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The topics, as well as the ways of representing a topic in the video, are decided by
the group according to their needs and perspective. Their stories are not told for
them; they are telling their own stories, in their own language and using their own
oral traditions. Therefore, through participatory video people can present
themselves, instead of accepting interpretation and representation by others. The
silence of the poor can be misused by those in power, because the opinions and
representations of the authorities are not challenged.
Class media
There are many media through which to communicate with people, and each
medium has its own unique qualities and effect on the intended audience. Over the
centuries various media have been used to communicate in different ways from
traditional drum beating to the modern communication satellite. To carryout
development at the grassroots level, individuals and organizations in recent years
have used various communication medias. Among them, the most common is
personal contact face to face communication as well as print media such as posters,
flipcharts, leaflets, story board, village meetings, radio, television and many more.
Each medium has its own characteristics, strengths and effects on the receivers.
Some are effective for carrying educational information to a particular group, some
are not. In many cases, the people who are receiving the intended message and
information have little participation in the process of production of that
communication material, though in many cases a pre-test is carried out. Especially
with video and television, the audience has no involvement in the composition of
message or program production, even though it is one of the effective communication
media. Television and Video are mainly being used as a class media for
entertainment.
The worlds first Participatory Video
The first experiments in PV were the work of Prof. Don
Snowden, a Canadian who pioneered the idea of using
media to enable a people-centered community
development approach. Then Director of the Extension
Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland,
Snowden worked with filmmaker Colin Low and the
National Film Board of Canada's Challenge for Change
program to apply his ideas in Fogo Island, Newfoundland,
a small fishing community. By watching each others
films, the different villagers on the island came to realise
that they shared many of the same problems and that by
working together they could solve some of them. The
films were also shown to politicians who lived too far
away and were too busy to actually visit the island. As a
result of this dialogue, government policies and actions
were changed. The techniques developed by Snowden became known as the Fogo
process. Snowden went on to apply the Fogo process all over the world.
received videotaped solutions in return. In that way video helped women to obtain
information on their legal position and mobilized them to protect their rights. In the
further course of the project the women realized that they needed to fight for a place
in the male-dominated community meetings, where many legal issues were dealt
with. Inspired and empowered by the video experience, they managed to get a place
in them.
Hear, that documented his participatory video process in Taprana village in India.
The video shows how poor village Rikshaw pullers used video to record their
statement in support to get loan directly from the bank, so that they can buy
Rikshaw and avoid renting Rikshaws paying high price to renters. Video worked as
message carrier to the Bank officials. In turn, the bank arranged a meeting with the
Rikshaw pullers and gave loan to buy Rickshaws. It was a documentary about how
Participatory Video made by community people could help them.
Even after seeing Professor Don
Snowdens
Taprana
Participatory Video, I was not
that convinced that the village
people could make development
video programs to support
them? I was analyzing from my
traditional point of view; video
and television needed high tech
and proper education and
training to make a proper video
program. But to change my
mind and attitude and bringing
faith in Participatory Video, it
took some years. In 1990, I did the first experiment on Participatory Video in a rural
set up in Bangladesh and found that illiterate village people can learn the
technology fast and can apply it for their community development effectively, if they
know the basic operation of equipment and the correct process and concept of the of
the Participatory Video.
For their purpose, they do not need high quality or
professional types of camera work or editing. What they need is to carry messages
through video that they feel the need to express and can create themselves to show
others.
Launching of Participatory Video Project -1990
Worldview International Foundation Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, Worldview played the
pioneering role in the application of
Participatory
Video
in
rural
development. In 1990 Worldview
Bangladesh
started
its
first
Participatory Video project jointly with
Martha Stuart Communication Inc.
USA
and
Video
SEWA
(Self
Employment
Women
Association),
Ahmadabad, India, supported by
Private Rural Initiative Program
(PRIP) an international community
support organization in Bangladesh.
The objective of the project was to train
NGO field workers in Participatory
Video so in turn they can organize village Participatory Video clubs to train village
workers to support their community with participatory video technology. Initially,
five training courses were conducted and 60 NGO workers were trained in
Participatory Video, its concept, techniques and application. After the training, NGO
workers started application of participatory video in their respective villages.
Proshika, one of the leading NGO in Bangladesh, played a significant role by
establishing Participatory Video clubs in their program areas to support their vast
range of community development activities.
Worldview Participatory Video Experiment
From
the
very
beginning,
Worldview took the lead in
popularizing Participatory Video in
Bangladesh.
Accordingly,
Worldview
developed
its
participatory video project by
establishing a Participatory Video
training center. To get practical
experience, Worldview initially
conducted a few experiments in
remote village areas of Bangladesh.
During
1990
the
Worldview
Participatory Video team worked in
a remote village call Jirabor, Savar, 60 kilometers from capital Dhaka where NGOs
had ever operated before. It was an ideal village for the experiment, untouched by
any development program or outside intervention.
Story of Haroon and Sattya
At first Worldview selected a few young people from the village to train them in
Participatory Video, its concept and application in village development. Among the
team there were two young boys from the Jirabor village, Haroon and Sattya. Bothe
of them were from very poor families and had no formal school education. Sattya
could read and write simple text. Haroon was illiterate. After giving them
Participatory Video training, Worldview provided them with a simple set of VHS
video equipment a camera, microphone with cable, tripod and a TV monitor that
run by battery. With this sets of equipment they started working in the village. For
the first few days they couldnt find an issue on which to make a video in support of
their village development. After some days they realized, while they were in Dhaka
for Participatory Video Training, that they had to go market for their food and found
that raw vegetable are four to eight times more expensive than of their village. Most
of the vegetable comes to Dhaka from their village.
They started thinking about why the price is so high in Dhaka and why are the
growers in the village getting so little. After talking to people involve in vegetable
production and sell, they found that before reaching Dhaka the vegetables pass
through three to four middleman before reaching the shop. They realized, each
middleman takes a profit causing the price go up. They realized that the farmers
were getting far less than the vegetable sold in Dhaka. They started thinking, if the
farmers could avoid middleman and arrange to sale in Dhaka directly they would get
a much higher price. Accordingly they started filming in all the vegetable
transporting places, from growing to retailer, with their small VHS camera. They
interviewed growers about how they grew vegetables, to whom they sold, and at
what price. Then they followed the middleman to find for whom and how they were
buying, at what price, and to whom they sold. Lastly they interviewed customers in
Dhaka while they were purchasing vegetables form the shop.
After the shooting, they took the video to their village and arrange a village meeting
with all the vegetable growers and showed the video. It was the first time the
farmers got the message that their vegetables were being sold at such a high price in
Dhaka. At the discussion after the screening the question was raised why cant
they get that price as they are the growers. They made a decision, if they jointly
rent a truck and send all the vegetables to Dhaka and sell directly to the retail
shopkeeper, they would get at list three times than before. Accordingly, they formed
a group and started sending vegetables to Dhaka together and got a better price for
their vegetables from that day on.
The teachers had no explanation or excuse for their late arrival. Later the video
team arranged a village meeting with a cross-section of people including teachers,
village leaders, religious leaders, students and guardians. At the meeting they
screened the school video. After the screening, people reacted and condemned the
teachers attitude. In the meeting all the teachers promised to attend the school at
the proper time and take good care of the students. Some of the elite of the village
offered some furniture to the school to solve the seating problem. After that day
conditions in the school changed. They have proper furniture in the school and all
teachers have started coming at the proper time.
Story of Unhygienic latrines on lake and canal of Sundarbunia
The local NGO Uttran has a program to construct sanitary latrine in every houses in
the Sundarbunia area. To make the public aware of the necessity of sanitary latrine
Uttran printed different types of posters, leaflets and involved the Union Council in
the program. To support the sanitation program the Participatory Video team one
day went to the Sunderbunia village to record the sanitary activity of the village.
The team recorded a series of unhygienic latrines over a canal where people defecate
and human excreta drops in the water. Villagers use the same water for cooking,
bathing and for drinking. After screening of the video in the village, people burst out
with shame. They never realized before seeing the video that the water source they
use is near to the latrines on canal. They realized the real situation after watching
the video. The video helped Uttran sanitation program to succeed within a very
short period of time, which other media could not do.
Story of Poultry Farm promotion in Vetchi
Vetchi Participatory Video team took a totally
different approach to support their village
development through video. They illustrated a
successful home-based income generating project
in the village through poultry farming. First the
Participatory Video team selected a project farm
organized by an individual on his own initiative
which was running successfully. They took the
Poultry farm as a success story and made a small
video documentary showing how the man
organized the farm, how much he spent and his
current income. Later, the team arranged a
village meeting and screened the video to young
people and held a discussion. Young village
people were encouraged and got some idea of the
management of a home based poultry farm. The
video team screened the video in many places
over a period of time. As a result, Vetchi now has
many more poultry farms run by young people.
Photo: Mendaly refugee camp Participatory Video Club, Kibondo, Tanzania 2005
Nazrul Islam
Head, Media department,
Global Network for Right and Development (GNRD)
Stavanger, Norway
Mail: nazrul@gnrd.net Alternative mail: nazrul.worldvirew@gmail.com
Tel: Cell: ++ 47- 486 44 209