Making Waves: Foreword

Making Waves

Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change

Foreword

By Denise Gray-Felder

Capturing the essence of participatory communication on paper is by definition an illusive challenge. From the work I've witnessed, helped direct, or just monitored during a long career in communication, my observation is that the most interesting work of a participatory nature can often defy the written word. That is, when reasonably talented writers or public speakers try to explain what it is about this work that is so captivating and has the potential to so dramatically improve lives their words fall flat.

That is why, when I had the idea that the Rockefeller Foundation should try to catalogue some of the most innovative experiments in participatory communication worldwide, only one person came to mind to write this volume: Alfonso Gumucio. What we needed was someone who could bring both poetry and imagery to his words yet retain the objectivity of a journalist. We needed someone who could paint vivid pictures with his writing that would allow the reader to experience the type of gut-wrenching, emotional conflicts most of us feel when we visit these projects. We needed someone who could synthesise, yet not overlook. And, we also needed a writer who would devote a hugely unreasonable amount of time to this project, yet still come in on deadline and under budget!

Alfonso lived up to these expectations and more. What follows is a fascinating account of 50 experiments in empowering people living in poor communities across the world to seize control of their own life stories and begin to change their circumstances of poverty, discrimination and exclusion. He spent nearly one year researching and interviewing sources for Making Waves, and has been actively involved in every phase of production. Alfonso's voice is evident throughout this work, and it is a tribute to what makes him the ultimate communicator: he has the soul of the good poet and filmmaker that he is, combined with an unwavering sense of justice and fairness.

Following the first introductory chapter which explains the field of participatory communication for social change and how it is evolving you will read 50 illustrations of the power of community decision-making and action. Many of the stories are about community radio. We hope you don 't find this tedious; but our research and conversations certainly suggest that community-based radio is one of the best ways to reach excluded or marginalised communities in targeted, useful ways.

This bias towards radio also suggests that with participatory communication what matters most is the voice. I recognise that this term has been overused in the context of democracy and development. When I use it I mean the process of hearing about the lives and circumstances of the poor and excluded in words and terms that they themselves use. Radio, by nature, gives us the ability to hear content, context, passion and pain.

Video clearly gives us the ability to see and hear these voices,thereby allowing our emotions to be touched in ways never imagined before the advent of moving pictures. Yet, video documentation remains expensive, training is often sketchy, and equipment breaks down and cannot be repaired or replaced. Therefore, at this point, video remains out of reach for most poor villages.

We have found through this project and the other work ofthe Foundation's Communication for Social Change grant-making effort overwhelming evidence of development and aid agencies increasing support for projects that return to traditional forms of communication: drama, dance, music, puppets, drums, storytelling and dialogue circles. We have come to appreciate the true power of face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication. Every meaningful lesson or belief I've garnered in life came from someone I value explaining the issue to me and involving me in the process of figuring out the solution From the mundane (learning how my teeth without getting my blouse wet) to the magnificent (breastfeeding my first child), I needed a combination of face-to-face, hands-on storytelling.

I like to think this document is just another in a series of communication vehicles that the Foundation can help create for practitioners and community activists across the globe. For every case included in this volume,there are at least five complementary examples. We've only skimmed the surface,especially in capturing the successes of the oral tradition on the African continent.

We've not attempted to conduct a balanced survey of the world, but rather to select cases stories that we think may help teach us all how to be better communicators.

As you read, I urge you to focus on the lives behind these stories. As I read the document, I was most often touched by the simple lines of prose: the village schoolteacher was equipped with nothing more than a pleasant smile; or a four-year-old has taught her parents, her superiors, the basic lesson of life: joy is the first rebellion against oppressors a defiance of all authority that says life will be suffering.

We salute the people living these lives. They are truly making waves by going against cultural norms, rebelling against forces that keep them down, broadcasting tales that were previously unheard by most.

Denise Gray-Felder

The Rockefeller Foundation

New York, NY

February 2001



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