Stories from June, 2012
RV At 5: Witnessing The Rise Of Yemeni Women
One of the notable Rising Voices grantee project was “Empowerment of Yemeni Women Activists in New Media Techniques”, led by Ghaida'a Al Absi. She thought that the EWAMT project is like a candle among other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen. And it proved right as some of the female participants were bold enough to write about the political upheavals during the Yemen revolution in 2011.
OpenWatch: Using Mobile To Enable Public Monitoring
OpenWatch is a participatory citizen media project which uses mobile technology to enable public monitoring of corrupt practices and repression. The project consists of two parts, a free mobile phone application for Android and iOS which invisibly records audio and video, and an open source software to collect the recordings and host in a portal for user access.
RV at 5: New Media For Health Activists
In 2008 Rising Voices and Open Society Institute's Health Media Initiative awarded micro-grants to six health-focused citizen media outreach projects. One of the grantees was the AZUR Development organization's Aids Right project from Brazzaville, Congo which trained communication officers of local AIDS organizations in digital story telling, podcasting, and the creation of blogs to document the stigma and discrimination of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS in Congo.
RV at 5: FOKO – A Reflection by Joan Razafimaharo
FOKO from Madagascar is one of the most successful grantees of Rising Voices which has transformed Malagasy forumists into bloggers. FOKO co founder Joan Razafimaharo sends in her reflections on the journey of this exemplary project.
RV At 5: A Journey To Mutual Enlightenment And Satisfaction
David Sasaki, the founding director of Rising Voices, reflects on the completion of five years of Rising Voices. In the first three years of his tenure he has traveled extensively to visit, support, and mentor over twenty Rising Voices grantee projects around the world. David thinks that it's not the technology what matters, it's what you do with it.
Pakistan: Hoshmedia – Amplifying The Voices Of Pakistani Youth
As the popularity of citizen media is growing in Pakistan, more and more people are using social media platforms and tools to share their opinions. With a vision to creating a space in Pakistan’s mainstream media for young bloggers and online activists, 2011 Knight Fellow Sahar Habib Ghazi founded Hosh media. Hosh hopes to highlight these voices to more people by syndicating the best contents with the mainstream media and creating a bigger impact in the country.
Rising Voices Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary
Rising Voices is pleased to be commemorating its fifth anniversary throughout the month of June. We'll be hearing from some of the voices that have made RV a powerful and supportive community to those committed to helping others become a part of this global conversation. Thanks to everyone for their support to RV over the past five years.
