Local Conversations: Barcelona 2008

Barcelona, Spain

Armando Ribera IVOH@aembk.org
Guillermo Simo (Barcelona) gsimo@aembk.org
Maria Moreno (Valencia) maria@aembk.org

18 May 2008.

Images & Voices of Hope (IVofHope) conversations were held in Barcelona, Spain, on the 18th of May, from 11 in the morning till 6 in the afternoon. A group of 14 professionals, including several journalists of press and radio, television producers, audiovisual technicians, marketing, publicity and documental producers gathered at the Brahma Kumaris centre in Barcelona.

The appreciative dialogue was facilitated by Judy Rodgers, Founding Director of IVofHope, who put all her experience at the service of the group.
The dialogue was very creative, making true the statement underlined by one of the participants "we are more creative if we believe in values. Because of believing in ourselves we have more self confidence and so we can express freely our creativity".
Also Spanish journalist Pura Gomez who got an award in the last World Summit of IVofHope in New York, October 2007, presented an audiovisual during one of the sessions, a radio programme about the children soldiers in South America. That programme of Pura had been awarded also by others NGOs due to his quality and social impact.

The group also enjoyed informal conversation during lunch and tea break.

The group agreed the urgency of promoting a new way of showing the reality, so then it is the responsibility of the professionals in the media and communication fields to contribute to the social change and a change of consciousness through the information.
As a result of the dialogue and due to the enthusiasm generated, the group gave form to the proposal of setting up two groups, one in Barcelona and another in Valencia (the cities the majority of the participants came from) with the aim of doing regular activities and dialogues in the frame of Images and Voices of Hope. Both groups are in fact meeting once a month since then and are also planning to have a joint dialogue at a national level in Valencia in October.

Also the initiative of having a regular radio programme in the frame of Images and Voices of Hope came up in the meeting. The groups will give form to this proposal in the near future.