How do we work (5)
Participatory Video is
a participatory education and communication tool where the social process behind the technology and the video making is more important than the final product, and that, drives the change.
'Participatory Video is an exciting and innovative way of allowing people to express their achievements and aspirations through the medium of film. PV empowers communities, demystifying the tool of video-making and turning it over to them. It is the community members themselves who do the filming - they choose what to film, and what to say.'
Chris Lunch (2005)
'Participatory Video: The video training has tremendous value as it comes at a time when women are required to communicate more widely, their experiences and expertise in permaculture, empowerment and leadership training. Handling the camera also gives visibility in the community and empowers the women to document the stories of the community.'
P V Sateesh, Deccan Development Society, India
'We define Participatory Video as a scriptless video production process, directed by a group of grassroots people, moving forward in interactive cycles of shooting reviewing and aiming at creating video narratives that communicate what those who participate in the process really want to communicate, in a way that they think is appropriate.'
Maneno Mengi (1999/2000)
- A bottom up method to disseminate information at groups and communities
- Documentation and exchange of best social and environmental practices between groups and communities
- Community-based social and environmental qualitative assessment
- Dissemination of community-based climate change adaptation practices
- Communicating risks to communities and by communities, community disaster risk reduction and preparedness
- Social and environmental youth engagement education
- Community consultation processes
- Youth leadership development
- Community action planning
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Dialogue between different actors and stakeholders
Proplaneta solidarity is a small demonstration of how small companies can balance “getting with giving”.
We are rolling-out a pilot model called Proplaneta Solidarity, here is how it works:
For every seven paid/ financed projects Proplaneta works on, we will return one to society on a pro-bono basis.
To begin with, we will create a Proplaneta Solidarity Wish List consisting projects we would love to help implement. Organizations and communities are welcomed to submit their project on our wish list via email.
The initial criterias for entering in Proplaneta’s Solidarity Wish List are:- Projects must be inline with Proplaneta’s purpose, values and principles.
- Projects must address Proplaneta’s objectives.
- Projects must use any of Proplaneta’s areas of expertise.
- Projects must be short and be adjusted to Proplaneta’s working schedule.
- Travel costs, if any, must be funded.
- Video in support of vegetarian meals at 'Solar Meninos da Luz' community school in Rio
- Video in support of Earth Charter's 2010 media campaign
- Video to support Rio+20 People's Summit
- Participatory Video in Montenegro for climate change and disaster preparedness
- The Earth Charter 2013 Com. Campaign Free Media Space Negotiations
- The Earth Charter 2012 Com. Campaign Free Media Space Negotiations
- The Earth Charter 2010 Com. Campaign Free Media Space Negotiations
- The Earth Charter 2009 Com. Campaign Free Media Space Negotiations
- Video-invitation for Rio+20 People's Summit
- 2010 Earth Charter International Communications Campaign - Strategy and Media Negotiation
Our expertise
- Participatory-video workshops for trainers, groups and communities
- Participatory-video production with groups and communities
- Video and documentary production for sustainable development
- Inspirational speeches (Check our Founder Director' Tedx at In the News section)
- Mass Media negotiation for PSA (public social announcements spots)
- Communication strategy consultancy
How you can have us on board
We are hired on a project or program basis.
For every four paid, financed or sponsored projects, we give back one volunteer project for society. See more under Proplaneta Solidarity.
Where do we work
We have two bases: 1. In the South - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2. In the North - Geneva, Switzerland. But we work around the world and for the world.
We work for
- Organizations
- Institutions
- Companies committed with social and environment responsibility.
- Groups and individuals
Participatory approaches: Community development
Bottom-up approaches and methods that include the community in the development of solutions has long evolved since its precursor, Paulo Freire, began putting his pedagogy into practice back in 1963. In one of his first projects, Freire capacitated marginalized communities of the rural side of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil to develop a self-educating system to combat the high illiteracy rates found in the region.
Robert Chambers evolved this approach with his framework Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) that he describes as “a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life conditions, to plan and to act” (Chambers, 1994 p.1).
Read more
Proplaneta Solidarity
Proplaneta believes in the social-enterprise model of organization. In business strategies and efforts applied for meeting social goals.Proplaneta solidarity is a small demonstration of how small companies can balance “getting with giving”.
We are rolling-out a pilot model called Proplaneta Solidarity, here is how it works:
For every four paid/ financed projects Proplaneta works on, we will return one to society on a volunteer basis.
Read more
Participatory approaches: Community development
Bottom-up approaches and methods that include the community in the development of solutions has long evolved since its precursor, Paulo Freire, began putting his pedagogy into practice back in 1963. In one of his first projects, Freire capacitated marginalized communities of the rural side of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil to develop a self-educating system to combat the high illiteracy rates found in the region.
Robert Chambers evolved this approach with his framework Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) that he describes as “a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life conditions, to plan and to act” (Chambers, 1994 p.1).
A report on IFAD’s ten years of activity by Lineberry has concluded that: “the rural people when given a chance, are eager to participate in projects designed to benefit them” (Lineberry, 1989). Furthermore, a process that involves the local people can help improve not only their material well-being but represent progress in their social and cultural life (Lineberry, 1989).
The participation concept has been extensively analysed by White who highlights the role of communications as a crucial tool of participation processes (White 1994). The common perception of participatory communication is that it “gives people a voice”.
Some of the most common formats used in the participatory message-making include; drama role-play that can be expressed in theatre or video, drawings, photographic series, posters and other forms of printed material as well as audio and video.
Participatory-video: Origins
Long before being properly defined, participatory video originated from practice in the 1960’s, in the Fogo Experiment, supported by the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada that began in 1967 in the Fogo islands, a small fishing community off the eastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Donald Snowden, from Memorial University, Newfoundland Canada, lead and facilitated a process with community members to express their perspectives on local problems and ideas, translating them into films that were screened at other villages that faced similar problems. Since this first experience participatory video has been utilized internationally in many different sectors such as project monitoring and evaluation, natural resource management, education, communication, advocacy and emancipation of disadvantaged social groups (White, 2003) and by many civil society organizations such as Oxfam International and Action Aid.
In 2006 Lunch and Lunch defined participatory-video as “a set of techniques to involve a group or community in shaping and creating their own film as it enables a group or community to take action to solve their own problems and also to communicate their needs and ideas to decision-makers and/or other groups and communities” (Lunch and Lunch, 2006).
Participatory-video Technique Evaluation*
The results of ‘Farmers and filmmakers: An evaluation of participatory video as a communication tool for transferring community-based climate change adaptation practices in Rural Malawi’ (Baumhardt 2009) have shown that participatory video is a suitable tool for transferring community-based knowledge on successful adaptive measures on climate change between vulnerable communities. It also shows that villagers in developing countries can easily learn how to make films telling their own stories according to their local perspectives.
The complete article with the study’s result can be viewed here: ‘Farmers become filmmakers: climate change adaptation in Malawi’, IIED, PLA N 60° http://pubs.iied.org/G02820.html.
*Excerpt from: Baumhardt, F. (2009) Farmers and filmmakers: An evaluation of participatory video as a communication tool for transferring community-based climate change adaptation practices in Rural Malawi. Master’s thesis, Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL.
*Excerpt from: Baumhardt, F., Lasage, R., Suarez, P. and Chadza, C. (2009) Farmers become fillmmakers: climate change adaptation in Malawi. Participatory Learning and Action, 60, pp. 129-138
- Participatory-video workshops for trainers, groups and communities
- Participatory-video production with groups and communities
- Video and documentary production for sustainable development
- Inspirational speeches (please check our Founder Director's TEDx Talk in the 'News' section)
- Mass Media negotiation for PSA (public social announcements spots)
- Communication strategy advisory
How you can have us on board
We are hired on a project or program basis.
For every four paid, financed or sponsored projects, we give back one pro-bono project to society. Please see more under Proplaneta Solidarity.
In Brazil, Latin America, Africa, ME and Europe.
We have two bases:
1. In the South - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. In the North, Geneva, Switzerland
This provides two departure points for projects, lowering travel costs.
We work for
- Organizations
- Institutions
- Companies that are truely committed with social and environment responsibility
- Groups and individuals
That share similar values and are aligned with our vision and objectives.