CatComm.org

Community Testimonials

Check out a simple presentation of how our network works

DERIK UYA ALFRED
Kwoto Popular Theatre | Khartoum (Sudan) | May 2006

After receiving a number of contacts thanks to their posting in CatComm's Community Solutions Database, ranging from CNN and BBC to the International Theatre of the Oppressed Organization and the British group Theatre in Place of War, Kwoto Popular Theatre Director wrote us:

Thanks for forwarding me the emails. I have talked to Theatre at Place of War, she is coming down to Khartoum - Sudan and we are going to meet. Moreover, I am presenting a paper at the conference she will be attending. For (the gentleman from the Bangladeshi organization that would like to learn from our experience), I am going to email him soon, and invite him for a visit to Sudan. Many, many thanks for connections your esteemed website is giving us in terms of connectivity.

MARCELO VASQUES
Port Art | Saúde, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | May 2006

When I was introduced to the Casa, right away I thought, 'there it is, the door I've been waiting for.' I started using the computers, where there was always someone available to help me during tough times. I started seeking out contact with groups that circulated in the Casa, and in 2005 I had the opportunity to present at the Casa the artwork I'd been doing with psychiatric patients in the Port Region where the Casa is located. Today, my new work involves cinema, and 80% of the artistic activities I've developed for this event have been with the help of community leaders I met at CatComm. Today I can honestly say without CatComm I would be facing immense difficulties to set up these events.

ALEXANDRE GABEIRA
Activist and Journalist | Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | May 2006

One day, some time ago, I was formulating a proposal to commemorate the day of Black Consciousness - November 20th - with colleagues from a number of groups. The event was going to happen in Maré favela, but we decided to meet up downtown in order to increase our reach. CatComm was recommended as the location. So there I went. And there I discovered a revolutionary organization.

The support that CatComm provides to community organizers is extremely important in the development of popular organizations. The Casa serves as a space for meetings among leaders, and also offers free Internet access to community projects. Even more, CatComm develops a website where community projects and organizations, and community artists, are made visible to the world.

But there were two qualities that impressed me more. There the community organizers find one another, producing a series of alliances that reduce the isolation between popular action. The other thing is the management of the organization. Their meetings are public and are conducted in dialogue. An example of democratic management for other non-governmental organizations.

DELEY DA CUNHA
Fifth Element | Acarí, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | September 2005

Without the support of the Casa, it would have been virtually impossible for the community project Hip-Hop's Fifth Element to reach the national and international projection it has today.

In a squatter community where digital exclusion is one of the less visible faces of violence that people suffer, to put in practice a hip-hop project would not be possible, without access to the Internet to research funding opportunities and to maintain contact with partners.

The most curious thing is that the partnerships between the community organizers from Fifth Element and the Casa, is that this partnership generated an opportunity for us to help a public school near our community, where we develop Fifth Element, to win the Telemar Award for Social Inclusion in 2004.

EDSON CARDOSO
AMATRECO | Três Corações, Nova Iguaçu (Brazil) | September 2005

When I learned about CatComm I was President of AMATRECO - Three Hearts Neighborhood Association. This neighborhood is located in the city of Nova Iguaçu, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. Our neighborhood has about 5000 residents and no public infrastructure, for this reason the actions of a strong neighborhood association make such a difference.

CatComm's support has been fundamental, because we do not have Internet access in our headquarters and it is at the Casa that we check our email and format a good portion of our projects.

To facilitate your comprehension of how important this space has been for us, let me list below the successes we've achieved thanks to CatComm's support:

Since the Casa technology hub first opened I have come frequently and interacted with other social entrepreneurs who act inside and outside their own communities, acting directly within hip-hop culture, and encompassing a gap that exists in terms of the complexity in various aras including the audio-visual, fine arts and political/sociocultural movements. CatComm facilitates this work by offering its physical space and making computers available etc. Through CatComm I became a Nós Do Cinema ("We of the Cinema") student that allowed me to meet and participate in the Caravan of Artistic Resistence in Areas of Conflict, which culminated in a trip to France to discuss the process by which the Caravan was being constructed, and to carry out debates and artistic interventions at the EFS in London - an experience that will be with me until my last days.

NEUZA NASCIMENTO
CIACAC | Parada de Lucas, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | June 2005

What I have to say about CatComm and its staff is all good. I learned about CatComm through Theresa Williamson during a CONGESCO (Community Managers Council of Rio de Janeiro) meeting, a group I belonged to at the time. A while later I met her at the Santo Inácio School, where I participated in a group of Community Leaders. And finally I met her at the AEC - Association of Catholic Education, where I was taking a Project Elaboration course. Well, after so many encounters, I began thinking this was more than mere change.

Through these "occasional" encounters (I was building my capacity as a leader, she was conducting outreach for her work) our relationship became stronger. At the time CatComm only existed virtually and I only knew that its objective was to get the word out about community efforts. I was starting out. A while later the Casa technology hub was launched. An open space that can be used by any person developing a community project or simply a catalyzing agent, he who mobilizes, realizes, given that his efforts are focused on helping poor communities.

The Casa technology hub for me really represents a house, a home. A home that I consider a bit mine, as a community organizer. A house where I exchange ideas and resources, with other organizers, request and receive orientation and ideas from the staff that works there, that, I'll say in passage, is marvelous, and use the physical space for meetings when the focus is on my community work and, access the Internet of course! Repeating, the staff that works at the Casa, starting with Theresa, Roseli, Rosa Zambrano, Pedro, Marília, Edilson, Diana and Martha, are marvelous people who are always willing to help, orient, and explain.

There are also the other (organizers) who are there so regularly that they know the Casa dynamics so well they end up being an immense help to the novices.

I have not yet been able to participate in the workshops offered at the Casa in the past for lack of time and now for lack of transport funds. But this doesn't keep me from taking advantage of the Casa, even if only in part. Many times I've called the Casa asking Edson or Roseli to open my email. When I was anxiously waiting for the confirmation that CIACAC had been granted official status, the person who accessed the results for me was Rosa, who by phone read me the verdict.

I always tell people: even if you don't go to CatComm frequently, it's just good to know it's there.

I could sit here hours telling you all the good things about CatComm. But I will spare you and tell you only what is most relevant. Let's go:

Good things that have happened to me that were directly related to CatComm and the Casa:

Contact with Moreno of the Happy Ending Cultural Association, that resulted in two donations, plus a bar of chocolate and another of gelatin for the kids and adolescents with whom I work.
Contact with Israel Evangelista, who indicated various places I could send proposals. One of them was successfully accepted.
Participation in the 2003 World Social Forum. I went with CONGESCO, but without Theresa's intervention, in the sense of raising the funds for the trip, none of it would have come to be.
The institutionalization (formalization) of CIACAC happened at CatComm.
Later I used the same space for other meetings involving community work.
Despite not being its focus, CatComm, through Theresa, was the fiscal sponsor receiving funds from FASE/SAAP to pass on to CIACAC - Strengthening CIACAC Project (that allowed us to formalize the organization).
Prepared a recommendation and presetnation letter on two occasions when I needed them.
Today CIACAC is a legally constituted entity. Here I must say that without the existence of CatComm things would have been very difficult. Thank you, in particular, Theresa, Roseli, Edson and Rosa Zambrano. For the trust and the support.
It was the first Website that published my community project.
Realization of a Bazaar to fundraise for CIACAC.
When I most needed it, I was invited to provide services for the Casa.
I met Marcelus Pequeno who later on acted as a volunteer photographer during CIACAC's activities and until today still provides support at times.
I have probably forgotten something and certainly it didn't all happen in this order. Memory, at times, illudes us. I need to copy and paste the manner of a certain person I know who notes in her Palm Pilot all of her actions, daily.

AUAPARN is an association that was formally founded recently though we had already been for some time in a "gestation" phase.

As is true with all associations, we have encountered difficulties, the majority of which came in the beginning as the organization looked to establish itself.

Here I would like to cite some difficulties, which in the end led us to discover CatComm.

Without a headquarters as remains the case today, many times we from AUAPARN's Board of Directors and collaborators had trouble conducting work that required use of a computer. Our activities are mainly focused in the city center, but our circumstances required us to meet up in other locations where there was less infrastructure, and for this reason much work was delayed. During each of our meetings, when any new idea or necessary change came up in the elaboration of a project, it was necessary that someone take the work home to modify that component, because there was nowhere we could take the whole group to elaborate the project. This made it necessary to come and go various times and therefore things took much more time to reach a conclusion.

When I mentioned this to a colleague, she oriented me that I could do this work downtown where I could also be near other organizers and even hold meetings, telling me briefly about CatComm.

It was then that I became interested in visiting CatComm, though at the time I understood CatComm's purpose as strictly offering a space and infrastructure, including IT resources, what for me would already be a wonderful thing.

I went to check out this organization, that would in the end provide what I so needed, and to my surprise, its purpose was much broader than I had imagined.

I felt great with the reception I was given, and right away the purpose of the Casa was explained to me. I also received orientation on how to present my project and give it form to make it available on the Internet, with the objective that others could acquire knowledge and access it. This would provide a means to enable contact among organizers' various projects and for us to exchange interests and learning.

Many projects can, in fact, complete themselves by working together. I became aware of this through interacting with CatComm.

I also learned about workshops and courses that happen at CatComm, and right away became interested in the space and its structure and decided to offer a computer course to the organizers of AUAPARN. In line with the Casa's objectives, the idea was expanded to include other organizers. AUAPARN today runs a computer course in this space with the computers made available by CatComm, not only for its member-organizers but also for organizers from other community projects. This generated one more opportunity for exchange and knowledge creation amongst the organizers and of future exchanges.

The course happens today with this principle of exchange where diverse organizers naturally meet to participate in workshops and as a result end up trading ideas and experiences during the course.

In addition to this course, I have learned through others from other groups, about other workshops that have already happened at CatComm, including a community radio workshop, English course, French and fundraising, that, in addition to offering knowledge, were opportunities for different groups to meet. Through various means the primary intention of the space ends up being met, that is the integration of different organizers forming a network of communities.

Through coexisting we have been able to see that among organizers so much can be done and there is so much to know and to exchange amongst us, strengthening in this way the process of citizenship that each organizer develops in his/her respective segment of society.

During the period that I have frequented CatComm, I have met a range of people from diverse projects. The opportunity to exchange comes about spontaneously. I have already received email from people who want to come see our Association, after having seen the material we posted on the Internet through CatComm. There have also been cases of interest among organizers from diverse segments in meeting one another to present their project, as the Casa proposes.

Here I would like to register with CatComm our thanks for the many things that you have offered our Association and with all certainty to many others we have met along this path, and say that much can be accomplished by this principle of exchange and unity among groups that propose to work to improve society.

Congratulations to CatComm for this work, so well developed, and that with certainty exempifies a possible path within our society, through unity and common effort among diverse organizers. Congratulations!

On behalf of everyone here at Kenan-Flagler, I wanted to thank you for the favela visit. I spoke with several of my classmates afterwards and we all agreed that the visit was one of the key educational experiences we had in South America. Having worked for an NGO in India, it was interesting for me to compare and contrast this favela with the Indian villages where I had spent some time.

PATRICK DONOHUE*
World Resources Institute Case Study Researcher, November 2005

"I'd love to hear your impressions," Theresa Williamson said to me as we stepped off the bus, "about what you think of the communities here versus where you lived in Kenya." I had just spent the previous three months living and working in Kibera, a million-person shantytown in Nairobi. Nine months earlier a chance encounter with Theresa paved the way for this moment: here I was back in Brazil a part of Catalytic Communities' world-changing network. Here I was, stepping off the bus onto a dusty street corner in a Brazilian favela with the community's leader, Carlos "Bezerra" Costa, reaching out his arms to greet me like an old friend. Strangely enough, despite this being my first visit to Asa Branca, I knew I had already been there.

Bezerra quickly started us on a walking tour of the neighborhood and I thought back to Theresa's request… Like Kibera, the sense of community was so strong I could almost touch it; I couldn't help but smile. Like Kibera there were scrap metal shacks for homes and a river of overflowing garbage out back, but mixed in amongst it all were charming, locally built houses of cement and brick. The streets were clean and there were no open sewage trenches; small gardens were everywhere. Even the shacks had potted plants hanging on their outer walls, the level of care bearing no relation to the quality of the building material. Kiberans could learn a lot from a place like Asa Branca, I thought. As I observed my surroundings, I smiled every time I heard Bezerra introduce me: I had already become a part of Asa Branca's story.

I had already become a part of this story because after meeting Theresa the previous December, I recommended Catalytic Communities to Mabel Miguel, a management professor from the University of North Carolina who was leading a class of MBAs to Brazil. Theresa met up with the class in Rio the following March and arranged a visit with Bezerra in Asa Branca. The students were so impressed with what they saw in the favela that they later raised funds for the community's programs and, more importantly, sent back a photo of the visit and a signed certificate of appreciation from UNC. Bezerra now takes the certificate with him to meet with city officials. "See," he tells them, "we have future business leaders of America coming to visit us, and you can't even help us pave our roads?"

That afternoon as Bezerra took us to meet with residents and community leaders in Asa Branca and Coroado (a nearby community), I experienced a growing appreciation of what Catalytic Communities creates. As a businessman and a computer scientist, I often focus on the obvious aspect of networks, that they form connections between distant points, but rarely do I dwell on one of their most powerful attributes: that networks are nets, they capture as well as connect! Catalytic Communities' network is more than just the solutions in its database, more than just the community leaders meeting at its technology hub. Those elements are all anchors for the network, true, but the net itself reaches beyond, drawing in people like me, Mabel Miguel, the Omidyar Network, Jeremy Rifkin and so many others. Catalytic Communities has created a system that can capture unintended side effects and new opportunities by catalyzing real relationships between diverse sets of people. You can never predict exactly whom you will draw in or what opportunities you create, but you can plan for them, as Catalytic Communities does. Chance, after all, favors the prepared mind, and though it may have been chance that prompted me to sit next to Theresa that day in December, it turns out that Catalytic Communities was already prepared to meet me. Lucky me.

*Patrick Donohue is the Founder of BRINQ (www.brinq.com) and a member of the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol team, one of a select group of business professionals working at the grassroots intersection of innovation, poverty, and business.

CatComm is a part of many of the great moments we live as community organizers and distinguishes itself among Non-governmental Organizations by showing its true dedication to social empowerment, and its commitment to affirmative projects developed in Rio de Janeiro. A huge hug to all and my votes of success in this new initiative, launching this new site.

Sudan is, in terms of its size, one of the largest countries in Africa. It is famous for a civil war that has lasted over thirty-seven years. The root causes of the war are basically lack of proper democracy, ill division of wealth and power, participation, identity crisis and the militarization of the nation. Out of forty-seven years of independence (1956-2003), the country experienced military rule for thirty-seven of those years (1958-1964, 1969-1988, 1989-2003). Now through the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) a serious attempt to resolve this conflict is taking place. The conflict devastated the country and cost us two and a half million lives, in addition to displacing more than five million persons beyond those millions who have migrated to North America, Canada and Australia.

Kwoto Cultural Center, formerly the Kwoto Popular Theatre Group, has played an important role in the process of unification in the war torn country of Sudan. Since the establishment of Kwoto in 1994, it has rendered many cultural services to the displaced people around Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and at the city's outskirts by bringing displaced persons closer to their roots, cultures, customs, languages and heritage using the performing arts (drama, singing, music and dance). The performances presented by Kwoto have reached countless people throughout Sudan: Port Sudan in the far East, El Obeid in western Sudan, Wau, Malakal and Juba in the southern parts of the country.

These performances tackle issues ranging from war and peace, human rights, democracy, pluralism, and HIV/AIDS. These creative performances have opened new dimensions and cultural dialogue among the diverse Sudanese cultural groups.

I happened to be in São Paulo, Brazil attending the Second World Movement for Democracy conference in November 2000, where I met Theresa Williamson, the Executive Director of Catalytic Communities, at one of the workshops at the assembly. Having believed in Kwoto, she suggested I post Kwoto to CatComm's (then incipient online) database because it is an experience worth sharing with groups elsewhere around the world. I have to acknowledge that CatComm was instrumental and has played a vital role by compiling, editing and putting the Kwoto experience in the database since 2001.

As a result, Kwoto has been able to interact with and benefit from people around the world who have similar experiences in the field of theatre and performing arts. Getting in touch alone is the beginning of great things to come and I think that is what CatComm kept doing for Kwoto. We receive from time to time emails from individuals who want to widen their experience by being exposed to theatre of the oppressed, theatre for development etc., expressing their intention to work with Kwoto. Volunteers approach us to come for two- or three-month visits, though we still need to develop funds that will help students and interns participate in the Kwoto experience. We started to receive newsletters on theatre and other arts genres. Sudanese, especially southern Sudanese who are scattered around the world visit the CatComm database and are able to know more about what is going on in their homeland with regard to culture, vital to quench their nostalgia. Some of them use the database to ask Kwoto direct questions or favors to contact specific cultural communities in the country. It has become a home to them, a place where they can see themselves, their arts, and cultures. And contacts we make, like representative from the Church of Sweden in Sudan, use the CatComm site to familiarize themselves with Kwoto.

The Kwoto experience, having been made available in CatComm's database, and thus translated into Spanish and Portuguese, enriched and magnified our outreach. Now as we are building our own web site, we remain grateful to Catalytic Communities for that good job.

I came to Rio for three months planning to make art, write grants, learn, and enjoy the city. I've got about three weeks left, and before I go home to Vermont in the Northeast of the United States, it seems I may enter into a partnership with a group of artisans who are making recycled artwork at their community recycling center in one of Rio's favelas (shantytowns). Catalytic Communities (CatComm) is responsible for the existence of that possibility.

CatComm makes it possible for diverse groups of people to come together and share realities, and ideas that can lead to new realities. I came to CatComm third hand through a friend of a friend from college in the US who had passed through Rio and worked with CatComm. As a traveler, it's easy to get taken advantage of wherever one is; being able to get recommendations and guidance from CatComm helped me look more deeply into recycling and art-making in Rio. In a simple way, that has expanded my knowledge of the world and my understanding as an artist, both of which are important to me. CatComm's ability to mutually recommend people from wide ranging personal networks has put me in a position to be exploring partnerships that cross national boundaries.

The program I'm looking at working with in Rio relates to Industrial Evolution, a small project out of Providence, Rhode Island I have worked on with an artist friend. We are repurposing used factory-produced multiples and selling them, for profit and to reduce consumption of resources and energy. Our first products are planters made of bus and truck brake drums. Living in Rio has opened my eyes. A salvage artist by trade, I am learning from a culture full of masters of adaptive reuse. In Asa Branca, a favela to the west of Rio's downtown, they have a fledgling recycling program, part of which is repurposing the tabs off soda cans into purses and cup holders. (They use a material process that involves wrapping the aluminum with thin thread in a way that the tabs are almost woven to each other, making the final product very strong.) They are also developing plant pots made from plastic bottles, among other products. Because of my former work in construction, I went to Asa Branca with Catalytic Communities to look at a community sewerage program posted in CatComm's Community Solutions Database. As it turned out, their sewer system is dug and functioning. But I found an unexpected surprise in the work going on at the recycling center, which fits perfectly with the mission of Industrial Evolution. So what we are looking into - myself and the folks at Asa Branca, with CatComm's help - is getting their products some space on our US-based Website. The site was recently designed to help us sell products, which at the moment include our planters. The work form Asa Branca will enhance the Website and we expect some of the people interested in the planters may be similarly interested in the work from Asa Branca. So if it works out, folks interested in purchasing can email Industrial Evolution and we will pass the business along. The pieces then would be sent by mail to the customer, who would pay for the product and shipping fees.

Whether or not that project pans out perfectly, the possibility, in addition to the learning that will go along with our attempt, would not exist if it weren't for Catalytic Communities. That is the small measure of the value of CatComm that I can testify to as a traveler passing through. I can't speak to the collaborations that occur within Rio, except to say that the Casa, CatComm's physical hub in Rio's downtown, is abuzz with artists and community activists, and has inspired me just in passing through. I think CatComm and places like it around the world play a pivotal roll in relationships between peoples at times when government-to-government relations may not be working so well. Peace and good work to all.

*Will Machin is a Vermont-based sculptor, mason and salvage artist dedicated to transforming industrial scraps into useful artistic expressions. His Website, www.industrialevolution.org, was set up to create a space to feature and sell such products.

A year ago I decided to become a freelance translator. Since I did not have much experience, some friends suggested I practice, volunteering for a non-profit organization. Although I have always tried to help others near me by taking action in my community, by recycling and donating, for example, I had never been engaged with a non-profit organization. So I decided to give it a try. I quickly found www.idealist.org, a website dedicated to connecting people with a list of volunteer opportunities with organizations, some of which sought translation support. From a first search, I probably selected 10 organizations, visited their websites, and carefully read the information available, since this was my only source.

In this virtual world, we sometimes have to develop the ability to find out who or what someone or something is, based on images and text and little personal contact. Although the virtual world can take you to distant places and allow you to contact different people, it is not the same as human contact. Much of what we are used to perceive comes from people's eyes, voices, appearances, things that are very limited on the Web. But the Catalytic Communities website drew my attention with its ideals, ideas and its well-organized structure. I also did not want to volunteer for a huge organization and become one more among millions. I decided to contact Theresa and find out more about CatComm. I was a little skeptical and expecting something distant, especially because we never met in person and because emails tend to be short and limited. To my surprise, her emails were very open and warm, making me feel welcome and as if we were old friends.

A little later, I started translating projects for the Community Solutions Database. For me, to be able to translate a text accurately, I need to put myself in the shoes of the author of the text in order to understand what s/he means. What I saw in the projects I translated were people going through difficult situations, facing problems far from my own reality. Despite that, they were trying to make a difference, not waiting for the help of others but going after solutions, networking, building capacity, empowering one another, and CatComm was allowing this to happen. I was touched by the struggle of people that often did not have the opportunity to study in a good school nor their families earn enough to provide basic conditions for a healthy living. I also had a chance to translate an article and an action plan written by the CatComm staff. And again, I saw people willing to help improve the quality of life of disenfranchised groups in a practical and innovative way, providing some of the essential tools that allow people to be empowered and to develop their own solutions: access to information and networking.

I can say that I myself experienced the power of this process, while asking Theresa for some information about translation. She was not only very supportive but also put me in contact with people that I later was able to work for, as a translator, and others that could give me more information about the profession. Throughout time, I improved my skills as a translator, learning to deal with words. But more than that, I felt that my small virtual contribution could help others that may need much more than those around me, at a distance that impeded my presence. What I noticed was that even though the virtual world initially can carry only a fraction of the information/emotions that human beings can, once trust is built among the people exchanging ideas, the virtual world is no longer distant and impersonal. It can really make possible connections that are unfeasible in the real world, making it a really powerful tool to build a better world.

*Cristina is one of the very real-impact "virtual" volunteers that contribute in invaluable ways to the articulation and communication of community solutions worldwide through translation and outreach activities conducted through the CatComm Website.

I have spent the past several months living a dream in Rio de Janeiro. I always expected that my volunteer experience here would be rewarding, but I never imagined that I would become a part of such a warm, progressive, unique entity as Catalytic Communities. The "Casa" in Rio is truly home to a fluid community of amazing individuals from around Rio and around the world, a dynamic hub for organizers, activists, volunteers, students, artists, and leaders. CatComm's approach to strengthening community action and building networks based on solidarity and empowerment has changed the way I think about the future of grassroots movements.

Before coming to Brazil, I spent a year as the Operations Coordinator for Children and Youth Services at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a bilingual social service agency in North Philadelphia. Congreso's story is an inspiring one: a community group in the impoverished, crime-ridden Latino section of North Philadelphia came together in 1977 to provide free, bilingual drug and alcohol abuse counseling in their neighborhood. Twenty-five years later, the fledgling non-profit group has developed into a hugely successful integrated social service provider, with 5 Divisions, a full time staff of over 250, and an annual operating budget of over $12 million.

Congreso is living proof of the power of grassroots action to transform communities, of the ability of a few dedicated citizens to address the problems they face and create something larger than themselves in the process. So a question forms in my mind: what is the most effective way to bolster community groups and strengthen grassroots social action to pave the way for more Cinderella stories like Congreso's?

Catalytic Communities has come up with a very innovative approach to this challenge. The online tools provided through their website have made possible the growth of a unique network of community leaders, in conjunction with the resources provided at the Casa in Rio de Janeiro. By documenting successful and innovative community projects and publishing them in a user-friendly database, CatComm makes it possible for people to teach and learn from their peers, to access relevant real-world models for positive community change, and to publicize their own successes.

Bridging the digital divide is not just providing Internet access to the traditionally disenfranchised sectors of society. It is providing useful content and forums geared towards developing communities. The Catalytic Communities website enables a valuable and meaningful exchange between groups that are often isolated, connecting them to each other and a world of information, resources, and forums for expression.

I saw one large community institution in the United States naturally shifting its focus towards coalition building. Having learned from experience that the greatest strength comes from unity, from bringing together groups of people with common goals, they sought to create an ongoing dialogue between community leaders, residents, and local officials. But their efforts were yet another example of vertical organization, of one group at the top trying to attract and unite constituents but inadvertently establishing a hierarchy at the same time. The more I have gotten to know CatComm's internal structure and the structure of the networks they strive to foster, the more I notice their great dedication to "horizontal" organizing. Every voice is heard and valued. In my experience, CatComm is unique in its approach to coalition building from the ground up. Catalytic Communities provides the tools and facilitates the exchanges necessary for community leaders to make their own connections and learn directly from the experiences of their peers.

CatComm has created both a virtual and a physical space for disenfranchised communities around the world to come together to educate and inspire others by sharing their experiences. For me, it has been wonderful to enter that space and learn about innovative grassroots projects, and to change the way I think about empowering community action. I hope to be a part of this innovative movement for a long time to come.

I became interested in traveling to Brazil while pursuing an advanced degree in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California Santa Barbara. Soon after, a Rotary Club Ambassadorial Scholarship placed me in Rio de Janeiro for eleven months where I was able to study Brazilian literature, improve my Portuguese, learn about Brazil, and do volunteer work. I also became a part of Catalytic Communities (CatComm), an experience that has changed my life.

CatComm has a dual approach in working for a better world. First, it is dedicated to digital inclusion. The staff and community leaders themselves document and publish social projects carried out in communities in Rio de Janeiro and anywhere in the world on the organization's website. This allows people across the globe, or across the street, to see what others in their situation have already accomplished and how. It also creates a vibrant network of people who are improving their communities.

Second, CatComm provides a safe physical space for community leaders from all over Rio de Janeiro to meet and utilize free Internet access to aid them in developing their community projects. This space, the Casa do Gestor Catalisador, or "Casa," is located in the historic port district of the city. This location was chosen partially because it can be reached easily by public transportation from almost anywhere in the metropolitan region. Also, as the house is in a "neutral" area, residents of any neighborhood can go there without fearing violence from drug traffickers or gangs.

My work with Catalytic Communities allows me to work on both fronts. I translate documented community projects published on the CatComm web page from Portuguese to English. So, many of the projects you visit when you come to our site have been translated by me. I also teach an English class to community leaders at the Casa. This has allowed me the privilege of getting to know CatComm and many local community leaders well.

To me CatComm is about forming relationships, connecting people and working together to make the world, or at least one's community, a better place. One of CatComm's innovations is that the power to create change is in the hands of the community residents themselves.

CatComm has changed my whole outlook and approach to working for change. I have come to see how I can have an active role in peaceful social change as a facilitator who helps empower others to be their own leaders. In addition, here at the Casa I have learned a great deal about respect for my fellows, working in a team, camaraderie, and understanding human dignity. I will carry these lessons back home with me and implement them in my future endeavors.

This November I witnessed firsthand how relevant Catalytic Communities' work is. I traveled to the first Brazilian Social Forum in Belo Horizonte, a city in the interior of Brazil, with CatComm and a group of its community partners from Rio de Janeiro, the Community Manager's Council of Rio (CONGESCO) and the Integrated Center for Action and Social Development (CIADS). The workshops by all three entities were standing room only. There were even reporters from Belo Horizonte and São Paulo present. Here I saw CatComm in action: supporting these community leaders and sharing with others a vision for digital inclusion and global networking. Those who attended the workshops were very interested in the projects carried out by CONGESCO and CIADS and wanted to learn how they could get involved with and integrate CatComm into their own work. The Brazilian Social Forum was a great success for CatComm and the community leaders with whom we work.

For me, it is exciting that one does not have to be in Rio de Janeiro to be a partner in this process. You can participate from anywhere! You can pass the website address on to a community leader, document a community project in your neighborhood, translate for the website, or make a donation to the organization or one of its Rio-based community partners from any place with Internet access. Although my scholarship is ending soon and I will be returning to the United States, I feel that my relationship with Catalytic Communities is, in fact, just beginning.

I spent four fascinating days in Rio, being a part of Catalytic Communities. We visited favelas, where CatComm builds relationships and learns about projects. I spent time with CatComm recruits, visited the space the organization found for favela leaders to use for community work, and heard about what Catalytic Communities is doing and how it operates. It was an intense time for me.

On the way to the first community, CatComm representatives explained how the favelas are formed. A group of poor people moves to a designated location and rapidly constructs very simple housing made of cardboard. By the time the authorities become aware of what they are doing, the favela is often too well-established to be removed. Then, while living in this area, the residents begin building more permanent structures.

As we rode along, I was told about three types of favelas. Those with two gangs which are constantly tension-filled; those with only one gang which tend to be relatively peaceful as the gang acts as a police force; and those that have managed to keep out the gangs completely, like the one we were visiting that day.

At this first favela, our guide, a community leader that has worked with CatComm for over two years, spends his time visiting with community members, listening to their concerns, and doing what he can to help them. He greeted us proudly and took us on a tour, pointing out community projects while we photographed them. We visited the finished sections, the work-in-progress section with its piles of rubble, and newly started structures including the beginnings of an underground sewer system. The cardboard squatter section was located next to a potentially scenic, but very polluted stream. Among other things, our guide pointed out their simple but efficient recycling center. As we walked along, he listed many issues the community planned to address, including the polluted stream. CatComm was documenting it all with a digital camera.

CatComm staff also took me to visit another favela, with paved streets and a very elaborate business district including all kinds of shops - a large market, craft store and even an Internet center. There was also a small school and tutoring center. This favela had a rather tense feel as it was under the control of one gang. I was cautioned not to take out my camera as a gang member might take it and break it.

CatComm is comprised of a wonderful team of bright, energetic young people, both volunteer and paid. Based on their expressed interests, they follow and document relevant projects for the website and provide other supportive services. All in all, I have never met a warmer, more enthusiastic crowd!

I had an opportunity to get to know them all. They look for opportunities to do things together. We had a dinner together, visited the Corcovado, and went Samba dancing, as well as visiting the large favela. Everyone was excited about Catalytic Communities and getting to know each other, so the conversation was always fascinating. Language barriers were many, as not everyone spoke Portuguese, but the communication was good anyway!

While in Rio, I also visited the two-story space CatComm was renting for community leaders to use as a meeting place. Carefully selected, it was in a vibrant area adjacent to the oldest established community in Rio. CatComm had visited the residents to let them know the group was coming and be sure that they would be welcome.

Throughout the visit, I could feel the determination, energy and focus behind CatComm. I could feel the responsive intensity and energy of everyone's interest in and commitment to the development and success of Catalytic Communities. And, for me, having been there, I now feel like I am there with them-Theresa, Rose, Andrew, Mike and Moises-as I read each CatComm update. And it brings me great joy and satisfaction to be involved in this way.

The heat ripples off the pavement in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The sidewalks are crowded with well-dressed business people, their strides broken occasionally by clustering families or the odd strolling couple. Amid the towering skyscrapers and bustling city streets, there is little trace of the extreme poverty of the favelas, yet they sprawl across the hillsides only a few blocks away. Indeed, it is this very proximity of opulence and scarcity that has come to characterize Brazil's urban centers. Tourists that flock to the coastal cities for week-long parties, tropical beaches and Latin rhythms, need not witness more of this reality than the view of the shantytowns from a car window as they journey from the airport. And yet, amidst the glamour of Carnaval and the pulse of samba, one cannot overlook the pervasive social wounds suffered by Brazilian society. It was out of a desire to understand both sides of this dichotomy, to experience the culture of Brazil and the context of its problems, that I chose to carry out my Fulbright research on strategies for change in the favelas. Specifically, my research focuses on promotion of health through social programs, and my participation with Catalytic Communities provides a perfect way to fulfill my research goals while also contributing to the solutions I wish to explore.

Catalytic Communities' work to document unique social programs on the Internet is itself an innovative project. Large foundations have always made it a point to "document" their work, yet their interests lay in promoting high-profile events, or in assembling touching photographs for use in fundraising campaigns. In short, their role was to support worthy projects, but not to share strategies for change. Catalytic Communities takes a different approach altogether. Their website's primary function is to provide community leaders with a forum for sharing ideas and solutions, while, as a corollary, they may showcase their work for potential benefactors. This design stresses the importance for individuals or organizations within the community to shoulder the responsibility for change.

No matter what the predicament, a principal factor for improvement in the favelas is the willingness of the inhabitants to make an effort. Residents of Brazil's favelas live in a uniquely oppressive environment. Bereft of social or economic resources, the problems within their communities at times seem insurmountable. Yet there exist programs within these communities that seek to make a difference. Individuals resign themselves to remove the trash that litters their streets, to install a sewage system that reduces the prevalence of water-born disease, to structure recreation for youth who would otherwise succumb to the numbing effects of glue-sniffing or other drug addictions, to distribute condoms and disseminate information on AIDS and other STDs. These projects tackle a specific problem within the community, and rely not on donations, but on personal effort and initiative. Despite the severity of their problems, the greatest threat to those in the favelas is complacency, and Catalytic Communities provides a venue for community leaders to spread their ideas and therefore their influence, effecting greater changes at home as well as buoying initiatives abroad.

The mission of the Fulbright Fellowship is to increase communication and understanding between nations, and I see the role of projects such as Catalytic Communities as paramount in realizing that goal. As the website already includes translations into English, Spanish and Portuguese, the potential for international exchange is tremendous, and the format of the site allows for easy participation by communities in remote settings. As the problems of impoverished communities are often similar across the globe, I believe the solutions can be adapted and implemented as well. Local programs that work to counteract the cycle of poverty deserve attention, and their solutions should be spread. By exposing strategies for change that might be transposable into new cultures and different locations, Catalytic Communities takes the essential first step in repeating their successes.

In 1945, Viennese psychiatrist Victor Frankl came back alive against odds of 1 to 69 from the death camps of Nazi Germany where he lost his wife, parents and sister. In Man in Search for Meaning he describes his daily struggle for survival in the camps. He discovered that the most important criterion to decide whether one would survive, aside from chance, was whether one was able to maintain a sense of meaning. He later became one of Vienna's most famous psychoanalysts, specialized on issues of meaning. He noted that the biggest problem of today's Western world is lack of meaning.

I was a very successful boy. I had good grades in school, went to the best business school in France and started working on the trading floor of a famous investment bank. Everything was going to perfection according to my plan. But something was missing…what was the meaning of this plan? That's when I decided to go back to University to earn a Ph.D. and write a dissertation on meaning at work.

Once again, however, I made the same mistake that had led me to feel insignificance in my life. I started meeting the standards of the Ph.D. program at the expense of my original project, thereby losing the meaning of my original demeanor. This happens all of the time, to all of us. We lose the meaning we have in our lives and in our jobs by following rules blindly even when they have no meaning.

That was before I met Theresa Williamson at an academic conference. I had never imagined that it was possible to use your dissertation to create a non-profit organization. Listening to Theresa, I realized how narrow-minded I had been and realized for the first time what meaning at work was about. Theresa's example inspired me to get back on track and write this dissertation on meaning even if it meant distorting a couple of rules, both social and personal.

And that's what I invite you to do today; to go out of your usual ways by helping Theresa's bold project.

Meaning is about discovering what you believe in and then daring to live it. Meaning is about creating new rules when those in vigor have lost theirs. Meaning is about giving back to the community. Meaning is about helping others increase the meaning i