Voces Comunes is a communication project developed for the youth of indigenous and afro-descendent communities in Colombia. Through practical workshops in their territories and continous accompaniment, they learn how to operate the computer, audio and video equipment that the project provides them, the communities will acknowledge and strengthen their communication skills with the use of the ICTs. All this through: A) An 8 days workshop, B) A continuos technical and theoretical accompaniment, C) A second workshop (a 4 days re enforcement workshop), D) the communities create their own communication collective and learn to produce their own content and media, allowing them to share their visions, cultures and processes in a better way, a way of their own.
Communication is a powerful tool that contributes to social inclusion, fostering self-recognition and community empowerment. It provides communities with the possibility to design and disseminate messages not just about their cosmovision but also using their own language and symbols. If such messages emerge from each community, they will respond to their particular context and, therefore, they will contribute to actual empowerment and self-advocacy. If youth of ethnical communities have access to the new technologies they will be able to produce accurate information about themselves. Moreover, they will have the power to make visible their experiences, needs and strategies to cope with conflicts. Through this, they can make their voices heard and find echo in other communities. Voces Comunes, being a network in itself, understands networking as a suitable and desirable outcome towards the strengthening of local and global relationships.
Due to our focus on the youth of ethnical minorities, Voces Comunes support community objectives related with their youth as: A) The participants of the project in each community strengthens their role and commitment within, they become the voices of their communities. B) The partincipants find the importance of communication as a motor for expressing their realities and as a tool for preserving their culture and surviving the challenges they face. C) In zones of violence, armed conflict and paramilitarism, the young participants of Voces Comunes have a new and different life option. D) Using the knowledge in communication acquired in the workshops, they can have an additional source of economical income. E) The young participants assume a new roll within their communities: they become the teachers in the communication for the generations that follows.
Voces Comunes has a website in which disseminates the contents produce by the communities and encourage the visibility, social inclusion, free expressions and interactions of each one. It allows communities participating in the project to share their content and find out what others have produced. In this website they will make evident problems they have in common, at the same time that they will identify successful conflict resolution strategies to reproduce. Our goal through this website is to consolidate a network in which the communities that are part of the project can post and share their own content and see the productions that others communities made. A place where they can comment, learn from each other experiences and share them with the world. With Voces Comunes, the indigenous and afro-descendent communities of the region will take advantage of Internet to be visible, heard, known and included.
The final version of our website (www.vocescomunes.com) will be online in two weeks, meanwhile please watch our videos: https://vimeo.com/user25657508 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ_Xy3WCI0mWBJlntbgaa3g/videos
