Meeting with the Russian Delegation

A few days ago activists from the harm reduction movement in Russia visited Kiev to learn from their Ukrainian colleagues – leaders from the community of people living with drug addiction, and representatives of the Association of Substitution Therapy Participants. The main event of the meeting was a visit to one of Kiev’s methadone substitution therapy sites. Blogger mimozza described the visit on the Drop-in Center blog.

In Ukraine the government and health care authorities have supported substitution therapy programs as a way of decreasing the spread of HIV, but the Russian government has rejected the public health program, citing a belief that replacing one drug with another can’t be considered medical treatment. For many years Russian harm reduction activists have been fighting for the legalization of methadone programs, but have yet to achieve any noticeable results.   

Mimozza goes on to describeher first impressions of meeting the Russian delegation of substitution therapy activists:

 It seemed that it was a meeting of two separate worlds. One world was one reality, the other was its mirrored reflection. In Russia, even combining the words “harm reduction” is considered to be a crime; something that discredits the dignity of “hard working Russian people”… 

After listening of many horrifying stories from Russia we desperately wanted to show the guests something which is not yet attainable for them – how substitution therapy works in practice. So we took them to the methadone site.

At the beginning the group was not received well on the site. Mimozza explains:

On the metahdone site

 We went to the methadone site on the weekend. Out of all medical personnel there was only one nurse, and many patients. At first the substitution therapy patients in line did not even want to let us in. Our explanation that we wanted to show the site to our guests from Russia did not help. We were totally ignored… So, despite the “ Ukrainians' well-known hospitality”, all twenty of us had to stand in line like everybody else….

 When the delegation finally entered the site, the nurse welcomed them as a delegation from Canada, not Russia. After laughing about this, our guests were able to explore how the methadone site worked.

Mimozza reported:

The nurse seemed to be a bit upset that the guests were not from Canada, but later on she switched into pure Russian and let the representatives of Russian delegation, including a journalist from Moskovskiy Komsomolets see and touch the bottles containing “the mortal drug Methadone” and film everything they wanted.  

The guests were impressed how easy everything works. Just come, receive a few pills and go. Super!

 The only question the Russian guest asked after the visit was why the patients were so aggressive. Mimozza explained:

I had to tell them the whole story of how substitution therapy has been implemented. I explained that the idea of the therapy has as many supporters and opponents. There are only three sites in a city of more than 3 million residents. The police come regularly. Often representatives of media who ask to film on the site and record interviews with the patients end up producing very negative and untruthful stories and videos. That is why the patients are fairly negative toward strangers. After all, it is easy to understand their feelings. They are waiting for their treatment , it is the weekend, they have to stay in a line, and the medication they receive is not the best available ….

But at the same time, every patient is ready to come to the site every single day and it does not matter how far the site is. It is better than waking in the morning with horror and only one thought: where to get money for a dose, what to steal, or what else to sell from home.

Yes, the replacement therapy in Ukraine is developing, but the environment is not easy. We would like to change many aspects of the program and we believe that we will able to do this. We are positive that our Ukrainian harm reduction program will be successful.

 At the end of the post Mimozza gives her advice to Russian friends:

I wish success to my Russian brothers. The main thing is not only to convince the elite that it is impossible to stop HIV/AIDS epidemic with repression toward drug addict and pro-Nazi experiments with sick people, but also to gain a support from ordinary citizens….

Now it is unthinkable to stop spreading inflectional diseases among injection drug users without harm reduction programs that also include syringe exchanges, motivational counseling …

The only reasonable solution is the wide introduction of complex solutions that make up the harm reduction program, of which substitution therapy is a vital element. This way it is possible to stop the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculoses, which is growing fast in both of our countries.

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

Pavel Kutsev is the co-founder of Drop-In Center, a Ukrainian organization which advocates for the rights of the injection drug user communication and for better national policy related to substitution therapy. In this video he gives us a basic introduction to the “harm reduction from injection drug use” movement, and summarizes the outcomes of a recent conference in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine which sought to establish a national network of harm reduction activists.

• Download MPEG4 Video (.m4v)
• Download Flash Video (.flv)
• Subscribe to Rising Voices Videos in iTunes

Joan Razafimaharo summarizes some of the achievements so far by the FOKO Bloggers:

• FOKO promoted Citizen Journalism during the 2009 Political unrest in Madagascar.
• FOKO's effort in promoting ICT in Education was mentioned in local media.
• FOKO's efforts in promoting social activism in fighting against poverty and climate change got international recognition.

In a latest report Joan reports on the people behind FOKO's success:

There are now bloggers who didn’t have mailbox before a FBC workshop who are very active on our Facebook/Google group mailing lists! There are bloggers who were very shy, who are now updating their blogs regularly! If there is a topic or an event important to be reported (and most of the time forgotten by mainstream media), you can be sure a Foko blogger will write a post, publish a picture, update his Twitter, tell it on Facebook or simply let the word out.

Since January 2009 FOKO Blog Club posted a series of interviews with its bloggers celebrating their first anniversary of blogging. Now let us meet through these interviews some of the enthusiastic and brilliant Malagasy Bloggers who are driving the success of FOKO blog Club.

Tahina:
Tahina, the Malagasy geek, has started blogging in English one year ago with his ICE Club mates. He was also active behind the Ushahidi-Foko and covered the political unrest in Madagascar in his blog.

The name of his blog is Madagascar Not The Movie. His latest blog posts include articles on swine flu outbreak in Madagascar, Afrobasket women championship and recycling and waste management.

You can read his interview here.

Jaona:

Jaona Rakotoarisioa (25) from Fianarantsoa was invited to the Global Forum on ICT and Innovation For Education in Monterrey, Mexico organized by the United Nations and the Global Alliance for ICT and Development.

He blogs in English and French. His interview can be found here.

Ariniaina:

Ariniaina from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar started blogging on September 21, 2008 and emerged as a prolific blogger. The name of her blog is “Dago Tiako”. She explains:

Dago is a nickname given to Madagascar (especially used by Malagasy people living abroad) and Tiako means “I love”.

She celebrates the first anniversary of her blog and remembers:

September 21,2008, DagoMC, Moonlightgirl, Fara, Moma, Tahina, Andry and I were then invited to join the workshop led by David Sasaki and Joan who showed us the way to create a blog. And today, I am thankful to  Joan, David Sasaki, Lova, Tahina, Andry, and all FOKO.

September 21, 2009. What have I realized???

• 103 posts
• 439 comments
• 16,574 hits
• 98 fans on Facebook
• 433 tweets and 141 followers on Twitter

Here is her interview with FOKO blog club. Her Flickr account is here.

Andry (Rakotoniana Andriatahiana):

Andry is a Malagasy lawyer and a blogger from Antananarivo. He is an alumni of the ICE English club and blogs in English at “The Cyber Observer“. He shares his views on democracy and is never afraid to use the right words.

Read his interview. Here are his Twitter and Flickr accounts.

Solofo:

Solofo is a journalist from Antsirabe, Madagascar. He is a student of communication of communication at ESSVA (Ecole Supérieure Spécialisée du Vakinankaratra) where FOKO held its 13th workshop. He imparted photography lessons to mid-schools students at the workshop.

He likes to write about issues relating to the youth. Read his interview here.

Moonlight girl:

“Everyone just calls me the “Moon” because my real name is Volana which means the moon in malagasy,” explains blogger Moonlight girl. She had started blogging in September 2008 with her friends at ICE club. She is writing her first novel and she publishes some snippets on her blog. She dedicates her blog to all short story lovers. Here is a teaser for you.

Read her interview here.

Imahaka:

Imahaka is a student of the ESSVA school in in Antsirabe, the capital of Vakinankaratra and also the pillar of Foko Blog Club in the area. he is from Ikongo (former Fort Carnot), a region that lies between Fianarantsoa and Manakara.

He loves to write about Antsirabe which draws little media attention. He blogs in French. Read his interview here.

Patricia Rakotomalala:

Patricia is one of the oldest of the FOKO bloggers who has been blogging since March 2008 from Antananarivo. Patricia Rakotomalala represented FOKO Madagascar at Interdependence Day 2008 in Brussels, Belgium. Watch her presentation in that event. She later gave a presentation about her experience in Brussels at Madagascar's first-ever Barcamp.

Patricia blogs in French at Pati et Toi. Read her interview here.

Patrick:

Patrick is a blogger from Tamatave, Madagascar and writes about the town and and BUEC (Barikadimy’s United English Clubs) activities. He is a student of management at the University of Tamatave. He also works as a local tour guide.

Blogging is his favorite pass time. He blogs in English. Read his interview here.

Lomelle:

Lomelle is a citizen journalist from Mahajanga. Her writings of exceptional quality have been appreciated by the blogosphere and linked by the media for their relevance and activism.

She blogs in French. Read her interview here.

The 2nd annual conference of substitution therapy program participants took place at the beginning of October in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Pavel Kutsev, a director of the organization Drop-In Center, posted a detailed report of the event on his Web blog.

As per tradition, the conference kicked off with a visit to the methadone site so that the delegates could receive their medications. Pavel was impressed by how efficiently things worked at the site, saying:

A bus brought us to a regular municipal clinic, which had a separate entrance for patients of substitution therapy. There was no line at all. A girl with a 3-year-old child entered the methadone office and was out in 3 to 4 minutes. I was wondering whether it was always like this. When my turn came, I also received my medications very quickly and I realized that this is the norm for this site.

Pavel also posted the key points of his presentation at the conference:

Do not keep silent! The main thing for us is not to stay silent. Our voices have already helped accomplish a lot. Look, when we talk about our needs and concerns, even during our meetings, we can support each other. Nobody cares about substitution therapy as much as we do, so we also need to solve our issues ourselves…

…We realized this during our first meeting a year ago and decided to establish an association or a union. During this past year, we have actively worked to implement our plans. We disputed, discussed, negotiated, suggested. And now we have it – the Association of Substitution Therapy Participants…

Pavel also commented on the diversity of people who attended the conference:

When I realized that each region of Ukraine is represented at the conference, I was amazed. Later on I calculated that if one delegate represents hundreds of patients then potentially we have THOUSANDS of supporters. No doubt, we are strong and have a bright future!…

…Today hardly anyone would doubt the power of the association, which might have a 5 digit number of members in the near future. Thus, this association might soon have a very strong influence on the development of Ukrainian drug policy. The main question is, who will control this powerful tool? Do we fully understand our strength? Will we be able to use our consolidation in the right way? I believe the answers to these questions should define the mission of our association.

The conference was attended by a representative from Russia and a few foreign trainers and observers who, in Pavel's opinion, were very professional and knowledgeable. Here's what Pavel wrote about a trainer named Masha Golovanevskaya:

Masha Golovanevskaya not only represented Open Society Institute, but also bought us a fantastic movie, “FIX: The Story of an Addicted City.” The film is about the formation of a world-known organization VANDU, which unites drug addicts from Canada. We started the conference by watching this movie. It was extremely good! We got a copy of it and I promised Masha that I'd do my best to find a way to translate the movie into Russian and post it in our Internet resources so it will be available to everybody.

The second day of the conference was focused on advocacy issues. Pavel Skala, a facilitator of this session, is an expert in drug policy and a former Interpol staff member. Currently he heads the advocacy department of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. He suggested that participants start creating a list of all the issues that arise in implementing substitution therapy in Ukraine, and then sort the issues based on regional and national problems. Here is what Pavel wrote about this session:

After discussing 16 issues (such as grinding our pills into powder in the hospitals, difficulty in receiving a driver's license, waiting lists for being involved in the program, etc.), we identified three main problems that urgently need our intervention on a national level. They are listed below:

- The continuous process of substitution therapy treatment. Providing the medication every day and even a few times a day when needed;

- Including methadone in the list of medications that are allowed to be purchased by prescription in a drug store. This will improve the effectiveness of substitution therapy and allow people to continue the therapy if they are staying in a hospital where replacement therapy is not provided, or when a person is sick and unable to come to the methadone site.

- Regulating the policy of registering drug addicts and providing patients the opportunity to receive a driver's license on a case by case basis.

That is it! All the other issues were tagged as “local” and solvable at the level of a methadone site or at the regional level.

One question that was discussed was that many medical establishments in Ukraine consider substitution therapy to be a recommendation, not a mandate. This situation was clarified by Dr. Tamara Koretskay, deputy director of the Institute of Health Policy Research and the head of the National Substitution Therapy Project. She explained that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is issuing a new order where substitution therapy is regarded as a “medical practice necessary for the treatment of drug addiction… and use of substitution therapy is mandatory.”

Dr. Koretskay's presentation

The third day of the conference was focused on public relations and was facilitated by Nastia Bezverkha, one of the leaders of the youth movement “Obyektyvna realnist,” which unites intellectuals, artists and journalists. Nastia was invited as a media relations trainer and gave a fabulous and informative presentation. In the presentation, Nastia said:

Do you know what the main source of information on drug addiction is? The media

Do you know where the media gets their news? First from the police press service, then from public health workers, then from social workers and only then from drug addicts.

Our voices are only in fourth place, but they should be first!

At the end of the post, Pavel wrote about the main conference outcomes:

After the conference I was looking at my friends and realized that we have become much more confident, full of hope and have future plans.

During the conference we finalized and approved our strategy to develop the association. The conference confirmed our ability to make our own decisions and the independence of our association. The fact that the conference united people from 25 regions of Ukraine proved the unity of like-minded people living with a drug addiction. This is the main element needed to have the capacity to solve issues at the national level.

Historically, libraries have been characterized as spaces for the free access to knowledge in the fields of literature, art, and culture, as well as becoming gathering places for the community. In this spirit, two years ago the Public Pilot Library of Medellín, Colombia at the La Loma site welcomed the participants of Hiperbarrio [es], one of the initial Rising Voices projects, where citizen journalism workshops have been taking place.

Photo of La Loma Library by Convergentes and used with permission. Click on photo to see a larger version of photo.

It is noteworthy that this library was created more than 50 years ago, as an initiative of the residents of La Loma, and throughout its service to the community it has offered classes in literature, painting, and music. The importance of its social role was described by Rezwan at the Rising Voices blog, who notes that that librarian's responsibility goes beyond the simple lending of books.

It is with those reasons that there were united voices of indignation surrounding the events that took place on October 13, which is described by @blueandtanit:

Ladrones robaron el equipo administrativo con información de La Loma, caja menor y El nica de Hiperbarrio en un asalto a la bpp de La Loma.

The director of Hiperbarrio, Álvaro Ramírez described his reaction upon hearing the news. He writes about the consequences of the robbery in his blog Ojo al Texto [es]:

Estoy un poco aturdido. Me concentro y trato de visualizar la modesta y hermosa Biblioteca de La Loma, sus estantes, las mesas y las sillas donde niños y grandes se sientan a diario a leer, a consultar libros, y a conversar.

Alcanzo a imaginar los computadores apagados y en la noche. Un par de intrusos llegan y logran penetrar por el techo. Entran con linternas y comienzan a sacar cosas

(…)

A la mañana siguiente llegan Gabriel Jaime y los otros empleados y encuentran el desastre. Un robo consumado. Un asalto a la comunidad de La Loma y un golpe duro para la Biblioteca Pública Piloto que ha venido dotando, con gran voluntad y paciencia a la filial más antigua de su extendida red de bibliotecas públicas: es decir gratuitas y abiertas para que todos podamos acceder a sus servicios.

(…)

Pienso en el daño que eso representa. En las personas que se van a perjudicar por no poder acceder gratis a los computadores.

Photo of La Loma library by blueandtanit and used under a Creative Commons license. Click on photo to see a larger version of the photo.

News of the robbery soon spread throughout different online networks, and the community also received notes from those who expressed their solidarity during the incident, showing that there is a strong network across the internet. For example, from Chile, Enzo Abbagliati sent a message of support on his blog Cadaunadas [es] after reading the post written by Ramírez:

Cadaunadas varias veces ha sido espacio para la alegría que desde una barriada de Medellín hemos recibido cotidianamente quienes creemos en las bibliotecas públicas como espacio de equidad y construcción de sociedades más democráticas. Reproduzco ahora una triste nota publicada por Álvaro Ramírez en ConVerGentes, quien desde el aturdimiento inicial nos avisa que han robado en la Biblioteca de La Loma. En Chile, en nuestras bibliotecas públicas, a veces sufrimos la misma suerte, la misma frustrante suerte.

¡Animo, amigos de La Loma! Sé que la comunidad estará con ustedes.

Locally, the Colombian digital magazine Equinoxio [es] became one of the first sites to publish news about the acts of vandalism and wrote about the efforts to investigate the crime:

El director de la biblioteca se reunió con las autoridades y con efectivos de la Policía Nacional a fin de coordinar esfuerzos para recuperar los bienes que se llevaron los asaltantes y capturar a los responsables.

Fortunately, the Golden Nicca prize was recovered, as it was found nearby, but the other objects remain missing. A member of Hiperbarrio, Catalina Urquijo of the blog $ujetate (Unknown II) [es] thanked those who sent messages through the different social networking sites:

Ofrecemos nuestros más sinceros agradecimientos a todos aquellos que nos acompañaron por diversos sitios de la red dándonos su apoyo tanto cuando creímos que nos habían robado el nica como ahora.

Finally, Libary Coordinator Gabriel Vanegas of the blog Esas Voces que Nos Llegan [es] summarizes the shock in which, as a public employee, he had to find out about the incident:

Duele ver la ignorancia de quienes perpetúan este delito contra el patrimonio de la comunidad, pero preocupa pensar en quienes dieron la orden de hacerlo y quienes sabiendo y viendo que se hacia no procedieron de manera correcta y oportuna ante las autoridades.

EWAMT 7th workshop participants

Napoleon Bonaparte once said: “let France have good mothers, and she will have good sons.” The same is true for every nation. One can hope that the Rising Voices grantee from Yemen ‘Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWAMT)' can make such impact. Ghaida'a al-Absi in collaboration with the Hand in Hand Initiative is organizing new media training course for female politicians, activists, and human right workers of Yemen to bring more women's voices to the internet and empower them. She shares an interesting experience gathered during the seventh workshop of the project:

On Thursday 15 October, 2009 we hold a workshop on blogging and social networking for ten activists. These activists were really talkative and full of energy. It is like a magic, every time you train new women activists, you got some energy from them.

Sadiq al-Samawi introducing Facebook

The day-long workshop anchored by Ghaida'a included tips like how to blog via email and in the afternoon session Sadiq al-Samawi taught the participants how to use facebook.

Now let us look at some of the blog posts published by the participants of the 7th workshop.

Safa writes about an important issue - the spread of drug abuse in Yemen.

Smile To Life discusses the shocking spread of AIDS and how to raise awareness to prevent this disease.

Dove creativity posts a poem called ‘silent heart‘.

Lafraaaaacp adventure defines love:

Love is when all your interest is about the happiness of your beloved without thinking of yourself.

Sarah loves the children stories and drawings and wishes to post about these.

Meanwhile here are snippets from the blogs of some of the participants of the previous workshops:

Pearl, who writes at Shells blog talks about how a women is forced to do something she does not want because she is deemed weaker in the society. She screams:

“Why don't you understand that we have the right to choose.”

Kholoud at Ambitious Project mentions about another kind of rape:

Image courtesy Kholoud

There are raped ideas .. raped success .. and even raped feelings .. usurpation of land and other types of rape. The most hideous of this is the rape of innocence .. the rape of children. Children raped and stripped from all their rights..
The right to play
To learn
To a dignified life and secure … and are locked up in a dark cave, which is located on the sidelines of life
Simply because they are created only to find themselves living a hard life.

Abeer Aeriqi shares a story how it feels betrayed by your sibling. She also posts an interesting story which has the morale that “we always suffer from severe emotional stupidity, which makes us judge things wrong.”

Eman shares the thoughts of an unsuccessful love and whether people should try over and over before giving up hope on love.

The list of participants' blogs of the EWAMT project can be found in this site.

Today is the Blog Action Day and this annual event aims to unite the world's bloggers where they write about a single topic in a single day to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion on the subject. Some of the members of Rising Voices projects are also participating in this event and we bring to you a brief round-up.

One of the main focus of the Rising Voices grantee FOKO is make the citizens of Madagascar a crucial factor in their unique and threatened environment. Tahina from FOKO Blog Club in Antananarivo, Madagascar writes:

Today is the Blog Action Day about Climate Change, thousands of blogs are uniting to raise more awareness and put pressure on each individual and world leaders to take quick and apropriate actions. The fight is worthwhile since the future of our kids is at stake. I’m pretty skeptical on the direct impact of this online activism here in Madagascar but since blogging has once helped Baby Kambana, why wouldn’t it do the same for all of us. We want to tell the World as well that we do care.

He points out to the action required:

How many of the Malagasy homes are using coal and woods to cook? 80-90%? We just can’t afford other source of energy in the long term. And this is where higher responsibles should take actions.

Patrick from Tamatave, Madagascar: Looking for the right place where to plant a tree

Lyva, another member of FOKO writes [fr] from Antsirabe :

We believe that everyone should be concerned by this problem because no one ever knows what season we see. For example, is this spring or summer? The temperature varies a lot because there is no winter. It drops to 3°C while in spring and in summer it rises to 35°C or more. (machine translation)

Ariniaina tells what prevents people from taking action against environmental damage:

I think that the main problem here in Madagascar is that people are so busy to search for what they are going to eat today. We then become selfish and just think of ourselves. We forget our neighbours and our future generation.

I hope that the Bloggers’Action of today will wake up millions… billions of people… governments… poor countries… rich countries… and then, we will altogether rescue the Earth. What I can and already do now is planting my own trees.

Théophile Kouamouo from Abidjan Blog Camps project in Ivory Coast writes about a a private conversation between him and a 70 years old Ivorian politician:

Originally from northern Ivory Coast, he told me about his childhood and told me that in front of his eyes, two rivers have dried up in his village. He saw that as the deep wells have increased the likelihood of finding water by digging decreased. What is responsible for what farmers see as a disaster or a curse? The desert encroachment, climate change, but also agro-industrial policies requiring irrigation works, all are quite dangerous in the long term.

The politician spoke with conviction, even with fear for the future, because he had seen with his eyes the danger. (machine translation from French)

“Africa is one of the places of the world most threatened by climate change,” warns Théophile.

Cartunelo from Abidjan Blog Camps writes [fr]:

As a web developer there are simple actions we can take to save our planet and make us web developers eco-compatible in Abidjan:

1. Turn off the computer: Use the lowest possible standby and hibernation.
2. Turn off your external hard drives at night
3. Use Eco-friendly Bulbs
[..]

The issue climate change is addressed specifically by another Rising Voices project. Nomad Green trains Mongolian citizens how to spread awareness - both at home and abroad - about their country's environmental crisis. Read their blog to learn more about their activism to stop degradation of Mongolia's environment.

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

Eric Newton is the vice president of the journalism program at Knight Foundation. He describes the annual $5 million Knight News Challenge, which aims to bring about news innovation by supporting new technologies and techniques to bring news and information to specific geographic communities around the world. He offers some examples of projects that have been funded including Rhodes University in South Africa, Freedom Fone in Zimbabwe, Ushahidi in Kenya, and the Sochi Olympics citizen journalism project in Russia, and also provides some tips for applicants seeking funding.

The deadline for this year's News Challenge is October 15 so if you have a good idea, apply now.

Transcript:

Eric: My name is Eric Newton. I’m the Vice President of the journalism program at Knight Foundation. The Knight News Challenge is a kind of open, international, research and development contest for news innovation. And the idea behind it is that the digital revolution has turned information and news upside down and inside out, and things are changing so rapidly that no one - not traditional media companies, not even the entrepreneur community - can keep up with the pace of change. So our foundation thought that if we have an open, international contest and collected thousands of entries and picked the very best ideas for news innovation that it would help speed the process of moving good news and information into the digital age.

David: How does the Knight News Challenge relate to media development? Or does it?

Eric: Well, it relates to media development in that each of the entries needs to have four key elements. 1) It needs to involve news and information. The kind of news and information that people need to run their communities and their lives. 2) It needs to involve specific geographic communities. So it is not about technology platforms that aren’t related to a specific community - a place where people live and work and run their government. 3) It needs to involve digital innovation; something new. And because of the fourth element, it is very helpful for media development because the fourth element is that whatever technology is developed is then free and open source, and usable by anybody anywhere in the world for news and information in their communities.

David: Does innovation have the same meaning in all countries and all contexts?

Eric: No. Things that are new in one culture might be quite old in another. But we don’t think that it’s the job of the News Challenge to try to bring all of the new developments to everyone in the world. We think that the governments will do that and businesses will do that. There are already structures involving millions and even billions of dollars in media that will spread the innovations. What we’re looking for are things that no one has tried before. No one meaning no one. Those innovations can be technological, but they can also be innovations of technique. If someone in a culture outside the United States says, ‘hey, we can combine these technologies in a unique way in our community’, that is innovation.

So, when Rhodes University in South Africa says ‘we can develop a cell phone citizen journalism program in the township, we can create a web platform for the English-language newspaper, we can create a new web platform for the Afrikaans radio station, and then we can digitally connect all three of these things so that for the first time this community can have a unified news system’ - well, that wasn’t any new technology necessarily. That was taking things and putting them into action in specific communities because of the unique characteristics of that community.

David: Can you give a couple other examples of News Challenge winners internationally, from outside the US?

Eric: Sure, in Sochi, where the Olympics are coming, a citizen journalism project is in the process of organizing the community to talk about whether the olympics are a good thing or a bad thing for the town, or something in between. A major citizen journalism project in Russia is not the norm - so that should be an interesting experiment. In Zimbabwe, there is an experiment in mobile news distribution called Freedom Fone. In Kenya, Ushahidi is experimenting with data visualization and real-time mapping of citizen journalism contributions so that if major news events are occurring you can see the reports that are coming in from all quarters and get a visual idea of what is happening. Those are just some of the examples.

The News Challenge is open internationally because the idea is that anyone anywhere can come up with a good idea. We haven’t done as many international projects as we’d like to because a lot of people think that they have new ideas, but really they just don’t know that it is already happening somewhere else and the technology already exists, and in fact models already exist. So nothing new needs to be developed. What needs to happen in that case is that aid programs or the commercial sector or any number of other funders need to step in to spread things that we already know work.

David: We are about one week from the deadline of this year’s News Challenge. What recommendations and advice would you give to applicants?

Eric: Well, I think that the main thing to remember is that we’re looking for projects with all the elements: great news and information, great digital innovation, specific geographic community and free and open source sharing of what is learned and developed. We frequently will get project proposals that are very strong in one of the categories, but weak in the others. The best thing that anyone can do is partner with experts in the other areas and do their homework in the other areas if they themselves are only experts in only one of the areas.

• Download MPEG4 Video (.m4v)
• Download Flash Video (.flv)
• Subscribe to Rising Voices Videos in iTunes

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

Amadou M. Ba is the co-founder and president of AllAfrica.com, the largest online aggregator and distributor of news from Sub-Saharan Africa in English and French. He is also the acting executive director of the African Media Initiative, which aims to strengthen Africa's media sector by bringing together owners and operators of major media outlets to collaborate on training programs, seek investment opportunities, advocate for better policy, and improve media research. Amadou tells us about the history of AllAfrica.com, the major challenges facing African leaders in the media sector, and how funders can most effectively support a vibrant media space in Africa.

• Download MPEG4 Video (.m4v)
• Download Flash Video (.flv)
• Subscribe to Rising Voices Videos in iTunes

Tomorrow marks World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. It is too easy to simply roll one's eyes at the never-ending proliferation of special ‘days' that mark what seem to be a greater quantity of activist causes than we have days in the year. Worse, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that a single day of recognition will automatically lead to greater awareness, better policy, and social change. But when it comes to the movement for palliative care - that is, organizations dedicated to relieving suffering and improving the quality of life for people facing life-threatening illness - there don't seem to be many other options to spread awareness. With very few exceptions, mainstream media has shown no interest in reporting on the rights and realities of individuals who live with life-threatening illnesses. In fact, Google News shows a significant decline in coverage about palliative care from 2006 - 2009.

It is appropriate, therefore, that this year's theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is “Discovering your voice.” Rather than relying on traditional media to pick up the cause, hospices and individuals around the world are encouraged to submit their own stories using digital media. They can submit their stories directly on the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day website. So far stories about palliative care have been shared from Portugal, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Malawi, Argentina, Belize, Nigeria, and beyond.

A significant challenge facing most hospices that would otherwise like to share their stories, however, is that their staff, patients, and volunteers haven't been trained in digital media production or even basic internet usage. It is for this reason that I took a scenic train ride from the Romanian capital of Bucharest to Braşov, where Hospice Casa Sperantei - a leader of palliative care in Romania and Eastern Europe - is training its staff how to use new media to 1.) spread more awareness about the daily realities of palliative care and 2.) tell the stories of patients to enable them to leave behind a legacy of their lives.

Last month Juhie featured excerpts of some of the testimonials from patients at the hospice. As you can see, most of the testimonials focused on the diseases which afflict hospice residents. In this workshop I wanted to emphasize that the testimonies and stories recounted on the project blog could be both fun and informative at the same time.

We decided to collaboratively create a storyboard and produce a video to tell a story in a creative way. After some deliberation the staff decided that they wanted to produce a farewell video for Iulia, the outgoing volunteer coordinator who is headed to medical school.

Later in the day Iulia, who has been involved in Hospice Casa Sperantei's blogging project, told me about some of the challenges they have been having in getting residents at the hospice to share their stories:

Still, the hospice staff is dedicated to moving the project forward to help spread more awareness about palliative care in Romania, and to help preserve the stories and memories of their patients. Anna, who is featured in the video with Iulia, will be taking over the role of volunteer coordinating and says that she is committed to the project.