Author Archives: joan razafimaharo

Foko Blog Club first Self-Evaluation

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After 10 months of planting blogs, Foko-Madagascar first project met successes in different ways, three languages and in a very short period of time. We launched this outreach with well defined goals, supposedly, we had all figured out from the first workshop (we even used to make GANTT charts) to the launch of our next project (we are dreaming about building a huge cybercafé painted in green) but of course we expected to meet deceptions, make millions mistakes and start fights over a key-decision to take….all this to spice things up. Most of the updates on the Rising Voices blog are emphasizing on the results but the more “good news” we published, the harder our team had to work backstage and improvise.

Foko, a pioneer for Citizen Media in Madagascar

With a School of Journalism as part of our Blog Club and more and more excellent stories on topics rarely published on newspapers, you would think that Foko has touched the heart of Malagasy readers (internet and newspapers). But journalism is still a very well-guarded citadel in Madagascar and many are still asking our coordinators and members about their “motivations” in giving away for (free) such important informations and hard work. Cyclone Yvan coverage and Baby Kamba project were two very interesting examples of journalists and webmasters relaying without aknowledging Avylavitra , Diana nor Foko's in general interventions. Videos of Ikopa river filmed with his own mini-camera and put on Youtube were found on a popular Malagasy website, the webmaster was raising funds for the victims but “forgot” to give credits to Avylavitra. After Baby Kamba's second operation, after the stressing hours, Diana was convocked at a press conference. This very talented young journalist and activist had the chance to be interviewed on her participation and how her blogging was decisive for Baby Kamba's future. But her blog's adress was never mentioned ….

  • Our first move was to integrate more journalists on our side and each time we don't hesitate to share our experiences and show them the values of Citizen Media and what it could bring to developing countries and Madagascar particularly. Randy Donné is well-known for his articles on Lexpress de Madagascar and today on Les Nouvelles and was one of Diana's supporters. He is now teaming with Foko to train his students at ICM Antsirabe where he is teaching journalism classes to Citizen media and open new blogs from the Vakinankaratra region. The new workshops will integrate tutorials on licencing (Creative Commons), commenting and social networking.

Foko, showing a new approach to ICT in Madagascar

3 out of 5 members have very basic knowledges of computing and internet but all of them have their personal cellphones and are experts at the Art of phone texting. Their first motivation to join the FBC was to learn more from the new technology and to develop skills with new media (videos and poscasts are total hits). FBC seems to be the link between the popular but limited use of internet for corresponding and chatting only and the dynamique but very selective community of developers. With a 3-step workshop format we tried to teach blogging, photography and video+podcast taking and encourage the bloggers to transfer their knowledge to their communities. But most of the time and not only because of the low connection and the costs, coordinators support are required. Video editing followed by the loading, more tutoring on WordPress and tips on online behavior are exchanged outside of the workshops hours. Hery and Stéphane noticed that the young bloggers needed more attention and “protection” from unwelcomed sollicitators on internet.

  • More “special” workshops are in preparation so our bloggers can answer to the community who is criticizing us on our “foolish” use of technology. We will produce breathtaking webdesign and professional video and audio contents like the ones Patricia and Nombana made to win international contests.

Foko, facing organisational and logistical challenges

It was after our expansion in Tamatave and soon after Lindsay's departure from Majunga that we realized we had to monitor than managing our network (we are very proud of this expression). Contacts were made with the bloggers twice a month with alternative ways to communicate (Skype, phone calls, chats). We had the opportunity to get guest bloggers and already trained members , Karenichia and her friends in Tananarive for example, to take over the workshop when the coordinators where travelling in the provinces. Coordinating and scheduling these meetings are still very difficult with most of the members still studying and having a part-time job during their free-time. The blog carnival participation for August 31st has a question mark on our calendar since we didn't hear from the members yet but we never know… In addition, we still have to solve our biggest problems of connectivity and finding cheaper and efficient ways to transfer pictures and videos online. Negociations are in progress with the cybercafés, sponsorship projects are in preparation and ideas of starting our own cybercafé.

But Foko team have came to the realizations that our decisions concern more the members than the organization itself and it has become an urgence to include them in the process and even giving them more responsabilities. All of them expressed their support to Foko in very touching ways and we have complete trust in them as they are the ones who are becoming the leaders of their communities : UN Club groups are the head students of their high-schools already used to activism and English Club in Tamatave students are involved in social activities.  And finally our choice to pursue our expansion to other regions  has been collectivelly discussed and will integrate the lessons we've learned from the previous workshops : passion, autonomy and knowledge transfer.

Foko bloggers contribute to the Madagascar English Journal

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Since October 2007, when we started the Foko Blog Club project, our constant preoccupation was to find a sustainable way to finance our workshops. The Rising Voices grant came at the right moment (after our 3rd workshop) and helped us extend our activities in the regions where there are less coverage from the media. We bought digital cameras and distributed it right away to the groups to publish videos, podcasts and furnish their blogs with pictures.Our mini-blogging contest back in April 2008 proved that competition may be very motivational. Even if Karenichia was the one who won the digital camera, we greeted all of the participants free hours of connexion to help them update their blog outside the workshops. Of course their heavy schedule (since most of the members are students at universities) and, again, the high costs at cybercafes were the obstacles for them to blog regularly.

Mrs Annelie Rozenboom the offices of the Mada English Journal

The offer from Mrs Annellie Rozenboom to publish our bloggers’ articles and instauring a special FOKO column brought intensive and very creative writing from every corner of the island. The Madagascar English Journal is a weekly publication distributed to high-schools to promote the use of English (which is now Madagascar's 3rd official language with French and Malagasy). They quickly recognized the versatily of the likes of Rondro or Ledheada (Lists of selected articles here) and we are now frequently asked to submit more on culture and society in exchange of a small stipend converted in connexion hours (again to keep the focus on online presence). This interest in their work from the great staff at Mada Journal (a publication sponsored by Exxon Mobile and supported by the US embassy*), their advices to help write in a more journalistic  way (integrate few lines of interviews, illustrate with pictures,…)  and the opportunity to be read by thousands were the reasons behind these last weeks’ flow of blogging.

Already 7 bloggers contributed to the free  Journal distributed to Madagascar's high-schools

From all the FOKO Blogggers,

Thank you for reading our articles

We still have little problems commenting and responding to feedbacks which was very early noticed and oftenly criticized by the blogosphere. We are looking for ways to solve the problems of low speed connectivity and give more time to our bloggers to take part in the many debates their articles have initiated.

(*thanks to Mrs Rozenboom for the correction)

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Monsieur Stéphane reporting

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Many of you know Foko by the works of talented citizen journalists Patrick, Karenichia, Ledheada or Patricia. From their corner of Madagascar, each one of them are building Foko's citizen media very strong network  , the FBC, with little resources but a lot of energy and of course their sunning skills (trilinguism, activism, confidence,etc.). There will be no powerful and full of promises communities without this one Foko. He is  tirelessly supporting – by travelling and networking – and training  – with his little knowledge (he only started to blog in October 2007) the talented bloggers all around the country. In less than a year, he became very close to each bloggers and always find innovative solutions for Foko's problems, even if sometimes it requires strong manners but a lot of generosity! Monsieur Stéphane (this is how they call him from Majunga to Tamatave) is reporting for Rising Voices :


Play video : Hello World from Stéphane Ramananarivo

The CPO (Club for UN) kids are very fond of their blogging workshops. At first they had difficulties using WordPress because the students only knew about Skyblog.com which is a very popular blogging plateform. They appreciated the commenting sessions and when we started the mini blogging contest we invited them to write down their articles to not waste their precious connection. Lindsay's filming lessons were very useful but we discovered that it was still risky to interview people randomly on the streets or even take pictures of events. We're now becoming a serious actor at the UNIC (UN Informational Center) and the director is always encouraging new members to take interest in our sessions, especially since Patricia's video was featured on a Youth contest for World Population Day.

Last FBC on July 22nd 2008 in Tamatave

please read and post comments on our blogs

We had workshops through April to July in Tamatave, the economical capitale of Madagascar which is 360km from Antananarivo, 6 hours road trip. This town is where the “Ambatovy Project” had settle the biggest Cobalt and Nickel mining exploitations in the world. We approached workers from the big companies in Tamatave to share their experiences of the changes that had been made in the regions and their personal lives. A 5 hours long power outtage made us miss the rendez-vous but we invited the 20 of them to come back. We had the opportunity, shortly after, to meet students from the University of Tamatave. The English Club is a group of 50 and quickly started to use blogging to promote their association's social activities in the Barikadimy's popular neighborhood.

on board of a Taxi Brousse to Tamatave

500 km and 10 hours by car from Antananarivo, the future of Malagasy Journalism is in the hands of the  very energetic Lomelle, Zouboon, Rondro and their director Mr Vita. Unfortunately they are  located in the outskirts of the city but this doesn't keep most of the students in making great efforts to actively report on the latest news from the very lively Majunga. The school's success relies on their students abilities to lead rigorous investigations like we saw in Diana's professional coverage of Kamba. We learned that it took her hours to convince Georgine to allow her to take pictures from her Nokia mobile phone !! If youth activism made Majunga known worldwide, the other motivation to start workshops in Madagascar provinces was to promote our culture and share more about our traditions. Hkambora and Rondro are doing a tremedious work relating stories from tribes like the Antekaran or the importance of rituals like circumcision and famadihana.

with Mr Vita from the School of Journalism of Majunga

All the students are very close to each other, cross-commenting on their blogs or exchanging tips (Patricia and Karenichia are best friends, the 2nd year at Majunga School of Journalism have invited the 1st and 3rd to blog). We also want to point that, at this moment, all the groups are fully autonomous at all and we're about to make the leader bloggers turning into trainers themselves. Of course they still need specific training (adding more pictures on blogs, loading videos on the web, etc.) but have become very resourceful and are using frequently their local cybercafé : Teknet in Antananarivo, Orange in Tamatave and Alliance Française in Majunga. But we, at Foko, will keep on  finding more ways, funds and help to make their citizen media dreams come true !

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Akory Tamatave ! Hello Tamatave !

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Last month, Stéphane went back to Tamatave and met Patrick who opened his blog during FBC 6. He brought us the guyz from the English Club and they both introduced them to Citizen Media.

Day 1 : June 27th 2008 Simple blogging session with 3 participants at the time. Knowing the very slow connexion in the provinces we started this technique back in June in Majunga, more attention was brought to each student during the 2-hour workshop.

Day 2 : June 28th 2008 The bloggers were unable to load their own pictures but amazingly had the chance to share few seconds from the GVO summit streaming from Budapest. They felt very proud to be part of FBC amazing community and are ready to put in good use their citizen media initiation.

Day 3 : June 29th 2008 podcasts and chatrooms , No rendez-vous with the global blogosphere on the Foko chatroom was possible this day because of too many interruptions. In place they made an awesome interview of Patrick (in english):

Patrick talks about blogging and the English Club

  • BUEC: Barikadimy’s United English Club

BUEC is an English club which is exist at University of Tamatave. It was created by group of students included Rolland, Gildas, Paul, Vohary, Jacquinot, Jean D’Arc, Fredel, Lydovick, Urbain and Patrick is the President actual. It was on 2003 and every years the member is increasing nonstop. In this club, there is no teacher neither students but we help one another. It is a very big opportinuty for the people especially the students at University of Tamatave to increase their skill in English (…)We always got problems about the room where we can have our meeting. Normally we hve to have one teacher at least but because we are all students in and we’re all bit busy of our studies no one of us could be a teacher. Also as a club we have not enough materials like computer, TV. We only have one tape for leastening but sometimes we want to watch a film. more here from http://layshiyuu.wordpress.com

  • The war

I think about the word life.I study economic so why I like doing analysis a little about its.The country under developping has a big problem.Now I tell about a malnourished,the children is sorrow they haven’t anything to eat and so on.But I don’t know why the rich country spends his money just for a war. And sometimes its has also traffik for aperson that means they sell a poor people for having a monney . The war or violence exist by a different way.This storry make’s me sorrow.If  you interesting for this what we should do ? from
http://violance.wordpress.com

  • New blogs

http://bodoundjan.wordpress.com
http://hanitra085.wordpress.com
http://theophilusman.wordpress.com/
http://hkambora.wordpress.com//
http://clairesttuburn.wordpress.com/

See? They are ready to take over the world and are waiting for your  comment…

FOKO in the heart (foko) of the Malagasy blogosphere

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Last saturday Silo, who specializes in Malagasy Jazz, invited FOKO to make the Silo concert live on the Internet (a first for Malagasy audience !), but the Internet Service Provider did not fulfil its promises. The bloggers in town were present at the all 3 of the show locations all around Tamatave. It was also a great occasion to show our bloggers another fun way to practice their photography skills.

One of the three locations of the Silo Show : Stella Maris High-School

The other initiative was born when many bloggers lamented the poor Malagasy seen on the Internet, sparsed with liberties taken with the grammar etc…and so the “Aza ampijaliana ny tenintsika” (translated losely to “Do not mistreat our language!”) event was planned.
The event was held on Saturday, June 21 with Malagasy bloggers present, the usual FBC workshop taking place, and Patie representing FOKO and presenting what  FOKO Blog Clubs are about. The event was mostly fun, with games played online by the participants, but these were “serious” games about Malagasy proverbs, grammar, knowledge of Malagasy language in general.

Eddie Avila of Voces Bolivianas came for a visit and was offered some Malagasy lessons of the street language kind by Simp. Thanks for visiting, Eddie !

The next two weeks are going to be chock full of action for FOKO :
http://www.foko-madagascar.org/2008/06/21/podcast-foko-se-dedie-a-promouvoir-la-jeunesse-malgache/
with Lova and Mialy present at the Global Voices Online Summit in Budapest, meeting up with some bloggers based in Paris and most of all there will be another FOKO Blog Club in Tamatave, thanks to Stephane, our field manager, travelling there !
Stay tuned…

by Mialy Andriamananjara

Congratulations to Foko Blog Club Class of 2008 !

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Back in October 2007, we started the blogging project at a tiny cybercafé between close friends who wanted to share their knowledge and passion for blogging when gathering around a THB (a very well-known Malagasy beverage). Today we kept our rituals of enjoying our times first but extended our circle to a wider community and learned back from the amazing friends we met from the streets of Analakely to Mahabibo Market.

Many were present Saturday May 24th (After FBC 9) for the party organized for the blogging contest winners

(pictures here :Avylavitra, Patricia, Nombana, and the Namana Serasera supporters)

Our coordinators and members kept on finding ways, most of the time by improvising, to give more visibility to Citizen Media in Madagascar when the blossoming internet is reachable to only the few who can afford the connectivity and of course the digital knowledge. Because of humbleness, they shared very little about their everyday struggles to convince (people to join the workshops), produce (exceptional and original pieces) and …load their work (which is the most frustrating step). But we've started to notice from the nervosity and then the excitment they demonstrated when receiving feedbacks and reactions from sympathizers from all over the world.

Monsieur Vita, Director of the School of Journalism in Majunga, has invited Foko to formarly integrate Citizen Media to their cursus. Starting from last week, Lomelle, Rondro and their 2nd year class will help their 1st and 3rd year peers to the basics of blogging, podcasting and vidcasting ( Patricia in Antananarivo have been leading 2 workshops on her own now). This partnership will help Foko bring more attention to Malagasy provinces and open an official window to the school. We're currently studying the best strategies to fructify our collaboration with the staff.

Very happy blogging class and improvised FBC.

Stéphane with Monsieur Vita the Director

From the Madagascar English Journal invitation to contribute to their weekly publication distributed to all the schools on the island, we managed to get our English speaking bloggers a dedicated column. Mrs Annelie Rozeboom from the American School of Antananarivo has kindly edited 4 articles from Cylnice and Zouboon when at the same recommending the authors to share more stories from the provinces and most of all touching interviews like this one with little Eliza.

Foko will carry on on improving media citizen skills to our experienced bloggers until the beginning 09-10 school year in October when we'll open the workshops to new members. UN Youth Club of Antananarivo members have already suggested to learn more on internet and webdesign tools such as Photoshop, video editing and websites designing during their summer vacations with Foko. We'll also focus more on Toamasina group now that Majunga have received their digital camera and support them the same way on producing more contents on their amazing region and lifestyle.

Congratulations Class of 2008 !!

From simple blogger to citizen journalist, We do whatever it takes

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Foko has just celebrated its 6 months of Blog Clubs and it was an occasion to salute the effort and energy all our coordinators and sponsors are putting in this great project. From the ones who spend amountless hours on networking looking for funds and contacts to the true heroes who are committing 200% of their energy in Madagascar and of course to our family, the Rising Voices community : THANK YOU !

We managed to recrute more than 20 bloggers from Mahajanga to Toamasina and integrate more and more communities. Since October 2007 we asked them first : “why do you want to join the Club?” . These are the answers : “I'd like to meet new friends”, “Will Malagasy from abroad read my blog?”, “It's a chance to improve my English”, “I want to write short stories”, “I want the world to know more about Madagascar”,…

From FBC-Majunga

As you already realized, our scheduled FBC workshops require improvisation (since the connexion gets cut off too often) and ingeniosity (because we're always short on money, tutors, cameras and posts!). For 6 months, we teached the basics of blogging and each member was free to come back on the next session, blog outside the hours and join our many outdoor activities. When the Flickr and video sessions started, the bloggers proved their skills and commitment. Each day you can find new images posted and oftenly commented by Lomelle, Poupoune, CPO groups on our Flickr album. With the undergoing contests, you'll find more videos on our Youtube and Dotsub pages . When Lindsay met Stéphane in Antananarivo this week-end, our coordinators helped Pati and Nombana (our FYI contest participants) for their videos which needed Hery‘s from Namana Serasera support for today editing session.

Lindsay and Pati after a very tiring but passionate video workshop

But the greatest achievement remains in everyone's tenacity to inform and share more and more news and stories when fighting tough conditions in Madagascar. Power or internet connection cut offs happen more than 10 times a day in the provinces; many of our members are still in high-school and university students and have exams ; difficulties to keep on blogging with the high rates of internet connexion ; uploading time require amountless hours; etc. To show them our appreciation and our interest in their work, we invite everyone to welcome our members from Mahajanga by posting a cheerful comment on their brand new blogs !

Which fruits and vegetable look more tasty : Toamasina or Mahajanga ones ?

When members take control of the Foko Blog Clubs

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The collaboration with the Namana Serasera group since October 2007 turned into a very enriching experience for both parts but mostly for us at FOKO. Our very young organisation has always received the inconditionnal support from their very energetic and socially involved members. They invited us at their annual tree planting event so we could learn more on environmental actions but they didn't limited themselves to blogging only. We all know about Avylavitra’s achievements in Citizen Media but what must be known is his perseverance to share his knowledge to every new bloggers. Hery is now tutoring the students from UNIC Club (UN Informational Center where he works) and has accepted without hesitation in helping the students competing in the Film your Issue Short Film International Contest. This reportage from the Open Door Days at Lycée Jules Ferry on March 14th by the CPO Julf group proves their talents and interest in social causes .

Our Flickr is updated every 2-3 days now!

The blog posts since their first workshop portray Malagasy youth with a very mature but creative spirit :

Karenichia who is now posting twice a week in Malagasy, French and English (you can watch her thanking the Rising Voices on this video) shares her opinions on society, education and of course boys.

Qui reste-t-il à épouser? Nobody left to marry
Nobody is perfect but everyone has his ideal husband or wife. Who doesn't know this? I was having a discussion about this with a girlfriend and we discovered that the ideal husband we dream about is a rare specie in exctinction. read more here

Pati who is also part of the group who made the CPO Julf video exposes her ideas on her personal blog:

Les jeunes de nos jours Kids the days

Who are they?
I think they're human beings who don't think themselves as children anymore but not ready to act as elders ! There is no age range to define who can be young and it's up to us to see and sense who can be and who cannot!(…) So be careful young people! We are the young of everyday but also of tomorrow so don't make a bad start by wasting your future. read more here

Ahasintsoa, Xylone, Kafoumette and Majy have already received cheerful welcoming from the blogosphere who has been regurlarly posting comments and tips to support our youth group.

The titling also refers to the extraordinary work of Toamasina group. Since Stéphane could't make his monthly trip for the pictures and video training (the 2nd step of FBC ), they insisted in taking their reserved places at the cybercafé ! Poupoune diligently formed 2 friends of hers to blogging and despite the very bad connexion they were able to discuss with their new peers from Mahajanga on Skype. FBC-Mahajanga is a group of talented future journalists .This media is very new to them (the serious side of blogging), they took time to know more about the Malagasy blogosphere and discover the wonders from FBC-Tana and FBC-CPO groups. Lomelle managed to publish her first post during this short workshop and Faliniaina exposes his views on racism. With only a little training but a lot of (online) support, the voices from the provinces came straight from their hearts.

Lomelle : Slam for Life

My name is Lomelle I am 18 and in 2nd year at Mahajanka school of journalism. I'm fond of litterature but what I like the most is Slam poetry. As far as I can remember I always love reading. (…) Freedom of speech : Where no words is forbidden , no topic is tabou. Freedom to boo a slammer when his text displeases us, freedom to applaude when we're fond of a text. Freedom to proclaim out loudly what we keep in our hearts. read more here

Faliniaina Racial and economical discrimination

How come we still have to talk about this? But it is the reality here in Madagascar. The vazaha (foreigners) come here and see us as we were the poor people who have to be inferior. (…)Myself, I've studied, and worked with vazaha in our own country and this is the feeling I have at this moment. We live under the era of economical colonisation. We have the wealth we're not able to exploit, how will we manage do get out of this dead-end? read more here

Stay tune for more pictures and videos on

Bringing Malagasy forumists to blogging

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Traditions of improvised oral speeches, also known as “kabary“, are deeply seated in Madagascar. The orator speaks alone in front of a crowd for a long period of time using metaphors and images.
When we, at FOKO, first thought of bringing forumists (such as the members of the Namana Serasera association) to the world of blogging, we were afraid they would feel alone and intimidated when introduced to this new media. Although Malagasy internet users are already used to sharing their opinions openly in forums, they always did so while comfortably sheltered by the online community. The idea of publishing ideas on one's own and taking a personal position on each post could have understandably scared some of them.


Our team did their best to make them feel at ease and showed them the basics of blogging in each session.
This month, Hery, a tutor at the Club since its first edition in October, took the initiative to introduce our work to teenagers of the Lycee Rabearivelo in Antananarivo during an Open Day on “Development and Human Rights” hosted by the local United Nations ICT Center. Those who were interested were then invited to join the workshops . Andry, a new member of FOKO, and incidentally a seasoned Internet professional, did a wonderful job at setting up the computers and sodas at the cyber coffee Teknet. “Pro” Malagasy bloggers also showed up to help out and at the same time other overseas based bloggers connected on the chatroom and offered support and tips.

It took only one hour for the first posts to start showing up. FOKO members had not even yet mentioned Citizen Journalism and the Rising Voices tutorials translated into French (and soon in Malagasy)that spontaneously all the blogs showed they had caught on the spirit of what it means to rise ones’ voices :

13 year-old FCandy very wisely posts about the latest news from her Ambohimanarina popular neighborhood .

Hard working Sasa tells us funny stories about people she meets everyday on her way home .

Stunningly Avylavitra showcases pictures of the impact of last week's FAME cyclone which did many destructions in town …

All the “Pro” were impressed by the Virtual Kabary posted in the new blogs and continuously wrote comments to sustain the flow.

Some issues were raised : Blanche07 explained how difficult it was to find Internet connection, Pakysse wanted to learn how to embed sounds and videos into posts, and 10-year-old Miora Stéphanie needed more time. Many more bloggers-to-be were waiting for their turn in the hallway.

Respectful of the Malagasy tradition, we used a collective approach to solve the problems. FOKO will now host 2 blogging sessions per month instead of one, more friends from the Namana Serasera group will attend the workshops, Tantely will teach the art of vidcasting, more tutors will volunteer to help out (and meet new friends) and the blogosphere will keep on commenting !!!

As FOKO says it in its slogan : It takes a village to rise an idea.