Tomorrow is our last day at UFBA, and the day of our Press Conference. We will be our presenting our projects to the press and to various NGO's in the hopes of gaining media attention and support. Funding will not be allocated to the best group because GPACT is a liar, but I have a feeling that by noon tomorrow my group and I will be feeling quite accomplished.
Below I've pasted the Project Description which we will be sending in a huge file along with the rest of our Global Pact Final Packet to the trainers tomorrow. It's a good summary of what we've been doing over the past three weeks and where our project is now in case you would like to read it.
I'll write more tomorrow about why I've been frustrated with a couple of our group members and a few of the complications our project may experience when we leave Brazil.
I am proud to say, however, that after three weeks of solid work in Saramandaia and in Salvador, our project CAN work and is ready for implementation:
Our group has come a long way since the first few days of the Global Pact program. Our project began as we tried to tackle the problem of unemployment within the favelas. Unemployment was extremely broad and difficult to break down because initially we could not see past the issue of a lack of government funding for the development of underrepresented communities. Finally we realized that we were thinking too generally. Upon thinking more specifically, we realized that the lack of skills and the lack of community awareness about work opportunities could also be a problem. We believe that both of these issues could be traced to the lack of a steady flow of information about how to find employment and how to learn valuable skills. By implementing simple communications technologies within Saramandaia, through which information can be shared and passed on, we believe that eventually people will be able to create employment opportunities for themselves as well as learn skills from others within the community. This network will eventually lead to a better overall reputation for Saramandaia, and serve as an inspiration for other underprivileged communities. After listening to and learning from our Brazilian group members, we came up with a much more specific and feasible idea. We decided that it would be more effective to help a project that is already being implemented.
In order to learn more about local development projects, we met with Professor Genauto, a professor at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). One of his many projects includes working together with students at UFBA to stimulate economic solidarity in and working with projects already in existence within Saramandaia, an underrepresented neighborhood in Salvador. Our research began by traveling to Saramandaia to see first hand where we could be of assistance. After attending a few community meetings, we learned that the project ideas being discussed at the meetings were not being shared with the rest of Saramandaia because the people involved did not have the means to advertise. After some deliberation we decided that we could truly assist this community by initiating a communications project by which Genauto’s project members could spread their ideas to the rest of Saramandaia and to Salvador as well. By tackling a smaller issue like the lack of communications within Saramandaia, the people of Saramandaia will become better equipped to confront larger issues such as unemployment.
At the first community meeting, we learned that there are currently many developmental project ideas being proposed and initiated through a partnership between active community members and Genauto and some of his students. Project goals include organizing the cooperatives already in existence to help stimulate the economy of Saramandaia, to establish a community bank and community currency, and to create an information center through which the people of Saramandaia can have easy access to computers and public information. We were in awe of these incredible initiatives, but we learned that in order for these projects to be successful, the rest of Saramandaia must be aware of them. A community bank with its own currency cannot be successfully established if the people of Saramandaia do not know about it and approve of it. We also learned at this meeting that the radio is the most widely utilized source of information, and that Saramandaia has its own radio station. We realized then that we could potentially partner with whomever runs the radio station to provide the community projects with air time to announce their project ideas and involve the rest of Saramandaia. We also thought that if we could use this radio station to announce community project updates, we could also teach the youth in Saramandaia to use media technology to market their own skills and talents and help engender a new generation that is actively involved in the development of the community.
To continue with our action research, we realized that we needed to meet with associations that already specialize in communication. We first met with CIPÓ, an NGO that trains youth how to advertise and market their skills and talents. We spoke with Bruna, who coordinates communications workshops in various communities near Saramandaia, and asked her for community marketing advice. We told her our project ideas and although she really liked our radio station idea, she said we did not have nearly enough time to implement a youth training program. She also said she would be glad to provide us with various marketing materials, but that CIPÓ does not have the resources to work with Saramandaia because of the many communities it is already involved with.
After the meeting with CIPÓ we decided to focus our efforts on finding the person in charge of the radio station in Saramandaia. We learned through our project member,Ingrid, that Fabio, one of the community youth instructors, knows Antonio, the man who runs the radio. We called Fabio and scheduled a meeting with Antonio. This meeting was the final step in developing our launch project.
Ícone will begin a partnership with Saramandaia´s local radio station to make weekly announcements regarding community meetings and projects. These announcements will hopefully incite community involvement, which in turn will stimulate economic growth within Saramandaia. We have a space in the community where we can establish an office to act as our central headquarters; this is where our group plans to grow and become more of an active catalyst in the communications program. Antonio is very interested in our project idea and is willing to help us become involved in an effort to impact the entire neighborhood consisting of 40,000 people. With the help of Antonio and the cooperation of Saramandaia our organization hopes to develop and explore different educational avenues. Our main long-term goal focuses on educational communications workshops. These workshops will be open to all youth in the neighborhood and will teach them the skills necessary to communicate their ideas in an effective manner. Antonio wants the radio to be very educational and thinks that with our help we can make a difference in the development of Saramandaia.
Below I've pasted the Project Description which we will be sending in a huge file along with the rest of our Global Pact Final Packet to the trainers tomorrow. It's a good summary of what we've been doing over the past three weeks and where our project is now in case you would like to read it.
I'll write more tomorrow about why I've been frustrated with a couple of our group members and a few of the complications our project may experience when we leave Brazil.
I am proud to say, however, that after three weeks of solid work in Saramandaia and in Salvador, our project CAN work and is ready for implementation:
Project Description
Our group has come a long way since the first few days of the Global Pact program. Our project began as we tried to tackle the problem of unemployment within the favelas. Unemployment was extremely broad and difficult to break down because initially we could not see past the issue of a lack of government funding for the development of underrepresented communities. Finally we realized that we were thinking too generally. Upon thinking more specifically, we realized that the lack of skills and the lack of community awareness about work opportunities could also be a problem. We believe that both of these issues could be traced to the lack of a steady flow of information about how to find employment and how to learn valuable skills. By implementing simple communications technologies within Saramandaia, through which information can be shared and passed on, we believe that eventually people will be able to create employment opportunities for themselves as well as learn skills from others within the community. This network will eventually lead to a better overall reputation for Saramandaia, and serve as an inspiration for other underprivileged communities. After listening to and learning from our Brazilian group members, we came up with a much more specific and feasible idea. We decided that it would be more effective to help a project that is already being implemented.
In order to learn more about local development projects, we met with Professor Genauto, a professor at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). One of his many projects includes working together with students at UFBA to stimulate economic solidarity in and working with projects already in existence within Saramandaia, an underrepresented neighborhood in Salvador. Our research began by traveling to Saramandaia to see first hand where we could be of assistance. After attending a few community meetings, we learned that the project ideas being discussed at the meetings were not being shared with the rest of Saramandaia because the people involved did not have the means to advertise. After some deliberation we decided that we could truly assist this community by initiating a communications project by which Genauto’s project members could spread their ideas to the rest of Saramandaia and to Salvador as well. By tackling a smaller issue like the lack of communications within Saramandaia, the people of Saramandaia will become better equipped to confront larger issues such as unemployment.
At the first community meeting, we learned that there are currently many developmental project ideas being proposed and initiated through a partnership between active community members and Genauto and some of his students. Project goals include organizing the cooperatives already in existence to help stimulate the economy of Saramandaia, to establish a community bank and community currency, and to create an information center through which the people of Saramandaia can have easy access to computers and public information. We were in awe of these incredible initiatives, but we learned that in order for these projects to be successful, the rest of Saramandaia must be aware of them. A community bank with its own currency cannot be successfully established if the people of Saramandaia do not know about it and approve of it. We also learned at this meeting that the radio is the most widely utilized source of information, and that Saramandaia has its own radio station. We realized then that we could potentially partner with whomever runs the radio station to provide the community projects with air time to announce their project ideas and involve the rest of Saramandaia. We also thought that if we could use this radio station to announce community project updates, we could also teach the youth in Saramandaia to use media technology to market their own skills and talents and help engender a new generation that is actively involved in the development of the community.
To continue with our action research, we realized that we needed to meet with associations that already specialize in communication. We first met with CIPÓ, an NGO that trains youth how to advertise and market their skills and talents. We spoke with Bruna, who coordinates communications workshops in various communities near Saramandaia, and asked her for community marketing advice. We told her our project ideas and although she really liked our radio station idea, she said we did not have nearly enough time to implement a youth training program. She also said she would be glad to provide us with various marketing materials, but that CIPÓ does not have the resources to work with Saramandaia because of the many communities it is already involved with.
After the meeting with CIPÓ we decided to focus our efforts on finding the person in charge of the radio station in Saramandaia. We learned through our project member,Ingrid, that Fabio, one of the community youth instructors, knows Antonio, the man who runs the radio. We called Fabio and scheduled a meeting with Antonio. This meeting was the final step in developing our launch project.
Ícone will begin a partnership with Saramandaia´s local radio station to make weekly announcements regarding community meetings and projects. These announcements will hopefully incite community involvement, which in turn will stimulate economic growth within Saramandaia. We have a space in the community where we can establish an office to act as our central headquarters; this is where our group plans to grow and become more of an active catalyst in the communications program. Antonio is very interested in our project idea and is willing to help us become involved in an effort to impact the entire neighborhood consisting of 40,000 people. With the help of Antonio and the cooperation of Saramandaia our organization hopes to develop and explore different educational avenues. Our main long-term goal focuses on educational communications workshops. These workshops will be open to all youth in the neighborhood and will teach them the skills necessary to communicate their ideas in an effective manner. Antonio wants the radio to be very educational and thinks that with our help we can make a difference in the development of Saramandaia.
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3 comments:
Hmm..
It's Aug 5th, but still 0 comments...
Looks like the readers are not exactly interested in the project's technical content. I guess they react better to the emotional component. Aren't all of us???
But while digging into the technical part of the project, I did not find the core elements, like the mission statement, the objective, and the strategy. Without these any Plan of action appears whishy-washy. This is one side. The other side is that the Plan of delivering information to youngsters in order to achieve the imaginary objective of local prosperity does NOT hit the bull's eye. My impression is that in order for the targeted people to get the jobs, there is a need for the job supply. SWo, the target people should include the rich people (I mean the owners of the businesses) local and external. For the external contingent of employers there is a need for transportation, so that potential employees would physically reach the location to apply for the jobs to get employed and to retain the positions. And still another consideration: when people are second or third generation poor, with no education/skills, with no drive for better life, with no gene of perseverance -- it is virtually impossible to suddenly reprogram them into a sustainable workforce.
Dear Julia, I guess it's too late for your team to discuss and consider any changes and/or make even minor adjustment to the report (the project is completed, is it not?). It's in case my comment makes any sense to you personally. So, I profoundly and humbly apologize for my inexcusable procrastination. The only good outcome in this write up is that I do follow your steps in the wilderness of human race.
A lot of luck now and in future,
Hey Ernest,
Thanks for all the feedback! Now just a couple of rebuttals, if I may :) :
This project description is actually only one of the documents included in our final packet, which is also made up of our mission statement, budget, core points, etc.
Also, our main objective was to stimulate the workforce within the community and not so much outside of it and to try and get people to consume within Saramandaia. This is a much more tangible objective because we do recognize that people can't learn skills overnight; they cannot suddenly make up for generations of no education. There is already a movement within the community to create a sustainable economy, so our project was designed to help them advertise their ideas to the rest of the neighborhood via radio.
The workshops with the children are meant to teach children how to the radio and other communications materials like video, to advertise and express skills that they already have, such as musical and theatrical skills.
We would have liked to think on a larger scale, but our trainers specifically informed us not to think too broadly; we had to keep our project small. I recognize there are a lot of flaws in our reasoning, and I'm disappointed that we didn't have more time with the people and more time to work on the project. Hopefully, though, something small can come of it :)
Hmm...
I've posted my appreciation memo, but it somehow disappeared... :(
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