Earlier MTV Staying Alive Foundation published a video on the works of Repacted. From their website:

At the moment they are paying particular attention to youth in prisons and sex workers - both of which are high risk groups.

They are training 75 ‘change agents' (peer educators), organizing 3 youth symposiums, along with 11 community theatre outreach groups - complete with mobile testing units,

As if this weren't enough to keep co-founders Dennis and Collins busy, they're also creating and distributing a monthly magazine, establishing a support group and organising monthly life skills demonstration forums.

Recently the other co-founder Collins Odu Oduor published an update of the project detailing all the works it had done since 2001:

REPACTED’s work is unique in that it involves the community in coming up with solutions to the issues they face. We do this through the use of community theatre, in a method better known as “Magnet Theatre”. This method starts with tailor made community folk media mobilization techniques that pulls the audience to the magnet theatre site and enlists the audience in an active interactive discussion through a scripted performance designed to provoke the target audience’s feelings, attitudes and beliefs with an aim of inspiring positive behavior change.

Since 2005 REPACTED has been conducting theatre for development outreaches in the Adventist Relief and Development Agency, Abstinence and Behavior change for the youth project in two districts. REPACTED is a MTV Staying Alive Foundation two time award winner, the award is aimed at reaching youth in the Community, special learning institutions and Prisons with Magnet Theatre Outreaches and mobile VCT. Citizens’ Media Outreach is a project involving the community in video and photo blogging inclusive of basic computer skills. Funded by Rising global Voices, the project involves the training of community members in the use of information and communication technologies.

Here is a presentation showing the works of the Repacted project:

Now let us look what the Repacted bloggers are saying:

Collins Otieno Sailas informs:

Dancing stigma related to HIV\AIDS is a dance conveying a message to the community trying to educate on how to live with those people who are affected with the disease by loving, caring and excepting them back to the community because they are our brothers and sisters. Sawwa dancers are the ones staging the show at Nakuru players theater in October and after that we will take the stigma dance to various schools.

Eric Wanyama, an aspiring script and film director, who has managed to write his own script, discusses about his work:

Captive is a screenplay of a short film that fictionally poses a question on the fate and security of orphaned children. [..]

I have written the screenplay and together with REPACTED-Kenya, we would like to make the project a reality. The REPACTED-Kenya Members are ready to participate as the cast in the production together with other various members of the Nakuru Players Theater.

Eric also asks the readers for support of this project by monetary or other means.

Collins Odu informed recently:

Preparing for 2009 Mr. and Miss Red Ribbon. It will be better than the past events. We welcome all support from well wishers so as to meet the budget and continue fighting stigma and discrimination in the community. It is only through leadership that we can address societal and communal problems. Let us join hands and take the lead.

Images taken from Repacted Facebook group.

The Blogging Positively project began two years ago when Kenyan blogger Serina Kalande, volunteered to lead a working group to discuss how citizen media can best be implemented in the field of HIV/AIDS. Many of the project proposals we've received at Rising Voices have been related to spreading awareness about the pandemic. We wanted to learn from those proposals - and also from existing citizen media initiatives - to better understand how new media tools can be used most effectively to spread awareness and encourage discussion about HIV/AIDS-related topics. We also wanted to better understand some of the risks and obstacles facing bloggers who are HIV-positive, or who regularly write about HIV/AIDS-related topics.

Three online chats brought together people from all over the world, and from a wide range of fields. In addition to the creation of this guide, the participants of the chats collaborated on the creation of a map-based directory of HIV-positive bloggers who bravely defy stigma and discrimination to communicate their situation to the rest of the world.

To celebrate the release of the Blogging Positively guide, which has been two years in the making, today we begin a one-week campaign to update our map of HIV positive bloggers. If you are a positive blogger, or if you have suggestions for links to add to the directory, please send a message to Global Voices Public Health Editor Juhie Bhatia.

The Blogging Positively guide was authored by Janet Feldman of the Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group and ActAlive, which encourages the use of the arts and media to address HIV/AIDS and other human-development challenges. Additional contributions were made by Solana Larsen, Sahar Romani, and Juhie Bhatia. Daudi Were coined the term “Blogging Positively.”

The importance and impact of this guide depends on our collective ability to get it into the hands of activists, and to encourage their contributions to the global conversation that is curated and amplified everyday on the Global Voices website. Please consider sharing this with your network of friends and blogging about it. If there are HIV/AIDS organizations and support groups in your region, please send them a copy of the guide.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about what bloggers around the world have to say about the AIDS pandemic, don't miss our Conversations for a Better World series which has so far featured commentary about HIV/AIDS from bloggers based in Africa, China, Cambodia, and the Middle East & North Africa.

REPACTED is a community-based youth-to-youth organization located in Nakuru, Kenya. They teach youth about HIV/AIDS, drug and substance abuse, and other social issues, and use theater and citizen media to try to create behavioral changes among these youth. With the help of a Rising Voices grant, REPACTED purchased a computer and a mobile Internet modem to allow for Internet access in their office. Since then, they have started classes to teach their members how to blog.

This particular session, which occurred in mid-March, didn't take place in their office, but in a cyber café in Nakuru. Muriuki, who is new to blogging, joined other budding bloggers in a session led by members of REPACTED; there were 18 participants in total. The session, which began in the morning, kicked off with the participants figuring out what topics they wanted to explore in a blog. Muriuki elaborates:

Some of the topics blogged on were TB [tuberculosis], rape, STIs [sexually transmitted infections], HIV/AIDS, malaria, and some blogged about their profiles and why they joined Repacted. e.g. Hillary, one of the members, said the main reason as to why he joined the group is his passion to help the community to change its behavior positively. I want to blog so that I can share my stories with the world, helping to change attitudes towards women and people with disabilities.

In the past, challenges such as a slow Internet connection, have affected the blogging training sessions. Similar challenges, some of which may stand in the way of the participants blogging regularly, came up during this session. Muriuki expands on these obstacles:

Most of the members are not familiar with the blogging process, especially the topics they wanted to discuss.

Some didn’t have efficient and active email address.

Members had to take turns blogging due to few computers.

Some members didn’t have enough information on the topics e.g. TB and malaria.

The blogging time provided was not enough, since most members were not able to complete their blogging and to also type fast.

Despite these challenges, Muriuki says the training was helpful and that there were successes:

Most of the members were able to blog successfully and new members got an opportunity to join the blog spot.

She adds that participants were very happy because they not only had a chance to blog, but they also used the opportunity to access their email and Facebook accounts, as well as to chat with their friends. They requested if they could blog at least once or twice a week. With more time and practice hopefully Muriuki and her fellow participants will become more comfortable with blogging and be further able to share their stories and insights.

You can stay up to date with the latest developments from REPACTED on their project blog.

With the grant from the Staying Alive Foundation and the Raising Global Voices, we did up to 16 magnet theatre outreaches in a month, weekly skills demonstration forums, two youth symposiums and two youth events, Along the year 2008 REPACTED managed to train 30 change agents and five youth leaders on leadership, peer education and the use of digital media-photography, video shooting, blogging and most current encouraging positive bloggers from the community. The organization through collaborative efforts managed to effectively and consistently reach out to 10,000 young people, distributed 30,000 male condoms.

Mr. and Miss Red Ribbon is a charity event organized annually by Nakuru Youth groups including REPACTED. MCCJEX writes:

Its a major build up activity towards World Aids Day. The event aims at eradicating stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

The REPACTED project blog posted details on the event including pictures.

HIV Positive blogger Maureen was one of the contestants and she shares her experience:

I have been contesting since 2006 and have been enjoying every moment of the event because of one thing, effective reduction of stigma and discrimination. Mr. and Miss Red Ribbon brings together both affected and infected to celebrate beauty in a unique way. During the event audience appreciate beauty by seeing models but not the affected or the infected.

MCCJEX writes about his long journey to REPACTED. He also mentions:

Sex in school is high that now-a-days its more played than any other games in the field. Youths between 7 to 20 years know it better than any other person.[…] No single girl or boy is found without relationship. Towards this, I think condom should be distributed in schools.

Mshale also discusses about the issue of condoms in schools:

Condom in school is so tricky but will help greatly a lot of young men and girls, (who) will stand a strong chance of achieving their dreams.

Collins Otieno Sailas thinks that the use of condom in schools will reduce HIV/AIDS and other diseases such as STI.

Mshale shares a tragic event. He lost her aunt who committed suicide because she was HIV positive. He pleaded “let us stop stigma.”

Elster writes on the methods of contraception:

Newspaper reports and television have all been making headlines on the overpopulation in the Obama's home country. After a long pregnant silent I have decided to pass the little information that i have to anyone who might be interested in knowing the contraception methods.

You will need Flash 8 (or higher) and a javascript enabled browser to view our videos.

• Download MPEG4 Video (.mp4)
• Download Flash Video (.flv)
• Subscribe to Rising Voices Videos in iTunes

This video produced by MTV's Staying Alive Foundation shows the inspiring work done by Kenya-based Rising Voices grantee REPACTED. See more videos of the REPACTED project and read the most recent posts by their bloggers by taking a look at the REPACTED category of Rising Voices.

Eduardo Ávila of Voces Bolivanas visited the Rising Voices grantee REPACTED project in Kenya. We have asked him to tell about his experience.

When did you visit REPACTED and why?

I visited Nakuru in late September 2008. One of the most rewarding aspects of being part of Rising Voices is the interaction with the other projects. Usually the interaction is over email or instant messaging, but I had been in Uganda and Nakuru was too close not to visit.

Some of the REPACTED members

You met the REPACTED team. Tell us about them and their works:

Unfortunately, Collins, who I met at the Global Voices Summit would not be in town due to another commitment. However, the rest of the REPACTED team made sure that I had a good time and really went out of their way to make me feel at home. Even though I only spent one full day in Nakuru, I had the opportunity to witness a Magnet Theater performance. It was amazing to watch the entire process, from the assembling at REPACTED headquarters in central Nakuru, where 20 or so members piled into a mini-van to transport them to the site. When they arrived, the group participated in a series of songs and dances in order to draw the residents to the performance site. Once the crowd had assembled, a few members of the team would be the lead actors and present the situation. The topics are related to health and sexual health issues, such as condom-use, HIV testing and TB. The actors make sure to get the crowd involved by posing questions to them and even inviting them to role-play. Following the performance, the members of the team interact with the crowd and answer any questions they may have. Following the performance, the team returns to the headquarters where they debrief and provide feedback on what went well and what could be improved upon.

Here is a video of REPACTED members engaged in Magnet Theatre uploaded by Eduardo:

Repacted - Mobilization from eduardo ávila on Vimeo.

They also have trained some members to blog. What challenges the bloggers usually face?

The REPACTED organization recently started classes to teach their own members how to blog. With part of the Rising Voices funds, they purchased a computer, as well as a mobile Internet modem so that they can have Internet access in their office, which is only open from 9 am to 5 pm. However, since the size of the REPACTED group is so large, they have a weekly schedule where each member is given one hour to use the computer. This is better than nothing, but not enough to develop a practice and habit of blogging. There are Internet Cafés located in Nakuru, but the connection is often very slow. I held a blogging workshop at a local café, and there were not enough computers for interested REPACTED members. Even for those that were able to log on to their blogs, the time to upload a photo or even log into their blog, was very slow. This, again, is one of the obstacles for regular blogging.

What do they feel about blogging?

The members asked me why a blog is even important. I told them that they should consider blogs and technology to be a sort of window. They have the opportunity to show others from around the world what it is like to live in Nakuru, to participate in REPACTED and anything else that they want to show through this window. They can draw the curtains or leave them open.

Crowd gathered to watch magnet theatre

How are they coping up with the challenges?

One important thing that I noticed during my short visit is that the members of REPACTED have fun always. I think that is extremely important for community building and it is obvious that they enjoy spending time with one another. For now, I think they are only working with their fellow members. There is one blogger, Mshale, who is very skilled with video and video editing, but the challenge is to upload the video to the Internet. There are a lot of charismatic and outgoing members of REPACTED and I would love to see that reflected on their blogs. However, as mentioned before the slow Internet connection and infrequent access often discourages regular posting. One needs a lot of patience to be able to do so…

Here is the video of the wrap up session of Magnet Theatre:

Repacted - Wrap-Up from eduardo ávila on Vimeo.

Here are some highlights from the blogs of the REPACTED members, who are telling their stories online:

Mshale Milele calls for fighting corruption in Kenya. He writes about his passion in video editing:

Every outreach has its challenge but that doesn't stop me documenting everything that happens in outreach, some of the community members are scared to be filmed but i always Explain to them that my camera video love them most, and as a group it is important to review every outreach and improve on health issues.

He confesses that REPACTED has inspired his ability.

Lawrence Mwai has training in puppetry and tells about creation and maneuvering of puppets which are used during the magnet theatre performance.

Collins Otieno Sailasa writes about a concert titled Mr. and Mrs. Red Robinson which was organized with REPACTED to try to eradicate stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

James Karango writes some fiery poems about the social injustices Kenyans face. He writes:

To the kings and queens,
Of our beloved state,
Who drinks from wells granted?
At the expense of the villagers,
Who languish in gallons of poverty

James also wrote about the marginalization in Northers Kenya:

It is in a dilapidated state. People travel on top of carriers of lorries which have either transported goods or animals.

Ong'eng'e, a twenty years old member from Nakuru writes about a serious issue in his society - abortion of unwanted child. In a post titled “From the heart of an African lady” he writes:

I would blame poverty as the biggest cause. Many young girl escape responsibilities by aborting due to lack of resources and the fear of how to bring up the infant.

Here is his vow to change the world which is shared by many of the REPACTED members:

I want to advocate for a world free from HIV/AIDS and STIs infections and make them a thing of the past.

All images by Eduardo Ávila. See more pictures from his Flickr set.

From the HiperBarrio project in La Loma, Colombia, Nora Catalina asks “has change arrived?” She begins by emphasizing her disappointment with the broken promises of Colombian politicians, and then continues:

En Colombia, muchas personas han sido indiferentes con estas elecciones, recuerdo que hace poco les comenté a unos compañeros que Obama iba bastante bien y una compañera me preguntó ¿Qué es Obama?

¿Quién es Obama? Es la verdadera pregunta, y en la respuesta la palabra esperanza se repite en varias ocasiones: esperanza de mirar de frente el problema del racismo y superarlo, esperanza de que el “gigante” de la historia ahora mire de forma más humana a los otros países, esto implica, por ejemplo, un cambio en políticas armamentistas (incluyendo las nucleares), en ese frecuente intento de aplastar a los otros países de forma militar y económica, en reconsiderar las intenciones de acabar con los recursos de países como el nuestro y retirar las tropas que acaban con la vida de muchas personas en Irák y que de una u otra forma modifican esta cultura.

Catalina Restrepo, who represented HiperBarrio at this year's Global Voices Summit in Budapest, shows an overview of how the Colombian media reacted to Obama's victory with screenshots from the largest newspapers and YouTube videos of reactions by Latin American leaders.

Todos hablan de lo importante de que por primera vez en la historia Estados Unidos tenga un presidente “Negro”, de que ahora si abrá un cambio, que su oratoria es increíble; y un júbilo se percibe en sus seguidores cada que hablan de todas sus cualidades, mientras algunos de sus críticos afirman que “es un blanco con piel de negro”.

Ruben Hilari, a Voces Bolivianas blogger who was recently featured by Eduardo Ávila on the Voces Bolivianas project blog, is currently visiting the U.S. in New York, where he watched on television as McCain conceded defeat and Obama declared victory.

Ayer en la noche miraba un canal latino, donde estaba reportando, el conteo de votos. Todas las personas estan sorprendidas de que haya ganado un afroamericano como es Obama. Todos hablan de que las personas afroamericanas no podian votar ni entrar en los mejores restaurantes aqui en los EEUU hace mas de 50 anos. Habia una discriminacion muy dura de aceptar.

Ruben was also impressed with John McCain's concession speech, which congratulated Obama for his victory. He says he wishes the same level of respect was shown when conservative Bolivian ex-president, Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga lost to current president, Evo Morales in Bolivia's 2005 election.

Me hubiese gustado que Tuto Quiroga con la formacion americana que de felicitaciones a Evo cuando gano en Bolivia. Porque eso es lo que ha hecho McCain felicitar a Obama. Pero en Bolivia nunca quieren aceptar su derrota. Hace rato chateamos con mi hermano desde Bolivia y el me dice que en Bolivia esta alegre El Presidente Evo. Y hay que apoyar sigue para que continue haciendo por el pais.

Creo que el mundo esta cambiando a una velocidad maxima.

Finally, in Kenya - where US President-Elect Barack Obama traces his recent ancestry - Collins Oduoduor of the REPACTED project lamented the burglary of the house of Barack Obama's step-grandmother Sarah Obama in Kogelo. Here is a brief video about Sarah Obama and her community:

Collins, recalling the attack on the US Embassy in Kenya in 1998, is worried that anti-American terrorists in East Africa will target Obama's grandmother because of her link to who is now the United States' most powerful person:

Terrorist attack is not a new thing to Kenya because of what happened to the US embassy in Kenya, but the bond between the two countries is renewed, the bond is even stronger because the grandma is in Kenya and the grandson in the US busy with is campaigns and innocently exposing the grandma to the enemy of America. 9/11 is still fresh to American people and the suspect is still at large. I hope that the enemy has not started getting ideas from the local attack. Alego ko Kogelo may be the next scene on the international and local news headlines. Ok the Kenyan government has set a police base in the home of grandma; my question is why after the local attack, what if the attack could have been from the American enemies?

As for Sarah Obama, it looks like the 84-year-old may soon be on her way to Washington D.C. to bring her grandson his favorite food as he is inaugurated president of the United States of America.

We are glad to announce that twelve new blogs were opened by the participants. Most of them had short introductory posts like James Karongo introduced himself as a young hardworking gentlemen while Mashale wrote a short poem.

These posts appeared several weeks ago and you must be wondering why they are not being updated. In a report to Rising Voices Dennis Kimambo states the challenge the REPACTED members face:

“At first we could not afford Internet because of the cost of the Internet connection, but with the competition in the mobile phone business in the country quite affordable modems are available in the market. The only challenge is how to maintain the monthly fee for internet connection. 
 
For the internet connection we face a serious challenge because the modem takes one computer at a time. We are working on how to network the modem to serve more than two computers, but the service provider Zain say that it can not take more than two computers. We are also paying 50 USD per month, maintaining the cost may force the community to pay some small money. The only problem is that we recruited from the slums where life is below 1 dollar a day.

We also need about six computers so as to satisfy all the new bloggers before the spirit of blogging goes down.”

But there is much potential among these bloggers. Read what Ong`eng`e wrote about Tribalism destroying the national unity:

No one chose or applied to be born into a specific tribe. It all happened as God chose it to be….when will ‘TRIBALISM’ ever end in Kenya? This is the question that troubles and linger the air around every mind of a Kenyan citizen…

It is so painful to walk into an office only to be asked what tribe you belong to. In schools and colleges, the level of interaction and socialization has been reduced, leaving many feeling alienated from the world. I have seen experienced employees go without jobs, long time friend break up and neighbours and friends turn against one other as lives are brutally extinguished by tribalism.

[…]

We should wake up, set our differences aside and work to build a united nation.

Meanwhile Collins Dennis Oduor posted about two magnet theater outreach efforts in Hilton and in Nakuru women prison.

You might be interested to watch the video of the performances. Dennis also reports:

“The members of the organization who are theatre practitioners in the community enjoy the project because they are using the equipments to capture photos during the community theatre outreaches. They have also done enough community theatre outreach videos the only challenge is how to blog the videos because it takes very log to upload a video clip here due to the slow internet connection.”

So it is evident that access to Internet is a challenge and I hope they will be able to overcome this problem soon. Those who are interested to help this project can come forward to help them sustain their costly internet connection or donating more mobile modems and computers.

Thumbnail Image: Ong`eng`e

In the last week of July REPACTED had a workshop on report writing and blogging in their project office in Nakuru, Kenya. From their project blog in Rising Voices:

After a long search finally REPACTED has found the right person to train the community on how to video blog, also the trained members have been bringing feed back and are compiling a magazine to be distributed to the community while each of them will have there own blog, they have been shy on blogging wondering where they will get content but after reading blogs from other people they are becoming more and more confident in there respective areas of specialty by the end of this month we will have different bloggers joining the forum.

Eighteen participants attended and they were prepared for the blogging lessons. Dennis informed that next week they will be having another workshop.

Here are some of the pictures of their magnet theater activities:

Image Credit: Dennis Kimambo

Here is a video of Collins Oduor speaking on REPACTED at the Global Voices Summit in Budapest:

REPACTED was also awarded the MTV and The Body Shop Staying Alive winner in June 2008.

Denis Kimambo attended the recently concluded Mexico 2008 AIDS conference. He was amazed by the use of citizen media tools by the youth delegates:

“What’s more noticeable to me then the official visitors - is how many youth delegates here have cellphones, cameras, computers, etc, and are constantly creating media. Each session flashes are going off and people are capturing video on their cellphones.”

We hope the youths in Nakuru will be able to use citizen media tools soon to tell their stories. We are looking forward to reading their blogs and learn more about the youths of Nakuru.

In the opening remarks of the summit Global Voices Co-founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon discussed how Global Voices has been working to go beyond the blogging world of elites to promote other voices from other parts of the world.

Rebecca was almost brought to tears during the Rising Voices project presentation and said:

After Global Voices was created, there has always been concern by many people in our community that blogospheres in most countries are dominated by wired elites - and that unless we conduct more active outreach, Global Voices is really “Global Elite Voices.” Rising voices it our first stab at addressing that problem.

The session titled Web 2.0 Goes Worldwide was moderated by Lova Rakotomalala, and Catalina Restrepo (HiperBarrio, Colombia), Collins Dennis Oduor (REPACTED, Kenya), Cristina Quisbert (Voces Bolivianas, Bolivia), Mialy Andriamananjara (FOKO, Madagascar) gave speach. It was live blogged by Rebecca Wanjiku.

Ethan wrote in his blog that he is blown away every time he reads about the work the Rising Voices grantees are doing. He writes:

Collins Oduor, from the REPACTED community theatre project in Nakuru, Kenya, starts his presentation with a story - to paraphrase:

A young girl is very sociable and likes to play with all the children in the village. Her mother is worried that she’s too friendly and doesn’t want her playing with the boys in the village. So she tells her daughter, “You can’t climb trees with the boys because they will look up your dress and see your underpants.” So the next day, the girl takes off her underpants and climbs the tree.

Oduor ends his story with the single word, “Communication” and the room breaks into laughter. REPACTED specializes in communicating through community theatre.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellin, Colombia, presents in Spanish, translated by Jules Rincon. The focus of the HiperBarrio project is to transform the image of the communities of La Loma and Santo Domingo. Both communities have historically been viewed as violent slums, places that no one should visit. By letting people in their communities who tells local stories, they’re challenging the impressions people have of these neighborhoods, and are starting to see visitors from both Medellin and around the world who want to learn about these communities.

Mialy Andriamananjara is one of the coordinators of the remarkable Global Voices Malagasy, and a co-founder of FOKO Madagascar. The project is encouraging high school, college and journalism students to explore citizen media. This is a challenge, given both digital divide issues (the cost of connectivity, frequent electrical blackouts) and perception issues. Blogging is seen as an activity that isn’t very serious, and that Malagasy community frowns on people “standing out” through writing online. But the project has been very effective at technology training and in helping people break into journalism. It’s had some unexpected side effects as well - one of the FOKO groups ended up organizing the first translation and performance of the Vagina Monologues in Malagasy. Another project, “Helping Kamba“, called attention to child who was born with a severe deformity.

Voices Bolivianas, led by Cristina Quisbert and Eduardo Avilla, focuses on the voices of indigenous people, especially indigenous women in Bolivia. Cristina explains that there are strong tensions between the majority indigenous population in Bolivia and the Spanish-speaking minority. In digital spaces, people who speak languages like Aymara are much less well represented than Spanish-speakers. Cristina’s blog, Bolivia Indigena, focuses on these issues, and Voices Bolivianas is working to try to get more people writing and talking about these issues.

The Danish daily Politiken.dk published an article on Rising Voices titled “It gives voice to the neglected people“. The paper quotes Cristina:

“I do it because none of the Bolivian newspapers and mass media bother. There are over 30 different indigenous peoples in this country, but their voices will only be heard in the blogs.”

And Mialy:

“We do not just want to be known by the Madagascar lemurs (brought to fame by the animation film ‘Madagascar') but will make the world aware of our island and our people.”

David Sasaki translates another article by blogger journalist Rosa Jiménez Cano published in ElPais.com. Read it for more perspectives.

Patrick Philippe Meier writes an article on the session in his blog iRevolution.

Victoria Stodden notes:

At the end of the panel, the question was asked ‘how can we help?’ The answer was perhaps surprising, although money is always welcome what is needed is skills. Specifically, people with web design or IT skills can come and stay with a blogging community for a week or two and teach people how to do things like design a web page, display their wares online, essentially support people in computer use.

We will be bringing to you opinions and reactions on the work that Rising Voices does. But first a round of applause for these projects and the great panelists who gave a prominent exposure of Rising Voices to the world.