Washington, DC — Last year, The Global Fund for Children won a Digital Media and Learning Competition grant, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, to build GFC’s capacity to capture, share, and promote knowledge gained by its grantee partners working with youth throughout the world. Over the last few months, five GFC grantee partners in Asia and Latin America have started to support this initiative by using a new digital camcorder called the Flip camera. The Flip camera is small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive compared to other camcorders, and very easy to use. The video files collected through the Flip camera can be directly transferred to a computer simply by inserting the camera’s built-in USB cable, and the camera includes integrated video software that allows users to quickly upload video to video-sharing websites. The Flip camera allows GFC’s grantee partners to easily share their stories and videos with the world.

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New Delhi, India — The workshop participants formed a circle in which they shared stories about their challenges and successes while working to fulfill their missions within The YP Foundation, a Global Fund for Children grantee partner. Some of them volunteer for The YP Foundation’s branches of filmmaking, child rights, education, health services, life skills development, HIV/AIDS education, and gender and sexuality issues. Under the leadership of Ishita Chaudhry, founder of The YP Foundation (formerly The Youth Parliament), the young students continue to expand the organization’s reach and positively impact their communities. Each had a unique story to share.

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Hyderabad, India — Twenty-five young girls between the ages of 10 and 14, most of them draped in flowing, black burkas with patterned shawls, sat barefoot on a faded maroon carpet in a 200-square-foot room that held only a television, video camera, and tripod. The young girls were part of an organization called Mahita, an educational center located in a predominately Muslim minority community in the slums of Hyderabad. Mahita provides learning opportunities to youth facing forced child marriage, child labor, and corporal punishment in the school system. The 25 girls were involved in an initiative focused on education in the art of digital storytelling, video production, and video-sharing skills. The goal of this program, which is funded by the Nike Foundation, is to help the girls cultivate greater self-confidence and self-empowerment through the learning process.

Penonomé, Panama — Today was a day of firsts—my first trip to Panama, my first visit to a GFC grantee partner, and GFC's first visit to IDEMI since the group was scouted by program officer Shawn Malone in 2006. To top it all off, it was my birthday.

I had two days in Panama, most of which I spent getting to know IDEMI (Instituto para el Desarollo para la Mujer y la Infancia, or Institute for the Development of Women and Children) and its dedicated director, Bertha Vargas. Originally from Bolivia, Bertha brings a wide breadth of experience to IDEMI; she spoke offhand, for example, about working in Chile with Paulo Freire, father of popular education theory.

Managua, Nicaragua — Until this week, I had known GFC’s grantee partners in Central America and Mexico only through email and telephone conversations. As the program associate for Latin America and the Caribbean, I had in fact come to know some of their email addresses quite well. Over the past four days, I was given the opportunity to meet the leaders of 20 of these organizations face-to-face.

I was excited to learn about the work of Asociación Integral para la Juventud Q'anil (Comprehensive Association of Q’anil Youth) through reading the group’s recent grant proposal, but I hadn’t before had the chance to speak with Modesto and Gaspar about the struggle to preserve Ixil, their native tongue. I knew that Beatriz, whom I have often “chatted” with over Skype, is a fast typist, but now I know what a great attitude she brings to everything she does as the director of Skolta'el Yu'un Jlumaltic in Chiapas, Mexico. I had spoken with Luis Enrique from Centro Transitorio de Capacitación y Educación Recreativa El Caracol (El Caracol Transitional Center for Training and Recreational Education), our grantee partner in Mexico City, about the progress of the group’s organizational development projects, but I didn’t know what a great sense of humor he had. I knew that Dylcia from GFC Sustainability Award winner Centro San Juan Bosco (San Juan Bosco Center) in Honduras always had her reports in on time, but I didn’t know she had six sisters and a brother in Kentucky!