Switched on to new ways of exploring gender and sexual health

Related pages: Millennium Development Goal 2: Education | DFID girls education strategy

The DIVO Project was an online digital video dialogue between young Muslim women from Accra, Ghana and students from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls in London, UK.

DIVO aimed to use digital video technology to stimulate and support dialogue exploring gender and sexual health issues faced by young women in the UK & Ghana.

The project, which took place between February and July 2004, used devised and participatory storytelling techniques to create short digital video clips based on participants experience of gender which were uploaded and exchanged.

Kirsten Disse, the project manager said:

"DIVO Phase One has been a catalyst for cultural understanding and dialogue between remote groups who would never normally meet. Participant ownership and young people’s voices lie at the heart of the project methodology, which we'll be maintaining as we role the project out on a regional basis. 

"Our next step is to integrate the project into the UK curriculum to ensure its sustainability as a learning and development tool and to provide a bridge between young people in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa." 

DIVO was funded jointly by the British Council, the British High Commission, The Guardian newspaper and in-kind support from DFID."

• More about DFID's work in Ghana
• More about DIVO
• More about another DFID/British Council project, the Global Schools Partnership
• Global Dimension website ("bringing the world to the classroom")
• Times Educational Supplement: 'Pulse of Africa' (4 March 2005)

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