VV in Brazil – VCU.br Project Enables to Earn a Living as Community Journalists
Is it really possible for people from slums to earn a living through video? ‘Yes’, says 24 years old Allan Jones, Video Volunteer’s Community Video fellow from a slum in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos municipality. Allan spent several years doing odd jobs like repairing air conditioners which may have given him income but never used his creativity or allow him to express himself. Today, however, Allan is confident of finding economic independence through video making. The confidence comes from his participation in a special project called VCU.br which aims to make young people work as independent video makers and turn social entrepreneurs, while using their underprivileged background as a unique advantage – something that gives them the ability to tell community stories that no outsider can express in quite the same way.
The project, funded by the Art Action Foundation of Singapore, is taking place in Sao Paulo, in partnership with a local arts organization called Casa Das Caldeiras. Here nine favela youths are learning to make videos and run their own video businesses in the future. The special entrepreneurship training includes learning how to make contacts in the TV industry, pitching a story idea to a TV channel and writing proposal for grants or for NGO films. They are learning about financial planning for a new venture and how to work with clients. Most crucially, they are learning how to use their socially backward background as a unique advantage by positioning themselves as people from within the heart of the problem.
In Brazil, NGOs have trained thousands of youth — probably more than in any other country — to produce videos. However, very few of them actually make a living out of it. Given VV’s experience in using community media for livelihood in India, this is where we felt we could make a difference in Brazil – enabling the poor to earn a living not just through their manual labor, but through their creativity and their unique insights.
We are starting to see what it will take to enable the poor to truly participate in the new media environment.
To watch the works of these young Brazilian video producers, click here!.
Read Video Volunteers blog entries about the Brazil Project:
Program Overview:
Our livelihood training: About how we are teaching video entrepreneurship