Rising Voices » Voces Bolivianas

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.

Voces Bolivianas: The Future of the Young City of El Alto

Rezwan — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:25:51 +0000

The bloggers of the virtual community Jaqi Aru, which is spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, have started a meme titled “La Ciudad del Alto y del futuro” (The Future of the Young City of El Alto). The members of this community asked for contributions from students from the Public University of El Alto to provide their thoughts on their city. El Alto is a large suburb of the city of La Paz with an estimated population of approximately 900,000 residents. It has been growing ever since it became separated from La Paz in 1985, and it recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Nahir Nina Cerezo writes:

Hoy EL Alto presenta una nueva cara e imagen, es conocida como la ciudad más joven de Bolivia, en su estructura se puede observar un repentino progreso y amplio crecimiento en su población. Es la ciudad más alta del mundo admirable por su extensa planicie y hermosa vista hacia alrededores, como montañas, cerros y llanuras, tal parece que encontrase a los pies del Illimani, Illampu, Huayna Potosí, Chacaltaya, Mururata que están engalanados de vestidura blanca y resplandeciente.

Today, El Alto has a new face and image, it is known as the youngest city in Bolivia, where a sudden progress and widespread growth in population can be seen in its structure. It is the highest city in the world remarkable for its extensive plains and beautiful view towards its surroundings, like mountains, hills, and plains, which can be found at the foot of (the peaks) Illimani, Illampu, Huayna Potosi, Chacaltaya, Mururata which are covered in a bright and white wardrobe.

El Alto attracts many migrants from the Bolivian Altiplano, who search for better working and education opportunities. Javier Zepita Quispe writes about these migrant workers:

En esta ciudad se puede ver migrantes de todo lugar por ejemplo: Personas humilde , pobres de bajo recurso pero trabajadores , porque ellos migran de los distintos pueblos es por eso que la ciudad del alto se considera gente luchadora y trabajadora.

En esta ciudad tan plano y grande , además frió y viento existe en los cerro enormes como el Wayna Potosí y el Illimani que casi cubre toda la ciudad con un manto blanco en donde atrae turista de todo el mundo para poder observar las casas que deslindan de los cerro y hoteles parques hermoso prueba de eso se puede ver en las calles que nosotros caminamos todos los días.

In this city, one can see migrants from everywhere, for example: humble people, poor, but working people, because they migrate from different communities and that is why the residents of El Alto are considered to be fighters and workers.

In this flat and large city, in addition to the cold and wind there are large mountains like the Wayna Potosí and Illimani that almost covers the entire city with a white blanket that attracts tourists from around the world to see the houses that sit along the mountain and the hotels and beautiful parks that we can see along the streets that we walk every day.

Snow mountain - El Alto, La Paz.Image via flickr user By Szymon Kochański. CC BY-NC-ND

Nely Limachi Cocarico has high hopes for the city:

En el futuro “El Alto” será una ciudad inmenso, porque es una ciudad grande y con mucha gente. Con el esfuerzo que tienen las personas cambiará en muchas cosas. Por ejemplo: sus casas serán más modernas, habrán escuelas, colegios, universidades, hospitales modernos, las calles y avenidas serán adoquinadas o asfaltadas y limpios.

In the future, “El Alto” will be a huge city because it a big city with many people. With the effort from people, many things will change. For example: its houses will be modern, there will be schools, colleges, universities, modern hospitals, and the streets and avenues will be clean and paved or cobbled.

However, Román Salazar Luna is skeptical about the future and sees that there are still a lot of problems facing its people:

Queridos señores auditores, cómo poder pensar que esta ciudad es el futuro de Bolivia. Si a diario vemos en el casco central de esta ciudad, personas rompiéndose el lomo para conseguir unos cuantos pesos, se van agarrándose a las patadas con los peatones en las calles. Y no olvidemos a las mañaneras que van retornando a sus hogares junto con la salida del astro rey, desde luego alimentarse y continuar con la cotidianidad de la vida, trabajando como las hormigas obreras. Puesto que, esto no es todo, si a menudo del día se ve fiestas por doquier y con ella la borrachera, y que hay de los niños y jóvenes, acaso ellos no están expuestos a aprender estas actitudes, pues si analizamos con delicadeza esta cuestión, entonces vemos que ellos si están expuestos a adquirir las culturas tan maliciosas de la vida. Entonces ¿Por qué algunos pregonan que los niños son el futuro de seta ciudad y de Bolivia?

Dear readers, how can one think that this city is the future of Bolivia? If on a daily basis we see in the city center people breaking their backs to earn a few pesos, they hold onto the legs of the pedestrians in the streets. And let us not forget the early morning returnees to their homes when the sun comes out, who after eating breakfast continues with their daily routine, working like worker ants. And that is not all, as we see every day the parties and with that the drunkenness, and what about the children and teenagers, are they not exposed to learn these attitudes, and if we delicately analyze this question, then we see that they are exposed to acquire these malicious life habits. So, why should we say that the children are the future of this city and of Bolivia?

Rising Voices Bloggers On Blog Action Day 2010

Rezwan — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:54:37 +0000

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. This year's theme is ‘water'.

Some participants/facilitators of the Rising Voices grantee organizations have also participated in this event. Let us look at some of their efforts.

Juliana Rincon from Hiperbarrio, Colombia writes [es] about spending too much water on washing clothes and bathing because of daily workouts at a Gym:

Obviously spending a LOT of water. Because even when filling the tank to a minimum I have to look for more clothes to wash, just because there are 3 rags floating in the water. So today I put my hand on the heart and the other in my pocket and went to buy more clothes for workouts. [..]

Moreover, multiple showers in the day also are pushing up and raising the water meter. So I've decided to give up my habits and [..] I bathe once a day, after exercise. [..]

Because if it is so easy to save water, there can be nothing more I need. (machine translation)

Water Scarcity in the Southern Parts Of Madagascar. Image courtesy Ariniania

Ariniaina from Foko Madagascar writes about an innovative method to purify water:

I heard that in the Southern part of Madagascar, people really suffer from lack of water. This zone is dry. People have to walk for kilometers to find water which is not even clean. Some people had even the idea to market clean water at a very high price.

One of my friend shared a simple method to disinfect water during our English Club meeting. I believe it can be a good idea to share it here today. The method is called SODIS (Solar water disinfection).

Avylavitra from Foko Madagascar talks about protecting water resources and the importance of distribution of safe drinking water:

Water is very, very expensive. Plus, the South part of Madagascar is suffering of lack of water. They must buy water far away of their house, and then bring it back home on a cart pulled by donkeys.

Therefore, moderate use of water is needed, we shouldn’t waste water, and should keep it drinking.

* The “Re-use of wastewater to water the rice fields, after filtering it successively with charcoal and sand “.

* There is no latrine, or better toilets. In the case of Southern area of Madagascar, they suffer of the lack of water. They need to buy water brought to them by car, or cart pulled by donkeys because there is no local water source. There’s mostly desert.

What attitude to adopt to avoid this kind of pollution? Image courtesy Avylavitra

Cristina Quisbert from Voces Volivianas, Bolivia writes:

“There will be no water from 13:00 am to 20:00 …” read the statement the local water company in La Paz in March 2008. The reason was that maintenance should be done after the pipeline of the Hampaturi Plant borke, which provides drinking water to the south, east and south east of La Paz.

I remember that for three weeks, 25 districts of the (La Paz) city had no regular water supply. Several high water tanks were located in these areas. However, receiving water in this way involved an additional problem for these families, carrying water in buckets, cans, etc.. [..]

This difficulty still persists and several families still are unable to have drinking water at home, not only in La Paz, but also in other cities in Bolivia. This is because the sources of water formed by melting of the mountains as in the case of Hampaturi are disappearing, and at any time they will be unable to supply the growing population of El Alto and La Paz. (machine translation)

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Voces Bolivianas: Jaqi Aru, Spreading Aymara In Internet

Rezwan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:34:43 +0000

Aymara is a Native American language and one of the official languages of Peru and Bolivia. There are roughly two million Aymara speakers in Bolivia and almost three million in total in South America. Members of Rising Voices grantee Voces Bolivianas realized that in internet there are less materials available in their mother tongue Aymara. Ruben Hilary, 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.

Aymara has gradually lost speakers both to Spanish and to Quechua in the past century and many Aymara speakers now speak Quechua, another South American native language. Mario Duran notes an interesting fact:

Bolivia and Peru have the highest Aymara-speaking population, but Chile, with a a lot smaller Aymara-speaking population has a greater number of web pages in Aymara.

So why is it worth learning Aymara and posting contents online? Sentir Bolivia writes [es]:

There is much interest, both by Bolivian locals and diaspora. We want to show that the Aymara language is more alive than ever, which lives in the hearts of our people. That is not a dead language, it is appropriate and in constant motion.

Here is a video presentation [es] by Ruben Hilare and Edwin Quispe at the Barcamp Santa Cruz.

Ruben Hilary at Global Voices Citizen Media Conference. Image courtesy Pawliszak Krzysztof

Ruben Hilary of Jaqi Aru and Voces Bolivianas has also started the Aymara translation page of Global Voices. In the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile last May, Ruben Hilary discussed about the Jaqi Aru project in a session titled “Indigenous languages online - challenges and opportunities”. Here is an excerpt from the session note by Eduardo Avila:

The goal of the Jaqi Aru project is to increase the presence of Aymara on the internet through 5 main activities, one of which is translations for the Lingua project site Global Voices in Aymara. Volunteers have been translating articles from Global Voices in Spanish for the past 7 months. In addition, the group has a collective blog site, uses web 2.0 tools like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, has been learning to subtitle videos on the platform DotSub, and has been starting to participate in the Wikipedia in Aymara community.

This is important for young people and when they look for information. They don't find a lot of information in Aymara and to make it available online. In addition, working with Wikipedia in Aymara may make it easier for people in the rural parts of the country access information in their own language through the use of offline capabilities. [..]

Q. What are the Aymara young people writing about?

Most of the members of the Jaqi Aru project live in the city of El Alto, which is a city comprised of migrants from the Altiplano. Some have moved to the city as young adults, others as children, and still others were born in the city. However, everyone has relatives in their communities of origin. Often they return home for festivities or to visit relatives, and they often write about their communities. There are some amazing pictures taken by some of the members that tourists or other Bolivians do not have access to, and that is reflected in the group blog.

Here are a few pictures of the activities of Jaqi Aru from Voces Bolivianas & Jaqi Aru Flickr pages:

Ruben Hilary in a press conference, which took place last month

A presentation of Jaqi Aru

The Jaqi Aru Team

Voces Bolivianas: From The Blogosphere

Rezwan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:32:01 +0000

In our latest feature on Voces Bolivianas, the Rising Voices grantee from Bolivia, we will highlight some blogposts from its network of bloggers.

Cristina Quisbert at Bolivia Indigena writes about a protest March by indigenous Bolivians:

Earlier last week began a march of Indigenous people on the way to La Paz, whose main demand was indigenous autonomy. About 500 marchers set off from different places like Trinidad, Beni. [machine translation]

Read the post [es] for details.

Mario Duran at Palabrtas Libres took pictures of the 16th July traditional parade of the Folk merchants:

Image courtesy Mario Duran

Mario Duran also highlights the blog of Yerba Mala Cartonera, a writers community project, which publishes books of new young authors who cannot find the space for the their publication. The book covers are made of aesthetic cardboards and made by young recyclers.

RC - The entrance to the literary elite Bolivian becomes very difficult for young Bolivians writers, and more coming from El Alto. The Bolivian literary circle feeds on itself, it works with the old system of patronage and almost no attention has been paid to the project Yerba Mala Cartonera. However, I feel that somehow, Yerba Mala has begun to annoy those closed circles, and they have become concerned. They realize that in El Alto has begun to generate other literature. (read more) [machine translation]

Hugo Miranda celebrates publishing of 50,000 Tweets in his Twitter account @angelcaido666x - this is surely a feat. On this occasion he interviewed Graciela Ventimiglia, a bio technology professor and a blogger and a prolific Twitter user of Latin America.

@Graciadelcielo

Graciela Ventimiglia
Charata-Chaco-Argentina
http://graciadelcielo.com/
Bio Technology Profe. Agnostic, apolitical, mental stripper, samurai spelling, something geek, abarcóloga, UPWARD compatible, multitasking, fun and fearless.

2,116 Following,

4,581 Followers,

414 Listed.

“Graciela Ventimiglia, surely retweets people more, if their tweets are fun, and contains interesting information, because it teaches us things …Finally the interview with her is posted here.”

First Why the name graciadelcielo?

This is what my name means. Later I found out it was a little long, but it was too late to change it.

Who is Graciela Ventimiglia? What she does? What are you

I am 53 years old, the only daughter in charge of my two elderly parents. I am divorced with two daughters, Marisol (25) and Maribel (22), remarried with #husband with whom we adopted a baby (of 17 days): Marilis, now 6.

How long and why you use Twitter?

I am using Twitter since January 2008 and at first did not know what to do there. Without knowing, @laquesefue prompted my desire to follow, was my mentor for much of my personality teaching, even though she is a Social Media evangelist and I am not. But she admired my way and helped me a lot when I had only three followers.

[machine translation]

Rising Voices And World Cup

Rezwan — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:29:22 +0000

“Soccer is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated. It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening–it is without doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented” - Unknown

People say that the World Cup soccer (football) is a truly International event. The bloggers of many Rising Voices projects across continents have written about it to show their passion.

Ariniaina from Madagascar writes in her blog Dago Tiako how Malagasy kids are inspired by the World Cup:

Last saturday, while waiting for the ICE Club meeting, in the playground of EPP (Public Primary School) Analakely, I was attracted by children’s shouts of joy. They were 5 guys and 1 girl playing football. Their ball was special. They made it by themselves. They winded a rope round some used plastic bags and pieces of rag and that’s it. They seemed to have their own rules but repeated from time to time , I guess, words they could hear on radio or TV ‘corner’ and ‘penalty’. They were so cute:

Lova Rakotomalala writes how Africans are coping with Ghana's loss against Uruguay ending all hopes for an African nation from reaching the world cup finals.

Despair city, a whole continent gasping in disbelief.

Pablo Flores from Uruguay uploaded some stunning pictures of the world cup football craze in Uruguay as fans gathered to watch the Ghana Uruguay game in big screens:

Jonathan Alvarez from Blogging Since Infancy project is delighted:

Uruguay among the top four in the world!

From Bolivia Hugo Miranda comments on the loss of Brazil in the hands of Netherlands:

This is football

Brazil played beautifully the first 12 minutes, with a touch of ball, with turns, to the attack. Robinho was disallowed a goal which was a warning that the goal came at 10 minutes, Robinho made him an excellent filtering before Felipe Melo.

Then started another game, many faults, very nervous, Brazil lets it go, many complaints, though it made some good moves, but not topped.

The second half we saw another Netherlands: Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, finally and played a large stand, Robben failures, win, rush and Brazil fell in the game ..

Netherlands 0-1 Brazil

Simão | MySpace Video

Read the Global Voices special coverage to learn about the impact of World Cup 2010 across the world.

Voces Bolivianas: Ushahidi Platform For Election Reporting

Rezwan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:35:33 +0000

During the Bolivian general elections on December 6, 2009 a number of Bolivian netizens used Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook to share their perspectives of the election. Members of Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices), the Rising Voices grantee from El Alto, Bolivia, joined other Bolivian netizens for Elecciones Bolivia 2.0 citizen media coverage and we reported that.

Today (April 4th) Bolivians are voting again to elect governors and mayors of different departments and municipalities. This time Elecciones Bolivia 2.0 has gone a bit advanced and they have deployed the USAHIDI platform, which is a system based on free software for people to report using multiple tools like sms, email, twitter, web etc. The goal is to invite citizen journalists to report on election campaigns, incidents on election day, personal stories related to election, irregularities about voting process, results of vote etc. The project is also looking for accredited bloggers:

By writing posts for at least 3 paragraphs, with photos and / or videos, you can be an accredited blogger.

When you're on the list of accredited and write a blog post about the elections, the label must include eligeBO. And the system will “pull” the post and publish it on the site.

Hugo Miranda explains how to submit a report in Elecciones Bolivia 2.0:

Go to the http://elecciones2.0bolivia.com/ site and click on this icon:

This will take you to the 3rd step. In this url http://elecciones2.0bolivia.com/ushahidi/reports/submit you will see a form. It is now a matter of filling it with the most pertinent information possible, you can also can upload photos.

And presto: D

There are also options:

For SMS:Send a message to the number 73289385

By e-mail: Send an email to contacto@elecciones2.0bolivia.com

By twitter:Write a message with the hashtag #eligeBO and indicate from where you are, for example, Santa Cruz #SC La Paz #LP.

On Facebook: Join the Facebook page, and write a message.

On the web site: Click on “Post your message”, fill out the form and send it. Remember to mention the city where you are.

Uploaded pictures on Twitpic are appearing in the Elecciones Bolivia 2.0 site.

Twitpic from Andreags: In these elections they do not use indelible ink. Strange that no scandal emerged eligeBo # # Santa Cruz

Mario Duran is updating information about the election in his blog.

Twitpic from Hugo Miranda: Another voting booth at Colegiio San Martin #LP #eligeBO

Edgar informs about another citizen journalism project to report about the election.

Here are some Twitter messages from Voces Bolivianas members:

Boliviaindigena: Although there are lists pasted on the wall of the polling centers in addition to sketches, some people can not find their names. # eligeBO

Boliviaindigena: One positive side of Elections in Bolivia April 4. No vehicles. Silence and peace. That is Good for Our Health.

Jessicaolivares: I am going to school Mary Vaca Diez to cast my vote and will continue with the voting day # eligeBO # SC

Please check out the Elecciones Bolivia 2.0 site for the latest updates.

Note: All translations are done using machine translation

Featured Blogger: Edgar Andres Yana Lisme

Rezwan — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:49:44 +0000

“I want to make my province known” asserts blogger Edgar Andres Yana Lisme, who was born on November 10, 1974 in Chaguaya village in the Camacho province of Bolivia. He is a naturally curious man and a self-learner. He went to the Francisco Beltrán Díaz school in Chaguaya and later attended the Germán Busch High School in night shifts. In 2003 he started studying in the Department of Education Sciences in the Chaguaya campus of the Public University of El Alto.

In January 2008 Edgar joined a blog outreach workshop organized by the Rising Voices grantee Voces Bolivianas, which took place in El Alto. And this has changed his life. He does not have internet or mobile signal in his village on the Altiplano. But he travels to El alto (about 2 hours away from home) to upload content to his blog, his twitter account, his Facebook account and his Flickr account. And if you did not know this information you could barely make out from his prolific online activities what challenges he face to be online.

A lot of people would give up engaging in social media and citizen journalism when they have no internet access in their community. But Edgar prepares his contents offline and uploads at a later date when he goes to El Alto.

We caught up with him with an interview by email, which was translated by Eduardo Avila.

Edgar with other participants in an workshop in El Alto

* What was the first impression of the workshops and blogging in general?

“me causo impresion ya que hasta entonces no tenia conocimiento del uso de los blogs y otros servidores. que para entonces era muy extraño conocer dicho servicio.”

I was impressed because I did not have knowledge of the use of blogs and other tools. At the time, it was strange to learn about that service.

* Tell us about your blog. Why did you choose the title NUESTRA CULTURA PRIMERO (Our culture First)?

“las personas hacemos cultura todos los dias de nuestra vida sea cual sea la actividad por ese el nombre.”

People are a part of culture every day of our lives which is the activity for that name.

Edgar with someone in the village during a festival

* How blogging has changed your life?

“bueno me hago conocer bastante en mi provincia, claro los contactos que tengo es que siempre las instituciones que tengan el servcio de internet, y por otro lado cuando las personas llegan a la ciuda y visitan mi blog entre otros. por lo cual me piden noticias, costumbres de la region en cuanto a mi provincia.”

I make my province known, the contacts that I have are always the institutions that provide internet service, and on the other hand, when people arrive to the city and visit my blogs. They ask for news, customs from the region and province.

* What is your impression about citizen media conferences like Bloguivianos and Barcamps.

“cuando asisti fue que por primera vi el enlace directo con personas migrantes de España Estados Unidos, Mexico, contandonos sus vivencias entre otros. el barcamp es un espacio donde una persona puede exponer su tematica libremente.”

When I attended the Bloguivianos workshop for the first time, I saw the the direct link with migrant communities in Spain, United States, Mexico, telling about their experiences. The BarCamp was a place where one can freely present their topic.

All Saints festivities in Chaguaya. Image from Edgar's Flickr.

* What do you want to achieve with your blogging?

“es hacer mas contactos, con personalidades de todo el mundo, ser copetente en mis aarticulos que escribo.”

To make more contacts with people from all over the world, to be competent in the articles that I write.

* What is your future plan regarding the use of citizen media?

“es difundir y llegar a la mayor poblacion de mi provincia camacho especialmente a los estudiantes, con seminarios, talleres, entre otros, referente al uso de los blogs, twitters, facebokk, picasa, entre otros servidores.”

It is to spread and reach the most people from my province, Camacho, especially to the students, with seminars, workshops, among others, about the use of blogs, twitter, Facebook, picassa, and other tools.

Edgar is so committed in his cause that he has been working with the local authorities to set up a Tele-center (public space with computer access). The project has been delayed, but he is still holding out for that.

In his blog he writes about the local cultures and explains different rituals. He writes about the problems of the society and addresses to the authorities how to have a solution for them. He shares this letter to a mother from an anonymous abortive child which is so moving. There are many bloggers in the world like Edgar who, embracing citizen media, are fighting all the odds to share with the world about their challenges - the world barely notices.

Voces Bolivianas: Carnival And Jaqi Aru

Rezwan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:47:04 +0000

Eduardo Avila. Image Courtesy Luis Carlos Diaz

Los Tiempos, a periodical from Cochabamba, Bolivia, recently took an interview of Eduardo Avila of Voces Bolivianas project. Here is an excerpt:

The project began developing workshops in El Alto, where we there were three blogs in a city of over half a million inhabitants. Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices) then performed the same work in Plan 3000 in Santa Cruz, Oruro and Tiquipaya (Cochabamba).

Avila admits that the work was not easy, because few people have Internet access at home. For this reason most of the classes were given at Internet cafes.

From these digital literacy workshops, a new project called Jaqi-Aru was created, which is a virtual community promoting the use of Aymara on the Internet. There are 12 people under the leadership of linguist Ruben Hilari Quispe, who voluntarily translate texts from other languages into Spanish and Aymara.

Los Tiempos also quoted Hilari and Quispe:

“In Bolivia there are 2.5 million speakers of Aymara and in South America there are an estimated 5 million, but there is very little material in our language. That's why the 12 people on the team are dedicated to selecting one or two articles each month and put them on the website www.jaqi-aru.org,” said Hilari. “Through the Internet we also raise awareness of the knowledge, science and culture that developed the Aymara language and that only scholars know,” says Edwin Quispe Quispe, who belongs to the Jaqi-Aru team.

Images courtesy Cristina Quisbert

Cristina Quisbert at Bolivia Indigena writes about the Martes De Ch'alla celebrations:

For this long carnival in the streets of El Alto and other cities, you can find the supplies needed to perform this ritual of being in relationship with mother earth. Nearby, one can find flowers of different colors, a bunch for 1 Boliviano (national currency) with a yapa (extra) included. Similarly, confetti in white, yellow, blue, pink and other colors, large and small, a pound of grades for 4 Bolivians or in bags of two, four or five Bolivianos. Also, alcohol or artisanal wine to be used to pour in the four corners of a property or house. Others prefer to buy streamers, balloons, flags or other decorations.

She shares a video of the forgotten songs being performed at the stage on the occasion of the carnival.

Alberto Medrano at El Alto Noticias posts a series of articles and videos of the carnival:

* Shanyra Zabala, El Alto Carnival Queen 2010

* Carnival in Bolivia: Corocoro “Cradle of C'UT”

* Images of the carnival in the Andean city of El Alto

Image Courtesy El Alto Noticias

Hugo Miranda also writes about the carnival in Oruro.

Mario R. Duran at Palabras Libres blog informs that a BarCamp in El Alto is shceduled on March 13, 2010. The venue will be the Universidad Publica de El Alto.

Eduardo Avila helped with the translation from Spanish.

Voces Bolivianas: Barcamp In Santa Cruz

Rezwan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:47:20 +0000

Participants of Barcamp Santa Cruz. Image courtesy Hugo Miranda.

On Saturday, January 16, 2010 over 100 participants across Bolivia participated in Barcamp Santa Cruz which was supported by the Rising Voices grantee Voces Bolivianas. The event took place at the Convention Hall of the CAINCO, located on Avenida Las Americas No. 7 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Eduardo Ávila informs:

Several members of the Voces Bolivianas community across the country played key roles in the event, including the two principle organizers, Anne Arrázola and Jessica Olivares, both of whom have coordinated workshops in Santa Cruz.

Hugo Miranda, VB’s technical coordinator, gave one of the keynote addresses where he shared his life experiences in the world of web 2.0. He shared the history of Voces Bolivianas with the audience from its early beginnings in 2007.

Mario Durán also gave a presentation via Skype from his home in El Alto about the project WiFi El Alto.

The photos of the event can be found here at the event's Flickr account. The streaming video of the event was live transmitted by Mario Duran.

Hugo Miranda reports that:

It was a great joy to meet so many people, and to meet again with so many friends there, what the Internet really has allowed me is to have many, many friends in Santa Cruz and beyond.

Here is a video of Hugo's presentation titled ‘From user 1.0 to user 2.0 and the internet' [es]:

Usuario 1.0 a Usuario 2.0 - Barcamp Santa Cruz 2010
by angelcaido666x

Catalina Restrepo from Hiperbarrio also presented at the event, which was reported by Eduardo Avila earlier.

Mario Duran also reports that a barcamp in Cochabamba was also held on the 30th of January 2010.

We end today's feature with a short interview [es] with a Bolivian immigrant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jackeline Mariaca which was taken by Eduardo Ávila. She is active in the cultural group Pachakuti, which helps maintain Bolivian traditions abroad with the teaching of such folkloric dances like the Tinku.

Entrevista con Jackeline Mariaca from eduardo ávila on Vimeo.

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