Mobile Rede Jovem: SMS for social change in Brazil

Dear friends and sponsors of Mobile Rede Jovem Project,

Rede Jovem Program team is very proud to once more share nice news with all.

The year of 2010 is bringing a lot of joy and new perspective for Rede Jovem Program! This year Rede completes 10 years working with new information and communication technologies for stimulating social and civic participation and empowering low-income youth from Brazil.

As a great beginning for such an important stage Rede Jovem won the Mobile Premier Award in Social Change due to Wikimapa project, the newest initiative for using mobile technology for empowering youth created by Rede Jovem Program.

For us it's a great pleasure and honor to share with you the official release produced for notifying all friends and sponsors of Rede Jovem about the award:

Mobile Premier Award in Social Change goes to Rede Jovem Program (Brazil)

Barcelona: Monday, February 15, 2010 – Rede Jovem wins the prestigious Mobile Premier Award in Social Change. The best startup using mobile for social change was awarded in partnership with MobileActive.org. Rede Jovem was selected the winner. 65 organizations applied for the competition.

Natalia Santos and Patricia Azevedo, executive and strategic coordinators from Rede Jovem Program from NGO Comunitas (Brazil), received the award from Chris Pinchen, representing Mobileactive.org. The ceremony took place today at the Petit Palau de la Musica in Barcelona in front of an audience of investors, operators, media companies, entrepreneur peers, press, and influential bloggers.

Says Katrin Verclas, director of MobileActive.org: "We are enormously pleased to present Rede Jovem with the Mobile Premier Award. Rede has shown great innovation in using mobiles for story telling and mapping in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Rede Jovem is effectively showing how mobile phones can be used by young people, for social inclusion, and for their social and political expression. We are impressed!"

Natalia Santos and Patricia Azevedo of the Rede Jovem Program said: “Receiving this award is a major honor and enormous recognition of the work developed by the small and brave team from Rede Jovem. It is especially rewarding to the five young people from the slums in Rio that mobilized thousands of residents to recognize low-income communities as part of the city where they live -- using a cell phone and a wiki map application. We thank the Mobile Premier Awards on behalf of 150.000 residents of these five slums in Rio de Janeiro and hope to see Wikimapa adopted as tool to engage social change all over the world”.

“This year’s Mobile Awards competition was the largest ever with over 600 start up submissions from all continents” added Rudy De Waele, CNO at dotopen. “Rede Jovem is a great representative of a new generation of innovative technology projects in Social Change. At dotopen, we remain committed to enabling this type of collaborative projects with growth and ecosystem development.”

Other Mobile Premier Awards categories included: • MPA in Innovation - The best grassroots startup innovation chosen by their peers in partnership with MobileMonday • MPA in Entertainment - The best startup in Mobile Entertainment in partnership with Mobile Entertainment Forum • MPA in User Experience - The best startup in Mobile User Experience in partnership with MEX. • MPA in Social Change - The best startup using mobile for social change in partnership with MobileActive.org • MPA in Female Entrepreneurship - The best woman-lead mobile startup in partnership with Women 2.0 and the Women in Mobile Data Association About Rede Jovem Program from NGO Comunitas (Brazil) Rede Jovem Program is an initiative from NGO Comunitas that works with low income youth from Brazil to increase their social and civic participation by providing access to new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Rede Jovem Program works in low-income communities and slums within metropolitan areas all over Brazil. Mobile technology is being used by Rede Jovem Program since 2006 to empower low-income youth from Brazil. About MobileActive.org MobileActive.org is the leading clearinghouse for information on mobile technology for social impact. We are a network of more than 10,000 people and organizations who use mobile tech for social change. We conduct research, connect people through conferences and events, and we advance the use of mobiles for civil society organizations through tactical guides and our blog. We also maintain a database of mobile applications, research, case studies, and strategy resources for those who are using mobile technology to make the world a better place. About dotopen dotopen is the organizer of the Mobile Premier Awards, the largest global competition in mobile startup innovation as well as the enabling partner in startup and innovation competitions around the world. dotopen.com is the open platform for organizations, where, as a decision maker, you can showcase your company, discover relevant partners and build your ecosystem.

Please send us feedback about what you think of projects and initiatives from Rede Jovem Program and help us continue to deliver quality information for low-income youth from Brazil!

Best regards from Brazil!

Hello friends and sponsors of Mobile Rede Jovem Project! Rede Jovem Program team is very proud to once more share a lot of nice news with all: In the year of 2009 many very good things happened to Rede Jovem Program and to our mobile area! First we launched Wikimapa project, which is being nationally and internationally recognized! Please let us know if you want to know more about it. Also in 2009 another project called SMSports was launched. In fact, it was conceived as an outspread of Mobile Rede Jovem: SMS for social change since it works exactly the same except for the information content that focuses on two categories: sports and citizenship! It’s very nice to see that a project methodology well succeeded, created by the program is being replicated successfully to benefit more young boys and girls from other low-income areas. The project benefits additional 400 youth, residents of slums from Rio and Sao Paulo. Great news is that Rede Jovem Coordination team is systematizing and compiling all information and knowledge acquired with mobile projects using SMS as main tool to promote social changes in Brazil in order to write a Mobile Guide that is going to be launched on first semester of 2010, when Rede Jovem program completes 10 years! Please send us feedback about what you think of projects and initiatives and help us continue to deliver quality information for low-income youth from Brazil! Rede Jovem’ team hopes you all like our news and also would like to wish a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! Best regards from Brazil!

• logosmsesportefinal.tif (TIF)

Marisa Glassman is GlobalGiving's Business Development Manager. She recently traveled throughout Brazil and visited a number of GlobalGiving projects. On May 1st she visited "Mobile Rede Jovem: SMS for social change in Brazil." When asked what she would tell her friends about this project, Marisa said: "Incredible: You need to see this!"

"I had such a lovely morning visiting with the ladies (and one gentleman) at Rede Jovem! They truly have their finger on the pulse of what is important to Brazilian youth, and have found innovative and effective ways to reach them.

"Rede Jovem, which was started in 1999, began as an organization bringing technology to youth via computer labs and technology centers. But because of the relatively small amount of Brazilian youth who do not have regular access to computers or the internet, and the ever-growing proportion of Brazilian youth who have access to mobile phones, Rede Jovem decided to expand their services to SMS text messaging. Through outreach in local communities, Rede Jovem finds youths (ages 15-24) who are interested in entering the job market but do not have the skills or means to do so. Interested youths sign up and create profiles of the types of jobs and information they’re interested in receiving, and the Rede Jovem team sends them information about employment opportunities, vocational training, and other issues relevant to their interests and needs.

"Rede Jovem has figured out a way to successfully use a medium that many large corporations have yet to use effectively: SMS text messaging. This low-cost but highly effective and direct means of communication can really benefit from your continued support. I was very impressed with their work overall and am so happy to have met them in person. "