Our main goal is to contribute to peace building at school communities by creating a digital network where teachers, parents and students can share experiences and information about how to overcome violence situations. In order to achieve our goal, and since there is a lack of reflection about the advantages and disadvantages of the ICT implementation at Bolivian schools, we want to develop and strengthen skills about internet, cyberbullying and digital tools in teachers and parents. Finally, we will motivate a massive participation and practical use of the acquired skills creating a contest.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
La Paz, Sucre, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Tarija
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Our specific population is composed by schools communities of the Fe y Alegria network located in five cities of Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Sucre y Tarija). These are the same with which we have been working with in other projects. As we want that the peacebuilding experiences be shared in social media, we will be able to articulate other school communities from different cities and even countries.The intense online and offline violence registered at schools and the digital gaps that are affecting parents and teachers, are between the worst problems that schools have to face. Teachers and parents need to be trained in ICT because they have a very low level of knowledge about them.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Carla Valcarce. She is responsable of the education for peace team at UNIR Bolivia. In the project she would act as an adviser. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carla.valcarce?fref=ts
Veronica Berrios, she is an education for peace instructor. In the project she would help in the logistic coordination. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veronica.b.duran.3?fref=ts
Gabriela Ugarte. She is the Chief of Press and Promotion at UNIR Bolivia. In the project she would be an adviser in web topics. Facebook: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liz.ugarte.Bolivia?fref=ts
Silvana Gonzales. She is a national adviser at the Program of Public Action and Press at the Fe y Alegría regional office. In the project, she will help to coordinate activities with schools.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Every day the mass media and the internet show news about violence, discrimination, conflicts. Almost always they only adress the problems but not the solutions. With our project we want to change that by displaying the constructive ways that many teachers are parents are generating in order to manage those problems.
We want that the protagonist of these success stories be able to tale their experiences using their own codes and practices, but making the most of digital tools and web resources. The contents that we will make available to wider audiences are pictures, small videos, stories, comics, memes, and other that can become viral in internet. We will also use the mapping techniques in order to show where are those schools that are working to transform violence in opportunities.
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.
We have been working in an alliance with Fe y Alegria the last four years. Together we have struggled to introduce peace building practices inside the national education programs, having had satisfying results in 46 schools. Our close work with Fe y Alegria and the schools have lets us create a strong relationship of trust that will let us implement this project.
We also have partnerships with other organizations like Plan International, GIZ, and state offices, like the local councils and the National Assembly. In case of needed, we will ask them for help in logistic aspects. Also, we plan to involve the press in order to increase the reach of our project. We want that many people notice this project and participate using the social media, watching the contents and sharing them.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We will carry out 5 workshops, one in each city chosen for the project. We expect that in total, 150 people, between teachers, parents and students, will be trained. If there is a bigger demand, we will consider making more workshops.
Aditionally, we will upload tutorial videos and complement materials to our webpage and social media accounts so many other people that couldn’t t assist to the training events or just need to reinforce some of the acquired skills, can have the chance to access the contents.
To encourage a massive participation and the use of the acquired skills, we will launch a contest about peace experiences at schools. Those schools that can manage to demonstrate their success using digital resources will receive a money prize.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
- Social media.
– Multimedia tools
– Openstreetmap.
We believe that the chosen digital technology is the most adequate because is free, can be customizable, has an easy access and a small learning curve. They do not represent a major technological dare and are very common between internet users.
My partners and I will bring an interesting mix of technical skills and educational knowledge. I am an expert in ICT4D and I have participated in other projects that involved using web resources for educational interest, for example, I have help organized MOOC, I have also worked managing social media. My partners have extensive knowledge in education for peace, so they know about skills development and how to transform violence situations into constructive experiences.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshops will be hold at the Fe y Alegria establishments. If we find it necessary, because of a major interest of the school communities, we will rent other spaces; UNIR Bolivia will cover the expenses of this. In order to have practice sessions we will ask assistants to bring their laptops and electronic devices with them; since the Bolivian State has gave a laptop per teacher, this is possible. We will also need a projector and internet connection, but both are going to be cover by us.
Finally, we will create a webpage space inside the UNIR Bolivia and Fe y Alegria own webpages so the hosting is also covered.
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?
The Fe y Alegria schools have participated very actively in two of our last projects. The first emerged from the worrying violence situation at schools where 50% of students reported being participants in bullying practices and 70% were victims of home violence; so, we developed peace building capacities to help parents, teachers and students handle these problems. The results confirmed a good appropriation level of the trained skills, so many teachers and parents found constructive alternatives to overcome violence. After that project, we are currently gathering new information in order to create a national strategy.
Throw all this process we had the opportunity to learn about the school dynamics, their necessities and problems, so we are suited to implement this project.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The two most difficult challenges that we will have to face are: the lack of digital and internet knowledge in our group target, and the participation sustainability. We will face both using creative and practical workshops, there are many technics that strengthen cohesion between members of learning groups so everybody can have fun at the same time they help each other undestrand difficult topics. Also, we will work very closely with the school´s principals so they can encourage the whole community to participate.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
· Quantity of experiences and initiatives that are going to be presented to our call of proposals.
· Quantity of individuals, groups, communities that will articulate to our digital network.
· Quantity of times that people are going to access, download or share content upload to our social media/webpage.
· Quantity of new virtual communities created by the target groups/participants of the workshops.
· Application levels of the digital and tools.
· Schools mapped in openstreetmap.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
We want to commence the project at June 2014
June: we will stablish contact with all the regional Fe y Alegria offices of the five cities where we are goint to work; together we will make a chronogram of the workshops. Also, we will start to develop all the contents for them and the webpages.
July: we will put online all the contents. The call of proposals of the contest will be launch and we will start the workshops.
August: We will end the workshops.
September: The prizes will be awarded to the most active schools at 21st September, worldwide peace day.
October-November: all the experiences will be uploaded and systemized. We also will be publishing the results and a balance of the whole experience.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Three monetary incentives of U$ 400 for the most active schools.
U$ 200 for the webpage design
U$ 600 for internet conections at the workshops and other material.
U$ 400 stipend for the web instructor
U$ 100 for promotion material
The spaces for the workshops and the trevelling costs are goind to be paid by the UNIR Bolivia Foundation.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We will only required traduction to different languages, including the local ones: aymara & quechua, of all testimonies, experiences and other material shared by the participants and created by us. With this we want to be able to get a wider target population.
Contact name
Cristian Leon Coronado
Organization
UNIR Bolivia Foundation
