that I was more attentive (not to mention the open sessions on translation and affordability, the dialogues between teams of translators/ authors, the discussion in open session heard about Maneno.org and Global Voices in Aymara , etc, etc).

Juliana Rincon of HiperBarrio. Photo by Alexey Sidorenko. CC BY/NC

Juliana Rincon of HiperBarrio wrote about the diversity of the summit participants:

It is also refreshing to be in a place where people ask “do you like” and not “what is your profession.” Also, “where you live” instead of “Where are you”. And when someone does ask for the “origin”, we know that he wants to hear a list of cultures to which we adhere.

Traveling after the conference, trying to figure out where we came from. Our passports do not tell the whole story. Then had to go into details. I was Colombo-Peruano-Costarricense. That my friend was Indo-Canadian-American. That the other was Nigerian-German-American. The other was Tunisian-Holland. That was a Peruvian and a Colombian also in the group. And that worked at the same place despite all that.

Nat Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia writes from Santiago, Chile:

Nat and Ruthie met in person for the first time during GV summit. Image by Jillian York. CC BY/NC

The most exciting moment in the history of Ceasefire Liberia took place as the founder of the Project, Ruthie Ackerman, and the Liberian blog manager, Nat Bayjay met for the first time ever at the Global Voices Summit in the Chilean capital of Santiago May 6, 2010.

Despite working together for a little over one year now, all contacts between the both had been electronically.

Read the full story here.

Nat preparing his presentation for the summit. Photo by Oso. CC BY

Nat also published a detailed post sharing the highlights of the summit:

The Santiago Summit was held at the Biblioteca de Santiago (Santiago Library) from May 6 to 7, 2010 followed by an internal meeting of GV members and executives from May 8 to 9, 2010.

The presence of more than 200 participants, representing at least 60 countries from all of the world’s active continents, graced the event that has since received mass media publication globally on German, Italian and other European televisions, online and newspaper outlets, including those from the Latin American and African continents.

What was so fascinating and exciting about the Summit was the manner in which real-time participation and all major discussions and happenings were captured, translated, and published online live by authors, editors and contributors as the event proceeded.

Rising Voices At The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 In Santiago, Chile (Part 1)

Rezwan — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:49:38 +0000

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place earlier this month at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Over 200 people from 60 countries attended the summit, which was well covered in the media. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit.

Nat Bayjay presenting presenting Ceasefire Liberia at the GV Summit. Image by Kowshik Ahmed, CC BY

On the first day of the summit (May 6, 2010) Nat Nyuan Bayjay, the project manager of Ceasefire Liberia captivated the audience with his lively presentation. Ceasefire Liberia, a multimedia project, is publishing citizen media reports from the ground to put Liberian Diaspora in touch. Here is a video of his presentation uploaded to YouTube by Jakub Gornicki:

You can read a short summary of the presentation here.

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

Later that day Otgonsuren Jargal presented Nomad Green to an audience which knew little about Mongolia. Nomad Green is training Mongolian citizen journalists how to use social media tools to report on local environmental news in multiple langauges. Here is a short summary of the presentation.

Pablo Flores presenting Blogueando desde la Infancia (Blogging since infancy) project. Image by Adri021. CC BY

On the day 2 of the summit (May 7, 2010) Pablo Flores from Uruguay presented Blogging Since Infancy project. Pablo Flores of Ceibal, the governmental organization in charge of distributing OLPC laptops in Uruguay, organized a series of workshops and a blogging competition to encourage the laptop-toting children taking up social media tools like blogging. Here is a brief summary of the presentation.

Yesenia Corrales presenting Hiperbarrio. Image by Adri012. CC BY

Yesenia Corrales presented HiperBarrio, an outreach collective of Colombian bloggers, to the audience. Instead of engaging in violence, these bloggers are publishing history of their community and drawing collaborative maps. Here is a short summary of the presentation.

“As long as you express, we are free human beings.”

Here is another compilation of video snapshots from the summit by Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile:

In our next feature we will publish reactions of some members of the Rising Voices projects, who took part in the summit.

Ceasefire Liberia: Getting Up Close And Personal With The Bloggers

Rezwan — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 06:40:55 +0000

Thanks to some recent interviews we can learn more about some of the bloggers of Ceasefire Liberia, a grantee of Rising Voices, and their works.

On 5th of April, 2010 Eduardo Ávila of Rising Voices published an interview with Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, the blog manager of the Ceasefire Liberia Project, who lives in the Liberian capital Monrovia. Nat, a journalist in profession, thinks that the work of the Ceasefire Liberia bloggers is “helping shine a light on some of the social, political, and development problems that Liberia's young population are facing.”

Nat Nyuan-Bayjay. Image by David Sasaki

Pocket Cultures, a blog dedicated to provide a guide to world cultures and world blogs, has started interviewing the bloggers of Ceasefire Liberia. On the 6th of April, 2010 they also interviewed Nat. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

How long have you been managing Ceasefire Liberia? What are your greatest achievements with the site?

I’ve been managing CeaseFire Liberia for one year now. My greatest achievements are helping CeaseFire Liberia to let its many readers know about happenings in Liberia via stories I’ve been writing ranging from politics to social and even human-interest and cultural stories, as well as helping to recruit some bloggers for the site who write voluntarily, tirelessly and committedly for the site.

At Ceasefire Liberia you are twelve bloggers in total, but no women. What do you see as the main reasons for that?

It is not that no Liberian female is willing to blog. On the contrary, some of them really want to be a part of the exciting blogging world but are experiencing some hindrances like the lack of gadgets (camera, computer, among others) and have little or no access to internet facilities. Domestic internet is not affordable for the average Liberian and commercial internet is not affordable for most except a few who usually take advantage of such at their respective places of work, affiliation, and so on. A few Liberian women continue to express interest.

On 20th of February, 2010 Eduardo Ávila interviewed Saki Gondalfe, who strongly believes that “the Liberian people continue to make their own history after years of civil war”, and he wants the whole world to know it.

On 7th of April, 2010 Liz published an interview of Saki Tango Golafale at Pocket Cultures:

Saki Gondalfe. Image courtesy Pocket Cultures. CC By

Where do you live and what do you do when you aren’t blogging?

I live in the Wood Camp community of Paynesville city where I have been for almost four years now.

When I am not blogging, I am involved with many things. I work in a chemistry lab at the University of Liberia, am involved with voluntary community actions that center around environmental protection, and in organizing programs for the chemistry association which I head at the University.

You’re also a poet. What makes you write?

Writing, I think is a basic requirement to survival in this literate world, and this should be the business for every educated man. What a man writes is how he thinks or feels. If I think the world is small, I can reduce that into writing, usually poetic writing, telling someone why I think so.

Are Liberians religious? What are the main religions?

Liberians are religious and since the war, in which religious institutions played a major role, religious institutions have increased their activities. There are a lot of churches and mosques these days.

Read Saki's latest post in Ceasefire Liberia Blog where he tells that “mob justice is a reality in today’s Liberia as civilians lost faith in the justice system of the country.”

On 9th of April Liz at Pocket Cultures published the interview of Boimah JV Boimah, a Liberian journalist and blogger, who lives at Monrovia. Some excerpts:

Could you tell us something about daily life in Liberia?

Daily life in Liberia, I mean Africa’s oldest republic, is difficult as most families here hardly afford a full meal per day. Reportage about corruption in government is high while many rely on hard labor to make a living as unemployment in the formal sector remains high also.

Our staple food here is rice but most families eat other food like cassava, potatoes etc to complement their food desire.

Do you ever feel personally threatened in Liberia these days? Where do the threats come from?

Yes I have receives a series of threats in recent times from government officials who take displeasure in my journalism works. Recently, I was severely beaten by some group of court officials including jurors for taking a photograph while on duty.

Read Boima's article about the clean up campaign at Duala market area in Monrovia.

Also in this month Larry Hardesty of MIT News quoted Ruthie Ackerman, the project leader of Ceasefire Liberia saying:

Ruthie Ackerman, who created the blog Ceasefire Liberia as a bridge between Liberians in Liberia and those in the diaspora — and particularly the large Liberian community in Staten Island — assumed that Liberians in the U.S., with their vastly superior Internet connections, would post updates to the blog more often than their counterparts in Liberia, where Internet service is “virtually nonexistent” outside the capital, Monrovia, and even there, it’s expensive and slow. But the reverse proved to be true. “I think that the reason why is that there’s this sense of urgency in Liberia,” Ackerman said, “that they really want to get their stories out there, and that, if they don’t tell their stories, they won’t be told.”

Here is a previous interview of Ruthie Ackerman by journalist David Wescott. In Ceasefire Liberia blog Ruthie Ackerman writes how a girl's murder sparked riots in Liberia.

Read more articles of Liberian bloggers from the project blog.

Featured Blogger: Nat Nyuan-Bayjay

Eddie Avila — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:41:32 +0000

Nat Bayjay, Ceasefire Liberia's Blog Manager disembarking UN helicopter in Voinjama

As Blog Manager, Nat Nyuan-Bayjay has his finger on the pulse of the bloggers of the citizen media project Ceasefire Liberia. He is convinced that the work of these bloggers is helping shine a light on some of the social, political, and development problems that Liberia's young population are facing. In addition to recruiting new bloggers for the project, Nat is responsible for making sure that the Ceasefire Liberia blog remains updated with new postings from the bloggers in Liberia and in the diaspora.

The role is a natural fit for Nat, a married father of 3 daughters and who hails from Buchanan, the 2nd largest seaport city. He had been working as a journalist and continues to work for the organization FrontPageAfrica. It was through his blogs, Natlyn's Blog and Entertainment Lib that he was contacted by Ruthie Ackerman, the project's founder to be a part of Ceasefire Liberia. In an interview with Rising Voices, Nat spoke about how he has evolved with the project after agreeing to be a part of it:

since then, we’ve moved beyond mere friends but partners who have decided to get Ceasefire Liberia’s dream across of bridging the gap between the Liberian community in Liberia and the rest of the Diaspora. Its mission is to create a dialogue between Liberians who remained in the country during and after the war and those who fled the war.

Being a bridge is one of the most important duties as Ceasefire's Blog Manager. Not only does he support and encourage the bloggers, but he also makes sure that they have everything they need in terms of logistics. The result: Ceasefire Liberia's blog has an active and diverse selection of blog topics ranging from education to elections to soccer.

Even though some of the subject matter written by Ceasefire bloggers focus on some of the ongoing problems of the country, Nat highlights the recent posting about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports, and how it will help determine “the country's next path in its recovery drive for the next years to come.” Ceasefire blogger Leroy M. Sonpon, III writes about the importance of the report:

The Country Director for Action Aid Liberia, Ernest Gaie, is warning the Government of Liberia, as well as its international partners, of the re-occurrence of another war, if the recommendations of the final unedited reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) are quashed.

Mr. Gaie, in a poignant tone, stressed that the TRC recommendations are indispensable to the path of national healing, and if overturned, will destroy the hope of the many victims and survivors of the civil war.

Nat also contributes to the site, and Ackerman points to his recent stories about the riots that took place in Voinjama between the Mandingo tribe and the Lorma tribe, which she considers as “his best work.” In addition to a photo essay about the aftermath of violence, Nat gave a personal face to the victims of the riots. Ackerman said how his writing is helping these victims:

His stories received a lot of attention from readers and one reader who also runs an organization is attempting to get help for a victim of the violence who still has a bullet in his head from the riots”

Because of his work with the Ceasefire Liberia project, he is one of the invited guests to represent the Rising Voices projects at the Global Voices Summit in Santiago, Chile on May 6 & 7 and speak about their work.

He mentions that he is looking forward to the networking opportunities and the chance to tell firsthand about the work that Ceasefire Liberia is doing, as well as its hopes for future activities. One of these planned activities include the start of a local anti-violence campaign for youth, who will play a crucial role in the country's future. Nat also articulated about his plans to help “transform” the country.

My dream is to introduce what I call “Transformative Journalism” in Liberia—an idea that will encourage journalistic works that will help transform our war ravaged nation. I also dream to introduce an anti-violence campaign that deter youths from seeing violence as the remedy to problems.

Attendees of the Global Voices Summit can see for themselves and meet Nat to learn about his commitment to informing the world. Ackerman finishes by saying:

Nat's work changes lives in Liberia and beyond and is a constant reminder to me of why citizen media is important.

Ceasefire Liberia: Reporting The Lofa Crisis

Rezwan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:12:30 +0000

Liberia has recently seen some more violence as one young girl was killed and 4 more were killed in retaliation in the Lofa county situated in North of Liberia. Violence erupted and Churches and mosques have been burnt. This has been covered in Global Voices, which also quoted Rising Voices grantee Ceasefire Liberia's reports from the ground:

Meeting of Lofa citizen in Monrovia. Image courtesy Nat, CL
The cities of Voinjama and Zorzor in Lofa County have been engulfed with violence resulting in the deaths of four people and the destruction of property, including the burning of churches, schools and a mosque.

Lofa County is located in the north-western tip of Liberia and has several tribes and religions. It was also one of the hardest hit areas during the country’s 14 years of civil war.

The incidence which occured Friday was sparked by the discovery of the body of an eleventh-grade female student named Korpu Kamara, who had gone missing for days and was found dead a few days later next to a mosque in Zorzor.

As a result, dozens of students staged a protest as they suspected that their colleague’s death may have been carried out by the Muslims, a situation that turned the protest into religious violence that left many churches and Christian schools burned.

Nathan Charles informs:

A group calling itself the “Concerned Youth of Ganta for Reconstruction and Development” has condemned the recent destruction of life and property in Lofa County by those it calls hooligans.

Nathan also reports that The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has negated the rumors that its soldiers protected only member of the Muslim community during the recent violent crisis in Lofa County because the soldiers were predominantly Muslim.

Ceasefire Liberia's project director Ruthi Ackerman informs via an email:

There are many reports out there from the major news organizations like Reuters but from what I understand there are a lot of confusing reports as well. I know there has been a lot of talk about “ethnic undertones” to the violence but I'd say we should tread carefully with that because there are also a lot of land disputes Lofa county and what can look like religious or ethnic violence may actually stem from arguments over land.

Lofa County in northernmost Liberia. Capital: Voinjama.

In a recent update we learn:

In the wake of the recent Lofa violence, the Liberia National Police (LNP) announced in Monrovia that it has made several arrests including the seizing of 10 single barrel guns, 27 live rounds of ammunitions, 13 machetes and three knives that were used in the one day’s violence.

The police also arrested some inmates who broke the prison during the violence in Voinjama, the capital of the Lofa county.

Amidst the confusing mainstream media reports, the citizen journalists of Ceasefire Liberia are doing a great job in reporting the crisis. Their role is of great importance as free press has been targeted by allies still loyal to the former Liberia President, Charles Taylor.

Pocket Cultures recently featured Ceasefire Liberia in their Blogs of The World section. They will be will be interviewing some of the bloggers of Ceasefire Liberia.

Ceasefire Liberia: Liberian Citizen Journalists Counter Inaccurate Media Reporting

Rezwan — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:14:06 +0000

A Market in Monrovia. Image by Flicker user John Connell. Used under a Creative Commons License.

In our last update on Ceasefire Liberia we talked about the forced exoticism and inaccuracies of a recent series of web documentaries published on Vice Magazine. The project leader of the Rising Voices grantee Ceasefire Liberia Ruthie Ackerman discussed about the issue on February 2, 2010 which was later also published in Huffington post and drew much attention. She pointed out the importance of citizen journalism:

We all know the routine: the journalist, who is viewed as the authority (traditionally white and male), goes into a community and comes back with a story to share with the world. His version of events, experienced through his eyes only, is considered objective reporting for all to read and believe.

What makes (the best of) today's journalism different is that citizen journalists the world over have the opportunity to share their hyperlocal, interactive, personal portrayals of their communities, venturing into places that traditional journalists wouldn't have the time or money or access to cover.

She also writes how to tackle the misrepresentations of Liberia in the media:

I believe that the only solution to combating misrepresentations of Liberia is to counter Vice's series with stories written by Liberian journalists and media-makers. Because the only way to drown out the noise of the misinformed and mis-intentioned is by telling the truth — and leaving it up to the reader to decide which information to consume.

A screenshot from the Vice Video via Ceasefire Liberia.

A subsequent article in Ceasefire Liberia looks at the debate in depth and reports:

Vice magazine has sent a letter of apology to the Liberian Government for its wrongful documentary. This was revealed during President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s press secretary’s weekly press conference earlier this week.

Nat Bayjay comments on the above post:

What makes me glad is the fact that he is being condemned mainly by many of the dozens of real Western journalists and the hundreds of ordinary Westerners that pour into our beloved country daily.

This surely is a victory for the Liberians and this was possible because of the citizen journalists who raised their voices.

Now let us look at some blog posts by the members of Ceasefire Liberia:

The newly restructured Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) observed its 53rd anniversary of Armed Forces recently:

The country’s army was considered as one of the country’s warring factions during its 14 years of civil war. It was therefore decided that it needed to be completely rebuilt.

Nathan Patio Charles reports that the Liberian Broadcasting Corporation has been accused of biased reporting which the state-owned broadcaster denied.

The blogger also reports quoting a visiting top executive of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Liberia will be considered for debt relief by the end of this year under the ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiative' of IMF.

On other news Liberia’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Ambulai Johnson has resigned amidst allegations of corruption.

Ceasefire Liberia reports:

A human rights report released in Monrovia Wednesday speaks of significant gaps in human rights protection due to major capacity and resource constraints across the legal, judicial and corrections sectors in Liberia.

Nathan Patio Charles reported that police brutalized a reporter of PowerTV. He was arrested because he interfered into a matter between the police and the driver of a vehicle.

One of the many deplorable, makeshift bridges in Rivercess County

The lack of resources and infrastructures are evident from reports like this:

Thousands of rural dwellers in one of Liberia’s most remote and underdeveloped counties, Rivercess County, are in desperate need of roads and bridges and have appealed to the Central Government to attach serious priority to these needs.

Wellington Railey informs that a master plan for Monrovia city, which took two years to prepare, aims to improve the city by 2019.

Featured Blogger: Saki Golafale

Eddie Avila — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:05:18 +0000

“Liberia is good at history making,” says Saki Golafale in a recent interview with Rising Voices, citing the fact that his country was one of the first independent nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, was the birthplace of one of the greatest African football heroes, as well as was the country that elected the female president on the continent. However, Saki also strongly believes that the Liberian people continue to make their own history after years of civil war, and he wants the whole world to know it.

Saki Golafale

I want the world to also know how Liberians are helping to restore Liberia’s once lost identity during the over decade of civil carnage. In other words, how Liberians are contributing to building the national systems of order is what the world needs to know. Fighting corruption, bad governance, HIV/AIDS, malaria, climate change, and many other mounting global problems are Liberia’s major concerns these days.

Saki is one of these Liberians who are addressing some of these pressing issues. As one of the members of the Ceasefire Liberia blogging project, he was invited by Ruthie Ackerman to be part of the group, “(she) wrote me expressing interest in my blogging style, and she encouraged and has always been encouraging me to make my contributions.”

His contributions have come in the form of poems on the site Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings and blog posts about issues that face his community, something that the Ceasefire Liberia project has helped spread the word. Saki says,

I wanted for outsiders to hear Liberia through my voice, and the time has come - Ceasefire is doing just that. Ceasefire Liberia has made my experience grow every time I posted a story.

His blog postings appear on the Ceasefire Liberia site and his personal blog called Practice What You Preach. In particular, Saki has focused some of his stories on the rights and struggles of children in Liberia. In one of his recent posts, he writes about a young boy that he met on the streets of Monrovia:

Spencer, a 13 year old third grade student, caught my attention today when I first saw him quickly crossing a road with a wheelbarrow loaded with a bag of coal. He noticed that I had taken his photo and he asked about it, which prompted a short discussion between both of us as we walked slowly in the same direction. He is an example of the kids I usually call, “emerging bread winners.”

Spencer explained to me that his daily task after school is to sell cold water and use the proceeds to purchase a bag of coal for his mother, who then sells the coal in small quantities for little or no profit. This is sad. The expressions on his face showed how happy and committed he chose to be in performing his after-school-hour duties. When asked about his study time, he could not remember when was the last time he had the opportunity to study for just an hour.

Originally from Grand Cape Mount County in western Liberia, Saki and his family moved to the capital city Monrovia prior to the start of the Liberian Civil War. He was able to obtain his high school education during the fighting in the capital city, but had to flee the country because of the violence. He arrived as a refugee in Sierra Leone in the early 1990s. Saki wrote a recent post about his return to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, for the first time since his time there as a refugee.

After returning to Liberia, Saki began to study chemistry at the University of Liberia, and has plans to complete a Masters and Doctorate degree in environmental toxicology with an emphasis in public health. He currently lives in Paynesville, located to the north of Monrovia.

In addition to blogging and taking photographs, Saki has been passionate about the issue of climate change. He has led youth groups in his community to raise awareness to combat climate change. One of these activities was the Wood Camp Youth Versus Climate Change event in September 2009, which Saki helped organize and lead. He describes some of the activities on his personal blog:

The activities started on Thursday, September 24 and ended on Friday, September 25. On Thursday, the youths staged a community parade with awareness messages being said out loud on mega-phone. The parade went on for three hours with demonstrations from a youth drama group and distribution of green fruits to standing crowd and those who answered questions concerning climate change. The climax of the “Go Green” activities came to an end on Friday with tree planting in three different locations with in the Wood Camp community. This was followed by a football match which ended in a 3-3 draw.

Planting a tree at Wood Camp Youth Versus Climate Change event. Photo courtesy of Saki Golafale

So with his environmental awareness activities and his literary contributions through online media, Saki is truly one of these Liberians that is making history of which he referred to earlier. Despite some dark times in Liberia's history, “the lessons of history of must not be ignored, ” says Saki. However, there is much optimism because of many young Liberians like Saki, who concludes, “We are at the cross-roads of making the future of unborn generations bright. War never again, I believe!”