By Annamieke Buursink

A fascinating Youth
Media Project in Oaxaca

Leslie Pulé, an innovative teacher from New York City and the founder of the non-profit organization Global Sharing Matters (GSM), talks passionately about the third Youth Media Project ´Sharing our Stories´ that starts the 15th of July in Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca. Sixteen local high school students and a team of ten skilled volunteers and technicians will take part in this multilingual (Spanish-English-Zapotec) project. Through photography, shooting and editing short videos, keeping journals and group discussions, the students will share their ideas about various aspects of identity, culture and environment. This creative exchange of visions between students from different cultural backgrounds, will not be limited to the community of Gualatao, but will extend to Oaxaca in a meeting with university students and younger street kids. It will also reach a global level by virtually connecting the Mexican participants with the multicultural students of public schools in New York, which is the base and origin of the organization.

During the five intensive weeks of workshops, fieldtrips and research the students from the Bachillerato high school in Guelatao will not only be exploring their cultural backgrounds, traditions and personal ideas, but will also learn a foreign language, the basics of digital photography, documentary filmmaking and process writing through new non-formal, project based teaching methods. Pulé, who has twenty years of experience as a teacher of English as a second language (ESL), wants to break away from ´the traditional role of the teacher´ and be part of the group of participants as well as the international staff, creating an interesting mixture of age, profession and culture. Furthermore the students will be given the freedom to adjust the subjects of the workshops to their personal interests within the general theme of the project and will carry part of the responsibility for the documentaries and exhibitions.

The interesting results of the first two pilot projects in Bolivia (La Paz) and India (Dharamsala), a meeting between kids of distinct cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, will be shown during the presentation of the Mexico project on Thursday the 10th of July at 19.00 in the Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo in Oaxaca. It is a fascinating mix of languages and creative expressions including rap and poems. On the 16th of August the students from Guelatao will also share their stories through the exhibition of photos, mini-documentaries, fragments of journals and a performance in the Casa de la Cultura in the historic center of Oaxaca. The use of many different forms of communication, hereby overcoming language barriers, makes this exposition a great opportunity to see the world from the perspective of Oaxacan youth.

GSM activities in the city of Oaxaca
· July 10 at 7pm
Presentation of the third GSM Youth Media Project
and exhibition of the projects in Bolivia and India
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo
Calle M. Bravo 116 esq. García Vigil , Centro Histórico
Website: www.cfmab.blogspot.com

· August 16 at 11am
The Final Exhibition of the Youth Media Project in Mexico
Casa de la Cultura
González Ortega 403
Website: www.casadelaculturaoaxaquena.blogspot.com

Website Global Sharing Matters: www.globalsharingmatters.org