A Quick Look at the Rising Voices Microgrant Proposals

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, Rising Voices received 1175 proposals from 124 countries from around the globe. This welcome increase in the number of applications as compared to last year demonstrates the ongoing interest and need in bringing citizen media to local underrepresented communities. While we are reading over these project proposals, we thought our readers might be interested in some of the initial demographical results from this open call for proposals.

The East African nations of Uganda and Kenya led the way in the countries with the most number of applications. For a closer look at what other countries were represented among the applications, please take a look at the word cloud created by the site Wordle. The size of the country name corresponds with the number of applications received from that country.

Countries Represented Word Cloud – Click for a larger image.

Ninety-five percent of applicants submitted a proposal for the first time, meaning that the remaining five percent participated in past Rising Voices microgrant competitions beginning in 2007. We also asked applicants to best describe the focus area of their project, and Education, Women and Gender, Indigenous Communities, and Development were the categories mentioned the most.

It was also interesting to input the text from the project descriptions from all of the proposals. Again using a word cloud, one can see which terms and concepts were used most often.

Project Term Word Cloud – Click to see a larger image

These are just some quick demographical details gathered from an initial look at the 1175 proposals. In the near future, we will be developing a map that will help visualize the specific locations from which the proposals came. We will also help show places around the world that share similar interests based on the topic of their citizen media outreach projects. Only those projects which gave permission to Rising Voices to publicly share that information will be included in the map.

19 comments

  • We at Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria are delighted for creating the Rising Voices at this opportune moment which is aimed at giving succour to the voiceless. Bravo.

  • George Githuma

    I like the analysis, simple and hits the nail on the head. Continue the good work guys…

  • FORMA F MOSTAR

    Great review and feedback!!!

  • Grace Lekuru

    The best way to bring any innovation or development in a community is by engaging the target population to fully participate. Thus Rising Voices is doing the right thing.

  • sonia javed

    hey you guys are doing great job. well done and May God Bless you in all your good work. i am from pakistan & i have also applied for funds. our projects are still pending and waiting for some donation to get ready. if you approve our application we will be very thankful.
    regards

  • Raj Muhsin

    Just from what you have just shared. Translating Complex data/statistics into simple but an easy way to understand is something that I commend you for. I strongly believe that use of info graphics and design is a powerful tool of translating complex data into a more easy to digest data. The problem with our issues as citizens is that there is just too much statistics out there that we do not know how to package and utilise it to plan or to make change in a simple and effective way. Especially my biggest worry is; How are we going to make data/statistics useful and embraced among underrepresented communities who most probably are mostly illiterate and od not have capability of interpreting data. I believe that Facts change Facts and if we talk about the magnitude of the issue rather than the issues themselves then we will be talking on a point of benefit and reference. I am so happy that Rising Global Voices has embraced Use of Media to connect communities.God Bless this group for providing platform and resources to change the world

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