Try a different view point

The most of the Bangladeshi bloggers come from the middle class-upper middle class family. The diaspora community has the upper-hand with faster internet connections more sense of freedom of expressions. For the local ones internet is still a costly affair. They try to keep in mind that there is a state of emergency in place and they should not try to say anything critical against Government.

Many of the approx. 140 million Bangladeshis are poor. Those who live in rural areas do not have the luxury to enjoy basic infrastructures like library, Television let alone Computers and Internet. But don't they have stories to tell for the wider global audience?

Rising Voices is one such revolutionary initiative from Global Voices which can let this happen. Their first five micro grantees include Nari Jibon of Bangladesh which is an NGO involved with providing training to disadvantaged women of Dhaka. With the help of the Rising Voices microgrant, they have introduces Bangladeshi girls and women to blogging, photography and video-blogging by incorporating blogging assignments into existing English, computer, and Bangla classes.

Nari Jibon organized its first blogging workshop with professional Bangladeshi blogger Razib Ahmed who heads both SouthAsiaBiz.com and IndiaRaj.com.

The result can be seen in their blog Bangladesh from our view which posts stories and interviews of these girls with the help of workers of Nari Jibon. While I communicated with Kathy Ward, ED of Nari Jibon earlier she said that soon all the girls will be typing their stories themselves. It also has a Bangla blog. Highly recommended are these posts to see Bangladesh from a different angle:

* A Tale of a Migrant Women in Bangladesh

* A tale of struggled women of Bangladesh - Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

* Begger problem in Bangladesh

* A Village, Besides the River Meghna


Related articles:
* Bangladesh, through different eyes - Ethan Zuckerman
* Rising Voices Outreach Projects get straight to work -David Sasaki

* Podcast: Intro to the Nari Jibon Project