Kickstarter

Hi everyone, hopefully you've all received your rewards, which I sent out just before leaving for Guatemala. Some folks haven't yet provided their contact info, but as soon as you do your photos will be in the mail.  

It's been a crazy couple of months ordering cameras, booking flights, and writing the curriculum - but last week we finally got started here in Guatemala and we're off to an amazing start. So many were interested in the workshops that we decided to hold two parallel courses, one group that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, and another that meets Fridays and Saturdays. Below is a photo of our second group of girls hard at work on an exercise. 

This morning I uploaded our first video. Brenda, one of our participants, shot this within the first five minutes of being handed a camera. It's a short interview with a local taxi driver where she asks him to speak on what he admires most about the city of Quetzaltenango. 

You can watch it here:

http://vimeo.com/24427965

For those who don't speak Spanish basically he talks about how he loves the architecture of the city, the traditions, the kindliness of the people who live here, and then ends with how proud he is to call himself a "Quetzalteco." It's an amazing job for never having used a video camera before, and I'm really excited to see what the next two months will bring.

I also just launched our project blog where you can keep read about everything that happens over the course of the project: watch more of our videos, and read about how our classes go, including updates and thoughts from the girls which I'll be translating into English.

http://vocesdecambio.tumblr.com/

All the very best...

Lucas

Just a quick note to say that over the weekend we successfully reached our goal - so exciting, looks like I better start polishing up my Spanish!! The campaign doesn't officially end until Tuesday afternoon, but shortly thereafter I'll start reaching out to those of you who have selected to receive rewards and we'll get your prints in the mail pronto.

More soon, 

Lucas

For the last week of the appeal we've added a great new reward, a limited edition print by Argentinean artist Julieta Arroquy. Julieta's work regularly deals with women's rights, so it's a perfect match for this project. For this reward Julieta remixed a photo taken last year by Voces de Cambio participant Heydi - altogether a nice fusion of solidarity and art.

Prints are 8x10, and there are 20 available. 

To see more of Julieta's work visit her blog, É un mondo difficile. 

So, Wednesday was International Women's Day and throughout the day I came across some really inspiring projects, including Brac's campaign for the education and legal empowerment of women in Bangledesh called Courage in the Heart, a fantastic project called The Girl Effect (great video, too), and Bell Bajao (Ring The Bell) a campaign to stop domestic violence in India, to name a few.

When searching for news from Guatemala the info I came across was far less encouraging. Namely statistics such as 46,000 cases of reported domestic violence last year, 10,000 reported rapes (note the word reported, the numbers were likely far higher in both instances) and 5200 murders of women in the decade. Out of all of this horrible violence only 2% of those responsible were ever successfully brought to justice.

There's a film called Killer's Paradise by Giselle Portenier which is a powerful condemnation of both the violence against women in Guatemala, as well as the impunity that their attackers currently enjoy. It's available from the National Film Board of Canada, though you can view it online. Needless to say it's quite difficult to watch.

The statistics on education are just as troubling with only 40% of teenage girls starting secondary school, and of those that do enroll 25% will drop out before graduating. The numbers are thought to be even worse within the indigenous communities.

In it's own way Voces de Cambio works to help give young women a hand-up in dealing with these issues, first through education and mentoring, and second by empowering them to become leaders in their communities, campaigning for women's rights on a local level. Obviously the problem is too much for any one organization to make a dent in, but Voces de Cambio is working hard to bring about positive change (and such change is so desperately needed).

We're entering into the final stretch of our appeal here on Kickstarter, and I want to extend a very warm thank-you to all of our backers for their very generous support, including the rush of supporters in the last few days. We do still have a few thousand dollars to raise, though, so I would like to call on you, if you haven't already, to help spread the word about this appeal to your friends and family. Together I'm confident that we can make our funding goal by the deadline of March 22nd. As they say in Guatemala... Dale! Go for it!

Thanks again,

Lucas