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Participatory Video

Voice of the Voiceless

Presentation of Nazrul Islam at the GNRD Media Workshop

Uniting Global Media for Human Rights


21- 22 May 2015, Stavanger, Norway

THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS


Participatory Video (PV) is video made by people who do not usually have access to a
medium through which they can raise their voice and make themselves heard for the
marginalized, non-literate, poor women, children and old people, for disabled, or for
minority groups. Video serves as a tool. They tell their stories, share their knowledge,
express their problems, demand their rights and suggest approaches to appropriate
development initiatives for a change. In PV, people themselves decide what issue
they wish to document and share. They carry out the filming, decide how to edit the
footage
and
arrange
screening in an interactive
way with other community
people. In this way, the
participants have control
over what will be filmed,
how it will be presented
and they can decide what
to screen to the community
people.
In
PV,
quality
is
determined by amount of
participation
in
the
production process and the
purpose of the video rather
than by technical quality. In PV, quality is determined by number of community
members participation in the production process and the purpose of the video rather
than by technical skills. Many reports are written and increasingly documentaries
are being produced to present and explain the life and the conditions of poor people
around
the
world.
Researchers
and
film
makers do their best to
present the lives and
conditions of marginalized
people who themselves do
not have the means or the
power to broadcast their
own stories. However, no
representation can be as
strong or true as those
which come from the
people
themselves.
Participatory videos are
special
because
these
productions are made from the perspective of the poor (community) and with their
direct involvement and authorship. All participants in the video production have
control over the process, they decide what to record, take part on the shooting,
making editing decisions and plan where and how the film will be shown. Thus,
every participant is co-planner and co producer.

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.

Eye See Ear Hear experiment of Participatory Video in Taprana Village


in India
Don Snowden and Paul Mcleod eventually visited India in 1979. They began
preliminary work for a project involving a co-operative at the National Dairy
Research Institute in Karnal, Haryana. In Taprana they collaborated on a related
project, about which the film Eyes See, Eyes Hear was made. In this project, video
was used to establish channels of communications between rickshaw drivers in the
small village of Taprana and bank officials in a distant city. Because they had been
unable to secure loans to purchase their own rickshaws, the drivers were forced to
rent their vehicles at considerable cost. Using video they made a tape on which they
spoke about what they found wrong with the banks dealing with the village and
why they believed they were good credit risks. The tape was shown to the bank
officials who in turn made a tape inviting the villagers to visit them and discuss
their finances. Eventually the drivers were able to secure loans. In Bangladesh, a
similar project was used to establish communications between physical engineers
and social groups concerned with small-scale water control. Other similarly smallscale projects were carried out in Uganda, Guyana, Nepal and elsewhere, all with
great success. The seeds of all these projects lay in the experiments carried out on
Fogo.
Since then, there has been no uniform movement to promote and practice PV, but
different individuals and groups have set up pockets of participatory video work,
usually molding it to their particular needs and situations. PV has also grown with
the increasing accessibility of home video equipment.
Snowden, with no doubt the patron of this remarkable video experiment, achieved
that the Fogo Process was incorporated within the innovative Challenge for Change
Program and The War on Poverty Program in Canada. By the mid 1970s Snowden
and his colleagues were being asked to experiment with the Fogo Process in various
parts of the Arctic and Alaska, Africa and Asia. Snowden died suddenly in 1984
while working on a project in Bangladesh. Today the Don Snowden Program for
Development Communication keeps Snowdens legacy alive by continuing to apply
the Fogo Process approach in a variety of activities.
Video letters in Nepal
To improve communication between
women in a remote rural village
and
the
centrally
located
development and governmental
organizations was the goal of a
project in Nepal. The women of the
village
recorded
questions
concerning legal problems related to
domestic violence or divorce on
video and sent them to the Womens
Legal Service Project in the capital,
Kathmandu. From Kathmandu they

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.

Merging Participatory Video and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)


In combination with other methodologies such as Participatory Learning in Action
(PLA) techniques, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and others. PV has been
successfully applied to projects focussing on; community development; promoting
local innovation and endogenous development; therapeutic work; a voice for
marginalized groups; a catalyst for community-led action; a tool for communicating
with policy makers; a means of involving users in their own research for example
action research, participatory research, user-led research; also for program
monitoring and evaluation or Social impact assessment, new possible applications
are being continually developed.
My first and last interaction with Professor Don Snowden
It was probably early 1983, I was working with Worldview International Foundation
in Bangladesh as deputy of the media center. One day, the director of the media
center John Riber brought a gentleman name Prof. Don Snowden into the control
room and introduced me. Prof. Snowden wanted to borrow some shooting equipment
from us to do filming with the villagers in Bangladesh. It was my first introduction
with him. He talked to me about his idea of Participatory Video and his plan of
training the Bangladeshi village people to make video programs to support their
community development.
I was trying to have a debate with Professor Snowden on his idea of giving
sophisticated video equipment to villagers to make video. I pointed out all the
possible negative sides that would cause possible failure. Before leaving the media
center, Professor Don Snowden gave me a VHS tape with a program, Eye See, Ear

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.

Community Video Club, Satkhira (Satkhira Experiment)


In the winter of 2000 Worldview, Action Aid
Bangladesh and a local grassroots NGO
Uttran, started a four-month community
based Participatory Video pilot project in
Tala, Satkhira in Uttrans area of operation.
They role of Worldview was to select, train
and follow up the Community Video Project
with the assistance of Action Aid and Uttran.
At the beginning of the project, four remote
villages; Kanchanpur, Madanpur, Vetchi and
Sundarbunoia were selected. From these
four villages a total of 26 young boys and
girls were chosen, on average 6 trainees from
each village. All the selected people were
given training in Participatory Video , its
concept and application in community
development. This is a new concept had been
added PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal)
so that the Participatory video Team could
select issues and priorities them through
applying the PRA process. It would make it
easier to select issues for the Participatory
Video program. After the four months training, four Participatory Video teams were
given sets of simple VHS video equipment to carry out their work independently.
Within a very short period of time, all the four Participatory Video team were able to
carry the message to the whole village about various development issues they need
to address. They were also able to change some condition in their village by carrying
the message to the community through Participatory Video.
Uttran Community Participatory Video Project, Satkhira
In the winter of 2000 Worldview,
Action Aid Bangladesh and a local
grassroots NGO Uttran, started a
four-month community based
Participatory Video pilot project
in Tala, Satkhira in Uttrans area
of operation. They role of
Worldview was to select, train
and follow up the Community
Video Project with the assistance
of Action Aid and Uttran. At the
beginning of the project, four
remote villages ; Kanchanpur,
Madanpur, Vetchi and Sundarbunoia were selected. From these four villages a total

of 26 young boys and girls were chosen, on


average 6 trainees from each village. All
the selected people were given training in
Participatory Video , its concept and
application in community development.
This is a new concept had been added PRA
(Participatory Rural Appraisal) so that
the Participatory video Team could select
issues and priorities them through applying
the PRA process. It would make it easier to
select issues for the Participatory Video
program. After the four months training,
four Participatory Video teams were given
sets of simple VHS video equipment to
carry out their work independently. Within
a very short period of time, all the four
Participatory Video team were able to carry
the message to the whole village about
various development issues they need to
address. They were also able to change
some condition in their village by carrying
the message to the community through
Participatory Video.
Story of the late comer School Teachers
Kanchanpur primary school has been
running for many years but the condition
of the school was poor, with no proper
furniture, and most of the teachers were
coming late to the school. After getting to
know about the conditions in the school,
one day in the early morning the
Participatory Video team went to the
school and shoot footage of the general
condition of the school, furniture and
facilities. They recorded interviews with
a few students asking about the teachers
attendance. Most of the students said the
teachers came late or many days they
didnt come at all. The school is supposed
to start at 9 am but generally teachers
come after 11am. After talking to the
students the video team waited for some
time to take shots of the teachers arrival.
At about 10am, they found teachers
coming and they recorded their arrival
and interviewed them on the spot.

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.

The last word


These are only few examples out of many. After one year, the Community
Participatory Video team of Kanchanpur, Madanpur, Vetchi and Sundarbonia is
contributing more to their community development and they are working as
independent Video team in their villages. The Participatory Video teams are not
only supporting their village development, they are helping villagers to communicate
their views to the elites, policy makers, community leaders which they were unable
to do for many years. These are some practical examples of how Participatory Video
gives Voice to the Voiceless.

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

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