28 rights groups gather for Colombia screening

The '10 tactics' screening in Cali, Colombia, drew an audience of 28 organisations of varying interests. These included women and children rights groups, health groups, LGBTI groups, indigenous peoples’ rights groups, a union group, judicial group and an animal protection group. More than 50 people gathered at the Videoteca del Centro Cultural de Cali to watch the video and participate in the forum held by the Asociación Arte Diversot.

After the screening, journalist, Adalgiza Charria, gave a presentation on her work as a human rights activist focused on the defense of women and the need for information. Then engineer Claudia Marisol Buitrago explained her personal experiences as an activist who routinely uses ICTs for her work with the LGBTI community. Positive discussions followed and there was a shared hope, amongst the participants, that this video might act as a catayst for further action in the area of information and activism.

Some people expressed a concern about the lack of Latin American experiences showcased in 10 tactics and, the viability of some of the tactics in a context like Colombia. To address this, the audience discussed various ideas and agreed to establish working groups in order to generate more material and feedback spaces around info-activism in Colombia. They committed to disseminate the information gathered from 10 tactics to colleagues and related organisations.

This event generated great expectations about the possibility of a meeting of Colombian activists to exchange knowledge and experiences in a similar format to the Tactical Tech Info-Activism camp, which took place in India, in 2009. The final reflection focused on the importance and need of many organisations to create these spaces, train, do more work and document it by using these tools.

Story by: Oswaldo Rada from MSCAVCO and Stella Pinzon from Corporación Arte Diverso.

Images: Top, 10 tactics being screened. Bottom, Participants engaging with the human rights activists' presentations.