Friends,
Sometimes it seems that the loudest people grab all the attention.
Atma and our tools empower people to be heard – including some who previously weren’t heard from at all.
At Atma we believe in the power of people to create a better world. Our platform gives people a way to share their voices, their solutions, their brilliance, and their ingenuity. We train women and vulnerable communities to share their voices through citizen journalism. And, through our platform, they connect with each other and take collective action to improve their communities.
As you may know, we have been honored to work for a number of years to amplify the impact of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) across Indonesia, in partnership with the USAID MADANI initiative and FHI360.
And that has meant helping CSOs tell their stories. After all, stories move people. Stories inspire us and catalyze us to act. Stories can create emotional connection, generate the next big idea, and reshape our most vital systems.
NEW BOOK: STORIES OF IMPACT
In a large compendium of remarkable achievements, in Bahasa (Indonesian) and in English, you will find success stories written by 32 organizations to share their own impact. You can get the eBook in English (free of charge!) on our website here.
In the book, you’ll find inspiring change in four vital areas:
- Organizational development, such as the story of how a CSO dedicated to humanitarian social issues transformed itself from a “rogue organization” to “elegant opposition,” offering proposed and shared solutions to problems instead of just criticisms. (See this blog post on the Atma website for a quick summary.)
- Learnings from MADANI Forums, including how a group in the Boyolali District strengthened its relationships and coordination to improve maternal and child health services at the district, sub-district, and village levels.
- Local solutions in which grassroots communities come up with brilliant ideas, such as mobilization teams to address urgent issues and, in so doing, have saved lives and lowered maternal mortality rates.
- Collaborations with local government, such as innovative policy pathways to alleviate waste problems in the Jombang District.
To help these amazing organizations share their stories and journeys to impact, we created a series of storytelling workshops and trained community organizations in citizen journalism and the effective use of social media.
These are people changing the world – one connection, one event, and one story at a time. Here’s to the Muhammadiyah women in Serang, Banten, who are advocating for greater oversight and governance of village funds, while in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, young women are campaigning for the rights of underprivileged pregnant women to free health services. You’ll find many other stories, too.
BUILDING LOCAL CAPACITY: SimpulMadani
In addition to helping local organizations share their impact through narratives and numbers, we now are also hosting the Civil Society Support Forum, simpulmadani.atmago.com where local organizations can find learning resources and tools to build their capacity, assess their organizational performance, and get recommendations on tools that can help them improve.
ATMA WINS NATIONAL AWARD TO CONNECT & EMPOWER GRASSROOTS-LED ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Did you hear the big news? In case you missed it, Atma has been selected as part of a national team to connect communities with historic investments for environmental justice efforts across the United States. We’re delighted to be on the team led by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), along with the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP).
You can read more about it in Atma’s press release here. And see the announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Image above courtesy of EPA.)
In Indonesia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, and soon across the United States, we are proud to connect people so they can share their voices, their ingenuity, their brilliance, and, yes, their stories.
All the best,
Meena Palaniappan
Atma Connect CEO
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