Community Activists Trained in IT

“We are fearless!”

This was the motto of twelve community activists from four* Likhaan communities who were trained to become “journalists” on November 28, December 5 and December 11, 2010.

For three consecutive weekends, shouts and laughter were heard at the computer lab of the University of the Philippines Center for Women's Studies (UPCWS), which co sponsored the event. Well-known journalists and practitioners who served as resource persons were energized as they witnessed women and youth from the grassroots, open email accounts, make their own blogs and articles, register at social networking sites. On the second weekend, trainees took over the UPCWS grounds as they practiced jump shots, panning, birds-eye views, worm's eye views and close-ups. They enjoyed working on new cameras. On the last day, they were given passwords to their personal accounts on their very own online newspaper, “Boses ng Komunidad (Community Voices)”. They were taught how to format written works and edit photos as they began uploading content developed previously.

The trainings were done as part of the feminist action research “Bringing the Local and Intimate to the National and Institutional: Using IT for Legislative Advocacy for Reproductive Health”. The research is the Philippine component of an Asia-wide research programtitled, "Gender, Ctitizenship and the Information Society,  headed by the non-governmental organization, IT for Change, based in India. It is funded by the International Development Research Centre.

In hands-on practice workshops, community activists began to implement the call of principal researcher Sylvia Estrada Claudio to, “make the world see though your eyes so that the ongoing debate around the proposed reproductive health legislation will be about your desires, your needs and your realities.”

Indeed all throughout the training, women would ignore calls to come for lunch and snacks and begged research team members to let them stay a little longer to finish uploading photos and articles. Their enthusiasm infected resource persons who gave out their emails so that they could be consulted, “anytime and as long as often as you like”.

Equally important to the skills transfer was the repeated reassurance of the resource persons and the research team that, “you can do it.” Leloy Claudio, one of the resource persons told the group, “the internet is still a place where inequalities exist. It is still ruled by the rich and powerful and is not friendly to grassroots communities. But you can use it for yourselves. Be brave and yes, even shameless.”

Co-researcher and editorial consultant Ibarra M. Gutierrez III noted in his closing remarks, “there is much to do. Don't forget to be patient, to practice and to believe in yourselves. We are all reporters for our newspaper now.”

* Malabon, Manila, Pasay and San Jose del Monte (Bulacan), some of the communities where PILAKK (Pinagsamang Lakas ng Kababaihan at Kabataan) have members; PILAKK is an acronym for the name of a grassroots federation that can be translated as United Strength of Women and Young People