Design a digital campaign to make visible the phenomenon of disappeared persons in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Since the actual government security policy is to control the media to diminish or eliminate perception of violence & insecurity in the country & the states. We want to give voice to the families of the disappeared through a digital storytelling with their testimonies in order to create public awareness, promote denounce, prevent new cases & inform citizens about disappearances. Training a group of 40 persons to use social networks to share by themselves info about their disappeared relatives
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We will work with a group of 50 families of disappeared persons from Nuevo Leon state. The group has a primary role in the development of this proposal because they are the main actors and principal beneficiaries of our proposal. They are an underrepresented community online since they are a very small group of families that share their courage and bravery to find their loved ones and struggle for justice & truth. Some of them are familiar with Internet & some of them not; we want to train all of them to have the basic skills to use social networks to share info making their invisible struggle visible to the online community.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
CADHAC’s team
Karla Torres (communication coordinator)
https://www.facebook.com/karla.torres
Andres Morales (video creator)
Liz Sanchez (education coordinator)
Deisy Hernandez (project coordinator)
https://www.facebook.com/cadhac
https://twitter.com/cadhac
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
We will create a video with the families’ testimonies where they talk about their cases & their struggle for justice & truth. Will be shared in YouTube and social networking.
Those family members whom do not have an account will create Facebook and Twitter accounts. They will be able to manage they own accounts to share & communicate info about their cases. They will share photographs, messages, hash tags, thoughts, memories & stories though social networks.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
CADHAC is a non-partisan and non-profit civil society organization, working since 1993 to make human rights a reality in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. CADHAC’s work has been extensively recognized by local, national & international organizations, being today a primary reference about the local status of human rights. We have partnerships with other local, national & international human rights organizations. We have a good relationship with the local media & journalists who could contribute highly positive to the success of this project.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
At least 40 persons (family members of disappeared persons) will be trained to use social networking & at least 10 persons will participate on the video sharing their testimonies.
All the persons who are part of the families’ group are highly committed to they struggle & they are very enthusiastic to participate in all the activities organized by the group and CADHAC. We are sure that they will have an active and dedicated participation on this project.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Our communication staff is expert on social networking & manages our web site, Facebook & Twitter accounts. They also have experience creating multimedia contents. The staff is highly committed to share its knowledge to the group of families to contribute to make visible their struggle. We have plenty experience implementing projects because we work on human rights promotion & protection since 1993. We will provide participants with everything they need to develop & advance their skills to use the Internet & social networks.
YouTube, Facebook & Twitter are the most popular & accessible tools to be use easily by the families that is why we want to focus on these tools.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will use CADHAC’s building for the training & all the project activities. We have a small hall with the capacity of 60 persons, where every week the families have their meetings to plan the activities they will develop. Also, some workshops have been taken place in this space, we believe it would be enough & confortable for the training. We have 10Mbps DSL Internet connection. We will use one PC & one projector for the training & one additional PC or laptop will be available to those who require it or don’t have any laptop, tablet or smartphone.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
Since 2009 we have worked with a group of more than 50 families of disappeared persons whom we accompany by providing them legal aid & comprehensive attention, which includes psychosocial attention and collective work. We have developed a synergy and collaborative network. We are very close to them, we accompany them in their struggle for justice & truth and we know their needs & their feelings. We want to share with them our work and expertise to rise their voices and making visible the invisible by creating public awareness about the disappeared persons in Nuevo Leon through the online community as well as the government.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The key challenge is defeat people’s apathy regarding the current problem of disappeared persons. We want to overcome this by creating social empathy, sharing the families stories and testimonies making visible their suffer & pain, but also their courage & bravery to keep fight against everything & everybody to find their loved ones, to struggle for justice & truth. The group of families who participate at CADHAC already defeat their own fears and everyday the fight for their battle. Some of the security concerns is that we or the families’ members might have are critics, provocations & even harassments but we could address them together & we might ask for support to other organizations that are our partners & if necessary we could request protection from to the authorities.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Primary participants: evaluation of the project impact will be accomplished by opening accounts, creating & sharing info, stories, photographs & memories. Families share their testimonies to create the video & share it. The group uses social networks to promote their public activities & share info about the advances of their struggle & the activities they organize. Establish contact with other families from other states or countries.
Wider regional community: after the project completion people who we aid daily refer to us that they met CADHAC’s & the group’s work through social networks & if more families, organizations and citizens enhance the families struggle.
Global digital community: excellent & impressive success will be if the video becomes viral.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Phase 1 (June – July 2014)
Training
Workshop 1- (2 hours)
How to use the Internet correctly
Benefits & risks of using social networks
Q&A
Workshop 2- (2 hours)
How to create & manage Facebook & Twitter accounts
What to share & how to share it
Privacy & security policies
Q&A
Workshop 3 – (2 hours)
How to make basic digital content
How to share basic digital content
Q&A
Phase 2(July-August 2014)
Creating the video
Recording, editing & publish the video with the families’ testimonies.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Workshop costs 600 USD
200 each workshop (3 during the project) this includes required materials and equipment and refreshments.
Video edition 1400 USD
Salary of video creator
Project coordinator 300 USD
Salary of project coordinator
Total amount 2300 USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices could help us very much by couching us about how we could design a better, wider & stronger communication campaign to make visible globally the catastrophe of disappeared persons in Mexico, particularly in Nuevo Leon. Also Rising Voices can help us to share though its social networks our info & the video, so be could have a larger impact worldwide.
Contact name
Deisy Hernandez
Organization
Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos A.C
