Photo by Marvin Meyer (Unsplash License)

Rising Voices note: Our monthly newsletter provides a summary of our recent blog posts about all aspects of digital inclusion including access to and adoption of digital tools, as well as different ways and opportunities for communities to fully participate online. Read here for previous editions of this newsletter.

Hello readers, do you feel like exploring something new this May?

Throughout this month, Team CommUNITY will be hosting an event series called Welcome to Digital Rights Village, where various experts will talk about how to find a place in this emerging field, regardless of your background. Interested in a career that works at the intersection of human rights and technology but don’t know where to start? This might be an event worth attending.

Here is the event page for more information, including time for each session, and for RSVP. Hope you all find meaning in what you do!

Interested in learning first hand about how the internet and technology play a role in the promotion and revitalization of indigenous, minority, endangered, or under-resourced languages? Rising Voices and partners are now bringing to you a new round of our rotating Twitter campaigns for 2023, featuring language digital activists around the world each week. Come follow us and hear what they have to share!

@ActLenguas (Latin America)

• Katia González [es]: a Mexico-based independent illustrator — on revitalizing Tsotsil through her artwork
• Leonardi Fernández [es]: a language activist based in Colombia who dedicates himself to promoting the Wayuu language through a Wikipedia project in/for his mother tongue
• Julio César Gallardo Vásque, member of Colmix [es] — a group project for everything Mixe — on what they do as well as his reflections upon history, language, biological diversity, etc. of the region
• Didier Chan Quijano [es]: a digital activist dedicating himself to promoting the Mayan language through multimedia materials via digital platforms for easier access and its revitalization

For eligible documentary filmmakers seeking financial support for more impact: The application for the June round of the IDFA Bertha Fund is now open. Further details can be found here (for the project development category) and here (for the production & post-production category). Application due: June 10, 2023

For Canada-based Indigenous youth, aged 13 to 30: Application to We Matter’s #IndigenousYouthRise support fund is opening soon! If you are planning an online event/project for your community and are in need of a grant to help you out with your project, this might be just what you are looking for. Further details and guidelines are available here. Application open: May 15, 2023 through May 31, 2023

Meanwhile, the Fund for Internet Strengthening in Latin America and the Caribbean is now calling for applications. Through this Fund, FRIDA intends to support projects, initiatives, or solutions that contribute to internet stability and security, internet access and connectivity, or open and free internet in the region (details here). Submission due: May 31, 2023

The 2023 International Linguapax Award is open for nominations now. Do you know of someone, or a team, that has contributed to linguistic diversity and/or revitalization of linguistic communities? Why not share their work and accomplishments with the world so that we can all learn from each other? Further details can be found here and in their terms of reference. Submission due: May 31, 2023

• New app will help preserve and teach Dakota language one word at a time via MPR News
• Addressing online gender-based violence (OGBV) in Sierra Leone via Paradigm Initiative
• Intra-gender digital divide in Africa requires social innovation, programming – Bibowei-Osuobeni via Vanguard
• 90 per cent of adolescent girls and young women in low-income countries are offline via UNICEF
• Internet access: Essential utility or human right? via Good Things Foundation

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