Winners

Initiative:  English Language Learning By Using Social Network
Organization: Search English
Country: Bangladesh
Facebook: @GoSearchEnglish
Twitter: @GoSearchEnglish
Website: www.searchenglish.com

Search English

Search English is a platform for Bangladeshi people of all ages, genders and professions to learn English. Through constant practice, users of the platform develop their level of proficiency in English reading, writing, speaking and listening. Without the fear of being ridiculed or intimidated, users can also engage in peer-to-peer learning through a closed community group on Facebook.

Search Engine is a Facebook group that has created an environment to practice English writing and speaking. In the beginning, a user is encouraged to post one-word or one-line comments, up to 30 a day. As users become more comfortable in reading and writing in English, they are encouraged to comment on 50-100 posts a day. This way, over a period of three to six months, learners overcome their fear and hesitation about writing. Meanwhile, to develop spoken skills, members are encouraged to post video messages regularly on Facebook.

The group has more than 3.5 million members, most of them ahed been 18-24 who publish more than 600 posts every day.

Initiative: One Sign Per Day
Organization: Enable India
Country: India
Facebook: @enable india
Twitter: @enable india
Website: www.enableindia.org/for-PwD/

One Sign Per Day is a virtual initiative to spread knowledge of Indian sign language to make the society more inclusive for persons with disability. A subscription-based initiative of Bengaluru-based Enable India, One Sign Per Day broadcasts a micro video of a new word in the Indian sign language every day through a WhatsApp broadcast. This broadcast system, rather than a group, also ensures the privacy and security of subscribers who cannot be disturbed by other subscribers. Enable India also uses Facebook to share these videos. The initiative caters to parents of deaf children, special educators, employers and anybody else who would want to communicate with persons who are hearing impaired.

The need for such an initiative was realised because there are only 250 sign language interpreters in a population of 8 million deaf people in India alone. So far, One Sign Per Day has been able to register more than 1,000 subscribers. Interestingly, Enable India has noticed an increase in demand for these subscriptions at corporates due to the change in policy of hiring persons with disability.

Initiative:  “Shunyakal”
Organization: Shunyakal (????????)
Country: India
Facebook: @shunyakal
Twitter: @shunyakalnews
Website: www.shunyakal.com

The Zero Hour holds great importance in the Indian parliamentary system. It gives members of parliament the chance to raise important issues without prior permission. Realising the importance of this hour, Shunkyakal is platform that gives the common man, especially the marginalised and oppressed communities, their Zero Hour. Driven through its social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, Shunyakal allows largely voiceless people, who find no space in mainstream media for themselves or their issues, to raise pertinent issues through a bottom-up approach.

Shunkyakal also aims to become a platform where the administration and the government can directly listen to the voices of the people from the ground. Shunkyakal is an initiative that is run from no office space but relies completely on volunteers to curate these voices and make them public via social media platforms. In one sense, Shunkyakal is the zero hour for the parliament of the common people, by the common people and for the common people.