Awana Digital’s mission is to work in solidarity with frontline communities to use technology to defend their environmental and human rights. We partner with environmental defenders to co-design and co-develop tools they can use to defend critical ecosystems and Indigenous cultures. Awana Digital helps our partners achieve transformative change and works toward a world where all people can participate in decisions that govern their lives.
Over the past 14 years, we’ve seen firsthand that change does not come from technology, but from how people use it. Our local partners represent the global majority who face historic and ongoing marginalization. We have worked with communities from Haiti to Burma to Peru. Working at the intersection of human rights and technology, Awana Digital supports local leaders with the strategic use of tools to catalyze community-driven solutions.
Awana Digital is a values-driven organization. These are our core values and how they guide our work.
Our process is both technology and issue agnostic – that is, not bound to one platform or cause. We recognize that our partners’ issues are diverse, but many of the challenges they face are shared. Using a listening-based, human-centered design process, Awana Digital helps to strengthen our partners’ access, communication, resources and reach
Equipped with the tools they need, our partners become better storytellers, advocates and leaders. Together, Awana Digital and its partners are empowering communities to become their own voice for change. Awana Digital works in three primary ways:
Direct work with groups
We train communities to use basic digital tools, such as cameras, mobile phones, maps and data collection tools. We conduct ongoing support and capacity building for our partners whose programs are designed to defend their human & environmental rights.
Tool Building
We co-create tech solutions with our partners and help them adapt existing tools to their needs. We also collaborate with other technologists to support the greater eco-system of open-source tools which can support our partners’ needs.
Local-to-Global Engagement
We scale our impact beyond our direct partners. Through events, workshops, and tool-kits, we build bridges between our work and the work of advocates and decision-makers around the world.
