Video Volunteers is based on the notion that grassroots NGOs can use inexpensive video cameras and computer editing to produce videos at a reasonable cost. For NGOs, videos can bolster an education programme and serve as a tool for policy action and awareness-raising in the media. NGOs, Video Volunteers hopes, can also begin incorporating the video camera into their daily work. To that end, this programme involves teaching NGO staff to use video for long-term project documentation, as well as equipping them to edit simple sequences together quickly for promotional material, for example, or to stream personal testimonials from the community to the web.

This approach is based on the belief that new digital technologies enable anyone to make a video. Those who can see and can talk (even if they cannot write), can make their own video, say organisers. To that end, in group brainstorming sessions members of the community decide what messages the film will deliver, who the main characters should be, and how the film will develop. Participants are encouraged to get involved in all aspects of the filmmaking process, from shooting to interviewing to editing. This strategy reflects the fact that if, for instance, a film is being created to educate a community in health issues, the community knows best what will resonate with its own people. Further, "If the intended audience is TV viewers a world away, the poor have a right to tell their own stories, and not be spoken for."

Prior to commencing a project, Video Volunteers works with the NGOs to devise a distribution strategy, which have included wide screen projection in villages, DVD distribution via mailings, local cable networks, and trainings. In each CVU, 6-10 community members are trained during a 1-year period to be full-time "Community Video Producers." Each month, they produce one 30-minute 'video news magazine' on a different social issue decided by a Community Editorial Board. The purpose is to reflect the voices of their community in areas such as health, sanitation, education, women's rights, and human rights. They screen that video primarily on wide-screen projectors in 25 village or slum areas each month, aiming for at least 50% attendance by the entire village or Basti area. Throughout this process, Video Volunteers works in partnership with the Drishti Media Collective in Ahmedabad, India. The goal is to use video as a way to develop the leadership and communication skills of the participants.

Select examples of CVUs established by Video Volunteers include:

Community video: Video Volunteers trained 11 rural women in Andhra Pradesh, South India, to shoot, interview, and script a monthly video magazine. During the training conducted for the organisation Velugu, the trainees - who were all married as children themselves - produced a half-hour video on why child marriage must be stopped. Velugu's video magazine will address community issues and be screened in more than 150 villages every month on wide-screen projectors, to raise awareness and generate local problem-solving activities. The community video producers' motto is, "speaking about our problems is the first step in solving them."

Indigenous rights: Video Volunteers is working with two American Indian Tribes, the Arapahos and Shoshones of Wyoming, to produce a video that will reach every member of the Tribes (via a targeted DVD distribution run through the schools) with information on their water rights. The CVU's aim will be to increase participation in tribal government, attendance at General Council meetings, and provide leadership development.

Human rights/legal awareness: Video Volunteers trained 7 staff members from 2 Gujarat-based NGOs, Navsarjan and the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), to produce educational videos. Trainees included the organisations' driver and sewing teacher. The trainees from Navsarjan are now running a programme to teach wedding video production to young Dalits as an alternative to caste-based occupations. The CSJ trainees are now working as "video activists." A short video they made documenting the failure of the government's ration and health services was used in three ways: it rallied the community, forced the commissioner to launch an inquiry, and is being used in courts of law.

In 2007, Video Volunteers launched Channel 19, an online platform showcasing the videos made by 64 men and women from slums and villages of India. These men and women are full-time video producers working in local CVUs which are based in 6 states of India. On this interactive website, one may watch and comment on videos, read blogs and comment or cross-post, take action and contact the partner NGO, and support the Producers Fellowship fund.

Poverty Alleviation, Human Rights.

According to organisers, in the 1990's, a World Bank survey asked thousands of economically poor people to identify the biggest hurdle to their advancement. Above even food and shelter, the number one problem cited was access to a "voice". The Video Volunteers project is about giving a voice to the voiceless, and to the people who fight for them.

Video Volunteers claims that the CVU "has proven an effective tool for an NGO to expand their own programmatic scale and reach, [to] promote awareness and information, and to enable communities to advocate with authority. It also empowers communities with a voice, both locally and globally, when we distribute the videos to the mainstream media. Our approach bridges the literacy barrier, and communicates to people in the visual medium they like best. Finally, it promotes community-led change, through focused discussions and follow-ups with audiences around a 'Call to Action' in community screenings that often reach the majority of a village or slum in ways that development programs cannot."

In June 2006, the first 6 CVUs were launched with 7 Indian NGOs in the 3 states of India. These CVUs comprise an all-Dalit team, an all-women team, a Hindu-Muslim team, an all-Tribal team, and an all-youth team. In the first 2 years, 64 grassroots Community Video Producers were trained, produced over 40 films, and held more than 600 community screenings seen by more than 120,000 local people, which "are resulting in both government and communities taking specific and measurable actions" (click here to read specific "stories of impact"). Video Volunteers believes that every NGO's videos should reach at least 10,000 people. At that point, economies of scale begin to kick in. At one CVU, the cost of reaching a single person came down to 1 rupee a head, less than an NGO would spend on giving chai or a pencil to the villager in a training programme.

The cost of launching a CVU is approximately 28 lakh Rupees (US$60,000) split equally between the NGO and Video Volunteers/Drishti. NGOs provide funds for equipment, community producers' salaries, and local travel and training. Video Volunteer/Drishti provide funds for coordination and training, as well as international distribution and advocacy. Subsequent annual costs are about 1/3 of the first year costs and are borne by the NGO. Drishti/Video Volunteers remain involved in future years in distribution, further training and networking, and possible capacity-building in other media like community radio, web, and new media.