Community Boardcasting, 2009
Video Volunteers
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Video Volunteers based in Goa is working towards creating a sustainable global ‘community media network’. Their innovation is the Community Video Unit model. The organization devises models of sustainable, locally owned media, and develops training programs that give communities journalistic skills, critical thinking and creative skills to run these units and giving the poor a voice that reaches the relevant authorities. Each Community Video Unit (CVU) is started and funded by a local NGO that has chosen to invest in the vision of creating a ‘Global Social Media Network.’ Currently there are 8 CVUs across India in six states, ranging from the largest slum in Asia to the most remote tribal regions of the country. Through these CVU’s Video Volunteers empower communities to lead, connect and change.
JUROR’S EVALUATION
Video Volunteers’ efforts in bringing the issues of the marginalised communities to the fore, using the innovative concept of Community Video Unit is showing results and in plenty. It is proving to be a movement of sorts, helping these communities realise that their lot can improve a great deal, if universal local issues like water supply, timely garbage removal, healthcare etc. can be brought on the radar of local and district administrators. The low cost of cameras and editing equipment, and the explosion of cable and Internet distribution, have made this technologically possible.
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SANGHAM RADIO
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Sangham, referring to village level women’s collectives, is the cornerstone of Deccan Development Society’s work. Sangham radio, started more than ten years ago, is intended to give a voice to the excluded in general and to women in particular. This is a radio owned, managed and operated by women from the margins of the Society, people who have been mostly excluded in public forums. Sangham Radio focuses on issues such as Food Sovereignty, Seed Sovereignty, Autonomous Health, Autonomous Market, and Autonomous Media. It also addresses issues like retrieving the culture, language and local traditions in food and farming, health and ecology. The radio broadcasts to a radius of 25 kms covering about 100 villages and a population close to 50,000.
JUROR’S EVALUATION
Community radio itself is a new empowering tool. When this tool is used by women, for issues specifically related to them, the process and the subsequent results have a tremendous impact on the target community. All work of Deccan Development Society is focused on ensuring women’s control over their own lives and issues. The Sangham Community Radio is a pioneer in its sphere as it was one of the first initiatives which started the community radio movement in India. Sangham, meaning “collective”, reflects the true spirit of community radio.
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Radio Connect / Radio Tamhas – Special Mention
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The Afghan Radio Connect project started in January 2007. Nai, an organisation supporting open media in Aghanistan and Internews have joined hands to develop this unique concept. The Afghan Radio Connect website is a platform to access the 33 Afghan local radio stations’ websites and the details of their location and the latest local news from these stations is published. There is a provision to subscribe to the RSS feed, as well as get updates on the project by subscribing to the newsletter. The project is sustained by the personal announcement service and donations. Information dissemination for empowerment is the sole purpose behind this unique idea. This means a place like Daikondi which is 3 hrs away from the capital Kabul can keep the world updated instantly through its community radio station linked to the World Wide Web.
JUROR’S EVALUATION
The Radio Tamhas project has a simple yet unique concept of keeping Aghanistan and the Afghans all over the world informed of each other through its linkages on the Internet. Given the extreme weather vagaries and geographical barriers unique to Afghanistan, the Radio Connect concept is one of the better examples of how the local conditions, both geographical and political in this case, have given a solution that is ‘Glocal’ (thinking globally acting locally) in its truest sense by taking local content to the global stage and vice-versa.
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Doko Radio Mobile Media Mela, Nepal
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Doko Radio started off on its first journey on March 16, 2007 to Barpak, a VDC in Gorkha District in Nepal. With Antenna Foundation Network (AFN), Doko Radio team (suitcase radio) travels to remote areas of Nepal by carrying along simple radio equipment to be used in producing local radio programs and transmitting them locally. The team is stationed for approximately a week in each location in order to provide ample time for the technology to be absorbed by the locals. The Doko visits enable local community members to talk about their issues. The programs produced and aired during Doko events focus on pertinent local issues such as tourism, agriculture, public service delivery, local democracy etc. The Doko locations are chosen for their deprived status of any prominent national (SW) or local (FM) radio waves, while touching the lives of more than 50,000 rural community people.
JUROR’S EVALUATION
The Doko Radio is a temporary radio station in itself and offers the community it visits with a chance to experience the power of a local radio station in the community. By taking community radio to the doorsteps of the people, Doko Radio empowers them with an information tool they is affordable and easily applicable. There are reports of radio batteries or dry cells going out of stock in some of the villages where Doko radio was on. This is another innovative approach in taking empowerment forward in a difficult terrain and it makes Doko Radio distinct.
To watch other Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Winners’ Films, Kindly log on to – http://youtube.com/manthanawardtv