enmiidioma

About the project "en mi idioma" (in my language)

Aiming to preserve and promote the dissemination of knowledge among indigenous languages, UNESCO has supported the development of 4 pilot projects using new information and communication technologies in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.

In Colombia, Colnodo was in charge of the project and the platform, which enabled the Nasa Yuwe indigenous community in the Department of Cauca, to produce and disseminate information in their native tongue. Likewise, Colnodo trained the Nasa Yuwe in the use of ICTs and the tools used for publishing the information needed to enable them to teach their own language.

Other partners of the project En Mi Idioma (initially called En Tu Idioma), in the Americas, were Enlace Quiché in Guatemala, LaNeta in Mexico, Cepes in Peru and Web Networks, a Canadian member of APC. APC led the first phase of this project based on their experience with the Inuit in Nunavut in Canada.

This project tackles the problem of the extinction of countless languages in the world. Web Networks carried out a second phase of this initiative called Attavik.net, in 2003 - 2004, introducing new ICTs to enable the Inuit in Nunavut in Canada to use an online platform to publish online content in their mother tongue, Inuktitut.

During the second semester of 2008 Colnodo implemented a new version of the platform based on the experience developed in the previous phase, by including new functionalities to make it easier to post online the lessons developed by the communities. This phase was supported by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), which facilitated the involvement of engineer Felix Casanellas and by the Spanish APC member, Pangea.

Thanks to the support of UNESCO, the APC network members and the Ministry of Communications in Colombia, En Mi Idioma is expanding its platform in order to publish more content and services in indigenous languages.

Since 2008, the Department of Appropriation and Access of the Ministry of Communications in Colombia, has supported the publishing of online lessons - with the active support of the indigenous communities- for the Guambiana (Misak), Nasa Yuwe, Bariara, Embera, Kichwa, Palenqueros and Wayuu communities in Colombia.

The initiative main objectives are:

• To expand the development of teaching/learning modules on Internet in order to recover and promote indigenous languages which are easily accessible to the indigenous communities.
• Facilitate the access to ICTs to all citizens, especially in the public domain.
• Promote the empowerment and participation of indigenous communities in the knowledge society through equal access, capacity building and exchange of knowledge.
• To promote the expression of cultural diversity in the media and information networks.
• Promote the free exchange of ideas and universal access to information.

In 2013 The Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies of Colombia and Colnodo won the prize with En Mi Idioma project offered by the International Telecommunications Union - ITU in the frame of the World Summit on the Information Society in category C8: Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content. http://groups.itu.int/stocktaking/WSISProjectPrizes2013.aspx

In 2019, the Association for the Progress of Communications - APC, through its project fund, made a donation for the update of the platform in order to ensure that the contents could be used from any device and simplify the administration of the courses and expand its use through participating indigenous communities and new communities.