Stories from October, 2009
[Video] Interview with Pavel Kutsev of Drop-In Center
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 acti
FOKO: Meet The Bloggers
Since January 2009 FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee from Madagascar, has been posting a series of interviews with its bloggers celebrating their first anniversary of blogging. Let us meet through these interviews some of the enthusiastic and brilliant Malagasy Bloggers who are driving the success of the FOKO blog Club.
Drop-In Center: Building a Movement
A conference in early October brought together people living with drug addictions from 25 regions of Ukraine. Together they identified obstacles and strengthened their community.
Colombia: Solidarity With Hiperbarrio After Library Robbery
After a robbery of the La Loma Library in Medellín, Colombia, the home of the Hiperbarrio citizen media project, an outpouring of support and solidarity was sent from around the world.
EWAMT: Blogging And Social Networking Energize Women In Yemen
The Rising Voices grantee from Yemen ‘Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWAMT) conducted its seventh workshop recently. The energetic participants learned about blogging and social media techniques and started their own blogs.
Blog Action Day 2009: Rising Voices Projects Discuss Climate Change
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 participated in this event and we bring to you a brief round-up.
[Video] Interview with Eric Newton of Knight Foundation
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.
[Video] Interview with Amadou M. Ba of AllAfrica.com
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. 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.
Romanian Hospice Uses Digital Media to Spread Awareness and Preserve History
Tomorrow marks World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. 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. 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.
[Video] Interview with Felipe Vaz from Instituto Overmundo
Felipe Vaz is the coordinator of Instituto Overmundo, which promotes access to knowledge and cultural diversity in Brazil through innovative practices in communication, intellectual property, and technology. Felipe describes Brazil's "LAN house revolution."
Ceasefire Liberia: In Action With Blogs And Videos
The Rising Voices Grantee Ceasefire Liberia had a remarkable time last month. Apart from publishing dozens of new blog posts and several videos by bloggers, the project is getting noticed too.
[Video] Interview with Vanessa Mazal
Vanessa Mazal is a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Global Development Program. In this interview she talks about the differences and complementary nature of media development and media for development. She also tells us about a new Gates Foundation initiative in partnership with Highway Africa.
[Video] Interview with David Hoffman of Internews
David Hoffman is the founder and president of Internews, one of the first media development organizations. In this video David explains how Internews got its start by coordinating a two-way satellite link-up between Soviet youth in Moscow and Americans at the 1982 US Festival sponsored by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak. He goes on to describe more of the history of the media development field, how funders can both help and hurt, and the role of citizen journalism in media development and civic participation.
