E nos ! is a project of citizenship and exchange through different realities. On the one hand a group of youth in an urban favela, on the other hand young people of a rural community. Each one with their experience and their social discrimination, but both lack represented in the political context. The project wants to open the minds, to build understanding of the Brazilian society trough the construction of a debate with plural voices, in order to form the youth to cultivate a critical opinion as conscious citizens.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Belo Horizonte (capital of Minas Gerais State) and Nova União (rural territory, 1 hour from the capital : http://ow.ly/vHWoY
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
In Brazil, young people are not unconnected and often master digital tools. But they are excluded from the political debate. Youth of suburbs live in a constant confrontation with the State, especially the Police, and suffer discrimination. Youth from rural communities have rarely access to Internet and both get informed through mass media consumption without critical thinking. In both cases, young people have lot to say and less opportunity for this. Our goal is to create a space where they could be heard and could express their point of view on the society and their vision of the political debate. Working in both realities (urban and rural) we want to open their mind on the diversity of the issues in the society, encouraging the exchange of opinions, and the debate to build citizenship.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
- Internet Without Border staff (Facebook : http://ww7.fr/e3wy), especially Julie Owono (@JulieOwono), journalist, lawyer, citizen engagement advisor
– A journalist of the « Observatorio da Imprensa », through the “Institute for development of journalism” (http://projor.org.br/projor/)
– The staff of the high school Escola estadual Coração Eucaristico in the favela Alto Vera Cruz in Belo Horizonte Facebook: http://ow.ly/vHVmR
(principal : Wladmir Tadeu Silveira Coelho / teacher : Welton Ferreira do Prado)
– The MOC-ECO NGO (moc-eco.blogspot.com) involved in the agrarian reform through its president Marcos Antonio de Oliveira Zocrato which follows the rural community of Nova União since decades
– We are also building a network with local journalists, activists, bloggers, local media
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The project has 2 goals. Through a blog, the aim is to link the 2 local realities and personal experience of targeted young people with the political system. The aim is also to create debates, exchange of experience between urban and rural youth. The blog will have many sections :
– journalistic follow up of the political events depending on topics young people want to focus on (content editing + content syndication)
– show the gap between facts reported in the mass media and the local reality they live (content editing, photos, videos)
– the point of view of the youth groups on politics and social topics, with a cross perspective (content editing + social networking)
– youth talking to representatives through questions, commentaries, suggestions (content editing + social networking)
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.
In Belo Horizonte we are working with the school principal and the teaching staff of the high school “Escola Estadual Coração Eucaristico” (EECE), in the favela Alto Vera Cruz. The school also participates in the activities of the MOC-ECO NGO, which is strongly connected to the rural community of Nova União.
We are also working actively at the moment to build a network of local journalist partners who will participate in the training. Nationally, our project is also supported by the “Observatorio da Imprensa” (the Press Observatory – www.observatoriodaimprensa.com.br) a well-known web, radio and TV media platform of analysis of the mass media in Brazil.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We will work with a group of 30 young community-leaders: 15 in each locality. The selection of these youth will be based on their political and social engagement and basic knowledge of social networks. We will create in both localities a one-year media workshop where each group will meet weekly. All the contents will be gathered on a unique blog through which they will exchange through collaborative articles and social networking. The project will organize 2 meetings in each local to enable young people to better know each other. During the project, some activities with the other colleagues of the community-leaders will be organized to disseminate the work and stimulate the knowledge exchanges.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The principal skill that will be taught is citizen journalism. With our journalist partners, the workshop will provide journalism training: reading, information treatment, writing methodology, etc. We will focus on editing, web edition and syndication of existing contents. The syndication will give a special importance to independent and free sites of information and blogs at the local but also national levels. The project seeks also to provide knowledge about citizenship, civil society participation, public institutions, etc. We will organize debates with local stakeholders of the civil society and visits to the Minas Gerais State Parliament.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
In the favela Alto Vera Cruz : the school “Escola Estadual Coração Eucaristico” has a computer room of 40m² with 15 computers and a 20 Mb Internet connection with wireless.
The rural community of Nova União hasn’t any computer room. We are working on a partnership with the high school of the city of Nova União, where the youth of the rural community study. We are also looking for the possibility to build the computer room in the community, mobilizing the contribution of the local community and donations. Out of the project, this computer room will have a very important function for the community.
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 working with the staff of the Escola Estadual Coração Eucaristico which is a pilot school in Belo Horizonte in bringing communication and citizenship workshop in the pedagogical curriculum. A few years ago, the school also launched a community radio in partnership with the University of the State of Minas Gerais. The school has a long-term educational commitment on these topics. The link with the rural community of Nova União is also very strong because through the MOC-ECO and leader “Zocrato”, teacher Welton often visits the local. This triangle already exists. But, until now, the youth of both localities have never worked together. That is our central challenge! Like the radio, our project, after one year experimentation, could also be extended to the next student class.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
One challenge is to ensure the interest of the youth for the project. Most of the youth, especially in violent and/or precarious places, feel rejection for political topics. Because the school EECE is committed to stimulate citizenship, a group of motivated student-leaders already exist to stimulate the colleagues. The rural community of Nova União has been created by the Landless Movement (MST) that has a big history of mobilization. The youth of the community have grown in such context.
Another challenge is the Presidential and State governor elections that will take place in October 2014. Since the school is a public space and the project seeks to enhance a personal critical opinion on political events, care will be taken during the project to ensure the neutrality of debate.
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: we will measure the evolution of the knowledge of each youth about society issues and redaction capacities.
-Both wider regional communities: especially the colleagues of the student-leaders: measure the rate of election participation. In Brazil, youth are able to vote at 16 but voting is optional until 18. We can easily compare the local rate of participation with the former elections rate in order to evaluate if the project contributed to increase the political interest.
-Global digital community: the goal of the project is not just to express but also to be read. We will use many social networking tools and work with our journalist partners to make that the blog get a substantial digital audience, and its contents also be shared by other information platforms.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
-05/14: beginning of the workshop: theoretical and technical training + first global meeting in each local.
-15/06 -15/07/14: national vacation and Soccer World Cup : each student will have the task to choose and work on an article according to his observation during the period.
-07 – 11/14 (2nd school semester): editing contents, syndication and networking around the theme of the electoral campaign and the youth focus issues. Working on the credibility of the candidate proposal and analysis of the media controversy through the cross perspective of the two realities (1meeting).
-11/14 – 06/15 (1st school semester): editing article, syndication and networking around the first 6 months of the new government. Comparison between promises and actions, advocating for more accountability (1meeting).
-2 visits: one to the Minas Gerais State Parliament, one to a local newspaper newsroom will be organized during the period. Also 4 debates with political, social and cultural stakeho
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
- Equipment: The school EECE has already computers. For the media workshop in Nova União we want to prioritize the contribution of the local community and donations. But a base of 1000 USD will also help to ensure the based equipment to begin the workshop in good conditions.
– office and capacitation expense for one year workshop (paper, pens, lesson book) : 500 USD
– workshop expense for one year (youth transportation, snack) : 500 USD
– fixed flat-rate contribution for coordinator and external trainers expenses : 500 USD (global amount)
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We are convinced that the key to the success of the project is the network and the audience of the blog. That will give more credibility to the youth message, will qualify the stories and news created and will contribute to recognize that their voice is important in the democratic debate. Building a partnership with the members of Rising Voices in this way, will hugely boost the project impact.
Contact name
Florence POZNANSKI
Organization
Internet Without Borders (Internet Sans Frontières (ISF)
