David Sasaski, Rising Voices
In this week's newsletter I am going to highlight a few citizen media
projects related to public health, both grassroots and institutional.
Physicians for Human Rights is using social networking platforms like
Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube to improve their advocacy efforts around
campaigns related to AIDS, torture survival, and youth health. They
also offer a wide assortment of RSS feeds and have launched a student
blog to encourage university students to become more involved in
issues related to global health and human rights. (They are also
currentlyhiring a web producer to strengthen their online advocacy
efforts.)
The Nata Village Blog is a completely grassroots effort in rural
Martha Ramaditse and Selomo Tiro, two Nata residents. They were soon
picked up by Global Voices, the World Bank,Jason Kottke, and
eventually won the Peace Corps ICT contest. By creating a strong web
presence they have been able to attract an incredible amount of
donations from all over the world and the attention of local and
international politicians.
Blog.AIDS.gov is an effort by the
and opportunities present in new media to fight against HIV/AIDS. It
highlights, for example, video games about HIV prevention, the
importance of accessibility when it comes to web pages about HIV/AIDS,
and health-focused social networking sites.
The International Carnival of Pozitivities is another grassroots
project, organized by Ron Hudson who is HIV-positive and based in the
to featured posts about that theme by fellow HIV-positive bloggers.
The latest two round-ups have are particularly international. They
include posts about topics like Diet For Healthy Teeth And Gums, Peace
Corps To Pozzers: Get Out, and what it's like to be HIV-positive in
CRIB (Chasing rainbows is our business), was designed by a group of
young people living with HIV and AIDS in
and testimonials, online chat (so far, seldom used), and videos. Its
purpose is to create an online space for HIV-positive young people who
are not able to join physical support groups.
Aftercare is a cell phone application and communication platform for
therapeutic counsellors to more efficiently liaise with HIV+ patients
by collecting data from the patient about symptoms and drug adherence.
Lots of other interesting applications of cell phones within a public
health and human rights-related context are available on MobileActive
here and here.
As you can see, there are already lots of innovative ideas about how
online media can be used to advocate for better health and empower
those who live with diseases that often isolate them from their
societies. But, so far, few of them come from the developing world.
Our hope is that on June 28 we will announce five more health-related
projects that are even more impressive and innovative than those
listed above.
Have a great weekend everyone!
David
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