The CDI story continues - Rodrigo Baggio's defining moments

I am continuing to share the story of Rodrigo Baggio, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Inclusion. You will read some extraordinary examples of how CDI is impacting people and communities. (Please see my April 30 post for the beginning of his story.)

More amazing defining moments in Rodrigo’s life - in his words.

Today we have 803 Centers in 13 countries. We have centers in neighborhoods and schools in urban and rural communities. We have centers in the African-Brazilian communities. We have CDI centers in indigenous villages, in the Amazon Rain Forest, in hospitals for the mentally and the physically disabled; CDI also works in prisons. Never in my wildest dream did I think my vision would translate into such a movement.

EMPOWERED TO ACT

"... the magnitude of the rat infestation that was overrunning their community,they decided to do something about it."

A part of our program requires the students to identify a challenge in their community and use technology and social action to resolve it. In our CDI center in the favela of São Paolo ten young people in the program took on a huge challenge that was facing their community. They interviewed people in the community and they took video images of their community and brought all the information back to review. The interviews and videos strongly impacted them because they revealed the magnitude of the rat infestation that was overrunning their community - they decided to do something about it. They used the internet to research the problem and discovered the devastating affect rats can have on people; biting children and transmitting diseases. They discovered the root cause for the rat infestation was that the local community had not developed an organized system to dispose of their garbage. (The municipality had never collected the garbage in their community because the 500 plus Favelas in the hills of Rio de Janeiro have populations of 20 to 40 thousand people per favela however many are not legally authorized communities.) Through technology the students identified a serious problem facing their community; they researched and learned the link between rats and garbage, which enabled them to focus on finding a solution.

Next they decided to educate and mobilize their community about the scope of the problem. They learned how to use PowerPoint and created a PowerPoint presentation and gave numerous presentations to the local people. In four months the entire community organized themselves to recycle their garbage. The students negotiated with the municipality for weekly garbage pickup by guaranteeing safe garbage pick up sites. These 10 young people changed their community by using technology and social action. They researched the problem; created awareness, and took action. Not only did they use community mobilization and education as a powerful force, they also successfully used their newly acquired citizen’s rights skills to convince their local government to respond to their needs. Through this experience these young people not only learned technology and citizens rights and advocacy – they profoundly affected their community.

THE ASHÁNINKA COMMUNITY IN BRAZIL
We have a CDI center in the Asháninka indigenous community of Brazil. They live seven kilometers from the border of Peru. They live in sync with nature in the jungle, far away from any cities. When I first went there I saw a very different world. I was surprised that they did not have walls around their houses. I ask them why and they said - said “We don’t need walls, material things are not sacred to us”. The Asháninka population is estimated to be between 25,000 and 45,000 mostly living in Peru; only a few hundred live on the Brazilian side of the border. For over a century there has been encroachment onto their land from rubber tappers, loggers, and drug traffickers, Since the 1950s, Asháninka territories have been reduced and their settlements have been systematically destroyed, resulting in a retreat by Asháninka people into the jungle. The Asháninka that fled over the boarder to Brazil have land rights in the Brazilian state of Acre.

                          “The Asháninka won the war because of email.”

In 2004, the Ashaninka’s of Brazil had a life threatening challenge. The drug traffickers and wood dealers from Peru regularly crossed the boarder and invaded them to traffic drugs and cut down the forest to steal the wood. They killed many of the Ashaninka’s ; they raped the women and girls. There was no Brazilian army in that remote part of the country so the Ashaninka’s decided to fight back. The drug and wood dealers had guns and the Ashaninka’s only had zarabatanas – (bamboo blow weapons), and bows and arrows. They thought they were no match for the invaders and defeat was inevitable.  Then one day in the middle of a meeting of the Ashaninka leaders, one man had an idea; he said, “We have the most powerful weapon - the internet”. They had learned how to use the internet at the CDI center in their community, so they decided to send an email to President Lula. They told him about invasion of the Peruvian drug and wood dealers and asked for his help to preserve the sovereignty of Brazil. Someone in the President’s office read the email and sent it to the Brazilian army. The army sent helicopters and the invaders fled back across the boarder. The Ashaninka won the war because of email.


THE ZAPOTECA COMMUNITY IN MEXICO
CDI has seven centers in the Oaxaca region in Southern Mexico. One of our centers is in a Zapoteca community, an indigenous people in one of the region’s remote villages. In pre-Columbian times the Zapotec civilization was one of the highly developed cultures of Mesoamerica, which among other things included a system of writing. Through their CDI center they learned to use the internet. They access information through the internet and broadcast information and news to the people by loudspeaker. One day some French nuns came to visit them and learned that in spite of their early invention of a system of writing, they did not have a dictionary of their language.  The Zapoteca’s wanted to capture their language so it would not become extinct, so the nuns went back to Paris and through collaboration with the local people and the CDI center, using the internet they created the first Zapoteca Spanish dictionary.

“The Zapoteca’s used the internet to fight corruption”

There is another a very powerful example of how the Zapoteca’s applied what they learned at CDI to take social action to help their community. The Zapoteca’s were awarded a grant of two million pesos from the Mexican Federal government; but the money never got to them. They used the internet to investigate what happened to the money. Through their internet research they discovered that the money went from the Federal government to the municipality of Oaxaca; and the mayor of Oaxaca City had stolen the money. Using the internet, they mobilized and informed the citizens of Oaxaca of what had happened. The citizens then put pressure on the mayor and he resigned; he also gave back the money. The Zapoteca’s used the internet to fight corruption.  Through e-mobilization the citizens helped to remove a corrupt politician and they recovered their grant. This is another powerful example of the power of technology combined with social action.

There are many examples in CDI centers around the world where the students mobilized their community to clean rivers, rid the community of drugs, gangs and prostitution. The CDI mission is to stimulate and empower local people. People are changing their lives and improving their communities using the CDI methodology. This is a powerful model that we are replicating in communities around the world. It transcends cultures and geographies and gives people the tools to take the control of their lives, overcome their obstacles and change their realities.

More on Rodrigo in my next post.
May all your beautiful hopes and dreams come true!
Michele
www.dreammakers.org