WOMEN'S VOICES WINS THE 2001 APC BETINHO COMMUNICATIONS PRIZE Women's Voices - a video initiative - gives women living in poverty a voice in public policy making in Nairobi, Kenya Photo courtesy of ITDG Redeemed Village and Mathare 3B are two huge slums surrounding Nairobi. Poorly constructed mud, carton and rusting iron sheet shelters crowd together along twisted narrow lanes, which serve as open drains. Water and electricity are scarce. Residents are seriously affected by violent crime, illegal drugs and alcohol, HIV/AIDS and unemployment. "Women's Voices", a project of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), set out to talk to the women living in these neighbourhoods to ask them how they felt they could most effectively get involved in the public policy debate on poverty; an area where women's voices were seldom heard. They came up with an unexpected use of technology. Raising funds to purchase their own digital video equipment, including old and borrowed Betamax cameras, the women learnt scripting, shooting and editing and how to present their communities by showing rough-cuts and recording opinions and asking for contributions to the story and the narratives. Read more about the 2001 APC Betinho Prize winner Read about the other finalists

The Internet has not yet been converted into a giant online shopping mall. There are thousands of projects big and small working online around the world that prove that the Internet can be, and is being, used as a powerful tool for development and social justice.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has been working with NGOs, activists, and social movements since 1990 to facilitate their work through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The APC Betinho Communications Prize was launched to mark APC's tenth anniversary in 2000, and to recognize and document outstanding examples of how the Internet can make a real difference for the world's communities today.

From a Website recruiting and orienting volunteers to participate in the reconstruction of ex-Yugoslavia, to information networks between indigenous communities in Mexico, to a child's rights data gathering initiative in Mozambique, over 160 inspiring projects were nominated for last year's $7,500 USD prize, which commemorates the inspirational life and work of Herbet de Souza (Betinho), a visionary Brazilian social activist. The inaugural winner, the Max Foundation, is a life-saving online support network in Spanish and Portuguese for the families of children suffering from leukemia and host of Latin America's first online bone marrow tissue registry.

In 2001, APC, together with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) offered the APC Betinho Prize to non-profit organisations, community-based groups, coalitions, working groups or social movements anywhere in the world that have successfully used ICTs as an essential ingredient in their development work.

Successful nominations demonstrated that they:

- make essential use of ICTs, especially the Internet, in their work
- mobilise awareness and participation, and build capacity in the communities they work with
- contribute significantly to development

Read about the winner in 2001
Read about the finalists

THE APC BETINHO PRIZE WILL BE OFFERED AGAIN IN 2003

(An Africa-only prize - the APC Africa Hafkin Communications Prize - is offered in 2002)