Rising Voices note: Our last open call for proposals for citizen media outreach projects resulted in an outpouring of interest from around the world. Even though we were unable to fund each and every good idea, we would like to feature some of these projects that continue to do great things in their communities related to teaching others how to create citizen media. We will try to showcase as many of these projects as possible.

La Flecha [es] (The Arrow) is an organization based in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina founded in 2001 that began with the production of a free pamphlet that discussed issues relating to youth participation in society. It came at a time when the country was experiencing a serious economic and social crisis, and the creators of La Flecha felt that there needed to be more, not less participation from the youth. The project has since expanded and is working to engage with youth in various neighborhoods of the city teaching them how to create their own media to begin and sustain conversations about issues that affect their daily lives.

Through existing relationships with various public schools in the city, the staff of La Flecha, as part of their “Otros con Voz [es]” (The Voice of Others) project, provides workshops in graphic arts, radio, and digital photography. The content produced by the youth is often featured at open community events, but also online through existing social networks. The youth are quite active on platforms such as Facebook, which allows them to share their artwork, photograph, and stories with their friends, where they receive instant feedback from other like-minded young people.

Many of these workshops are run by volunteers of La Flecha, and the organization has been selling t-shirts [es] created by a community member as a way to raise funds. La Flecha updates their blog [es] with recent activities, and can also be found on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.

Here is a short interview with Pablo Moschen, one of the coordinators of the organization, who provides more information about the project's activities.