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These words are the emblem and 'last testament' of the Brazilian critical educator and architect of participatory communication. Today, as we embark on a digital revolution that promises to transform the way we experience the world and how we tell the stories of our life, Freire's words echo with great resonance. However, the unrestrained life he speaks of remains a utopia for the majority of the world's population.

Despite signs of rapid development in access to technology in the many of the most disadvantaged communities, the digital divide remains pervasive between the planet's haves and have-nots and progress is still minimal and ineffectual given the magnitude of the challenge. In 2008, there are roughly the same number of Internet users in the richest eight countries as there are in the rest of the world combined, and these nation's populations (a mere 14% of the total population of the planet) accounts for 34% of the globe's mobile phone users.

In addition to the disadvantage in accessing technology, these countries and populations are either absent or distorted in the eyes of the world's media. International news reporting is often focused on war journalism and delivering information from crisis zones. The formula of "what bleeds leads" has produced news that does not relay the lifestyles, thoughts, histories, dreams, and aspirations of the communities from which it comes and the voices of ordinary people are often overlooked for a government official's sound-bite. This has produced a plethora of information about the developing world that is misinforming, stereotypical and disparaging. In many cases, media narratives from the 'rest of the world' speak of people as numerical figures rather than humans, leaving the citizens, people, public, society and civilians absent from global media content, both figuratively and literally.

Voices Without Borders International (VWBI) is a global initiative that contributes to alleviating these conditions by helping reverse the unidirectional flow of information from North to South and West to East, one voice at a time. By empowering communities to create their own media content for archival record, collective memory, and global distribution in international broadcasting and via the internet, we hope to shatter the barriers that prevent communication between citizens of the world. With the digital divide affecting not only access to technology but the ability to utilize it, Voices Without Borders empowers youth in disadvantaged communities to represent themselves, their communities, countries and experiences in a fashion that no newscast can produce. We are committed to extending youth worldwide with the opportunity to tell their own stories in a fashion that is both sustainable to the communities in which they live and empowering to the individuals who participate.

The premise of Voices Without Borders is hinged on the understanding that globalization is more than just the free flow of commodities across borders. Rather, the most valuable products that permeate national political and economic boundaries are immaterial—ideas, histories, life experiences, dreams and aspirations. Voices Without Borders encourages diversity through self-representation and intercultural communication not solely between governments, officials, authorities, aristocracy, and the upper echelons in society. Instead, Voices Without Borders reorients "public diplomacy" by placing the onus back on the public as the creator of information rather than solely the recipient and consumer of government-produced media. By ensuring that the constraints of technological access and understanding are overcome, we hope the tales of world's silent majority can finally be told.

Voices Without Borders International has been made possible by a small group of dedicated volunteers. VWBI is a Washington, DC-based 501(c)3 non-profit.