We are thrilled to announce the first five citizen media outreach projects to receive Rising Voices microgrants. They represent the foresight and ambition that were consistent in all of the applications we received.
In total we received 142 project proposals from over 40 different countries. The overwhelming response is a testament to the global enthusiasm for citizen media that stretches from Southern Chile to rural Nigeria, from a village in Mali without electricity to urban Mongolia; from an orphanage in Ethiopia to a center for disabled HIV/AIDS patients in Kenya. The list goes on and on, but what all of the project proposals have in common is a desire to enable their communities to tell their own stories, to write their own first draft of history, to document their traditions and culture before they are washed away by the tides of globalization.
Over the next month I'll be introducing each of the following projects in more detail. We'll also be announcing the Rising Voices website where you will be able to follow the developments of each project and each project participant. Without further ado, the first round grantees of Rising Voices:
Vickie Remoe-Doherty - Sierra Leone:
Vickie is helping coordinate the Think Build Change Salone initiative which seeks to help rebuild post-civil war Sierra Leone by providing training and work experience to Sierra Leonean youth with paid internship positions at local non-profit organizations. This year's interns will be required to record their experiences using weblogs, audio, and video. By documenting their experiences at various non-profit organizations around Sierra Leone they will cover issues of health, environment, democracy, post conflict reconstruction, women’s issues, information technology, education, government accountability & transparency, and community development. Once the interns feel comfortable with the tools themselves, they will organize several workshops around the country teaching citizen media to other groups.
Juliana Rincón, Jorge Montoya, and Álvaro Ramirez - Medellín Colombia:
This project started out as two separate proposals. Juliana [ES] and Jorge [ES] had set out to do a number of new media training workshops in collaboration with an outreach initiative (.doc) of Medellín's public library system. Álvaro [ES] proposed to organize a video blogging workshop [ES] in the working class neighborhood of La Loma de San Javier. Fortunately, the two groups agreed to share their resources, tools, and time so that both projects can go forward.
Kazi Rafiq Islam and Kathryn Ward - Dhaka, Bangladesh:
Kazi Rafiq Islam and Kathy Ward are the Coordinator and Executive Director of the Nari Jibon Project in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As you can see from the website, the organization is already involved in outstanding work with young women in Dhaka. With the help of the Rising Voices microgrant, they will introduce Bangladeshi girls and women to blogging, photography and video-blogging by incorporating blogging assignments into existing English, computer, and Bangla classes. You can see some examples of what is to come at Bangladesh from our View.
Mario Duran, Eduardo Ávila, Hugo Miranda - El Alto, Bolivia:
Mario [ES], Eduardo [ES], and Hugo [ES] will organize a series of four bi-weekly sessions that will last three hours each. They will provide hands on training at a local internet cafe in El Alto, Bolivia and encourage participants to write about their lives, families, and community and communicate to the rest of Bolivia and the world that, for the most part, the daily life in the impoverished city of El Alto is just like daily life anywhere else.
Bishan Samaddar, Sahar Romani, Aparna Ray - Kolkata, India:
Bishan and Sahar are the coordinators of Kalam: Margins Write, a creative writing program for marginalized youth in India. They've already done amazing work using print to encourage creativity and self-expression with poetry and creative writing. This Rising Voices microgrant will help establish a new project, “Neighborhood Diaries”, which will train underprivileged youth living in Kolkata's slums to be citizen journalists. As they wrote on their application, “Often urban slums in India are misrepresented and sensationalized.” By empowering young residents who live there to tell their own stories, they will gain power on how their community is portrayed. You can find out more about Kalam: Margins Write on their weblog.
You'll be hearing a lot more about these five exciting projects in the weeks and months to come. The next round of Rising Voices funding will take place in September. The application process will be made more public and more participatory so that Global Voices readers can offer their input on the proposals, make suggestions, and even offer help and resources.
If you are interested in providing funding to help support more of these inspiring projects, please write to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org.
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[…] emocionados con el anuncio que acaba de hacer David Sasaki de Global Voices Online de que nuestro grupo sali favorecido con una de las 5 microbecas del […]
I chanced upon your post and am most impressed by the sterling work on which you have reported, and which you sponsor in part. I have tried to introduce women to Internet writing for profit, but was unable to sustain the effort. I would like to try again and to offer my services to anyone who is interested. My aid consists of trying to match individual skills to ethical and legal earning opportunities on the Internet.
How wonderful to see the projects going forth to build a positive world with leadership built in to the program. While I did not know about these microgrants until now and have received Global Voices for over a year now, I will be sharing this information with my mentees, mostly in Africa, who are also in a leadership program. Congratulations to each of the grantees and all the other worthy programs!
Just heard from Eddy Avila (a long time friend) that his project has been given the green light and that together with Mario and Hugo will be making it reality.
I congratulate them for the initiative and wish them the success I know they’ll have. And to Global Voices thanks and a commendation for its efforts and its support. I am convinced that giving individual voices to the world is a good thing.
David and all,
Congrats on the great response this first RFP got. It’s very heartening. Look forward to learning more about these first five projects.
Keep it up!
Nate
Congratulations to all, on jobs well-done!
[…] Voices ha anunciado los proyectos que han resultado favorecidos en su primera ronda de micro-fondos, como parte de su iniciativa Rising Voices. Para nuestra alegría, el proyecto que hemos planeado […]
I feel proud that Sierra Leone is among them. We still have more valuable contributions
Felices y contentos por la seleccion, lo haremos lo mejor que se pueda… y estamos abiertos a cualquier sugerencia.
un saludo desde la ciudad de El Alto Bolivia.
[…] Global Voices Online » Congratulations, Rising Voices Grantees […]
Congratulations to all five and future grantees!
I wish the best for all five great projects.Good choices David.
Congratulations to all five grantees. I wish all the best for the projeccts chosen.
[…] three weeks ago the Nari Jibon center in Dhaka, Bangladesh was announced as one of five recipients of the first round of Rising Voices outreach grants. The grants, which provide small amounts of funding to groups and individuals who spread citizen […]
[…] three weeks ago the Nari Jibon center in Dhaka, Bangladesh was announced as one of five recipients of the first round of Rising Voices outreach grants. The grants, which provide small amounts of funding to groups and individuals who spread citizen […]
[…] sei – und was mit dem BBC? In eigener Sache, aber deswegen nicht weniger interessant, schreibt David Sasaki über das „Rising Voices“ Projekt. Fünf Bürgerjournalismus-Projekte, die […]
[…] was less than a month ago that we announced the first round of Rising Voices outreach projects but already those first five projects have made […]
[…] was less than a month ago that we announced the first round of Rising Voices outreach projects but already those first five projects have made […]
[…] far we have looked in detail at two of the five Rising Voices citizen media outreach award winners. In July we featured the Nari Jibon center in Bangladesh, which is teaching web 2.0 literacy to […]
[…] far we have looked in detail at two of the five Rising Voices citizen media outreach award winners. In July we featured the Nari Jibon center in Bangladesh, which is teaching web 2.0 literacy to […]
[…] July we funded five projects out of the 142 applications we received from over 60 different countries. The first five Rising Voices grantees are based in Bangladesh, Colombia, Bolivia, India, and Sierra […]
[…] July we funded five projects out of the 142 applications we received from over 60 different countries. The first five Rising Voices grantees are based in Bangladesh, Colombia, Bolivia, India, and Sierra […]
[…] nanangana tetikasa dimy tamin’ny tolotra 142 azonay avy amin’ny firenena mihoatra ny 60 izahay tamin’ny volana jolay. Ny dimy voalohany nahazo vatsy avy tamin’ny Rising Voices dia avy […]
[…] helped assess the last round of applications, which included some exceptional ideas, and from what I hear, the bar’s already pretty high […]
[…] and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own. In July we funded five projects out of the 142 applications we received from over 60 different countries. The first five Rising Voices grantees are based in Bangladesh, Colombia, Bolivia, India, and Sierra […]
[…] July we funded five projects out of the 142 applications we received from over 60 different countries. The first five Rising Voices grantees are based in Bangladesh, Colombia, Bolivia, India, and Sierra […]
Felicitations to Rafiq and Kathryn for making Bangladesh proud.
[…] }); }); Voces Bolivianas (’Bolivian Voices’) was one of the initial five citizen media outreach projects to win a Rising Voices microgrant in July. The two-month pilot […]
[…] Bolivianas (’bolivianische Stimmen’) war eines der ersten fünf Bürgermedien-Projekte, die im Juli einen ‘Rising Voices microgrant‘ gewannen. Das […]
[…] Bolivianas (”bolivianische Stimmen”) war eines der ersten fünf Bürgermedien-Projekte, die im Juli einen “Rising Voices microgrant” gewannen. Das […]
[…] proposals from over 35 different countries. Although the quantity of applications was less than the 142 we received in July, the quality and innovation that stood out throughout all of this round’s proposals made the […]
[…] proposals from over 35 different countries. Although the quantity of applications was less than the 142 we received in July, the quality and innovation that stood out throughout all of this round's proposals made the […]
[…] Bolivianas (’Bolivian Voices’) was one of the initial five citizen media outreach projects to win a Rising Voices microgrant in July. The two-month pilot […]
[…] first round of Rising Voices outreach projects have already been training participants in underrepresented communities how to use the tools of […]
[…] first round of Rising Voices outreach projects have already been training participants in underrepresented communities how to use the tools of […]