Inspiring Hope: a SIGNIS project to empower new voices
A campaign sponsored by SIGNIS with the support of the Catholic Communication Campaign aims to share stories of hope that inspire and generate social transformation through new communication resources: a journey through Burundi, Liberia, Belize, Mexico and Tanzania. From Liberia, shortly after the second round of the presidential elections, in Bong county, 168 kilometers from the capital; to Burundi, looking for a way to reach Muyinga, when it was impossible to locate a drop of fuel in the entire country; to Belize, amid the wonders of nature and the challenges of society; to Mexico, in the days when Cyclone Otis devastated Acapulco.
These are some of the stops of Inspiring Hope, the new communication campaign launched by SIGNIS, with the support of the Catholic Communication Campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. A journey that aims to tell stories of hope through videos that inspire and generate impact, showing the importance of communication for social transformation. Videographers Edgar Rubio, a Mexican living in Brussels, and Valeria Bodnar, an Argentine on a mission in Burundi, have traveled, with eyes trained to collect hidden stories and bring them to light and with the desire to empower and give a voice to women and young people. miles to compile these stories, which will soon be available on YouTube.
The journey begins in Burundi, in Bujumbura, within the Cardinal Foley music production studio, which through music seeks a way - especially among young people - to promote reconciliation and peace. Next stop, Liberia, together with the media “heroes” of peace who, in extreme conditions, through the local Radio Paraclete created in 2020, animate the life of the community, even in the pre-election period. Continuing, we travel to Central America, to Belize, where the new diocesan communication center plays a key role in the call for emancipation and growth among young people and beyond.
We return for a moment to Burundi, but this time to the town of Muyinga, where the radio station “The Voice of Reconciliation” opens new perspectives on the work of media workers as true instruments of reconciliation and forgiveness in the country. It's time to move to Mbinga, in the southern highlands of Tanzania, where Radio Hekima is Bishop John Ndimbo's seven-year dream that finally came true during the pandemic. Last stop: Radio Lío, an experience that links nine Latin American countries with the voice of young people, according to the invitation of Pope Francis at World Youth Day 2013 in Rio.
These projects were implemented between 2018 and 2021 thanks to the support of SIGNIS Services Rome, the technical branch of SIGNIS, which allowed many project ideas to take shape. The campaign will begin in February and will accompany us during the spring with videos that were recorded on site between October 2023 and January 2024.
WATCH VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuV_XmOOnz4&t=1s