Stories from September, 2010
Featured Blogger: Ahmed Awadalla
“Exploring Taboos” project, organized by Cairo-based Nazra team, is one of the newest grantees of Rising Voices. Ahmed Awadalla participated in the first workshop of the project and is now one of the leading bloggers. We have talked with him recently to learn more about him and his work.
Drop-In Center: Continuing to be an Online Resource for Ukrainian Harm Reduction Movement
Pavel Kutsev, a leader of a Ukrainian harm reduction movement, started blogging in 2008 within the framework of the Rising Voices project the Drop-In Center. Now, nearly two years later it has become an important on-line platform where patients of substitution therapy can receive the recent news, and share their thoughts and opinions.
Abidjan Blog Camps: The Urgency Of Public Interest Journalism In Africa
As threats to public interest journalism are evident from all quarters, journalists are increasingly resorting to cover only certain types of news and neglect serious events, failing media to be a watchdog, exposing malpractices and holding people accountable. Théophile Kouamouo of Abidjan Blog Camps explains why true public interest journalism is urgently required in Africa
Exploring Taboos: Discussing Female Genital Mutilation
Blogger Ahmad Awadalla conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt, and has been using his blog to share some of his experiences in this field. As one of the participants of the “Exploring Taboos” project, Awadalla has been documenting these experiences in his blog A Rebel with a Cause, where he wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.
Egypt: Continuing to Explore the Taboos of Sex Workers and Machismo
The bloggers of the project "Exploring Taboos" continue to delve into subjects not often discussed in the Egyptian blogosphere. Here is a selection of some of these translated posts dealing with the stigma of sex workers, as well as the targets of machismo.
Voces Bolivianas: Jaqi Aru, Spreading Aymara In Internet
Aymara, a Native American language with more than two million speakers in Bolivia, has gradually lost speakers both to Spanish and to Quechua in the past century. Rising Voices grantee Voces Bolivianas supported the establishment of the virtual community Jaqi Aru, which is spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents.
Hiperbarrio: Bloggers on Violence in Medellín
Violence, murder, theft and crime are constant affairs in Medellín, Colombia and its metropolitan area; issues all people must learn to live with and a social phenomenon that has grown in the last year. In a guest post by Lully Posada we look at different viewpoints of the members of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio on this issue.
Nomad Green: Why The Mongolian ‘Ninjas’ Keep On Digging?
The Mongolian gold rush has not only made a fortune for the mining companies, it has also changed some of the lives of the Mongolian poorest. Thousands of people, called the “Ninjas” (artisan miners), have left home to take up digging and sifting for gold full-time. Their digging at the start of river is destroying and poisoning the source of water which causes in the evaporation of river. Citizen journalists of Nomad Green have an exclusive report from the field.
