Stories about FOKO

FOKO: Growing Strong As A Connected Community

  30 November 2008

It was an eventful October for the Rising Voices grantee FOKO Blog Club (FBC) project in Madagascar. With the help of FOKO bloggers many participants at the 'Madagascar barcamp' and the 'E-Bit youth day ICT event' learned about digital literacy and citizen media. FOKO bloggers are now taking charge of the outreach activities with a inspired community feeling and FOKO is soon spreading to more parts of Madagascar.

Pati Rakotomalala on the need to listen to the youth

  7 November 2008

Pati Rakotomalala represented FOKO Madagascar at this year's Interdependence Day in Brussels, Belgium about the importance of listening to youth. Pati later gave a presentation about her experience in Brussels at Madagascar's first-ever Barcamp.

FOKO: A successful Barcamp in Madagascar

  9 October 2008

A BarCamp was held in Madagascar on October 4, 2008 in the capital Antananarivo. Organized by the Rising Voices Grantee FOKO it was the first event of such kind in Madagascar.

FOKO Puts Madagascar on the Map

  24 September 2008

Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is much more than a Disney movie. By training Malagasy bloggers how to publish online and interact with the wider world of Web 2.0, Foko is helping put Madagascar on the map.

Creativity Leads to Sustainability

  20 September 2008

Rising Voices microgrants provide citizen media training projects in the developing world with just enough funding to get off the ground. Many of these projects, however, have become so successful that they are now attracting the interest of more local community members who want to learn how to communicate effectively online. In order to continue their training workshops and outreach activities, they have had to come up with creative strategies for financial sustainability.

Rising Voices at Interdependence Day in Brussels

  16 September 2008

The sixth annual Interdependence Day in Brussels brought about 20 youth from around the world to discuss issues of global interconnectedness and interdependence. Rahool Goswami from the Neighbourhood Diaries project in India and Patricia Rakotomalala from Foko Project in Kolkata represented Rising Voices at the four-day forum.

FOKO: A dream progress

  9 August 2008

The FOKO Madagascar team is progressing with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm in arranging blog outreach workshops for the youths in Madagascar to make their dream come true.

One Blogger's Determination to Help Baby Kamba in Madagascar

  21 July 2008

Diana Chamia, an 18-year-old journalism student who was taught how to blog in a Foko workshop in Mahajanga, first met one-year-old baby Kamba when she accidentally missed her busstop and was forced to walk. Over the next few months she and her blog would play an integral role in helping Kamba grow up to lead a normal life.

Citizen journalism and Rising Voices

  20 July 2008

We hear the term 'citizen journalism' almost everywhere. But to be precise, what is it? Why do we need to embrace citizen journalism? What effects does it have on a society and how can it give a voice to the people who are under reported in the mainstream media? We will find the answer to those questions in this feature and learn how the Rising Voices projects are embracing citizen journalism.

Rising Voices at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit

  4 July 2008

The second day of the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit projected different works and achievements of Global Voices Online. The Rising Voices project was certainly in the spotlight as it involves in giving the voice to those who need it the most and improves the lives of people who are neglected by the media and the communities. We look at the presentation of the Rising Voices project in the summit and the reactions of the participants and the media.

Blogging for a social cause

  14 June 2008

Why do we blog? Because we want to express ourselves, to be heard, to learn about others, to augment networking, and most importantly to enhance a new social imagination, engage in social causes among other things. Emerging bloggers in two of the Rising Voices funded projects have done commendable jobs in taking personal initiatives to help others and promote the cause to a greater scale.

First anniversary of the Nari Jibon Blog

  29 May 2008

On the first anniversary of the Nari Jibon Blog we have asked the people behind Nari Jibon of Bangladesh, its educators and a participant about the challenges of the citizen media outreach project so far. We wanted to know what they have learned, how the blog has helped them, what the frustrations have been and what were their happiest moments. Read all about these in this week's feature.