la onda at Ocean

The third CoCuMu general meeting came afloat at Ocean. First up, Jim tested the waters with a recap on the 40th anniversary exhibit at the CCPA (where attendees will get grub and revel in PC photos and artwork after the ceremony). Anyone interested in helping us install the exhibit is welcome to join us in the late afternoon/night of Sunday, August 19th. Please reply to this email so we can keep you posted of the plan.

Then we launched right into the Ahecha Paraguay participatory photo project discussions. Jason was on hand to give us his support and insights. He will help us look into the possibilities of getting funding through Partnership, or at the very least, setting up fund transfer via Peace Corps if we end up soliciting outside funding. Ashley will send Jason an example of how a similar project was run in another PC post. Other people to contact are Ceci (PCO grant guru), Washington (I believe that refers to PC Partnership Washington staff), G18er Walid (who did a stellar social photo exhibit with Kodak´s support) and the ambassador (later down the line for support, collaborations). Jason suggested that we think about project timing and sustainability. Since funding could potentially take a long time to come through, we may want to look at short-term work-arounds for launching the project before we establish the official camera kits.

One giant leap toward sustainability came in the form of ICT Coordinator Dan Westerhof´s agreement to plunge fearlessly into the responsibility of camera kit caretaker and administrator. Ideally, Dan will set the precedent for ICT coordinators to come to manage the camera kits while at the PCO.

To cap off the meeting, we organized ourselves into focus teams-
Funding - Ashely, Allison, Jim
Resource Gathering - Claudia, Kelly, Jen, Ashley(2)
Policy and Procedures - Orlando, Jim(2)
Asuncion/PCO go-to guy - Dan Westerhof
Stateside cheer squad - Hannah (COS-ing soon)

If anyone not at the meeting is willing to dedicate some time now and in upcoming months to an Ahecha focus area, please come to the next Ahecha Paraguay sub-committee session on Monday, August 20th, at 2PM at Freddo (2 for 1 helado!) at the Las Carmelitas shopping location on España (after 40th anniversary at CCPA, easy to get from CCPA by bus).

Orlando will be emailing out the updated drafts of the proposal and policies this week.

The radio resource improvement project has been put aside for the moment unless someone wants to take lead to get it going.

Stay tuned as the resident designers duke it out for the rights to best Ahecha logo, which we´ll be able to use for auxillary fundraising efforts like Ahecha tees, hats and bags.

I´m not going to sign off with ¨until the ocean waves¨because you know I´m not into cutesy cliches,
Jen Cheng
for CoCuMu

News Cafe

The biggest headline is we hashed out a preliminary plan for the participatory photo project that we all voted on at the first 4D meeting. Orlando, Ashley and I met for a follow-up session and fleshed out the details. We will email you all the proposal when it’s complete and present it at the next meeting.

Here’s a bite-size recap-

Project name: Ahecha Paraguay
Target beneficiaries: Paraguayan youth in PC communities
The need: A common volunteer experience in site has been colliding into community organizing obstacles due to the inhibited creativity development prevalent in the population.
Immediate goals: Create digital camera kits with resource guides so that PCVs can facilitate youth photography workshops in site and exhibit participant photos in local institutions. The aim of the photography workshops is to create an outlet for Paraguayan youth to develop creativity, identity and more technical skills.
Long-term goals: Organize a traveling gallery between participating communities; sell participant photos in form of greeting cards, postcards, calendars etc. to sustain project activities.
How: Apply for initial funding from outside sources via Peace Corps Partnership Program; possibly SPA.
When: We’re working on it now but let’s set some concrete goals for fechas at the next meeting

Other noteworthy points:
- Most of the money should ideally come from local, Paraguayan sources
- Liability will be a major issue
– 1 initial proposal is that camera use must stay in PCV presence
- For imminent printing needs, we should try to work out deals with friendly photo labs

As for the creative radio resource pooling project, ICT coordinator Dan Westerhoff was on hand to give us the scoop:
- a recent donation of Caribbean-flavored CDs was added to the ICT library
- we can get recordings made (i.e. Orlando brought up Guaraní poetry)
- Radio Viva is a quality potential resource
- we can send him any radio resources we want to be included in the ICT collection

Roll on out to Ocean for our next meeting, set for July 28 at 1PM, oh-so-conveniently after the NVAC meeting. Directions to Ocean: From the US Embassy on Mcal Lopez, walk down Brasilia, past España, until you see a white temple-top inspired building on your left-hand side. Give yourself 20-30 minutes from the PCO.

Signing out,
Jen Cheng