Proposals U.S.A. from April, 2014
USA: Soliya Online Public Squares
Public Squares are facilitated online group dialogues, initiated and designed by volunteer collaborators, in which participants from within and across cultural, geographic, and political communities engage with each other using a video-conference application to explore their perspectives, discuss important issues and, when appropriate, agree on a course of action. The project combines best practices from the field of conflict resolution and facilitation with innovative uses of new media technologies to promote actionable civic discourse around issues that threaten to fracture societies.
USA: Telling Maya Migrant Stories
We will equip and train Guatemalan Maya migrants in New Bedford to use digital video and audio to record their own and others’ memories about the Guatemalan genocide and postwar violence, and also experiences of migration to the U.S., including exploitative and unsafe working conditions and racially-motivated violence in New Bedford,. Selected stories will be edited and uploaded onto a Youtube channel and shared on our website. This project will allow migrants to combat stereotypes and marginalization, and is part of our campaign to secure dignity and justice at work and in the community.
USA: Against the Current: Language Capture Project
Urgent times are upon my UmoNhoN (against the current) people. There are approximately 5000 tribal members within our rural reservation community, and amongst us, less than 10 fluent speakers remain. These speakers are all 80 years and older. The purpose of this community driven project will be to create short video clips that will teach UmoNhoN tribal members how to speak common, everyday language phrases that can be spoken on a daily basis through habitual interactions. Utilizing social media networks as educational tools, and community members as active participants, will help us do so.
USA: Tiyospaye’ Fresh Foods and Farmers Market
We are from Allen, South Dakota a small town of approx. 1200 people located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. Our aim is to establish a community garden project in which we will empower our local tribal members to grow their own fresh produce and eventually establish a local farmers market in which other communities could be involved. We are hoping to establish a local farmers market for the reason being that fresh produce is very hard to obtain locally ,the nearest grocery store with fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables is approx. 18 miles away and prices are high.
