May 21 - Friends of Democracy update
What happened to the “Friends of Democracy” project that you announced last fall? In October 2004 we announced the “Friends of Democracy” initiative. The original project description is here.
This was intended to (1) support a range of projects and activities in Iraq designed to increase voter participation in Iraq’s January 30th election and (2) encourage the Iraqi people to make informed decisions on the candidates. As part of this an Iraqi nonprofit and non-governmental organization (an “NGO”) called Friends of Democracy was created. Friends of Democracy is an Iraqi pro-democracy organization that was created by Iraqis and made possible with Spirit of America financial support. It is based in Iraq and run by Iraqis.
We have published many updates on results from Friends of Democracy. Go here and in the right hand column look for “Project Updates” – that has links to updates on the project. These updates are especially helpful:
- Feb. 1: About Elections and Democracy in Iraq
- February 24: Friends of Democracy Nurturing the Next Generation
- Mar. 23: Friends of Democracy’s Iraq Projects
- May 16: Friends of Democracy Women’s Workshops
And these posts at Iraq the Model are helpful, too:
Friends of Democracy also a website in Arabic and English. The English site features translations of interesting Arabic blog posts.
How much money was raised for Friends of Democracy? We started with a very aggressive fundraising goal: $2 million. We didn’t hit that goal so some of the original plans and goals were scaled back. As of May 20, 2005 we had raised $179,665 for the project (5/30/05 Update: $1,810 raised for the Iraq Election News project was also allocated to Friends of Demoracy making total donations of $181,475). Direct project expenses were $204,300, leading to a project deficit of about $22,000. We are making up that difference with funds from our Project Fund (people make donations to the project fund to be used for direct expenses of any SoA project).
How was the money spent? The donations collected for Friends of Democracy have been spent as follows:
- $123,710 went to Friends of Democracy in Iraq. These funds are used for Friends of Democracy staff, operations, etc. Within agreed parameters (e.g., staff compensation and administrative budgets) the organization was given considerable discretion to use the funds.
- $9,050 went to Civil Pillar – an Iraqi NGO for 3 things: work on securing rights for election/democracy oriented documentaries to show in Iraq; production of election public service announcements encouraging people to vote; and Internet connections and computers.
- $35,000 went to the Iraq Ministry of Women’s Affairs for production of programming and public service announcements encouraging Iraqi women to vote.
- $36,540 was spent on other direct project expenses including: credit card processing fees, travel & lodging for meetings in Amman, Jordan, editor for FoD English language site.
What about the programming by the Iraq Ministry of Women’s Affairs to encourage women to vote? The Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs requested $50,000 to produce television programming encouraging women to vote. We suggested they could do the job for $35,000. They agreed and we wired that amount in two payments of $17,500.
Faiza Babakhan, the Ministry’s representative on this project contracted with Mr. Karim Aziz and confirmed that with our funding he produced: ten 2-1/2 minute commercials , two 30 minute VIP interviews and thirty 5 minute interviews with “common people.” Here is the email she sent us:
feb 13 faiza babakhan confirms.pdf(pdf format).
FYI: Bank of America has confirmed that the both wires were received. Unfortunately, the Ministry’s representatives tell us they did not receive the second payment. They are trying to determine where the funds went. We have bank confirmations and documentation confirming the receipt.
What about securing the rights to and subtitling in Arabic documentaries about elections in post-dictatorship countries for broadcast in Iraq. For example, “Milosevic: Bringing Down a Dictator.” The Iraqi NGO Civil Pillar was responsible for this project and we contributed $2800 for the research to acquire rights to the documentaries. The project ran into several obstacles – most importantly documentary film producers were not willing to provide Iraq broadcast rights to their films at an affordable price. Civil Pillar is still hoping to put together a “Democracy Film Festival” at some future point. Spirit of America will not be supporting that project.
What about providing $1,000 microgrants to 150 Iraqi women community leaders identified by the Iraqi Women’s Educational Institute? When we did not reach our original fundraising goal we agreed with those managing the Institute that this activity would be scaled back to 25 $1,000 microgrants. We have not yet received the request for the funds from those managing the Institute. If/when we do, we will fulfill our commitment.
What about production and broadcast of citizen roundtables and townhall meetings? Friends of Democracy has conducted some a number of roundtables and lectures. Follow links at the top of this page. The plan was that there would be more of these and that they would be broadcast inside Iraq. Due to budget limitations these plans had to be scaled back and we could not afford to broadcast the events.
What about support for Iraqi intellectuals who wish to publish and create public dialog on constitutionalism and the new Iraqi constitution? With budget limitations we decided to focus resources on support of the Friends of Democracy organization. Thus, this activity was not funded and did not happen as originally planned.
What about creation and hosting of an Arabic blogging tool? This was funded separately from Friends of Democracy and was accomplished. Read about the Arabic blogging tool here. You can see the blogging tool in use here http://www.friendsofdemocracy.net/ and if you can read/write Arabic you can sign up and start your own blog.
Friends of Democracy is actively using and promoting the blogging tool. Follow these links and read about it and see pictures of it in action:
- Blogging, Blogging (Make sure to scroll down)
- Women’s blogging workshop
iUpload is the technology provider that Spirit of America funded. They continue to work with Friends of Democracy on technology enhancements, bug fixes, etc.
What about supporting a network of pro-democracy student groups and community organizations called “Friends of Democracy” by providing Internet access, etc.? We have provided Friends of Democracy with $123,710. Part of that is being used for Internet access and computers. Friends of Democracy is using lectures and training to build an informal network of pro-democracy people and groups and is using the Arabic blogging tool to get them on the Internet.
We also provided funding for Internet access and computers to Civil Pillar (approx. $4,000).
Update: What happened to the $2million funding goal and the $500,000 you earmarked for Friends of Democracy? This question is answered here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/596
