AudiencScapes

The border town of Ciudad Juarez may be best known for its problems, but that’s not the only story in town. A new project gathers citizen reports of everyday heroes in an effort to present a more balanced picture of life there.

In northern Ghana, a “bottom-up” approach to improving the health and environment of rural villages is logging positive results. ICT interventions relying on mobile technology and e-learning play a big role in implementation.

In this issue of the AudienceScapes Field Blog, our fellows report on two very different approaches to improving government. In Zimbabwe, Tawanda Karombo describes a new campaign using social media to expose and confront corruption, whether committed by public officials or private citizens. Dinfin Mulupi reports on a Web-based platform that encourages Kenyans to post reports about how well the government is functioning. While both projects aim their resources at slightly different targets, the ultimate goal is to put pressure on governments to serve the public.

A new HIV/AIDS education project meets university students where they are: on the phone, on Facebook and on the soccer field.by Tawanda Karombo Harare, ZimbabweHarare, Zimbabwe—An HIV/AIDS advocacy and educational NGO here is using university and college students’ love and reliance on communications technology to deliver information about HIV prevention. More than 4,000 students from Zimbabwe’s colleges and universities have joined the organization, called “Students and Youth Working on Reproductive Health Action Team” (SAYWHAT).

By Paromita Pain 21 June 2010Blogging is not a new phenomenon on the internet, but its use as a development tool has taken on a higher profile in the past few years. Many development initiatives worldwide train people to use multimedia blogs in useful and constructive ways.

By Paromita Pain 17 May 2010Mumbai-based activists Angana Jhaveri and Sapna Shahani wanted to use media to help empower young Indian women. Brainstorming with Madhusudan Agarwal, director of social change media house Mam Movies, the pair drew inspiration from the "She Creates" project. Mam had trained 25 Mumbai girls in filmmaking techniques and had them make short films on the theme, "What it feels to be a girl." The result was Women Aloud: Video blogging for Empowerment (WAVE), a nationwide project that last year became the first winner in India of the Digital Media and Learning competition run by the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC.