The Banquäla has come and gone. It’s weird, when you’ve been thinking about something for so long, planning, tweaking, preparing and obsessing over it…then suddenly it’s gone. I’ve found myself feeling slightly empty, a little dazed and a lot overwhelmed with the lack of a monumental task looming over me. I’m sure I’ll settle in and find myself buried in a mountain of projects before I know know it, but for now I’m sort of enjoying the subtle shock of this moment that I’m in.

In the midst of all of that there’s still a single word that continues to resonate with me. It seems to permeate my days, my work, my conversations. Even “non-Bedouins” conversations…it’s always there in some way, shape or form.

That word, as you may have guessed, is MEDIA.

I’m going to begin unloading my thoughts on media over the next few weeks on this blog. I’m going to talk about why I think media is, is becoming and will continue to be an amazingly powerful tool. I’ll talk about why I think media can change the world and how I think that can happen. I’ll talk about how media has impacted specific organizations and people and give you examples to prove it. I’ll talk about the responsibility that those who are making media (that’s you, even if you don’t think it is…I promise) have and how to respect and respond to that responsibility. But most importantly I’ll talk about how YOU can get involved.

I am not media. Bedouins is not media. In fact, we’re a very teeny tiny small sliver of what’s happening with media. But here’s the cool thing. So are YOU. No matter who you are or what you do, you are a producer of media.

We’ll pick up there soon…I do have something slightly more specific and “Bedouins” related to mention before I sign off and let you get back to your lives…

If you scroll down a few posts you can read about a truly amazing organization called Kiini. Kiini contacted us and expressed a need for media, a lack of funds and skills to make the type of media that they need and a desperate desire for our (Bedouins’) help in tackling that obstacle; an obstacle that is seemingly holding back their organization from making the progress that they would like to be making.

We said YES.

So as mentioned before, we’ll be traveling to the heart of Kenya to spend a week with the fine people at Kiini touring their sites, interviewing the people they’re working with and documenting the progress and the need that they’re a part of there.

Want to help us out? I have a really cool way that you can make the Kiini Project possible.

Buy a book.

Here’s the deal – we put a lot of time into producing a really beautiful book for the Banquäla. The book has the stories of the amazing organizations that we were able to partner with over the last year and a half. It also has images from all over the world showing some amazing people doing some amazing work. It’s 160 pages hard bound.

So here’s my proposition. Buy a book. You get a really beautiful book that not only shares with you the stories of some amazing work happening around the globe and demonstrates the power of media to aid in that work, but you get a book that allows you to continue to spread the word about these organizations on your own.

The books cost $75 and we raise approximately $20/per book towards the Kiini Project from each one sold.

You’d really help us out if you did, and we really want to put these books in as many hands as possible.

**If you want to buy a book e-mail us at connect@bedouinsinternational.org

Thanks for reading, thanks for thinking, thanks for participating in our quest to refocus the heart of media – a quest that we’ve been thinking about that for several years now…glad you’re joining us!

-Stephen

What is media and why do i care? Media is a force that shapes your understanding of the world around you. Media has the ability to open our eyes to global politics, global injustice, global peace and global celebrations. All around us is media. Call it Fox News, CNN, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or even mass text messages. Media is everywhere. And guess what? You, my friend, have the power to shape the stories that are told. You’re an artist. A storyteller. People listen to you. People are inspired by you. You want to carry influence. You want to change the world. You want to shape the way stories are told. Be the storyteller you desire to be. Come to Woodrow Hall in Birmingham, Ala. on August 1st at 6:30 p.m. and hear how Bedouins International can empower you to be a great storyteller, media shaper and world changer.

This is your chance to come and spend an evening hanging out with us, getting to know our vision, and learning how our vision can become your vision. Saturday night you’ll get to here some amazing stories, but you can also find out how you can become apart of telling on of the many other stories out there waiting to be told. Go to www.bedouinsinternational.org/banquala/ to find out more. We’ll to see you there!

It’s Wednesday. That means the week is half over, which means that the Banquäla is only 3 days away! It’s here! So this will be the final teaser video for the event. Media is Relational. Come join in this movement, get connected and inspired. We want you to be a part of this…and for media to “work”, we NEED you to be a part of it. Hope to see you all at the Banquäla Saturday!

Media is Relational from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

It’s hard to believe that there are less than two weeks left until our Banquäla! It really snuck up on us fast. We’ve spent the past month pushing every second to get done in time, and I think it’s really going to show at the event. I can’t tell you how excited I am. Excited about the Banquäla. Excited about our speakers. Excited about the beautiful art that we’re going to be showing and selling to support our next project. But more than those things I’m excited about the idea behind the whole thing.

We’ve been able to produce media for many really amazing organizations over the past two years. We’ve traveled to some really beautiful places, met some incredible people and worked hard to tell their stories for them. But now we’re inviting you to help. We don’t want to be the only ones doing this. We want everyone to join in. We knew from the beginning that we want this to be more than us, bigger than we could be alone. But it took a lot of time, a lot of mistakes and a lot of prayer to realize exactly what that meant.

Understand that all along our intentions were to make the world a better place. But we’ve realized that might just be too big of a job for us to attempt to do alone. And that realization pushed us to the idea of including you. The past few videos have expressed some of our ideas on media: that it’s a powerful tool, that it’s interactive and takes time and effort to join in, and that it’s universal and really does connect the world. Today our video is “revolutionary”. We believe that Media is changing the world in new and exciting ways, and right now, to us that means opening up the door and inviting everyone to help out. Join the movement and revolutionize the way that the world is connected. Change things. Make a difference. You’re invited…what are you waiting for?

Media is Revolutionary from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

The Banquäla is coming up in less than 2 1/2 weeks! Come join the conversation…media is Interactive after all!

Media is Interactive from Bedouins International on Vimeo.