Cuba | 'Escaramujo' Project merges journalism with popular education - video Dailymotion

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TeleSUR correspondent Belen de los Santos reports on the 'Escaramujo' Project, a community project born from the intersection of journalism with education, giving the Cuban youth media skills training and getting them involved in telling their own stories. teleSUR

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00:00Now we invite you to join us for another episode of the Cuban Way, a series that

00:20highlights community projects that work every day for the nation's present and

00:23future. Let's see. We're here once again in Havana, Cuba, particularly from the

00:29University of Havana, because from one of the faculties is that this project that

00:35we're speaking of today comes up as a journalism student decided to go outside

00:41the university in search of a journalism that really seeks social transformation.

00:47That is the Escaramujo project here in Havana in another episode of the Cuban Way.

00:52What happens when journalism meets popular education?

00:58The Escaramujo project was born from this question, when a journalism student

01:03from Havana met the teenagers of the Integral Education Schools, or EFIs, many of

01:09them with difficult educational backgrounds. It was then that Rodolfo thought to bring

01:14both realities together, to design communication workshops so that these

01:18young people could give voice to their experiences and in that improve their

01:22educational journey. They proposed to make a documentary about their life stories, so it

01:28was very interesting the way in which they recounted why they came to these schools, what

01:33families they came from, the characteristics of their neighborhoods, and at the same time

01:37they reflected on this, and the experience was very enriching for them and for us.

01:42Since then, Escaramujo has grown and expanded throughout the island. In the last 15 years, its workshops

01:50have produced audiovisuals, documentaries, television series, and magazines. These spaces are run by

01:56university students who work together to create a journalism that is a tool for social transformation.

02:02I'm doing what I can and what I have to do, from the place where I have the most to give. Che, say that

02:08revolutionaries have to be where the revolution needs them, and I consider that where I can give my

02:13best, where I can give my best effort, until my last breath. That is where I am right now, and that is

02:18what I am doing, and I spare not effort.

02:24I believe we have been so lucky that the people who come to the Escaramujo project come with a

02:28sensitivity, with a professional preparation, so eager to do, and with a commitment to Cuba,

02:33which is very good, in these times of crisis, of economic crisis, but also of crisis in values,

02:38in which some young people are shaping their future outside of Cuba. That there is a group

02:43of young people committed to help, to contribute to the improvement of the country, I think that is

02:47very valuable. In each workshop, Escaramujo bets on bringing together young people through communication,

02:56providing them with tools to express themselves, discuss common problems, and find a way to think

03:01of solutions together. This was the case of their last big project, the elaboration of a complete

03:06edition of the Cuban youth magazine, Pionero. I feel proud of myself, proud of all the goals I have

03:14been able to achieve. I was so pleased to see that my story was in Pionero magazine,

03:20one of the most famous magazines in the entire country. That's so nice.

03:29Just like Silvia Rodriguez states in the song that gives the project its name,

03:34these youngsters are convinced that knowledge cannot be a luxury, and that this demands everyone's

03:39commitment. And so, in the creation of a magazine, a podcast, or a documentary, different generations

03:46come together for a journalism that includes the voices of the future. Of course, the projects

03:52help teenagers express how they feel, find their own place, find themselves. They help them understand

04:00that they have a place in this world, that they should be heard. And it's so important that this

04:05reaches other parts of the world. To commit oneself, that is the word, to commit to this situation.

04:14They are the future, they are the present, and I think that empowering them and giving them all

04:17the possible tools is the best thing we can do. Belen de los Santos, Denise Arabi, Forte La Sur, Havana, Cuba.

04:30Maybe one of the most outstanding things of the Escaramujo project is the way in which it gets the youth

04:36involved in a project that seeks to tell their own stories in their own voices. And this was just one of

04:42the projects that we are seeing. But stay tuned this week because we have more community efforts coming

04:48up here in the Cuban Way.

Cuba | 'Escaramujo' Project merges journalism with popular education

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