PERUVIAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES GATHER FOR 10 TACTICS SCREENING AND INFO-ACTIVISM TRAINING

REDDES and the Peruvia technology and education open project Escuelab joined forces to host an info-activism day in Lima, Peru. Peruvian activists and NGO personnel arrived at Escuelab for a day training with Juan Manuel Casanueva and Victor Hernandez. The info-activism training included the screening of 10  Tactics and specialised info-activism training sessions on message visualisation, social media, video activism and info-activism strategies. Word spread about the training through blogs and local media and Escuelab and REDDES received  enquiries from a wide range of people interested in finding out more about info-activism.  

During the training session,  10 Tactics was used as an introduction to all the info-activism topics covered, mostly serving as a means to show examples of some digital media advocacy in use and to foster discussion on the current use of technology in Peruvian NGO and activist contexts. In most cases, the participants identified that their technology use is still basic and are currently experimenting in new uses of social networks, mobiles, video and internet information posting to reinforce their activism.  It was suggested that social communication is increasingly being more active and effective through Internet-based social networking sites and blogs while the use of Twitter and mobile functionality still lack a wide population use.

A key debate during the training workshop and after screening 10 Tactics was about how to reach audiences with high bandwidth as well as low or no bandwidth.  Most participants saw a major challenge to keep communications with populations in better-off urban areas that have regular access to internet as well as to more impoverished communities in slums or in rural areas with less access to digital technology infrastructure.  Participants from grassroots movement organisations and education highlighted the fact that they tried to work with communities with whatever digital tools were available, usually video, digital photography and, in some cases blogs and Facebook.  Soledad, an arts teacher in elementary school involves her students in digital video production and showed her student's YouTube channel. Mónica, a Colombian resident in Escuelab, witnessed the uprising of the Facebook page One Million Voices against FARC that grew as a very powerful self-organising social for citizens in Colombia that led to massive civic meetings in Colombia and in key cities around the world demanding peace and disapproval of the rebel movement FARC. 

Info-activism kits were shared with most advocates that attended Escuelab's screening and training session. More kits have been sent to Escuelab so that more NGOs and activists can have first-hand access to info-activism stories, cases and experiences and later engage their own actions.

Story by Juan Casanueva

 LINKS:

Local blogs and press coverage: Bagua Peru, Visor Perú

PHOTOS: 10 Tactics advertised by Escuelab/participants watch 10 Tactics at the beginning of the day