And the winner of Project TOTO is…

Back in July 2009, ActionAid launched a nationwide hunt to find our next outreach blogger for Project TOTO. Eight months, 52 nominees, 12 finalists and three challenges later, we’ve made a decision.

But there’s a twist.

After putting our 12 finalists through three carefully designed challenges we were unable to identify a single perfect outreach blogger.

Instead we found two.

But before we reveal who they are, a quick reminder of the criteria we’ve used throughout this selection process:

1)       Writing skills: Since our blogger will be required to not only teach others about social media, but also to blog themselves, strong writing skills was a major consideration.

2)       Passion for the cause: The role of an outreach blogger is not easy. We needed people that would go the extra mile for ActionAid to make the outreach blog a success.

3)       Social media skills: In the end, Project TOTO is about using social media to give people a voice. Our ideal candidate needed a strong understanding of the technological and networking elements of social media.

4)       Social network: Talking about poverty is pointless if nobody is listening. We needed someone that knows how to spread messages online. The larger the network they have or could create, the greater the impact.

5)       Cultural sensitivity: Teaching others requires mutual understanding and trust. Cultural sensitivity was going to be vital to ensure the project runs smoothly and that the knowledge transfer is effective.

And the winners are:

Much to our delight, the majority of our shortlist scored well on all of our selection criteria. But two candidates stood out above the pack – Joel Katz and Sharna Bremner.

At first we considered choosing between them, but decided instead to choose both. In fact, sending two bloggers makes a lot of sense.

Two bloggers will help us cover more ground and train more locals. This is important, as for our next outreach blog we plan to not only train local ActionAid staff, but also members of the local community.

Two outreach bloggers will also give TOTO followers in Australia two different perspectives on our work and the challenges locals face.

Where are they going?

ActionAid’s next outreach blog will be in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.

With a population of 13 million, Dhaka is the largest city in Bangladesh and one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Although Dhaka’s urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is also home to a number of urban slums.

ActionAid’s next outreach blog will be located in one of these slums in which ActionAid Bangladesh works. Joel and Sharna will be tasked with training local youth who live in the slum to blog about their experiences and daily life.

We’ll provide more details on this later.

When are they going?

ActionAid will work with Joel and Sharna to find a suitable time for deployment. At this stage, we’re aiming for a trip between May and July 2010. The trip will last between 1-2 weeks depending on the training needs of the local community.

What now?

We’ll continue to update followers of Project TOTO through Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

Our next step is to create a blog training guide to be used by Joel, Sharna and future outreach bloggers.

We also need to agree on a date of deployment and an itinerary in-country.

Finally, we need to source suitable technology for the outreach blog. This most likely will include a laptop or netbook along with a number of video-capable digital cameras. Feel free to join the discussion on suitable technology.

If you have suggestions or would like to contribute to Project TOTO, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can email us directly, comment on this blog or chat to us on Twitter or Facebook.