Grassroots comics in action

Grassroots comics have been used by organisations to focus on different issues, such as racism, sexual harassment, girl child rights, school drop-outs, hiv/aids, sanitation, and right to education. These are just a few examples. Any issue, on which one can make a story, can be expressed through grassroots comics.

The filthy market (Tanzania)

The community group EMAJA, Elimu, Maendeleo na Jamii (Education, Development and Society), in Tandika, a suburb of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, arranged a grassroots comics workshop in 2006. One story was about how the market stall vendors cleaned up their market. Story and pictures from the workshop below:

“The market place stinks”. The vendors comment on the smell at the market place. One of them thinks that the food smells bad because it is too dirty. The other one says that the customers throw garbage around. The vendors decide to tidy up the place themselves and the market becomes clean again. Story and artwork: Ms Theresia Bonephace, EMAJA Community Group

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Read the full workshop report.

Exposing the Electricity Board in Rajasthan (India)

Suresh had no electricity in his village, Aati, in Barmer, Rajasthan. There had been promises from the Electricity Board for several years, but no action. Suresh, a World Comics India activist with the Comics Manch (Comics Group) in Barmer, made a wallposter and an 8-page comic on the issue and distributed them in the village and at a public hearing. After some time the electricity came.

The villagers discussed how to get electricity and took then eleven applications to the Electricity Board, which did nothing. So the villagers made three complaints at three separate public hearings. The comic ends with the question: "When will the Government officials shake off their deep slumber?" Story and artwork: Suresh Jaipal

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Railway building halted by militants, Assam (India)

“New Ways“ is a group formed by students of the Department of Communication and Journalism, Gauhati University. It has been working in association with World Comics India. The group brings focus on various community issues, using the medium of grassroots comics. Separatist militancy is a big issue in Assam.

“Track of dismay”, was made at a workshop held on India’s Independence Day, August 15, 2009. Story and artwork Ms. Usha Dewani of New Ways Group. The Indian TV station CNN/IBN featured a news story on the workshop, see the video on ibnlive.in.com.

Read more about the comics activities of the New Ways Group in their very informative blog: nayidishayein.blogspot.com.

Picture: New Ways Group brought grassroots comics into active use in Assam.

Protection of Mangrove forests in Pakistan

An exhibition of comics on environment was organised by WWF-Pakistan and World Comics Network -Pakistan at the Wetland Centre in Karachi to mark the World Environment Day, in 2009. Students and teachers produced comics during a three-day workshop.

Note: read the comic from right to left (Urdu). “Ali Baba Rukha” Murad, a wise man, asked villagers not to cut the mangrove trees, but they refused as these trees are their source of living. A fake saint, Ali Baba Rukha, predicted a flood and soon a flood destroyed the entire village except one house. The villagers suspected that some supernatural forces saved the house, but Murad made it clear to them that it was the power of the valuable and ancient mangrove trees that saved it. Story and artwork: Ms. Nida Shams.

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Visit Nida Sham’s blog boltilakeerain.blogspot.com for more details on what happens in Pakistan.

Early marriages in Palestinian refugee camps (Lebanon)

The Finnish Psychologists for Social Responsibility (FPSR) has an ongoing cooperation project with a Palestinian Refugee organisation, Beit atfal Assomoud (BAS) in Lebanon, since long. The two organisations asked World Comics Finland to run a grassroots comics training workshop especially for BAS’ youth. Below a sample of the output from the workshop in 2005.

Note: read the comic from right to left (Arabic). “Marriage” A young girl gets married without understanding that the life of a wife is not always easy and fun. Although she is pregnant, she wants a divorce. Later, while asleep, she accidentally suffocates her baby. She says now she is free and will never marry again. Story and artwork: Ms. Jumana Khalid Azzam.

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Malaria action in Mozambique

UFF-Finland supports in Mozambique a teachers’ training college called Ayuda Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo (ADPP). It has several branches throughout the country. The grassroots comics idea was introduced to ADPP and its partner network in 2005 and now thousands of wallposter comics are produced annually for a variety of issues. Below is a sample on malaria campaigning.

This story explains how to avoid malaria in a rural setting by environmental sanitation and the use of mosquito nets. Story and artwork by Ms. Julia Vivaldo from Escola de Professores do Futuro (EPF), the ADPP-supported teacher training college in Maputo.

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Report

Read Leif Packalén’s report from the monitoring trip in 2008.

pdf

Racism in Brazil

Sharad Sharma of World Comics India visited Brazil in 2007 and ran some workshops there. One of them was with the organisation Viracao, which activates youths in different campaigns.

"Prejudice" A black girl goes to a restaurant with her friends and offers to buy them a meal. The owner of the restaurant humiliates her by saying she wants to steal the food. The girl files a complaint at the Black Council so that nobody dares to harass her again. Story and artwork by Ms. Negra Hellen of Viracao in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Drawing: The participants of the comics workshop in Sao Paulo, by Sharad Sharma.

The right to learn a trade, Senegal

The right to learn a trade is one of the 12 rights declared by the African Movement for Working Children and Youth (AMWCY). World Comics Finland was requested to run a grassroots comics workshop for AMWCY members in Benin, in 2005.

The boy has to stop going to school as his parents cannot afford to buy school materials. The organisation AMWCY finds him an apprenticeship to learn the trade of a tailor. Later he opens a tailor shop. Story and artwork: Ms. Romaine Dieng, Enda Jeunesse, Dakar.

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Video

Community action in Manchester (England)

Community Pride Initiative (CPI) arranged a comics workshop in 2005 for members of voluntary and community groups in Manchester and Salford. Led by Sharad Sharma of World Comics India, participants learnt both how to make their own comics and how to train others. Comics were produced on a range of topics including education, gender, community networks, gangs, bullying, government policies, the media, and refugees.

“Computer Phobia”, from the Community Comics’ workshop report, May 2005. Story and artwork by Ms. Rabia Qureshi.

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Stories by immigrants and asylum-seekers in Finland

World Comics Finland has cooperation with some immigrant and refugee groups since 2000. The main idea is to give to people from different backgrounds a chance to voice their opinions and tell their stories through comics. Below a few samples:

“Frozen fingers” A recent immigrant waits for the bus in Lappeenranta town, it is very cold. When the bus arrives and the driver asks for the ticket, he says that his fingers are so frozen that the driver must pick the money himself from his back pocket. The comic was made at the Nuoriso-Kanava (Youth Channel) comics course in 2003.

“Shaimal’s journey” Shaimal, a young girl from Somalia, tells how she took a boat to Saudi Arabia, and was put in jail there. Shaimal was one of the young asylum-seekers in Ingas reception centre in Espoo.

Drawing from the Ingas centre by Leif Packalén.

“People without skin” Muuse, an asylum seeker, tells the story of some girls who saw white people for the first time in Somalia. “Daddy, daddy, people without skin…” Don’t worry, they are white people from Europe”. The comic was made at a course arranged jointly with the Finnish Comics Society in 2000.

Quick glances...

Globalisation comics in Finland

Nuorisoakatemia (The Youth Academy) runs a two-year project in which school children make comics on the issue of globalisation. In the training workshop for the tutors in August 2009 this comic was made by the pen name “K”.

Cover of the book “Comics Crossing Cultures”. Environmental comics in Nepal and Finland, youth interaction.

Nepalese youth, participating in an environmental education project, learned how to make wallposter comics. Their Finnish peers sent them their own comics on environmental topics. The organisation “A Day’s Work” combined the comics in a book titled ”Comics Crossing Cultures - Strips from Nepal and Finland”. Read more about the project on: www.taksvarkki.fi

The rights of the deaf in Mwanza, Tanzania

“Taarifa za Runinga” (TV News) In the story the deaf are trying to watch news but they fail to understand spoken language. With CHAVITA (the organisation of the Deaf) they decide to go to the local Star-TV, which decides to put a sign language interpreter in their news. Story and artwork: Selebi Majura.

The workshop was run by Ms. Sanna Hukkanen, who is a member of World Comics Finland and lives in Mwanza.

Read the full report from the workshop in Mwanza in 2009.

pdf

Democracy promotion in Yei, Southern Sudan

The Danish organisation MS ActionAid brought the cartoonist Sammi Mwamkinga from Tanzania Popular Media organisation (TAPOMA) to run a comics workshop for community activists in Yei, a small town near the Ugandan border in 2008. There was a dozen participants in the workshop. Below a sample of a comic about poaching.

Health education in Mongolia

British VSO-volunteer Claire Hill received a copy of the book “Grassroots Comics – a development communication tool” by Leif Packalén and Sharad Sharma. By following the instructions in the book, she ran a comics workshop for health campaigners in 2007, in Ulaan Bator, Mongolia.

The rights of child workers in Niger

Ousseni Idé from Enfants et JeunesTravailleurs (EJT) Niger pasted up this comic, which tells about the child workers’ right to be respected. Idé participated in the comics workshop arranged for the African Movement for the Working Children and Youth in Benin in 2005.

Democracy and participation in Kashmir, Pakistan

Nida Shams (World Comics Network – Pakistan) ran a workshop for the project “Strengthening Participatory organisation” in Upper Gudgar, a remote village in Kashmir, in 2009. The participants were all women, most of whom had recently joined a literacy program.

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Video

Learn more about the workshop on the video.

AIDS campaigning in Latvia

The Youth against Aids -project in Latvia gathered 16 participants in a workshop in Silguda in 2009. The participants came from a number of youth organisations from different parts of the country.

Immigrant children in Vaxjo, Sweden

Grassroots comics were introduced as a medium for immigrant children in a school in Vaxjo, a small town in Southern Sweden. The workshop was initiated by the school librarians.

Sámi cultural rights, Lapland

Sámi activists in Rovaniemi, Finland got training in grassroots comics in 2008. Pictured Rauni Aarela (left) and Sharad Sharma of World Comics India.

Respect refugees (EU)

A group of activists from different European Union countries created some grassroots comics on the refugee issue. The comics were made in an online workshop in September – November 2008. Above a detail from Souraya Ahmada’s comic on hiv/aids in refugee camps in Ethiopia.