USC Libraries photographer and multimedia specialist Jon Vidar is also the interim executive director and director of Near East operations for the Tiziano Project. The organization recently won a $25,000 grant from Chase Community Giving that will fund a three-month journalism training program for youth in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Tiziano Project gives training in journalism and multimedia technology to help residents of conflict zones document their experiences and develop marketable skills to help them pursue careers in journalism or nonprofit organizations.
Chris Mendez, Web developer at the USC Libraries, is director of technology for the organization and will be part of the four person team going to Iraq with Vidar this summer. Mendez will be working with students, teaching them how to capture high quality audio in the field, while also developing a custom flash Web site for the project.
Many residents of conflict zone and post-conflict zones lack the means to tell their own stories and participate in shaping the way their experiences are depicted in the media. The Tiziano Project has previously offered programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah, and Kenya. They are in the planning stages of developing U.S.-based programs for Skid Row residents and inmates in the juvenile justice system.
USC alum Dave Torstenson teaches students how to use a video camera during a two-week workshop offered by the Tiziano Project in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq during the summer of 2008.
Torstenson and USC Libraries Web developer Chris Mendez teach students during the workshop in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq.
Photograph of a northern Iraqi artist, taken by Deelan Newroz, one of the students during the two-week workshop
Here's the organization's press release about the recent grant from Chase Community Giving:
THE TIZIANO PROJECT WINS $25,000 FROM CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING TO START THREE-MONTH PROGRAM IN NORTHERN IRAQ
(Dec. 20, 2009) Los Angeles, CA -- The Tiziano Project will receive a $25,000 grant from Chase Community Giving and has been recognized as one of the top 100 most popular charities amidst more than half a million nonprofits registered on the Chase Giving application on Facebook. The Tiziano Project will use this grant to establish a three-month journalism training program for youth in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
More than 2,000 people supported The Tiziano Project in the first round of Chase Trust’s online contest to support grassroots organizations around the country. “We were overwhelmed by the amount of people who advocated for our organization among larger, more well-known organizations like Kiva and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation,” said Jonathan Vidar, Interim Executive Director and Director of Near East Operations for The Tiziano Project. “We are humbled that our mission to empower youth in underreported areas around the world spoke to so many.”
The Tiziano Project will use the grant to fund an in-depth program for youth and aspiring journalists in Iraq this summer. Four American multimedia journalism specialists will train a select group of students in photography, new media and videography and will be regularly producing online news packages about the development and culture of the area. The program will build off of a three-week training workshop completed in Sulaymaniyah in 2008, and whose student work was later featured on CNN.
Facts about Iraqi Kurdistan
• The Kurdish region of northern Iraq has endured decades of suppression as a result of Arabization efforts under Saddam Hussein.
• The region suffered further from both internal and external embargoes that severely squeezed access to essential supplies and oil.
• The Kurdistan Regional Government has only recently been recognized and granted autonomy under the new Iraqi constitution.
• There are currently 40,000 refugees and more 2.6 million IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in Iraq, thousands of whom are Kurds who have fled from discriminatory violence in surrounding nations.
About The Tiziano Project
The Tiziano Project strives to develop and encourage first-class collaborative journalism on a global scale. We are dedicated to expanding knowledge and access to information worldwide by empowering communities to tell their stories.
We provide community members in conflict, post-conflict, and underreported regions with the equipment, training, and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.
https://www.tizianoproject.org/