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For one, community people have access that outside professionals don’t. Even the best documentary filmmakers can often only spend a short period of time in a community. By contrast, a community member lives there all the time and has incredible knowledge and access that an outsider doesn’t, no matter how sensitive that outsider is.

She spent nine months training rural women in the art of film-making. “I remember writing in my journal,” What if this is the beginning of a new direction in my life?,” recalls the 33 year old Native New Yorker,” What if I fall in love with India and stay forever?”

“For projects that rely on user-generated content, training can be a powerful tool for getting more people involved. The trainees enjoy the skill development, and it often inspires them to stick with the project. For example, Media Mobilizing Project and Video Volunteers, two citizen media efforts, effectively used training in Philadelphia and India to build relationships with the community and ensure people had the skills to produce content.”

“Community correspondents of India’s first community based news service, India Unheard, run by the NGO Video Volunteers have landed in Goa for a ten-day training programme at their headquarters”

“IndiaUnheard is the first ever community news service launched by VV. In this initiative, VV trains some volunteers from poor communities in India as community reporters. These reporters are trained with basic journalistic skills, and media training including the video training.”

“The mission of  VV is to empower the world’s poorest citizens to participate in the community media movement so they can right the wrongs they witness and become players in the global media revolution.”

“Hi, I am Varsha. Three days after I was married, my husband beat me unconscious.” Not a conventional opening line — but then, Varsha is not a conventional reporter.”

“Video Volunteers has launched a network of community journalists in India, each trained to tell their own stories in the form of video journalism. IndiaUnheard is the first-ever nationwide community video news service of its kind.”

“Video Volunteers aims to empower the world’s poorest citizens to participate in the community media movement and make their voices heard.”

“A path-breaking project led by Video Volunteers will enable India’s poorest to speak about their problems rather than be spoken for. The country is launching the first community news service that will empower locals, as well as bridge the gap between production and distribution.”

“I never got to vote. I have no ration card and no photo identity. Because I am neither male nor female. Official forms here do not have a clause for ‘other’ gender. I don’t get to apply for anything. And so, I don’t get anything, says Christy.

“By feeding community-produced content to national and international outlets, such as mainstream television channels and social networking platforms, IndiaUnheard will link rural communities with a truly global audience.”

“Under the Videoshala project, local youths are trained in video production, pedagogy and children’s unique learning needs so that they can produce films relating to the curriculum in a way that children find easy to understand.”

…a community news service having a network of 31 social activists-turned-journalists representing marginal sections of the society including Dalits, Adivasis, trans-sexual and other minorities. …”

“Abhay says, “This group teaches underprivileged people to bring out issues using the audio/visual medium…”

“Abhay Deol – the thinker’s actor has hopeful dreams for the nation and he plans to fulfill these dreams with a social organization called the Video Volunteers …”