Earlier, I wasn't fond of making videos and taking selfies on mobile, but after joining the Chambal Academy, I learnt to take photos and make videos, and am really enjoying it. Now, I'm also teaching others this course.
From Chambal Academy, I learned something extremely important for a journalist - people's trust. All the fears I had about how to do the job and whether I'll be able to do it or not, I confronted them all head-on. I also learned how to interact with as many people as possible and get details that lead to other important pieces of information.
I really enjoyed doing my course at Chambal Academy. Support from the academy team is great too as the students can call or message them at any time of the day to clear their doubts. When I go somewhere with my sister or any other family members, I even point to things and tell them that it can be news or work as a good shot. So, this course has evolved my family's perspective too.
Women who come from marginalized communities, get a chance to better themselves. All you need is passion and you too can walk shoulder-to-shoulder alongside others with your head held high.
I took a one month course. The biggest thing I gained from the course was that I got rid of the hesitation that seemed to live inside of me. Earlier, I would worry about talking to people, but now I fearlessly interview, go out in public and do P2C.
Learned how to recognize news and how to report it. I had heard of journalists before but never knew what they actually did. But here, we women got a chance to learn something new, to connect because if and when an opportunity arrives, generally, it gets taken up by men and then there is very little space left for women. One has to fight in their homes and with society to take a chance, but if there is no space, then women are not able to benefit, something that Chambal Academy is providing us with.
With their extensive experience in community outreach and gender-transformative use of media, Chambal Media has developed the Her&Now Film Kit for our project’s film campaign. The Kit serves as a moderation guideline to conduct film screenings along with interactive discussions and activities on women entrepreneurship in India. Till date, the Kit has been put to practice and appreciated by facilitators in many Her&Now screening events across the North Eastern Region as well as Rajasthan – thereby hopefully inspiring a reflection about gender stereotypes and a positive mindset change about the potential of women entrepreneurs among the audience.
Kudos on a great initiative with Chambal Academy. I have heard only great feedback from my colleague Shivani and our participants in India on the training and guidance you provided, and witnessed first-hand some of our partners in India were already using the visual storytelling elements in video to describe more powerfully the work they do on the ground, which is a testament to the power of storytelling and your ability to turnaround concepts around storytelling to simple concepts and accessible skills that can make an impact quickly.
Chambal Media is a digital media social enterprise founded in 2015 by a diverse team of rural and urban media practitioners, with over 20 years of experience producing local language content especially with and for rural audiences. Chambal Media was founded with the mission to bring into the digital/internet revolution in India the perspectives and involvement of women on the margins.