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Today's post written by YV Intern Jason Harrison.
I have to tell you, I kinda hate texting. After all the technological innovation of the past century, it seems primitive to communicate in incomplete sentences and emoticons. I’d never considered it an “innovative” form of communication until I met Ashoka Fellow Kara Andrade.
As a student at UC-Berkley, Kara one day found herself atop an excavated Mayan pyramid with three other archaeologists in her native Guatemala. They were all sending text messages in the middle of a remote jungle. Inspired by this situation, Kara began to research mobile phone connectivity and penetration in Guatemala. She found, rather surprisingly, that there are literally more cell phones than people in her country.
This led her to found Habla Centro—a citizen journalism platform that uses technologies like text messaging to gather and distribute regional news. “The idea of Habla Centro is to let people contribute to news channels without access to the Internet,” Kara said. “We’ve found that information is like oxygen: people need it to live.”
Realizing the potential of this news platform, two young changemakers developed Habla Costa Rica (HCR). While Habla Centro has regional operations in half-a-dozen countries, HCR is unique in that young people got it going. As students at the University of Costa Rica, Adriana Vargas and Diego Molina wanted to get people talking about the national elections. What began as an effort to foster political discourse broadened into a citizen journalism outlet that Kara describes as “very vital to the community fabric.”
“HCR is a space that allows freedom of expression and democratization of information,” Adriana said. “As far as we know, HCR is the first medium in our country devoted to citizen journalism.” Habla Centro has reordered the journalistic process. It's been passed from the hands of a few to nearly anyone who has a story to tell—especially young people. “I think young people have a certain intrinsic belligerence,” said Diego. “Perhaps it comes from knowing that the world now run by our parents will be our responsibility in a few years.”
Visit the site to see the work of Adriana, Diego, and other young changemakers. You can also watch their YouTube video about the project.
Want to get involved? The Habla Costa Rica team always welcomes volunteers to help with their projects. To do so, please contact them directly at info@hablacentro.com.
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