(SJRK) Partners Meeting Notes February 20, 2018

Silvia, James, Liam, Juliana, Michelle, Dana

Notes from last meeting: https://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/%28SJRK%29+February+6%2C+2018+Partners+Meeting+Notes

Silvia

  • Silvia has been in Cartagena for last 2 months

  • Have conceptualized the results of SJRK in Cartagena and in other places in the region

  • http://cuentalo.org/

  • A city initiative - visualize the activities of all the groups in the towns around the city

  • Cuentalo - “share with us”

  • Have changed the website a number of times!

  • Working on having a stable version

  • 11 histories of different kinds of people around the city

  • Will put the stories on Youtube - with subtitles in English, Spanish

  • Stories all have different versions - video, narrative (accessible pdf), commentary

  • Cartagena is one of the most discriminatory cities in Colombia

  • Platform is a place where people can express their voice

  • E.g. Natalia - first-person story video

  • Stories highlighting why Cartagena is a diverse place

    • Histories of Afro-descendents

    • LGBTQ stories

  • Some time in March - a stable version of the platform

  • The government is engaged in this moment

  • Environmental Guardians - created a document in English describing environmental issues and variables - we have this document

  • Want to have a meeting with IDRC in order to define how to join efforts to think about how to visualize these variables

  • How to see these variables in a platform - e.g. areas of contamination, sources

  • 22 stories in first part

  • How to use the storytelling tool we are building

    • When will it be ready?

    • Early March (in 2 weeks) - have an initial version that we want to try out

  • Q: How using stories and platform to create a culture of dialog and conflict resolution?

    • The main purpose of the platform is to create a space for people to express their diverse opinions

    • Montes de Maria - most affected region in Colombian conflict

    • Colombian guerrillas lived here for many years

    • One of most rich regions in Colombia, but people could not go there for last 60 years due to conflict

    • Silvia was here for the first time

    • Mountains, rivers, many resources

    • People from Montes de Maria have been invited into project - we have collected their stories - e.g. Palenque (?) African community that has survived in Colombia, maintained their culture for many years

    • Stories - how to embrace diversity as an opportunity, not as a problem

    • The most important thing is the feeling of the people - they want to express their voice

  • Want to make the platform accessible -

  • Have a video of an orchestra

  • Could all partners send Silvia their logos to add to the site


Liam

  • Effort to align deliverables across toolkit and media-making

  • First iteration of toolkit - scope of youth services initiative - is complete

  • Next - review the toolkit - bring in design thinking from the project

  • How to split doc - outcome within that project, other more general, more relatable to SDG’s

  • Indigenous media-making project - our version was at the pilot stage - since then that project has expanded immensely

  • How these processes and projects will inform each other

  • Digital Inclusion summit  - saw Alan there

    • How we weave together movements

    • Digital literacy and digital access

James

  • Final stages - first draft of report tomorrow

  • Outcomes of the report

    • Biggest drop out in 2ndary school - 50% of young people drop out because of language (change to English)

    • Inability of system to adjust to their needs - inaccessibility

    • Poverty

    • 100% of students end up in ? sector jobs - do not require high level of skills (bicitaxi, bus conductors, etc) - many are illegal in the city

    • 90% of young people have cell phones

    • Use of Whatsapp - 76% have used it, most to socialize, some for business

    • 41% use Facebook

    • 58% do not use social media at all

    • Many of them do not have smartphones

    • Many use their phones for a kind of banking -

    • Issues of managing their own business

    • None of the youth orgs have inclusive policies or tools

    • Young people with trauma - from experience of genocide

    • Need a lot of training, training materials, to guide organisations on how to be inclusive

    • 35% are members of an organisation

      • Livelihood and how will I survive? Is priority, access to knowledge and skills

      • Savings and loans

    • Just back from Malaysia - UN Habitat meeting https://unhabitat.org/

    • Young indigenous people being given a platform, and within their caucus

    • Young people in conflict, in occupied territories

    • Limited tools and guidelines - having these all in “one-stop centre” in how to work with young people, young indigenous people

    • There is an idea that youth are homogeneous - but need to recognize that they are diverse, their needs may be the same but how you engage them is different

    • Building diverse youth participation frameworks

      • Guidelines

    • Mechanisms to support the voices that don’t exist

    • One thing to have guidelines and platforms, but need to be accompanied by training, how to link with organisations that do work with youth, with indigenous youth.

    • Douglas - head of youth unit of UN habitat Nairobi

    • In line with SDG 11 - inclusive cities


Juliana

  • Hector was in Fresno last week, local server is working very well

  • Teachers are updating videos of stories of students

  • Will have a link very soon to follow the process

  • Travelling to Medellin this Friday to meet with organisers of festival -

  • Using Whatsapp to communicate with the youth there - to send first version of the stories

  • Working with other young women, became part of coordination group of the festival

  • Could help to create a website, the storytelling tool could be behind the scenes of the festival- stories about how to build a festival about young women and tech, why it’s important, in a city like Medellin, in a country like Colombia

  • Festival about technology in a broad sense - not just digital tech, but - feminism as tech, etc - women, young people, tech, in a broad sense

  • Trying to decide on a name for the project - The Planet is the School

    • taken from a poem by William Ospina from Fresno - The Wonderful Light

  • Jacquer esCool - they are the female part of that group and they are creating thier own festival


Q: Can we review the contracts, look at deliverables and timing, to receive the next round of funding - what will this process look like?

Q: Young people in Cartagena need to feel that they are not alone - 28 April Jutta is coming to Cartagena (also an event in Medellin April 22-27) - with all the young people - Juliana will be there, would love to have Liam, James, Catalina, IDRC join an online connection? To present our work, talk together for a short time in the afternoon

Silvia will send an email with some details of what she would like to see

We can share our stories of the project

Next face 2 face meeting we can share these stories when we are together (October?)