News
Burundi, one year later...
Aug 21, 2011
Our cooperation partner in Burundi, L’Association pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme (APDH) sent us about fifty new comics which have been made in APDH’s projects in Northern Burundi. We are very pleased to see that the 18 people we trained in 2010 have passed on the skill of making grassroots comics in many locations. The themes of the comics are: birth control, women’s rights, land issues, heritage rights, alcohol and drug abuse, sex abuse, corruption, forest fires, tree-planting, abuse of domestic help, nutrition, joblessness, the rights of the accused, etc.
Almost 1000 comics have been made during the year, and they will be arranged according to themes and locations, and made into booklets to be used in project activities.
Again, one can see that grassroots comics work well for an organisation, such as APDH, which has a broad-based human rights approach in its work.
The comic below was made by Ms. Nelly Kwizera in a workshop in Muremera. Summary of the story: A mother fears for the safety of her albino baby and suspects some neighbors will kill it for witchcraft. This, however, does not happen, thanks to the timely intervention by the police.
World Village Festival
Aug 21, 2011
The annual mega-event World Village Festival took place in Helsinki end of May 2011. It was attended by sixty to seventy thousand people and gave an excellent opportunity for about 200 organisations to present their work, get new contacts, and exchange ideas. World Comics Finland participated with a small exhibition of grassroots comics and by giving information about its activities, selling publications, etc.
A small competition of inventing texts for speech balloons was held at our stand, and it was very popular among children and teenagers who wrote catchy texts and showed aptitude for the medium of comics.
At the festival we also launched our new Comics Power! –pin in different colours. The Comics Power!-logo was designed by Leif Packalen as early as 1994. It is now in wide use by different informal comics groups around the world.
Cooperation with Youth Alive! Kenya starts in October
Aug 21, 2011
We have a new cooperation partner: Youth Alive! Kenya (www.youthalivekenya.org). Training of grassroots comics trainers will be arranged in Nairobi in October 2011 with two tutors from World Comics Finland. YAK will identify the participants from its network and coordinate the workshop and the ensuing activities of taking the grassroots comics concept to the community. Funding for the project comes from from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (Cultural Cooperation Funds).
Comics workshop on environment, Bamako, Mali
May 15, 2011
A one-day grassroots comics workshop was held in Bamako, Mali, in November 2010, for ten employees of MFC Nyetaa, an NGO on environment. Many of the participants told they had no previous experience from drawing. However, after some exercises, they were able to produce convincing comics about development issues. They were very positive about using comics as a tool in their future activities in which awareness raising about the sustainable use of natural resources plays a central role.
The workshop was run by Ms. Heidi Leino (NGO activist and a member of World Comics Finland) who is also involved in the Grassroots Comics School Visitor -programme with the Youth Academy in Finland.
The comic below was made in the Bamako workshop by Lasseni Traore.
Government funding for grassroots comics workshops in schools
May 15, 2011
The Youth Academy (Nuorten Akatemia) of Finland receives funding from the Finnish Foreign Ministry’s development education funds for a grassroots comics project in 2011-2012. The main feature of the project is 225 school visits, during which students, aged 13-19, make grassroots comics about their views on development issues. This is a joint effort between the Youth Academy, World Comics Finland, and some other NGOs, and it is the second of its kind. In 2009-2010 a very successful pilot project with 130 school visits was realized on the theme of globalisation.
The project has a steering committee with representation of all participating NGOs, and the activities are under constant review and evaluation.
Long cooperation project with World Comics India comes to an end
Jan 4, 2011
We started cooperation with cartoonist Sharad Sharma in 2000 which led to the establishment of World Comics India in 2002. It has been a long and intensive cooperation and World Comics India is now a self-sufficient, empowered organisation which stands on its own feet.
The cooperation programme 2003-2010 between World Comics Finland and World Comics India was mainly funded from the Finnish Foreign Ministry’s development funds, to a total of about 140.000 euro, with about 15 % self-financing raised by WCF. Over the years, eight Finnish trainers taught at workshops in India, and Sharad Sharma was a frequent visitor to Finland. In addition to training workshops, the grants also covered during the last four years office rent, salary of staff, equipment, administrative expenses, etc. Read more about the workshops
More about WCI’s achievements on www.worldcomicsindia.com
Comics workshops on working children’s rights
Jan 1, 2011
The African Movement for Working Children and Youth (AMWCY) arranged comics workshops in 2010 in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Rwanda. Well over a hundred children and youths participated in the workshops. The topics of the comics were drawn from the activities of the AMWCY members and the actions they engage in to realize their rights; birth certificates for children, ill treatment and violence, exploitation of working children, female genital mutilation and its consequences. More about the workshops in AMWCY’s newsletter www.maejt.org
AMWCY got their first introduction to grassroots comics in 2005 in a workshop in Cotonou, Benin. More in our workshop list
Grassroots Comics in Tonga and Fiji
Oct 2, 2010
Two Finnish students, Tiina Jaatinen and Heidi Karvonen, travelled in the Pacific Islands in the summer of 2010. They were involved in the Globalisation Comics -project that was run in Finnish schools in 2009-2010 by Nuorten Akatemia (Youth Academy). Therefore, they were familiar with the grassroots comics concept.
In Fiji they ran a short workshop with 40 participants in Natabua High School in Lautoka. The theme of the comics was global warming as the school happened to have an Environment week.
In Tonga, they ran a workshop with a Bahai junior youth group. The comics were about how young people can do service to the community: e.g. by planting trees, by promoting litter-free environment, and by arranging activities for children and youth.
Burundi cooperation started
Oct 2, 2010
The Association for Peace and Human Rights (APDH) in Burundi arranged in cooperation with World Comics Finland a grassroots comics tutor-training workshop in Ngozi in July, 2010. APDH runs a one-year project called: “Towards a culture of democracy in Burundi: local comics on elections and governance.” The project intends to produce mainly wallposter comics and publish a collection of comics at a later stage. A total of 60 wallposter comics were produced during the workshop in Ngozi. A Kirundi-language grassroots comics manual and a tutor’s guide were prepared for the workshop and are now available on our website.
Read the workshop report, see the video and check the Kirundi manuals.
Caricatures for fundraising
Oct 2, 2010
For a small organisation, money is always a problem. Fortunately, we have amongst our board members daring artistic creativity. Two of Finland’s top comics artists, Katja Tukiainen and Tarmo Koivisto put their heads together, and designed something we call “Caricature machine”. It is a box, built and decorated by Katja, in her trade-mark pink. Money is inserted in a slot, and five minutes later a caricature exits from another slot. The model cannot see who is in the box, or what is happening there, because of the ingenious two-way mirror.
Finnish comics artists, who are sympathetic to our work, take turns in drawing inside the box, which is actually too small for everybody (except for rather petite Katja who built it). The caricature machine is very popular at events, festivals, etc.
The Academic bookstore in Helsinki arranges an annual event called Night of the Books. Since 2002, the caricature machine has been one of the attractions there, with a long queue of aficionados, some of whom come back every year. The proceeds have been used to support our cooperation project with World Comics India.
Grassroots Comics in Mwanza
May 2, 2010
Shivyawata is an umbrella organisation of disabled people's organisations in Mwanza Region, Tanzania. Shivyawata arranged four grassroots comics workshops in Mwanza, in January 2010 for the local branches of Tanzania Association of the Deaf, Tanzania Albino Society, Tanzania Association of the Physically Handicapped, and Tanzania Association of Mentally Handicapped. The workshops were attended by 51 participants.
The workshops were funded by Abilis Foundation of Finland. The tutors at the workshops were comics artists Sunday Ngakama and Sanna Hukkanen. Read the full report.
The comics were made as wallposters. Some were also published in small photocopied booklets.
The whole idea of comics seemed a bit difficult for many in the beginning. But in the end, when the participants saw their artwork ready, it was very rewarding for them. The stories were often based on personal real-life experiences. The participants had very strong, even shocking messages in their comics, which made them a very powerful tool for campaigning and for changing attitudes.
Grassroots comics catching on in Estonia
May 2, 2010
The Estonian branch of the European Youth Bureau ran a few grassroots comics workshops at the end of 2009 in Tallinn. The themes were about unemployment and development cooperation. More on the organisation’s website (in Estonian). Some of the comics are in English.
Comics booklet from Dakar grassroots workshop
May 2, 2010
Finnish artist, Kaija Papu, went to Senegal in 2008 to run a workshop at the Finnish–Senegalese cultural center, Sunu Kër, in Dakar. The idea was to make comics about issues important to the young participants, who were from the neighbourhood.
Kaija Papu compiled the comics in a small booklet called “PosterPlay”. The book, with texts in French and English, is available in print from Kaino-kustanne and online as a PDF-file.
We found out about the book only recently, but think it is definitively something to share.
World Comics Finland launches its renewed website!
January 8, 2010
Six months in front of the computer is behind us. Our renewed site is ready and uploaded. We have tried to make it uncluttered and easy to read.
The main site design, image manipulation, and coding has been made by Joonas From, the texts and other content by a group of World Comics Finland volunteers.
We thank everybody who has helped us, and our special thanks go to the Otto A. Malm Foundation, who generously provided a grant for the website renewal.
Check out the page and send us feedback on: mail@SPAMFILTERworldcomics.fi
Rajasthan report ready
January 6, 2010
The Rajasthan comics workshop report (20 pp.) is ready. The training of trainers workshop was arranged in October 2009 in Gram Vikas Navyuvak Mandal Lapodia (GVNML), Nagar, Rajasthan. The report contains a lot of photographs and drawings by Sharad Sharma, Leif Packalen and Kaisa Leka. It is available as a pdf-file.
A comics exhibition on Bhopal Gas Tragedy
December 2, 2009
A comics exhibition on Bhopal Gas Tragedy was showcased during the "Bhopal blues on wheels: Capturing 25 years" on 1st December 2009. These black & white comics were developed by the children of Bhopal during a three day Comics workshop organized by World Comics India in collaboration with Bhopal Gas Pedit Mahila Udyog Sanghthan.
Marking the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, supporters of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal launched this campaign. The Caravan was flagged off by renowned filmmaker and social activist, Muzafar Ali on 1 December at 4:30 pm at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
The caravan travelled to educational institutions and public locations across Delhi. The report includes all the comics, with English explanations.
The report can be read here.
(information from Sharad’s Facebook page)
The first comic book on gay issues launched in Mumbai
November 30, 2009
The Mumbai-based NGO, Humsafar Trust, has launched an illustrated comic book with funding from United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The comic book is cleverly called, Ek Alag Chitra Katha, a spin off on the well-known Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha. The grassroots comic book, is in Hindi.
Humsafar Trust is an NGO dealing with the rights of sexual minorities in India
Humsafar Trust made the book after Sharad Sharma (of World Comics India) ran a three-day workshop at Humsafar's office in Vakola, Santacruz (E). There he trained grassroot workers in recounting anecdotes and sketching them into comics.
(news item from Mid-Day, Mumbai, 9.10.2009)
