Street roots., June 24, 2016, Page 7, Image 7

• June 24-30, 2016
News
Page 7
Street Roots joins
fellow street papers
at world conference
While the 112 publications differ in
some ways, they have a shared mission
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
ewspapers and magazines with
models similar to Street Roots’ are
providing income opportunities to
vulnerable citizens in cities around the
globe.
Some papers, such as Big Issue in the
United Kingdom, are glossy-print magazines
and operate as social enterprises rather
than nonprofits.
Others, such as Mi
Valedor in Mexico City,
international
Network of
feature art and
Street Papers photography rather
than news stories.
But they all share a
mission: to serve as a
voice for the otherwise voiceless, to give
those in extreme poverty the means to lift
H
th em se lv es up, and to c re a te a com m unity of
love and su p p o rt for th e v en d o rs w ho sell
th e paper.
M o st of th e s e organizations a re m em b e rs
of the International Network of Street
Papers, an international nonprofit based in
Glasgow, Scotland. On June 14, Street Roots
and more than 120 street paper
representatives from 30 countries gathered
in Athens, Greece, for INSP’s 2016 Global
Summit. It’s a time when delegates from the
112 member street papers can come
together to learn from each other, network
and brainstorm ideas.
Greece is not only still reeling from
economic collapse; it’s also flooded with
refugees from the Middle East, Asia and
Africa. These two crises have culminated in
an ongoing state of unrest and hardship for
the people who live there.
The unexpected closure of the venue
INSP had selected for the conference, just
weeks before the event, sent organizers
scrambling. Luckily, they were able to
secure the Onassis Cultural Center for the
event, and the conference prevailed.
Despite sporadic public transit strikes
throughout the week, delegates found the
host city to be warm and inviting.
Unemployment has remained higher tnan
25 percent, and many Greeks who are
employed are earning a mere 300 to 400
La callcjcMa
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F T H E IN S P
Lltm eraire vendor Guy from Montreal (left) and Greece’s Shedia vendor Lefteris stayed with each other during the
sum m it.
e u ro s a m o n th , le s s th a n $450.
T h e G re e k s tr e e t p ap er, Shedia, is ju s t
over three years old. It has 140 to 150
v en d o rs a t any tim e. A ccording to staff, m o st
are individuals who, in the economic
collapse, lost their employment and later
their homes.
Shedia and has earned a reputation for
honesty and objectivity in its reporting,
according to U.S. Embassy staff who
attended the awards ceremony on the
second night of the conference.
Georgios Arapoglou is a journalist and
vendor manager at Shedia. He said that
before the newspaper hired him, he was
close to becoming homeless himself.
Along with most journalists in
Greece, he lost his
job around 2010
when many
newspapers went 1j||j|
bankrupt
“Everyone can
•;I
say we have
problems,” Arapoglou ■
said, “but we try to
propose solutions.”
One of the
conference’s keynote
speakers was veteran
Greek journalist Nicholas
Voulelis, who recently
founded The Journalists’
N ew spaper. I t is a cooperative, ow ned and
c o n tro lled by th e 150 jo u rn alists it em ploys.
One thing became d e a r a t the conference;
We have a lo t m o re in c o m m o n than w e have
differences.
From rising rents and increased income
inequality to failure of big media in many
countries to represent the poor, we see that
poverty is a global issue and that street
papers everywhere are stepping in to lift
people up and tell stories that matter.
emily@streetroots. org
The International Network o f Street
Newspapers is made up o f 112 street
papers worldwide. Shedia (pictured at
left), the street paper in Greece, where
IN S P held its 2016 Global Sum m it,
has 140 to 150 vendors, most o f
■HL whom lost their employment and
l homes as a result o f the nation’s
economic collapse.
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P H O T O S B Y S H E D IA A N D IN S P