Nari Jibon bloggers are eager to portray their country and culture to the world. In Bangladesh the spring (Bosonto) season consists of two months Falgun and Chaitra. The first day of spring (Pahela Falgun) is celebrated on February 13. Spring brings color and festivities to Bangladesh. Narijibon bloggers arranged a cultural program consisting of traditional songs, dance and recitation of poems to celebrate Pahela Falgun. They started their program with a popular Rabindra Sangeet “Aha aji a bosonte” (aha today in this spring). Watch from this video.

Jannatul Fardoush danced with the tune of one of the popular Bengali songs Bristi pore tapur tupur (noise of rain). Watch it here:

The bloggers write about the nature and beauty of Bangladesh and posts pictures frequently.

Mohtarimun Nahar [Bipa] took a boat trip through Buriganga and Shitalaksha rivers to celebrate Pahela Falgun. Read her photo essay. She also posts some pictures of beautiful flowers from the horticulture center at Gulshan Park.

“পদ্মা যমুনা মধুমতি আর
মেঘনার মালা কন্ঠে পরি,
দাঁড়ায়ে রয়েছে সুজলা যে দেশ
সেই দেশে বাস আমরা করি।”

“Padma, Jamuna, Modhumati and
Meghna rivers covering its neck
here stands our fertile land and
we live happily ever in its back.”

Photo by Asma Akhter Choity

Ayesha Sanjida Synthia writes about the natural beauty of Bangladesh.

প্রকৃতির লীলাক্ষেত্র আমাদের এ রূপসী বাংলাদেশ। পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামের পাহাড়, জলপ্রপাত, বনভূমি এদেশকে করে তুলেছে অপূর্ব রূপময়।এছাড়াও বাংলাদেশের কিছু পাহাড়-পর্বত ছাড়া সমগ্র বাংলাদেশ এক বিশাল বদ্বীপ। অর্থাৎ, সমভূমি অঞ্চল।

Our beautiful Bangladesh is a playground of nature. Beauties like the Chittagong Hill-tracts, some waterfalls, forests have ornated the country. Except some hilly areas the whole Bangladesh is a riverine delta.

Photo by: Zannat Ara Amzad

সম্প্রতি আমি গ্রামে গিয়েছিলাম। আমি আমার জীবনের প্রথম ট্রেনে উঠেছিলাম। ধীরে ধীরে ট্রেনটি শহর পেরিয়ে গ্রামে চলে এলো। আবহাওয়া ছিল অনেক ভাল। উপরে পরিষ্কার আকাশ, নিচে সবুজ শ্যামলা সুন্দর ও মনোরম প্রাকৃতিক দৃশ্য দেখে চোখ জুড়িয়ে যায়।

Recently I went to the village. It was my first train ride. The train left the urban areas and went towards rural areas. The weather was fine. The sky was clear and the lush green and heavenly natural beauty moved us.

Photo by Hira

Taslima Akter visited Ahsan Manzil, one of the most significant architectural monuments in Bangladesh and posted some pictures.

I was delighted to visit Nari Jibon and its bloggers last January and take a short workshop on blogging. The goal was to answer questions of the bloggers, talk about their problems, their challenges and inspire them. Here is what Zannat Ara Amzad has to say about it. Look at the whole bunch of enthusiastic bloggers who attended the workshop.

Sujan informs that another project of Narijibon has started:

Nari Jibon Development Foundation has set up Volunteer Peer Educators group to promote awareness on HIV/AIDS, Domestic Violence, Early Marriage etc. Some staff of NJDF motivated students trained and established a group of students who are supposed to work as Volunteer Peer Educators to their respective communities on the above issues especially HIV/AIDS and Domestic Violence as Nari Jibon students and staffs think that younger women are more vulnerable to these issues and adolescents can act a great role to prevent these issues. On the other hand these are the major and vital problems in Bangladesh.

The Nari Jibon Flickr account has several photographs of young street children living in and around Dhaka. For some ideas and reflections on what can be done to counter youth poverty, don't miss the round-up of posts for Blog Action Day on Poverty.

পথের শিশু
একটা শিশু পথের মাঝে
দাড়িয়ে থাকে একা
কেউ করেনা খোঁজ যে তার
কেউ বোঝেনা ব্যাথা।
এই শিশুটির পেথই জন্ম
পেথই হলো বড়।
জানেইনা যে অদৃষ্টে কি
দুঃখ আছে আরও !
মা বলে,ডাকেনি যে
ফোটেনি প্রথম কথা,
সেই শিশুটি না পেয়ে মাকে
পায় যে মনে ব্যাথা।
মায়ের আদর বঞ্চিত এই
হতভাগ্য ছেলেটি,
বাবার স্নেহ ভালোবাসাও
ভাগ্যে কখনও মেলেনি।
পথের মাঝে সেই ছেলেটি
দাড়িয়ে থেকে একা,
প্রশ্ন করেও নিরুত্তর সে
কেন এ বেঁচে থাকা?

Kathy Ward started to post daily on the issues relating to the violence against women.

Taslima mobilized the Nari Jibon bloggers for the cause:

Today Nari Jibon blogger have participated in this day's action with other women all over the world. I discussed with them about this international day to end violence against women. Nari Jibon bloggers will share their stories and thoughts which will be posted in Nari Jibon blogsite.

Let us hear the voices of the Nari Jibon bloggers on this important issue.

Fatema Tuj Zohura Shimu is against the tradition of early marriage and thinks that it is also a kind of violence against women.

Pretty Ahamed writes about eve teasing and the perils of women going out alone:

“Most of the time we are teased by the boys and they pass bad comments”

She also writes an interesting thing about eve teasing:

I can’t understand that if any sister is teased by any boy, then a brother gets angry. But if he teases to other girls then he doesn’t think that his sister can be teased like this way.

Afroza Akter Athoy also talks about eve teasing and the inability of women to stop these:

Recently I saw a girl was walking on the road. Some boys were following that girl and passed bad comments. I felt bad but couldn’t do anything.

Nari Jibon Bloggers. Photo: Nari Jibon

Reshmi Akter Jui writes about gender discrimination and terms it a violation against women:

In our country boys and girls should be equal. But boys get more facilities than girls. The girls are deprived from their rights in every steps of their entire life.

Some parents think that– The boys need to eat more than girls. Because they earn money by working hard. But why don’t they think that– the girls also manage the house-hold affairs and other family members, like– cooking, cleaning, washing cloths-dish-plates, take caring of children, husband, in-laws etc. Beside that they can manage official jobs. But they do not get their energy label by food from their families in childhood.

Selina Akter Zeba reminds that many women and girls are victim of violence by her husband, boyfriend or in-laws.

Aklima Akter Nipa also gives examples about the abuse of women by her husband or lover.

Afrin sheds a light on the acid throwing menace in the country.

Tondra thinks men are the big hurdle against establishing rights for women:

The development of women is like a challenge for men. Still women can’t get their rights.

Our society’s educated men think, they are better than women. … But they don’t know when they show their manly traits they lose their humanity. They are like illiterate men though they are literate.

Hira spells out the hard truth:

Violence and abuse affect all kinds of people every day. It doesn't matter what race or culture you come from, how much money you have, how old you are, or if you have a disability.

She also made a logo:

While most of the bloggers echoed solidarity to stop the violence against women, they also wanted the government to do something about it. The fact is that the penal laws of Bangladesh are supposed to protect the women from various forms of violence.

• Dowry Prohibition Act make dowry practice an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment
• Prevention of Women and Child Repression Act deals with cases of violence against women such as rape, acid attacks, forced prostitution and trafficking.
• The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act provides for detention of women under 18 years of age if found in a place where prostitution is being carried out.
• The Family Court Ordinance provides for matters relating to marriage, dowry, maintenance and guardianship, and custody of children.
• The Cruelty to Women (Deterrent Punishment) Ordinance provides the penalty of life imprisonment for kidnapping, abduction, trafficking of women, cruelty because of dowry, and rape.
• The government enacted a law primarily to restrict import and sale of acid in open market and death penalty for acid attack offenses.
• A law has recently been enacted to address the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

So it is evident that the laws are in place but the implementation mechanism or the awareness of women is missing. The patriarchal society also is a hindrance for women and keeps them from upholding their rights.

Salma Khan, a human rights activist says in one of her papers:

To eliminate violence against women in Bangladesh, one needs to challenge the vested ‘rights' and ‘roles' of men and the social control mechanisms that reinforce the superiority of men and subordination of women. The unequal power relations often result in the dominance exercised through violence.

Zannat gives the effective solution, what every women in Bangladesh should do:

Women should not tolerate all the torture on them. They should speak up and gain their rights.

Among veils, songs, photos and immense needs, Bangladeshi women are challenging the stereotypical, sad image that Bangladesh has always had by talking about their everyday lives thanks to the Nari Jibon project, developed with a focus on education and to improving the situation of women. The main objective: to provide new tools for women in order to enhance their skills and protect them from the traditional threats, national and historic, that they constantly face.

The results of the training can be seen in their many blogs that provide a window into Bangladesh, its culture, its nature, its people and of course, its women. Access to computers is only the beginning of a long and fascinating journey, which, through the creation of blogs, online photography, web design, and podcasts, leads to a better ability to express oneself, improved study of writing and English, and certainly in the empowerment of the women who manage the technology and citizen media in Bangladesh, so far away on the map, yet as close to us as the speed of your internet connection allows.

Much of the content and the project is dedicated to eradicating discrimination against women, a difficult task in the countries of South Asia, and extol the values of supporting human rights and freedom of expression. And so, in Bangladesh another portrait is drawn with lines its bloggers. We can still expect many more blogs that show the lives of its people from the inside out.

To begin the Bangladeshi journey, you must start with narijibon.blogspot.com, watch their videos, and also visit the site of Venezuelan blogger Kira Kariakin at k-minos.com, who has put together a powerful collage of beautiful pictures. After listening to these girls it will be very difficult to not follow the links and see what they have to say. Although many of their posts (and the video) have been translated, they are in English. But thanks to their elegant simplicity, it will not be problem for Venezuelan readers (who, anyway, have long taken the language of others and made it their own). One of the most beautiful aspects that characterize the bloggers who belong to the movement is their affinity for publishing photographs, revealing much of what they see in Bangladesh and its culture.

It is likely that this list of bloggers is just the beginning of many samples of endearing prose and cultural expansion from a country that many of us consider a very poor extension of India. So, along with Nobel laureates, Yunnus, the banker of the poor, and Tagore, the great poet of Bengal (who incidentally created a university where women could attend) these women, empowered by technology, show that Bangladesh will emerge of its own rubble and fight for its own identity and a different image compared to that of traditional media. Said by the same poet: “for women, to give is to receive.”

Despite a few posts published in Bengali on their group blog, Amader Kotha (”Our Stories”), most Nari Jibon bloggers have had to write solely in English due to the lack of online and computer support for the Bengali language. Whereas English writers can simply type away on just about any computer keyboard, Bengali writers must type out their words phonetically and then use a software program like Avro, which converts phonetic syllables into proper Bengali script. Special Bengali keyboards do exist, but they are difficult to find, costly, and few Bangladeshis - despite their renowned pride for their language - are trained how to type on Bengali keyboards.

Over the past few months Taslima, the supervisor of Nari Jibon's computer section, has been collecting best practices regarding how to blog in Bengali. Yesterday she led a workshop at the Nari Jibon center focused specifically on Bengali unicode, the various Bengali-language blogging platforms, and how to set up a Blogger-based blog in the bloggers' native language.

Taslima showing Nari Jibon bloggers how to publish in Bengali.

By the end of the workshop the Bengali-language blogosphere had eight new members in its midst:

Shazi's Idea : http://shazisidea.blogspot.com/
My Spirit: http://shakuratushti.blogspot.com/
Anananda Dhara: http://naoshin.blogspot.com/
Amar Showpano: http://zannatullisha.blogspot.com/
Indrowdhanu: http://fabliha.blogspot.com/
Ahonar Rhythm: http://ahonabangla.blogspot.com/
Pretty's Archive: http://prettysarchive.blogspot.com/
Poroshmony: http://poroshmony.blogspot.com/

New bloggers typing away.

In the future we will translate selected excerpts from their blogs and publish those translations here on Rising Voices. For a hint of what's to come, here is Aparna Ray's translation of a poem by Nari Jibon blogger, Firoza Begum Poly:

তুমি কি সেই স্বপ্নের পুরুষ?
যাকে আমি লাল নীল রং
তুলি দিয়ে এঁকেছি ।
তোমার মনটা কেন
নীল আকাশের স্পর্শ করা
বিশাল পাহাড় নয় ।
এমনটি আমি চাইনি ।
ভালবাসায় এত দু:খ,
এত কষ্ট কেন?
তাহলে কি ভাববো কষ্টের আর এক
নাম ভালবাসা।
তাহলে চিৎকার করে পৃথিবীকে বলছি।
পৃথিবী, তোমার সকল নীল,
তুমি আমায় দাও, আমায় দাও।

Romina Oliverio, a good friend of Rising Voices had this to say about the Nari Jibon project:

Founded in 2005 by Professor Kathryn B Ward, Nari Jibon is a skills training program for Bangladeshi girls and women who seek to learn new skills to improve their lives.

I came to know the ladies at Nari Jibon via their blogs, and through their words and images is ultimately how I fell for their earnest and feisty spirit.

Reading their all-too-vivid portrayals of daily life in Bangladesh, one is given a fresh, first-hand account into their realities. The women explore their surroundings with eyes peeled, constant curiosity gripping them, and their eagerness to share tales of their country and themselves with their growing base of loyal readers knows no bounds. [..]

The Nari Jibon project is, without a doubt, a representation of citizen journalism with a strong beating heart and a bucket full of guts. But most importantly, Nari Jibon is a true testament to the empowerment of women - and this tireless group of ladies is a glowing inspiration to women everywhere.

Kathy Ward and some women of Nari Jibon

In honor of Blog Action Day on October 15th Blog Talk Radio held an all day talkathon. Another well wisher of Global Voices Shawn mentioned:

Bangladesh 80% of the country earns less than $2 per day. That’s not even enough to buy a couple of minutes on the internet most of the time. But this NGO is trying to get women, working class women, online and blogging so that you’re not just hearing from activists but you’re hearing from people in that situation on the ground in Bangladesh.

Shawn showing his video that he took from sidr affected areas to the Nari Jibon bloggers

Nari Jibon bloggers also celebrated the Blog Action day 2008. This years theme was poverty.

Hira, who likes to create graphics made this logo:

Nari Jibon students discussed about poverty in a blog post:

Selina Akter Zeba thinks that the major problems of increasing poverty in Bangladesh are over population, illiteracy and unemployment. Her voices were echoed by other bloggers who also think that the population boom and the lack of education are the main causes of poverty in the country.

Ishrat Jahan thinks that many in rural areas believe in superstition. She thinks to free people from poverty the behavior and mentality of people should be changed. She also thinks illiteracy is a big issue.

Asia Afrin Anni talks about the awareness of people:

The main work to remove poverty is to make people conscious about the effects of it.

Fabliha Tasnim Hridi thinks that the government is taking many necessary steps to remove poverty.

Such as: aware people for what are the disadvantages of increasing population, Start free education, Arrange free treatment etc. We should try to help the poor besides the government initiatives.

Street kids: Photo taken by Zannat

Zannat Ara Amzad writes about the ways to remove poverty:

Our lands should be cultivated scientifically. Scientific method and modern farming should be introduced. The high birth rate should be reduced. Animal husbandry, crop diversification, fishers, poultry, horticulture, agriculture, dairy farming should be introduced and all these things will go a long way to alleviate poverty.

Sujan discusses about child right and proposes:

(On the occasion of) “Blog action day 2008 — Poverty” and “World Child Right Day” I want to propose every people to take responsibility for one poor child or family.

Meanwhile don't forget to check out more blogger profiles posted in Nari Jibon blog. Nari Jibon bloggers continues to post articles in their blogs.

Kazi Rafiq portrays a fisher women. Asia Afrin Anni writes about a journey by boat. Ayesha Sanjida Synthia remembers a memorable day. Jainub Khanam tells about ten scary days of her child's illness.

Jesmin Lita tries to improve her English, using her blog:

I maintain a diary and opened a blogsite for English writing practice. I write my every day’s activities in English. And sometimes I publish my blog writing on my blogsite.

Sufia Eti writes about the woes of general transportation of the country from her experience.

Mohtarimun Nahar [Bipa] heads the English section of Nari Jibon project. She describes the work of Nari Jibon:

Here women can take courses on English, Bengali, Tailoring, Computer Office Program, Graphics and Photography etc. Most of the students are of school, college and university levels. Also sex workers can get admitted in English, computers or any other sections in Nari Jibon.

Here we have Nari [Women] Cyber Café only for girls and women. Students submit their assignments to the related teachers and practice English language and Computer in this cyber café.

Visiting teacher Stella

Bipa also writes about the visiting teachers of Nari Jibon project who are social workers from abroad and making good use of their time. Read the blog post of Kira Kairakin from Venezuela to learn what Nari Jibon meant for her:

Nari Jibon has made me feel more responsible about it, to value it in another way and I am grateful for that.

Nari Jibon got some press coverage recently. Articles about the project and the blogging activities of the women were published in BDNews24.com, The Daily Sangbad [bn] & The Daily JaiJaiDin [bn].

On 29th August ‘08 the 4th blog workshop of Nari Jibon project was held. David Sasaki of Rising Voices was there and conducted the workshop. 15 bloggers and 4 staffs of Nari Jibon participated in this workshop. You can read about the event in this post. Here is a video of the workshop:

Today's post is dedicated to the Blog Action Day 2008. This year's theme of the day is poverty.

Poverty is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens (Source)

Latest World Bank figures estimate that one billion people across the world do not get the minimum nutritional level needed to sustain themselves. To do something about it we need to engage all our resources and use whatever means we can employ to make a change.

Why are we talking about citizen media when people do not have security of food and how does citizen media sneak in to address poverty?

While the news of poverty is missing from the agenda of the mainstream media the citizen media initiatives like blogs take the lead. The Blog Action Day message is:

Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue - poverty. We aim to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!

Citizen media requires some basic technological infrastructure like PCs, internet, electricity etc. Technology is not all about expensive gadgets and showing off but breaking through many barriers like digital divide. When in 1997 Grameen Bank started giving loan to poor women in the remote Bangladeshi villages to start commercial mobile services, people laughed. Cell phones were expensive then but their competitive advantage was the absence of land lines and many women got out of poverty. Today people can access to internet via mobile phones in the rural areas where even there is no electricity.

Image: Vilage Telephone Lady, by Jeevs Sinclair. Used under a CC license

If we look at the various Rising Voices Grantees (most of them represent marginal communities) we will see that they are using different citizen media tools such as blogs, videos, images, podcasts etc. to tell about themselves and raise awareness about poverty. They are blogging for different social causes in their communities which are normally ignored.

People may raise their eyebrows hearing to the Uruguayan government's commitment to hand over Hundred Dollar laptops (OLPCs) to every child in that country. But when the Rising Voices grantee “Blogging since infancy” will train these kids to use citizen media tools like blogging and they will share their everyday lives, we may even see something out of the ordinary. That is how technology and commitments can make a difference.

One of the aims of Rising Voices is to promote voices from underrepresented and neglected communities to the global conversation. Those people who are struggling to secure their basic needs and safety need citizen media to voice their plights, concerns. The traditional society do not give them much space. One of the challenges faced by the young citizen journalists from the Neighborhood Diaries project in Kolkata, India is that they felt very shy to enter in a cyber cafe in their community. Because they come from a red light area slum, some people think that they are untouchables. But they vowed to challenge the digital divide to let their story be heard by the world.

Image by bengal*foam : Used under a creative commons license

Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zuckerman told in an interview with Africa News:

“I think citizen media will be critical in helping non-Africans connect more closely to African stories. I think that bloggers and other citizen authors offer readers the opinion to connect with an author as well as with a story, and that this may build human connections to stories that otherwise might be ignored or missed.”

So why should you care about poverty or help the people who are fighting poverty? Shawn at Uncultured.com says:

Because our long term well being - not our well-being for the next semester or the next financial quarter - depends on how we care for the least off among us. Now, more than ever, we need to realize, understand, and embrace the notion that making the world a better place for others makes it a better place for us all.

How can you help to eradicate poverty or make a change? You can play a role in the citizen media outreach by helping the people who are doing this important task. David Sasaki informs of some examples:

Nari Jibon center in Dhaka, which incorporates citizen media into existing English, computer, and Bangla classes for young Bangladeshi women. Much of the amazing content produced by Nari Jibon bloggers is thanks to the training they have received at workshops put on by an unlikely yet highly proficient group of veteran bloggers from Venezuela, Canada, and the United States.

Here are more innovative ways to help the Rising Voices grantees:

• Buy latop sleeves and contribute to Voces Bolivianas Project.
• Buy Etsy Bags and help the FOKO Bloggers in Madagascar.
• Nari Jibon provides Bangladeshi women with skills rather than money in order to provide more opportunities. As little as $17 covers an entire Microsoft Office training program including four cyber-cafe passes.
• Kalam, the organization behind the Neighbourhood Diaries project in Kolkata, India has released a PDF version of their annual Open Box of Poetry which is available for a suggested donation of US$5. All proceeds will go toward continuing Kalam’s outreach work in Kolkata.

These are only some examples. If you are interested you can learn about more of these projects.

Today is another important day. Its Global Handwashing Day and learn more about it here.

How do we form our impressions of other countries when we have never visited them and have never met any of their citizens? The answer for most of us is still television - the images we see on the nightly news and in Hollywood's portrayals. For example:

In the video presentation David said:

If only we would listen to each other more and the media less………….

One of the many ideas exchanged in a meeting of the Rising Voices during Global Voices summit in Budapest was to have a monthly blog carnival amongst the grantees in which all the projects write about the same topic/question. The idea is to learn more about the cultures of different countries from first hand accounts.

We requested articles from different Rising Voices grantees communities. The topic of the first carnival is “What is the biggest celebration in your community each year?”

Many of the grantees are undergoing transformation and some of them are facing infrastructural issues. So participation was limited. I thank all those who participated. I hope we will see more participation in our next carnival.

So here we are, I present to you the first carnival of the Rising Voices where the participants describes about their popular celebrations.

Bangladesh:

The Nari Jibon bloggers in Bangladesh were divided in opinions about the biggest celebration in the community. Nilufa Anne writes about the different festivities of Bangladesh and reminds us that Bangladesh is a secular country, where Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists live together peacefully although the majority is Muslim(84%):

In turn of six seasons in this beautiful country, Bangladeshis are overwhelmed with various kinds of festive occasions such as Pahela Baishakh (1st day of new Bengali year), Borshaboron (reception of rainy season), Nobanno Utsab (celebration with new crops at Hemonta), Pahela Falgun (1st day of spring), Chaitra Songkranti (last day of Bengali year), International mother language day (Ekushey February), Independence day besides different community’s religious festivals. But I think Pahela Baishakh is the biggest celebration where festive Bangladeshis of various communities hold a devotional reception of Bengali new year.

She posts some great pictures depicting the festivities of Pahela Baishakh.

Face painting with Bangla alphabet

Floor decoration

Aklima Akter Akhy describes:

Pohela Baishakh is the first day of Boishakh month [1st month of Bengali year]. Baishakhi Fairs are held in the different parts of the country. People of all classes go to the fair…People wear colorful dresses representing Bengali trends and exchange gifts. Businessmen open new books of account on this day which is known as Halkhata.

Designed hands with henna

Rabaya Akter also writes about Pahela Baishakh.

Glass bangles in hands

Taslima Akhter opines that the Muslim religious Eid festivities are the biggest celebration of the community. There are two Eid festivals -Eid-ul-fitr and Eid-ul-Azha each year. Eid means sharing happiness with the family, giving gifts to family members . On this day special foods are prepared, the preparation of which may start few days before.

She describes about Eid-ul-Fitr:

In the morning of Eid day I found my mother and sisters preparing different kinds of delicious items of food and sweets. In the afternoon I went to the house of near and dear ones and exchanged greetings with them. At night I watched different programs on TV on different channels.

And about Eid-ul-Azha:

Last year, my father bought a cow and a goat. I fed them. So, I felt sorry when they were sacrificed.

Nargis Sultana comments that Eid means pleasure and writes:

Eid-ul-Azha is quite different from Eid-ul-fitr. After two months and nine days Eid-ul-Azha comes. It is particularly an occasion of sacrifice. Animals are sacrificed by the name of God and the poor get a share of the meat.

Sujan also describes about the Eid festivities and shares photos of the sacrifice.

Sacrifice

Asia Afrin and Jainub Khanum also thinks Eid Festivities are the biggest celebration in the community.

Sonia Yeasmin differs from all. She thinks the victory day on 16th December is the biggest celebration as it is observed all over the country with various programs.

USA:

David Sasaki joins in with the biggest celebration in his country:

My favorite holiday in the United States is the Fourth of July. It commemorates the independence of the United States from the Kingdom of Great Britain.. It also celebrates the world’s oldest consistent democracy. [..]

My favorite part of 4th of July is when we have a BBQ in the afternoon. I must admit that during our BBQ we drink some beer too and we listen to our favorite songs.

After our stomachs are full and we are happy, we walk back to the beach to watch the fireworks.

Some of the best fireworks are over Sea World, a famous park in San Diego which is like a zoo for sea animals.

Bolivia:

In Bolivia carnivals in February are one of the biggest celebrations. Cristina Quisbert writes [es] about the carnival festivities in La Paz and the decorated procession vehicles.

She also describes [es] the carnival in Tarka:

Many of these projects have become so successful that they are now attracting the interest of more local community members who want to learn how to communicate effectively online. In order to continue their training workshops and outreach activities, they have had to come up with creative strategies for financial sustainability.

Fashionable MacBook Sleeves Promote Bolivian Digital Inclusion

One of the first fundraising activities came from Voces Bolivianas, a citizen media outreach initiative in Bolivia which has successfully trained dozens of new bloggers across the country, most recently at the Bloguivianos conference in El Alto and La Paz. In July, with the help of two members based in El Alto, Voces Bolivianas produced a number of laptop sleeves from traditional aguayo textile and sold the sleeves for $25 each on their website using PayPal. 100% of the proceeds went toward Voces Bolivianas activities. They have sold out of the sleeves, but if you are interested in purchasing one in the future, you can leave a comment on their blog post and specify your desired dimensions using Survey Monkey.

HiperBarrio Receives Local Government Support

The municipal government of Medellín, Colombia has recently received much attention and applause for reversing its violent history and reputation and becoming a Latin American model of urban inclusion and creativity. In addition to its ambitious network of ‘library parks' and its metro system with gondola-like carriages which reach up into the city's hillside working class neighborhoods, the city government has also poured in resources to promote ‘e-culture‘ in both working-class and upper-class parts of the city. Much of the city government's thinking about the internet as a tool to promote inclusion, however, was stuck in the 1990's and dependent on platforms provided by corporate sponsors like Microsoft.

The ambitious young leaders of the HiperBarrio project have invested a great deal of time in reaching out to the municipal government in order to explain how tools like blogging, podcasting, and online video allow communities on the margins to gain valuable technical skills and media literacy while enabling them to write their own online history. Acknowledging the importance of the HiperBarrio project, the local government provided funding which allowed the HiperBarrio bloggers to attend Campus Party in Bogotá, one of Latin America's pre-eminent technology conferences. Hopefully the Medellín municipal government will continue to recognize the importance of grassroots new media projects like HiperBarrio and provide official support and recognition.

Etsy + Foko = More Bloggers, More Voices from Madagascar

Etsy has established itself as a wildly popular online marketplace for indie designers. Independent craftsmen and women, jewelry makers, and fashion designers are able to distribute and sell their goods online without losing a major portion of their profits to retail stores or having to pay costly rental fees to set up their own physical store. One of the thousands of talented designers on Etsy is Kristina, who makes handbags like this one:

As Kristina writes on her blog, a portion of all bag sales from her Etsy page will be donated to Foko Madagascar to provide more cyber-cafe coupons to its members so that they can continue to access their blogs. Foko Madagascar has also managed to publish some of their bloggers' posts in a local English-language publication which provided payment in order to re-publish the articles. These are two innovative ways to achieve sustainability.

Online Donations to Empower Women in Bangladesh

On the latest post from the Nari Jibon group blog, Bangladesh from our View, Sujan explains how Nari Jibon provides Bangladeshi women with skills rather than money in order to provide more opportunities. As little as $17 covers an entire Microsoft Office training program including four cyber-cafe passes. Donors like Marc Fest based in Miami, USA have already supported Nari Jibon's training activities by donating online.

Read Poetry, Support Citizen Journalism in Kolkata, India

Kalam, the organization behind the Neighbourhood Diaries project in Kolkata, India which trains young people in marginalized communities how to become citizen journalists, has released a PDF version of their annual Open Box of Poetry which is available for a suggested donation of US$5. All proceeds will go toward continuing Kalam's outreach work in Kolkata. Special thanks to Romina Oliverio for purchasing the e-book and promoting it on her blog.

These are just a few ways that Rising Voices grantees are seeking sustainability as they continue to train more and more bloggers from under-represented communities around the developing world. What about you? Do you have any ideas for how citizen media outreach projects can continue to fund their operations?

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The words “Nari Jibon” should be familiar to regular Rising Voices readers. The Dhaka-based project which has integrated blogging and citizen media into its English and computer classes has been covered frequently on Rising Voices in the past. In this video, we hear directly from the students and staff to get to know the individuals behind the blogs.