The East African nations of Uganda and Kenya led the way in the countries with the most number of applications. For a closer look at what other countries were represented among the applications, please take a look at the word cloud created by the site Wordle. The size of the country name corresponds with the number of applications received from that country.

Countries Represented Word Cloud - Click for a larger image.

Ninety-five percent of applicants submitted a proposal for the first time, meaning that the remaining five percent participated in past Rising Voices microgrant competitions beginning in 2007. We also asked applicants to best describe the focus area of their project, and Education, Women and Gender, Indigenous Communities, and Development were the categories mentioned the most.

It was also interesting to input the text from the project descriptions from all of the proposals. Again using a word cloud, one can see which terms and concepts were used most often.

Project Term Word Cloud - Click to see a larger image

These are just some quick demographical details gathered from an initial look at the 1175 proposals. In the near future, we will be developing a map that will help visualize the specific locations from which the proposals came. We will also help show places around the world that share similar interests based on the topic of their citizen media outreach projects. Only those projects which gave permission to Rising Voices to publicly share that information will be included in the map.

Written by Eddie Avila
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Over the next six weeks, we'll be carefully reviewing each proposal with our selection committee. Shortlisted finalists will be contacted sometime in late February. We will also contact all applicants that have not been selected. Due to the high volume of applications, the anticipated announcement for the winners will now be mid-March.

We are delighted with the widespread interest in bringing citizen media to underrepresented communities around the world. Around 95% of the proposals were from first-time applicants, meaning most are new to the work of Rising Voices. We strive to be a resource for organizations and individuals like you who wish to bring digital participatory media to their communities. We share news of competitions, contests, funding opportunities, tutorials, and examples of outreach initiatives. We also try to feature the work of other organizations and individuals working in local underrepresented communities around the world to bring the benefits of citizen media to more people.

We hope that you continue to stay in touch and become a part of the Rising Voices community. There are several ways to do so:

• Read and participate on the Rising Voices blog for news about grantees, case studies of projects, and news from our working groups. (Please leave a comment if there is something you find interesting).
• Join the Rising Voices mailing list where we share links and news about external funding opportunities and resources for those interested in citizen media in developing countries.
• Follow us on Twitter (Please say hello! @risingvoices).
• Follow us on Facebook (Let us know on our wall that you applied for the microgrant! We'd love to hear from you).

Thanks again for your interest and best of luck!

Written by Eddie Avila
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The story was first published by the blogger vovan9619.  He posted:

День добрый Всем !!!  Хотелось бы поделиться некоторыми новостями,касаемо Сайта ЗПТ и его Участников..  Есть у нас (в Шостке) такой вот Лёша..На программе он вместе с Женой. Имеют маленькую …. Около года принимал препарат Он , чуть меньше-его жена.. Около двух недель назад,пропустив один день выдачи(по своим причинам..) он пришёл на сайт,через час после его закрытия.  Будучи пьяным,он не понимал-почему ему не выдают препарат.  Старшая медсестра-отказала в выдаче,..  Тогда он не отдавая себе отчёт в поступке-схватил её за горло и стал душить..,  На следующий день,его исключили из программы, мало того-ст.медсестра,написала заявление на него,обвинив в побоях(..??)

In a few days the other patients of the ORT site started to worry about Lesha and his wife and decided to visit him.  They found Lesha in a very bad condition, drunk and with severe abstinent syndrome. They decided to help him. Vovan9619 wrote:

В-общем провели с ним беседу,где он клятвенно пообещал-прекратить Пить и извиниться перед медсестрой.  После чего было написано ходатайство глав.врачу, с просьбой восстановить его на Программе ЗПТ.. Глав.врач-подписал ходатайство,и спустя несколько дней,-Лёшу восстановили.  ….  В кругу Тех Людей,кто за него поручился-Лёша клятвенно пообещал не приходить на сайт-в нетрезвом состоянии,зная о том,-что может за ЭТО,получить “по ушам”-от Своих же,которых он может подвести…    А мораль сей Истории такова;- ЗПТ и Алкоголь(даже - пиво !!!..)- НЕСОВМЕСТИМО !!!!

After a few days the bloggers posted the second part of this story and it was not a story with a happy and. Vovan9619 posted:

Участник ЗПТ “ЛЁША ВАЩЕНКОВ”, благодаря тому что его все участники ЗПТ взяли на поруки и человеческому отношению главврача Орищак Н.С. Был возвращён на программу ЗПТ. Но … его здоровье было на столько подорвано, что он первый день еле пришел, второй день его привела мать. Лёша реально бредил , по всему видно, что очень БОЛЬШИЕ проблемы со здоровьем. Это не могли не заметить “наши” врачи из сайта и поэтому в срочном порядке он был направлен ….на второй этаж (стационар наркологии). Его осмотрел врач-нарколог … и .. определил, что ему нужно срочное обследование ХИРУРГА! Через 10 мин он уже был у хирурга, (рядом 50 метров поликлиника №1) Хирург в СРОЧНОМ порядке направил Ващенкова Лёшу в приёмное отделение ЦРБ г. Шостка.
     НО, КАК ТОЛЬКО УЗНАЛИ ,ЧТО ОН НАРКОМАН, ЕМУ ОТКАЗАЛИСЬ ДЕЛАТЬ ОПЕРАЦИЮ, О НЕОБХОДИМОСТИ КОТОРОЙ, САМИ ЖЕ И ГОВОРИЛИ!
    Лёше становилось все хуже , да и мать начала плакать и умолять врачей о помощи… НО, на , что они решились под этим натиском-направить его почемуто в ТЕРАПЕВТИЧЕСКОЕ отделение. Где он в … УМЕР В ТЕЧЕНИИ ДВУХЧАСОВ!

The patients were sure that the main reasons of the death of his counterparts was stigma towards people living with the drug addiction from he medical personnel. They established the initiative group to attract the attention of the society to their problems and, as they wrote, “to stop the conveyor of deaths”.

Written by Maryna Reshetnyak
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The web-site of ANTIAIDS foundation reported that in the framework of the project for the fist time in Ukraine a database 927 sites of HIV testing was created.

The interactive map shows not only the address of a particular site but also telephone numbers and the information about business hours. It also lists whether the site is unanimous or a person needs to present the ID. The database includes 173 sites of fast testing where a person can get the results in 15-20 minutes.

In addition, the HIV Testing Sites map service contains a FAQ section where a user can find all the information necessary for HIV testing such as how long to wait for a test results, is it possible to receive the results via e-mail or telephone, how much it will cots, what is the procedure of the testing and how to interpret the result, what to do if the results are positive or negative.

All this information is available not only in Internet but also on HIV/AIDS national hotline.

The condoms wending machines map helps people of major Ukrainian cities to find the nearest machine and to receive the instructions on how to use it. The advantages of the machines are speed and simplicity and that people can purchase the condoms anonymously, without attracting attention of other people and without and interaction with shop assistance like in supermarkets or pharmacies, ANTIAIDS web-site reported.

According to Google Ukraine blog the future plan of the project includes implementing improved navigation map and preparation of the mobile version of the service.

Written by Maryna Reshetnyak
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The event was in unconference format where idea sharing, demonstrations and practical sessions were all conducted in Welsh language. The schedules were user-generated, which means that anyone could take part and talk about a subject of their interest.

The subjects discussed included local journalism in the digital age, art and culture online, campaigning, e-books, and developing free software for the Welsh language.

Rhys liveblogged the event (in Welsh language). Here is a summary:

What worked?

Better range of subjects than previous years.

What did not work?

Need more grid

Too cold in some rooms

Not enough tea and coffee

Free Wi weak in some rooms

(translated by machine language)

Hacio'r Laith Conference. Image by Flickr user Lestyn Hughes. CC BY-NC-SA

Carl Morris wrote in the forum blog:

Thanks to all who came to participate in the third Hacio'r Iaith in Aberystwyth yesterday! Thanks also to the sponsors for making this year's admission and food free.

There are more posts to come for the event, including notes, videos and so on.

Check the event schedule and Wiki for the details and here are photos in Flickr taken during the event.

You can find the recorded videos of the event here.

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The Association of the Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine submitted the appeal to Mr Kazatchkine with an outline of current situation with the opiate replacement therapy (ORT) in Ukraine and a list of the most significant problems with its implementation. The activists of the Association urged the Executive Director of the Global Fund to discuss the strategy of ORT implementation with the government of Ukraine. The appeal was personally handed out to Mr Kazatchkine by the member of the Association Anton Basenko.

Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Image by ICASO. CC BY-NC-ND.

In its letter to Mr. Kazatchkin the Association expressed gratitude to the Global Fund for the financial support of the substitution therapy in Ukraine. Currently 6632 patients receive the treatment, 18.1% out of them have TB and almost 45% are HIV positive. Although in general the ORT programs in Ukraine are very successful there are a few issues which need to be solved with regards to its implementation. The Association, which main goal is improving of the quality and availably of ORT, listed the issues in the letter and on its web page.

The first issue the letter outlined was absence of government funding for ORT programs which, the Association believes, harms the image of the programs as Ukrainian doctors often tell the patients that the program will despair when the Global Fund stops the funding.

The second identified issue was luck of availability of HIV treatment and treatment of the opportunistic infections such as hepatitis, TB and other diseases for patients which require stay in a hospital and a continuation of ORT. The patients often have to make a choice whether to continue the ORT and hide from the doctors the other health problems or to treat other diseases and to stop ORT. 

The final serious issue is absence of an opportunity for the patients to receive Methadone through a pharmacy with the prescription of a doctor. This significantly slows down the process of re-socialization of the patients.

The activist Anton Basenko, who delivered the letter to the Executive Director of the Global Fund, concluded that today ORT programs in Ukraine became larger in quantity but not in quality.

The web-site focused on the issues of people living with the drug addiction Motilek  posted another letter of appeal to Mr Kazatchkine. In his very emotional letter the harm reduction activist and the ORT patient Igor discussed the tendencies in ORT provision in Ukraine and identified the possible threats. 

Igor claimed that the ORT program has significantly improved his life. He wrote:

Уже около 3-х лет я получаю заместительную поддерживающую терапию (ЗПТ) метадоном в одной из Киевских клиник. Мне 34 года. Из них 8 лет я кололся «ширкой» и 4 года провел в местах, как говорят у нас, не столь отдаленных.

Получаю ЗПТ, и вот уже пару лет, как почувствовал новый вкус жизни. Я осознал, что бездарно потратил в погоне за наркотиками много лучших лет своей жизни. Слава богу, я не заразился СПИДом. И это чудо. Многие ребята из моей прошлой «наркоманской» жизни сгорели от «дури» и от этой страшной болезни.

Я действительно называю эту часть жизни, когда я кололся, своим прошлым. Я остаюсь наркозависимым, потому что я получаю метадон каждый день, но я чувствую себя абсолютно нормальным человеком. Я не кайфую. Я просто живу как обычный человек. … Я работаю, женился, и мы с женой ждем ребенка. Сейчас это моя самая большая радость. Ей-то я и хочу с Вами поделиться. Этой радостью я обязан Альянсу, ГФ, врачам и медсестрам в больнице, куда я хожу каждый день. И я не хочу возвращаться в свое прошлое. Спасибо Вам, Мишель

Igor was very concerned with the future of ORT program is Ukraine and how it might affect his life. He was worried about the decision of the Global Fund to move the implementation of the program from the nonprofit organizations to the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine. Igor believes the Ministry is very bureaucratic and very corrupted and this would negatively affect the implementation of ORT.

Igor was also alarmed with the decision of the Fund in three years to significantly reduce the funding for ORT programs in Ukraine. He urged Mr. Kazatchkin to make sure that Ukrainian government would continue the provision of the Methadone and Buprenorphine to all patients who need them.

The active steps of the harm reduction activists achieved positive results.  After the meeting of Michel Kazatchkine with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov the official web-portal of Ukrainian government reported that Ukraine will continue implementing the substitution therapy programs in a large scale as a mean of HIV prevention.

Written by Maryna Reshetnyak
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In a crisp, 6-minute mobile video, Gerald Yawulkpuy introduces the local news from his community.

Welcome to Ramo News – all the news from Ramingining. My name is Gerald Yawulkpuy, good evening.

Tonight, the very successful Youth Week Program. The Court in town for the first time, and the opening of our wet season swimming pool.

But first of all, an update on the critical situation in Ramingining about the road conditions and the fuel for the power station.

Gerald is just one of a growing number of mobile journalists, or Mojos, creating video stories from remote regions in the Northern Territory of Australia. He learned how to use an iPhone kit to create, edit, and upload news stories as part of a project called NT Mojos, which is funded by the Australian government in partnership with Burum Media and the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.

The project empowers indigenous people to have a local voice and to provide a less marginalized view of everyday indigenous life in Australia by enabling trained reporters in remote communities to create and share the stories most important to them. The final videos are posted on a government site as well as here.

A Passionate Leader Brings Energy to the Project

When it comes to NT Mojos, the executive producer Ivo Burum wears many hats. It was his idea to launch the pilot after over 30 years of experience in the field as a reporter and broadcaster. Most recently, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Burum taught people to use small cameras to create and deliver content for television, including shows like Race Around Oz.

“While mobile is quite new, the concept of people creating self-shot content is not,” he said. With NT Mojos, Burum is revisiting lessons from earlier experiences with user-generated content, but instead of focusing on large infrastructures such as television programs, is spending money on training in indigenous communities.

As part of his daily work, Burum travels to remote communities in the Northern Territory to help select participants and lead the trainings. For more on the project, watch this documentary on The Making of NT Mojo:

Says Burum, “I take Mojo quite seriously. It’s a real opportunity for people to change their lives and to create a citizen voice — and that’s what is important.”

It’s More about the Story and Less about the Technology

In selecting Mojo participants for training, the first step is to engage the community and talk to local elders to see if they want to be involved. If they do, Burum meets with them to help select candidates. In one eager community, 15 people lined up to join the training. “It’s not difficult to sell the idea to communities,” Burum said. He also brings in existing media centers and indigenous engagement officers to help choose participants.

For the pilot, 9 Mojos were chosen from 6 communities in the Northern Territory: Galiwin’ku, Lajamanu, Numbulwar, Ramingining, and Wurrumiyanga (Nguiu).

Training is initially held at the Batchelor Institute, where Burum and others teach aspects of storytelling as well as technical skills on iPhone mobile journalism kits. After the training intensive is complete, the Mojos return to their communities, ready to hit the ground running. “One of the goals is to get Mojos to a point where they can make stories without continued support from myself or the Institute”, Burum said.

The bulk of the training focuses on fundamentals of journalism and teaching the who, what, where, when, and why of story construction, as well as being an ethical storyteller or journalist. The tech stuff comes more naturally. Burum said that when the Mojos first got their hands on the iPhone kits, they immediately began recording, before they were even taught how. “It seemed intuitive”, he said.

Each Mojo receives a “kit”, based around the iPhone 4. Other hardware components include:

• An OWLE Bubo mount for the camera. This helps stabilize the phone and allows for other external attachments.
• A multi-directional mini shotgun microphone, which is attached to the OWLE case.
• A small rechargable LED light. This helps for recording at night or in low conditions.

The kit that includes an iPhone costs less than $900 AUD.

NT Mojos use Vericorder’s 1st Video editing app, chosen because it allows editing on up to four tracks of audio and two tracks of video and has super and subtitle features, essential for indigenous language work. It also has a resume function that enables the app to re-start uploads from a drop out point, in case of a temporary loss of signal. In the remote regions of the Northern Territory, most of the uploading is done via a 3G network instead of over WiFi.

Stories are shot and edited directly on the phone, and uploaded to the Internet when complete.

Education and Income

It was not too difficult to get funding for the project. For one, Burum Media has a good track record with media production in Australia. Second, timing was right. The government is looking for ways to engage with remote communities and help “close the gap,” Burum said. “NT Mojos is a way to bridge a divide between white and indigenous Australia.”

Another ongoing issue in this region is education and literacy. Because NT Mojos teaches story-telling first and technology second, the project is “as much about increasing literacy levels and helping people think about their environment and how to convey those thoughts and stories,” Burum said.

After returning to their communities, the trained Mojos are able to report on any story they choose. It is important to teach journalism concepts of defamation, libel, and story accuracy, as the NT Mojo’s were not clear about this. “When you are speaking about issues you are passionate about, you want to be sure you can broadcast and share the stories with a larger audience without fear of libel actions,” Burum said.

These larger lessons contribute to the sustainability of the project, as does continued involvement within the community, from elders, teachers, and media centers. Burum’s goal, he jokes, is to not have to go back to regions where he has taught.

A key to sustainability is to link income to skills learned. Following the Mojo's success at the Fist Full of Films festival in Darwin, ABC asked if nine of the original trainees could contribute to the public broadcaster as paid freelance stringers based in the remote communities. “That’s a wonderful thing because education is one thing, but creating jobs after you are educated in a remote community is another thing,” Burum said.

Burum believes another important step on the road to sustainability is to integrate Mojo into the education system in remote schools in the NT. “It’s critical to get these natural storytellers thinking about story telling the modern way as early as possible and that’s the way mojo is heading in the NT — into schools as part of the curriculum,” he said.

Burum has also launched a version of the project in China, called Ningbo Mojo. The pilot began with 10 mojos and 4 teachers from Nottingham University in Ningbo, China in June 2011. The same iPhone kits and Vericorder apps are used, though Burum finds that upload issues arise more often due to Internet censorship in the country. “Despite the restrictions, the Ningbo mojos from the Nottingham University Television Station used mojo for their broadcast work including filming a media conference in Ningbo.” Another introductory and intermediate workshop is planned in Ningbo this year.

The Burum Media mojo package has also been delivered to a secondary school in Melbourne and to ‘J’ students at Deakin University. Burum has tips on mobile journalism at the How To Mojo blog and more NT student videos on his YouTube channel. More info on the My School Mojo package can be found at www.burummedia.com.au.

For more guides on mobile audio and video reporting, see this list of iPhone tips from the International Journalist’s Network, this how-to guide on Mobile Audio Recording from the Field, and the Mobile Media Toolkit sections on Creating andSharing Mobile Content.

Photo courtesy of Ivo Burum.

Written by Eddie Avila
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Somalia Speaks is a collaboration between Souktel, an NGO providing SMS messaging services, Ushahidi, Al Jazeera, Crowdflower, and the African Diaspora Institute.

Patrick Meier of Ushahidi explains in a post at Ushahidi blog:

The purpose of this project is to catalyze global media attention on Somalia by letting Somali voices take center stage—voices that are otherwise not heard in the international, mainstream media. If journalists are not going to speak about Somalia, then this project invites Somalis speak to the world themselves. The project highlights these voices on a live, public map for the world to bear witness and engage in a global conversation with people of Somalia, a conversation in which Somalis and the Diaspora are themselves at the centerfold. It is my sincere hope that advocacy and lobby group will be able to leverage the content generated by this project to redouble their efforts in response to the escalating crisis in Somalia.

Souktel sent out the question “How has the Somalia Conflict affected your life?” in Somali language to about 5,000 of their subscribers in geographically disbursed areas. Somalia Speaks received over 3000 replies in text messages, which were translated, categorized and geo-located using this crowdflower plugin. Co.exist reports quoting Riyaad Minty, Al Jazeera’s head of social media, how the crowdsourcing works. There were amazing responses from the online Somali-speaking community, who volunteeed to translate the sms reports. The mapped reports are also linked to a public discussion forum where readers can respond and share their views.

Melissa Ulbricht reports at PBS's Mediashift:

Souktel's Korenblum said that in a five-year period leading up to 2009, mobile phone penetration jumped 1,600% in the Somali region; Souktel has been delivering service in the Horn of Africa since 2008 and has a member SMS subscriber list of over 50,000 people. [..] Reaching out to citizens via SMS, then, makes sense.

Al Jazeera's Soud Hyder said the news network is looking at how to streamline news gathering workflows to get news directly from the people: “It's like taking citizen journalism to the next level.”

A reader, Awaale, commented at Ushahidi blog that people in Somalia understand that SMS is between just two people. So they may respond to the Souktel SMS without knowing that their name will be displayed in Internet exposing themselves to the warlords. He was replied with an assurance that the Al-jazeera team had deleted all personal identifiers from the public site.

Mobile Media Toolkit has a complete case study on this project.

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The UNESCO Loire-Niger programme barge

In Sekoro, a fishermen village, capital of the former Bamana kingdom, no one had ever heard of the Internet or seen a computer. Besides, there is no electricity. Boukary Konaté taught the children how to search the Web on his solar-energy powered laptop and smartphone. “They were baffled by the fact that you can access knowledge without traveling: it travels to your place, via the Internet” he says. One little girl (pictured below) did not hesitate for a second when asked what she wanted information about: “C.A.N.” (The Africa soccer cup 2012).

A primary school girl hits the enter key for the first time, in Sekoro, Mali

Further up the Niger, in the regional capital Segou, Boukary Konaté gave a presentation on the knowledge and collaboration opportunities given by the Internet in the  Bandjougou Bouaré high school, in front of more than a hundred students. Students were then asked to search Google themselves, on a personal topic of interest.  Here are a few queries, saved by Boukary: “How to find the square root of prime numbers”, 'The life and deeds of Keita, king of the Mandingo empire“, “Books written  by Malian writer Issa Baba Traoré“; “Biography of Shaka Zulu, bravest warrior of South Africa.” “(Pop star) Rihanna“. And one of the teachers searched for TV series “Prison Break“.

Boukary coaching high school students in Ségou to search the Web

Drawing from past training sessions in the Ségou district organised by Ségou Villages Connection, Boukary travels equipped with a mobile internet USB drive to access the Web, and a portable solar-cell to charge his laptop and smartphone. He finds this a lightweight and quite satisfactory solution to connect in remote places, and even blogs on the river Niger! You can follow Boukary Konaté's daily updates and pictures on Facebook.

Blogging on the deck of the boat, on the Niger River

Written by Claire Ulrich
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In this modern world we are using using digital devices and gadgets and thinking Digital everyday. We are living the Digital life by acting digitally - always clicking, linking, tagging and Liking. The contest is your chance to tell your story “What makes your life so click-worthy?”

The competition is open to everyone - professionals, amateurs - anyone in the world can apply. There is no upper or lower limit on age. (details here)

Click on image to enlarge poster.

The contest will progress through four main rounds. In the first stage, participants will send in their written abstracts by 26th January 2012, giving details of their video proposal and what inspired their story line. The proposals will be judged by a panel of jurists where 25 ideas will be shortlisted for the next round. The list will be voted by the public and top ten favorites will be chosen. Finally, the judges will pick the two best videos among the ten.

The Top 10 videos will receive a prize of EUR 500 each and will also get a chance to be part of a film screening at CIS premises in Bangalore. The two best video makers will receive loads of prizes.

Please submit your proposal via Online Application Form by 26 January 2012.

Here is a video produced by Harry McKillop Elementary School, Melissa, Texas, to show that today's digital natives are hungry for guidance and opportunity to experiment with all the new tools available.

Written by Rezwan
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