As Mexico continues its war on drugs amongst powerful cartels and corrupt law enforcement officials, it can be hard for the onlookers, especially Mexican residents, to see the good in their country, but for residents of certain Mexican cities, good news is being presented in a new way.
With help from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Civic Media, Mexican city officials have started a “positivism” campaign called, “Cronicas de Heroes/Hero Reports”. The reports share the communities’ acts of kindness to hopefully raise the morale of the Mexican residents.
Heroreports is non-profit project that using crowdsourcing to report acts of courage and positive social behavior, and maps out where the acts occurred.
The idea came about in 2009 when Christopher Csikszentmihályi, director of the Center for Future Civic Media visited Ciudad Juarez as part of a delegation that would suggest ideas for improving life in the city.
The reports are taking off in cities like Ciudad Juarez (one of Mexico’s most dangerous cities), Monterrey, Tijuana, and even San Diego, California.
According to Global Voices, The Heroreports websites are empowering individuals to speak up and focus on positive citizen behavior in densely-populated areas that suffer from conflict, and are becoming useful sources of comparative socio-geopolitical documentation.”
