We are sorry we took so long to update the blog! Meanwhile, we worked a lot and many good things happened. As a result, we have great news!

First, we were successful in gathering collective support for the project. Do you remember that we put it on a Brazilian crowdfunding site, called Catarse, in June (http://catarse.me/en/projects/198-amigos-de-januaria-jornalismo-cidadao)? Our objective was to ask for extra support, especially because the final RV grant ended up being a little bit smaller than the amount we asked for and we would need more money to do the project the way we had planned before. At Catarse, the amount we asked to be funded was R$ 3.500. We had 45 days to raise it – the deadline was 15 August.

And we got it! By that date, we raised R$ 3.805 (9% more). The money were donated by 80 people, based around Brazil and also in other countries. We would like to thank everybody that helped us, by donating or by helping us publicize the project. Since Catarse has some administrative fees and we will offer rewards to those who supported us, the sum of money that became available to the project is R$ 3.400 (something like US$ 2,125). We are using these funds to buy multimedia equipment, print better course materials and help trainers pay for their accommodation.

Other good news is that 51 young people applied to participate to the project. We are very excited! As the project will train 15 citizen reporters, we are deciding who are those that will be called to be part of it, based on the answers they gave on their application forms. Soon, we will announce the selected participants.

More news: we ended the first part of the course material and we will make it available online soon. We also gained support from Amarribo (see here what we wrote about this association in May: https://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/januaria/2011/05/22/associations-of-friends-a-successful-model-to-fight-corruption/), which will donate 15 books called “The Fight Against Corruption at Brazilian Municipalities”. Finally, we are trying to organize a special lecture by a Brazilian institution that has a very important role in fighting corruption in the country (we will give more information about this soon!).

And it is important to remember you that the project will really begin next week!!! Time flies, doesn't it! On September 3-4th, Jamila Venturini and Fabio Oliva will give the first class in Januária. Stay connected, because from now on we will have much more news! And the citizen reporters will start to produce news about the project and also about their city!