HiperBarrio Is Now A ‘Nonprofit Corporation’

hiperbarrio logoThe Rising Voices grantee from Colombia Hiperbarrio has achieved a new feat. Álvaro Ramírez Ospina reports that after going through many bureaucratic hurdles Hiperbarrio has recently got its legal identity – its now a corporation:

The good news is that on January 27, 2010 the Governor of Antioquia signed the documents that accredit us as Corporación HiperBarrio. From now on we will be an nonprofit educational institution that works for human development, and “which wants to enhance community use of the Web through the responsible exercise of citizen journalism and the recovery of the cultural and historical memory – ineach individual territory where we happen to arrive.

Hiperbarrio will get busy as:

This allows us to continue to grow as we can be hired by public and private institutions. [..]

Very soon we will sign the contract between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio Library to create new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and Santa Elena).

From February to June of this year, we have to develop 20 workshops for the Foundation EPM and 60 workshops for the Ministry of Women, for a total of 80 workshops Inclusion in the use of new means of self-publishing.

Hiperbarrio group photo. Image via Convergentes Flickr Account

Hiperbarrio group photo. Image via Convergentes Flickr Account

Jacinto Lajas wrote in Periodismociodadano.com:

Since the start of its journey with the support of Rising Voices, the group Convergentes (convergent) and its citizen journalism project HiperBarrio has continued to set new goals and work to expand this experience to change the image projected on the Internet of its neighborhood, La Loma de San Javier in Medellin, Colombia.

The Pilot Public Library of San Javier Loma is the group's center of operations, and it has been described as a hive of activity and
enthusiasm in recent times. The number and size of the projects of the boys and girls of HiperBarrio have been progressively increasing the level of organization for the group, in which they have been putting their energies.

As a result of that commitment, HiperBarrio is already a registered Corporation, a nonprofit organization which will help ensure that their
initiatives have a greater degree of success.

As Alvaro Ramirez, the moving spirit of the group said, “(it) is a turning point for Hiperbarrio, and especially for Convergentes, as it is
now will show the true potential of the youth group that has worked and trained hard in the almost 3 years of existence.”

However there were other disappointing news. Gabriel Vanegas, the librarian of La Loma Public Library writes about an worrying development – the return of the terror, weapons and violence in La Loma by the juvenile offenders:

“Clashes occur in broad daylight almost daily, in areas such as San Gabriel Canyon. [..] Return of the anxiety and uncertainty. The streets are empty in the early hours of the night. Fear takes hold of the people who move uneasily. Exponentially growing tension …”

This tension is also hampering the daily lives of the Hiperbarrio members, as Blueandtanit says in a comment:

Today when I got home I told my mom about my intention to go to La Loma to the meeting of Convergentes. My dad said: “Catalina, try not to go there, I went there yesterday and returned with a headache, were all scared to death (from the violence).”

She shares her pain:

I hope you excuse my absence today. It is sad that many times I cannot go for financial reasons, but it is a thousand times more sad to know that I cannot go because of insecurity, which is the same insecurity that threatens the family and friends still living in La Loma.

Yeskenia writes in Convergentes blog that a meeting was convened in the bpp (public library in La Loma) with people from the sidewalk, municipalities, the Local Administrator OARD (JAL), community leaders and the police among others, in order to scrutinize “past violence”. They were searching for a long time solutions for the armed conflicts.

A recent video workshop by Henry El Sucio. Image via Convergentes Flickr account

A recent video workshop by Henry El Sucio. Image via Convergentes Flickr account

Blueandtanit writes about a recent workshop on blogging:

Catch-up day was started by me, with a workshop in which we explained how blogs work, the basic operation of the WordPress dashboard, how to comment (in both WordPress and Blogger) and how pingbacks and trackbacks work.

She also highlights some of the new bloggers.

Here is a video by Roxicarvajal depicting the beauty of Ituango town, the place where Hiperbarrio is providing workshops.

Eduardo Avila helped with the translation from Spanish.

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