TOTO MKII is on the road to Bangladesh

Today’s an exciting day for ActionAid as Outreach Bloggers Sharna Bremner and Joel Katz head to Bangladesh to establish a blogging post as part of Project TOTO. You’ll have a chance to follow their journey on the ActionAid Blog at http://blogs.actionaid.org.au/toto/

One of the problems in communicating poverty and injustice to an external audience is the fact that the root causes of poverty can be invisible to the outsider.  This experience will take Sharna and Joel into the middle of poor people’s worlds  and enable the guys to get a feel for the daily struggle that people living in extreme poverty face.

They will also hopefully feel a sense of the euphoria that accompanies a small win in the fight against poverty and its these wins that keep us all dedicated to this fight!

By combining the latest technology such as notebooks and video-enabled mobile phones with free social media tools such as Twitter and blogs,  Sharna and Joel will be shining a light on the real causes of poverty. By giving poor communities a voice through technology, ActionAid will be giving them a new avenue through which to claim their rights, while giving outsiders an intimate view of the realities of poverty.

Mobile phones are already revolutionising the way remote communities in developing countries communicate with each other. Introducing social media tools like Twitter and blogs are taking this one step further by connecting these communities to the wider world.

TOTO MKII has taken a quantum leap and I feel we are getting better at using social media, whether that be the blogosphere, the twitterverse or facebook as a mediums to connect people who are poor in developing countries with people in rich countries such as Australia.  But others will be the judge of that, rather than us, and its always fantastic to get feedback on things we’re doing well and things we ain’t doing so well.

One of the big things we’re aiming to do with TOTO is to build an accountability mechanism for people who are poor to engage with people in rich countries such as Australia. We want the real story to be communicated through social media from a poor person’s perspective, what are their daily challenges, how do they overcome them, what role does ActionAid and our partners play in the fight against poverty, how can people in Australia join with people in poor countries in a combined fight against poverty.

The guys have actually already started blogging and there are some good pre-departure musings on the TOTO blog that range from the inevitable and necessary “what to wear” and “wow the food will be amazing” to George Harrison and his song “Bangladesh” which is another one from that rich period around “All Times Must Pass” which Steve Kilbey from the Church rates as his favourite rock album of all time… but I digress.

I’m wishing Sharna and Joel all the very best for this adventure and am looking forward big time to hearing about their journey on the TOTO blog over the next couple of weeks.