The Bonito-MS/Brasil city is internationally known as “the capital of ecotourism”, in spite of garbage left in the open, no sanitation, no care for nature outside the tourist attractions and local population being excluded from the development process. The proposed project intends to give voice to this marginalized population, and find images, sounds and words that represent their stories and needs. It aims to make weekly posts on a blog, considering that the productions will be made by the community and by the Bonito Ecommunicators, which will be multipliers of the workshops they are partici
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Bonito
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The target community is Marambaia neighborhood, where poorer residents of the city live, while the center was “colonized” by tourism entrepreneurs from other cities and states. In Bonito there is no significant production of media material such as newspapers, blogs, radio stations, websites, and poor people have little internet and computers acess. We want to work with this community to promote digital inclusion, democratizing access to information technology, increasing the reach of their voices and valuing their stories.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
ParaTudo Ecommunicators of Pantanal and Serra da Bodoquena www.paratudo.org.br
Neotrópica www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br
Alda Mara Souza www.facebook.com/aldamara.souzasilva
Naíra Bernanos www.facebook.com/nairabzs
Renata Barros www.facebook.com/renata.barrosdemelo
Marilizi Duarte www.facebook.com/marilizi.duartedeoliveira
Anne Galvão www.facebook.com/galvaoanne
Daisy Andreotti www.facebook.com/daisy.andreotti
Aslan de Lira www.facebook.com/aslandelira
Luiz Eduardo Gonçalves www.facebook.com/luizedugoncalves
Diego Cardoso www.facebook.com/diego.cardosodossantos.3
Caio Tumelero www.facebook.com/caiocesar.o.tumelero
Genilso Gauna www.facebook.com/genilso.gaunabarbier
Felipe Atene www.facebook.com/felipe.atenesilva
Morgana www.facebook.com/morgana.zhen
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Through discussions with the residents association of Marambaia neighborhood, the project will collect pieces of their memories and identities, specially related with nature and social issues. The participants from the neighborhood along with the Bonito Ecommunicators will register those narratives, making news, stories, drawings, videos, photographs and podcasts from it. All of it will be available on the project's blog.
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.
The group that will apply this project was formed by another project that is strengthening a network of communicators from Pantanal and Serra da Bodoquena: ParaTudo project (www.paratudo.org.br). It is giving a jornalism course turned for ambiental and citizen issues for 88 person from 5 cities. It's executed by Fundação Neotrópica do Brasil (www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br) with a visibity support from O ECO site of ambiental journalism (www.oeco.com.br), which has a significant amount of visitors. About the local population, we are in contact with the residents association of the poorer neighborhood of the city: Marambaia.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We will involve about 15 to 50 participants, stimulating them to produce of material. For eight weeks we promote meetings and workshops with a group of residents from Marambaia neighborhood, always open to new members. At each meeting the new materials produced will be presented to participants, with the intention of increasing community's self esteem and that they can evaluate their progress themselve.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Why technology is very important in this process:
– So these stories are recorded
– To equip residents with the tools of communication, regarded as a universal right
– To strengthen the residents association
– To provide an opportunity for residents of new knowledge, which is scarce
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will use:
– Project's camera
– participant's mobiles
– Project's notebook
– Instructors Notebooks
– Project's projector
– Project's sound amplifier
– Colored paper
– Flipchart
– Colored marker pens
– Paper
– Pen
If it’s necessary, we can request the computer rooms of the Federal University. But we want the meetings to occur in Marambaia neighborhood, even some of them happen outdoors.
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?
We are a network of Ecommunicators of Pantanal and Serra da Bodoquena, concerned with the production of media about the region, considering nature and community. Our team counts with 20 people that will work for this project as facilitators and workshop instructors. Among them there are people with expertise in digital culture, photography, video, literature, environment, journalism, arts. This knowledge will be passed on to participants through workshops, aimed for the production of materials that represents the community. Aside from that,we will produce our own content about what we will see and learn having this close experience with the Marambaia neighborhood residents.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The project will have a little trouble to have a physical location to leave the computer available for the participants with acess to internet, and also a place where the population can participate. Moreover, it will be a challenge to keep the participants lively and productive.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We can measure the impact of the project with a questionnaire conducted before and after the workshops with the participants, and also by the number of hits to the local community's blog. In addition, project success is related to the direct participation of the community through the production of content that transmit their stories and needs by making use of communication tools.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
First step: meeting with the residents association of Marambaia neighborhood to learn more about their context and needs
Second Step: preparation activities for development of materials in workshops, blog creation and inclusion of the project in social media
Step Three: Make 8 workshops, help them posting their contents and production of Ecommunicators content about the community
Fourth Step: Perform a final product with highlights produced throughout the project execution
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
- HD Camera, with the option of shooting and manual zoom U$ 600.00
– Notebook U$500
– Voice recorder U$ 100.00
– Projector U$ 580.00
– Amplifier (speaker) U$ 200.00
– Cables/adaptors U$30
– Material for meetings (Colored paper, Flipchart, Colored marker pens, Paper, Pen, Drawing and Painting) U$ 140.00
– Snacks for meetings U$ 250.00
– Other coordination costs (maybe hiring internet, transport, revealing pictures) U$ 100.00
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
The Rising Voice can help us with documentation in order to facilitate access to partnerships with public and private companies to make more actions in the project. Also giving visibility to the participants publications, so that they feel motivated. The positive impacts of other Rising Voices projects can be very stimulating!
Contact name
Anne Galvão
Organization
With the support of Fundação Neotrópica do Brasil but managed for Ecommunicators of Bonito from ParaTudo's project