Local Conversations: Guayaquil 2008

Guayaquil, Ecuador

Contact: T 593-4-238 2851; M 593-0999 13097 E guayaquil@ec.bkwsu.org

On May 17th the Launch of Images and Voices of Hope in Ecuador took place in the beautiful and historic main auditorium of the City Council of Guayaquil. The group of some 60 participants was made up of media professionals, academics and those from the fields of business and government. The event was jointly sponsored by the Brahma Kumaris local chapter, the Municipality of Guayaquil and Consultores Asociados Rosalinda Villalba.

On behalf of Mr Jaime Nebot, Mayor of Guayaquil, guests were warmly welcomed by the Administrative Secretary of the City Council, Mari Gloria Cornejo who expressed her support for Images and Voices, considering it to be an important initiative for Ecuador.

Javier Gomez set the context for the evening and introduced the IV representative who had come from Miami to share the project's history and purpose and to introduce the gathering to the conversation. This was facilitated by Moira Lowe who had come specially from Argentina to assist in the launch. She encouraged feedback in particular from the journalists present.

Many commented on their appreciation of having had the chance to meet other media people with the same ideals. Journalist Maximo García from Gamavision expressed his desire to create a newspaper on values.
Journalist Ana María Alvarado wondered why there were not more journalists in attendance and Marica Gilbert, Rector of Casa Grande University offered to reverse that by host the next conversation and encouraging more media voices to participate. Closing remarks were made by Mrs. Rosalinda Villalba and Liliana Vasquez.

Meetings among journalists who had attended have already started so as to prepare for the next conversation. They are keen to share their stories on how they can make a difference in spite of the restrictions and opposition they could face from within the media companies.

ECUAVISA, the main TV station of Ecuador covered the event and interviewed the organizers on the benefits of these conversations for the media and its audience.