Read, Surf and Text for your parents!

I am currently leading a campaign in two secondary schools in Aurora—Bayanihan National High School and Ma Aurora National High School. It’s called “Sagot ko ang magulang ko!: Isang kampanya upang hikayatin ang mga kabataang maging infomediary (I will help my parents!: A campaign to mobilise the youth to become infomediaries”).

The idea is plain and simple: for young individuals to search for information for their farmer-parents. In the Philippines, information on modern rice farming is no longer an issue; access to these information is. PhilRice, in collaboration with other agencies, has developed an information portal called the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank. The website contains basically everything one has to know about rice farming in the Philippines. PRKB contains handouts, technology videos, powerpoint presentations—we’ve got them all. Additionally, PhilRice also maintains the PhilRice Text Center, which answers all queries on rice production. In recent years, the Text Center has gained momentum. Our text center agents find it hard to stand as the inbox is always full—but, again, we need to do more to make sure we reach the marginalised farmers.

So why the youth?

When we did the “Assessment of e-readiness of the five top rice-producing provinces of the Philippines” in 2009, the farmers told us they wanted their children to teach them how to use the computer. I picked up from that finding and continued on with that line of inquiry for my master’s thesis. I then worked on how to mobilise the youth to become infomediaries for their farmer-parents. I analysed their activity patterns, which reinforced our findings in 2009.

The young individuals of Aurora and Albay who participated in my thesis all frequented computer shops on a regular basis. They went there to log on Facebook, watch videos in YouTube, some even watched pornographic movies. I got even more interested when I observed this phenomenon in Aurora. Some students from Bayanihan National High School frequented the computer shops in the town center even as they had to spend USD 1.75. That was a bit hard to reconcile with the fact that most Filipinos live on less than USD 1.35 daily according to a 2008 data by ADB. Additionally, which did not surprise me at all, was their texting behaviour. On average, they sent more than 200 text messages daily.

Having said that, many realisations surfaced.  First, the access issue will be solved. Whilst it is true that the young individuals do not have computers in their respective households, they make up for it by frequenting computer shops on a daily or weekly basis. Second, the computer anxiety (the feeling of discomfort when infront of the computer) being experienced by most farmers will also be addressed. There is wide recognition in the information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) discipline of the impressive ability of the young individuals to cope with new technology (see Thurlow and McKay 2009). Third, the language issue owing to the fact that most texts in the Internet are in English will likewise be addressed. Literacy rates of young Filipinos are among the highest in the developing world.   

There were a lot of apprehensions before as how could children who did not have any experience doing farmwork (not true in Aurora) serve as info seekers for their parents? We try to address this concern by adding the rice garden component, which is being maintained by the students. The rice garden component will give them extra confidence in discussing rice farming issues with their parents.

Right now, the campaign has already taken off. I got goosebumps when we had the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank tryouts. What we did was we gave them different questions, more like those that are likely to be asked by their parents, and they searched for answers using the offline (CD) version of the PRKB. They were very fast and accurate! Very impressive, indeed! The thing is they don’t have to be farmers themselves—not now that they are still in school. BUT, they can, by all means, search for rice farming information for their parents.

Last May, we’ve got good coverage when an article about the campaign appeared in Yahoo News. Many expressed interest to replicate the campaign or at least to be a part of it. We welcome similar suggestions. So if you want to replicate this campaign in your area, do contact me. I will write more about this campaign in the coming weeks! I’ll keep you posted.

Doing interviews

It took me some time to decide the first entry for this blog. Since most development communicators do a lot of interviews, let me share some practical insights on interviewing. Here are some tips.

• Come prepared. Don’t turn up for an interview unless you are prepared. First, you will just be wasting your time. Second, you are wasting your interviewee’s time. Third, you will be wasting your office’s resources. So be prepared when you do interviews. You can do this by reading about the topic for interviews, asking around about your interviewee, and by preparing your list of questions. BUT, make sure that you don’t look every so often at your interview questions. The interview must be very fluid—more like talking to a friend so the other party will be enticed to tell lengthy stories. 
  
• Listen very carefully. There’s a book by Ricardo Ramirez and Wendy Quarry called “Communication for another development: listening before telling”. The importance of listening can never be overemphasized. Remember that you are there to get their stories, understand their realities. See it more like you’re watching a movie, you will never appreciate it if you will be doing other things such as chatting with somebody or if you’re mind is in a trance. Listen, listen, listen.
• Step back, and suspend judgment. Related to the previous point, make sure to unlearn so many things. Listen to their stories very well. See their stories from their perspective. Their realities count, not yours.

• Be sincere in listening, they will know if you’re not. Just like when you are talking to your friend, your interviewees will know very easily if you are not sincere in listening. Remember nonverbal cues are far stronger than verbal ones. This is crucial as some interviewees are very sensitive. In my work, farmers are very sensitive with this one. They will not show it to you, but you will know it, as they will be less enthusiastic in telling their stories. Their sentences will be shorter—you will not get anything significant from them. Remember, respect begets respect.
• Explain your purpose for coming. Often, it is always very difficult to start interviews for several reasons. First, an individual, for instance a farmer, would always find it weird to be revealing so many things to someone s/he’s met for the first time. Second, it is true that it does take some time before you could establish rapport with someone. To at least overcome these things, you need to explain very your purpose for doing the interview. If you are a rather young development communicator, introduce yourself properly. Credibility is always an issue for young development communicators.
• Explain what’s going to happen after the interview. We don’t want our interviewees to feel robbed after the interview. We don’t want them to have “what’s-gonna-happen-next?” questions in their mind. The polite thing to do is to tell them what will happen after the interview. For instance, if you are writing for a magazine, say that a story based on the interview might appear in a magazine, and that you will send him/her a copy. Sending your interviewees a copy of your work is always pleasing to them. And it is also your way of expressing your gratitude to them.
• Don’t burn bridges. Many development communicators consider it a done deal once they’ve conducted the interviews. They don’t communicate with their interviewees; some even decide to forget that an interview ever happened. Don’t be like them. Be very polite, and interact with them whenever possible. If they have questions, be very helpful. In my case, some farmers still text me regarding good varieties they can plant come next planting season. While I don’t have the exact answer to their queries, I redirect them to our PhilRice Text Center (09209111398). It is not about having the answers to their queries all the time, but having the ability to link them to proper channels—those who may have the answers to their questions.
• Don’t make promises that are hard to keep. While the chance is high that your work will be published especially if you have been commissioned by your office to do the interview, don’t make promises such as they will appear on a widely read magazine, their pictures will be seen by many etc. Remember that your work will be subjected to scrutiny by your editors, and unexpected changes are likely to happen along the way. And not to mention, there are mean editors out there—your work might not see print.
• Play it by ear. For some reasons, you do need to play it by ear. There are a lot of things that cannot be taught in classroom. Behaviours that we thought are already OK in our society, but are actually being frowned upon in others. I was tasked one time to interview Sudanese in Australia. In my training as a development communicator, we should always look at the interviewee in the eye—or at least maintain a good level of eye contact. However, I learned later that in Sudan, younger individuals should never look at the old guys in their eyes—that is a sign of disrespect! I was so ashamed after doing the interview. Good thing they didn’t mind, and that they understood that I didn’t know much about their culture. Things like that should not happen.