The project seeks to empower survivors of the 1986 Lake Nyos Gas disaster who were resettled in make shift camps and have been abandoned there without adequate shelter, food security, health and sanitation. The project trains key members of the society and equip them to be able to bring their vital voices to the global community thereby putting government to task so they can take responsibility for their action.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Wum and Bum
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
They lack what most people elsewhere take for granted: no access to information from the mainstream media; no information in mainstream society about their existence and their concerns. They are largely undeserved by modern communication and therefore no attention about them from local government and international community. There is therefore a great need to make their voices heard.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
We hope to recruit experienced local bloggers to train and mentor participants from resettlement camps that would result in a local network of support. The 30 selected and trained participants will setup an online community where they monitor and report to the outside community. Stories on inadequate shelter, poor health and poor living conditions would constitute the content.Sending of alert signals through SMS and twitter would be menu
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Other tools
N/A
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
A common future has already worked with this indigenous community for over five years through organizing them into constituent groups for their local development. Camp dwellers already have confidence in the working of A Common Future and so we are better positioned to carry out this activity. One advantage we have on not going wrong is the fact that our communication service is a member of local bloggers network in this local communities
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We plan to train 30 participants who would be carefully selected based on their background and gender component and from the seven resettlement camps that are in the local community of Menchum and Boyo Division of the North West. We will seek and sustain their participation by making them understand the change such citizen media activity would bring to themselves and the local community.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
We would need additional resources, practical information on citizen media and online community blogging. Given that we are dealing with the hard-to-reach and under-served segment of the population, we need enough practical material and good practice elsewhere so that they know that what we are offering to them is practical and done elsewhere. We also need materials on examples of communities that have changed, thanks to online community action.
Contact name
Gwain Colbert Fulai
Organization
A Common Future