It’s seven o’clock in the evening on a Thursday and I am skimming through a facilitator’s manual for STEPS for the future. STEPS for the future is a collection of 35 documentary films about HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the first project STEPS International ever did. Why Democracy? is the second. In the introduction it says::

STEP stands for Social Transformation and Empowerment Project.

In the past couple of months people have asked me: What are you doing?

Me? I am creating an online platform for a global conversation about democracy.

But what’s the point?

Well…That’s where we tend to get stuck. What’s the point of making a website, of doing online marketing, of contacting organizations and universities. What’s the point of asking people to submit text, photos, short-films and spending hours of their day organizing a university screening of one of the Why Democracy? movies?

Well…I realized, on that Thursday that it’s a STEP. We are using documentary films to raise awareness about democracy. Or maybe not so much the actual word democracy or the history but what it means in practice. What it means to the unemployed indigenous people in Bolivia and to President Musharraf of Pakistan. We are trying to shed light on what it means to you. What are the benefits and what are the flaws. We hope the movies will engage you in a conversation with people from other parts of the worlds, open your eyes to the possibilities of your society and through information empower you to transform your society.

It has been two long months and I have not once had the opportunity to write a blog. But here I am: writing. The house has been one of the craziest, most surreal and best experiences I have ever had in my life. As I am sure you have followed on the website, we have created the website, and we are still trying to make it better (constantly improving everything). We are currently networking online, editing little movies, making a short film competition, inviting universities to host university screenings and to contribute their discussions to Global Democracy Day to help us lobby for an internationally recognized global democracy day.

For me it feels a bit like we have been working and working, but only now can we begin to see the finish line. I can envision the movies finished and aired on 38 different television stations around the world. I can envision people watching them. And most importantly I can see people joining our conversation. One STEP at a time.

/Charlotte