Digital Interactive Video Online (DIVO)

The DIVO project uses devised and participatory storytelling techniques to create short digital films which are based on participants' experience of gender and sexual health issues. The films are uploaded and exchanged through the DIVO website. In this way, participants learn about technology and new ways to communicate while engaging with peers from different cultures, enabling them to compare attitudes and experiences.

The DIVO project is peer-led. The process begins by exploring issues or areas of concern identified by participants through drama-based workshops. These issues are distilled into a scenario which is storyboarded and filmed by the group. Participants are fully responsible for the filmmaking process; this approach is designed to instill a genuine sense of participant ownership in the project. The resulting films are compressed and uploaded for peer group viewing, and online discussion and response.

The participants in Ghana are young women from the British-High-Commission-sponsored Islamic Girls Rights and Leadership Project, while the group in the UK are a multi-cultural group drawn from Year 10. The phase one programme involved a combination of storytelling, IT, filmmaking, teambuilding, and sexual health and assertiveness workshops. The films created through this process explored issues of teenage pregnancy, peer-pressure, financial hardship, careers and future choices, early relationships, and personal freedoms. A follow-up project using documentary style filmmaking to explore issues of nationalism and identity is currently underway; it is designed to contribute to the Citizenship curriculum of the UK participants.

Young Women, Gender, Health, Reproductive Health, Technology.

Organisers say, "Through the project, the groups have exchanged introductory video clips of themselves and digital stories about their lives. They have 'met' virtually through video-conferencing sessions and communicated independently through the project website. The young women in both locations have been strengthening their individual communication skills and self-esteem, learning about technology and discovering creative digital and storytelling skills." A detailed report and 20-minute documentary of the project have been produced.