Turkana County, the poorest in Kenya suffers from chronic underdevelopment, extreme poverty, perennial resource conflicts, in addition to an 80% illiteracy rate. This project aims to begin training the of youth in Turkana to use different citizen media participation tools with help from two local environmental NGOs to tackle the environmental & sustainable development issues affecting their County and using a human rights based approach.
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Our young citizen journalists will be trained to produce a variety of electronic mediums. These mediums include blogs, articles (please visit http://internationalpoliticalforum.com/ for E.g. of our work), v-logs, pod-casts, photography and data from mapping tools. We are currently working on a small community library center & media hub thanks to donated materials and equipment to utilize for training from our partners; two environmental NGOs.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
Currently IPF-Green (a part of our larger organization International Political Forum) has partnered with two local environmental advocacy organizations; Friends of Lake Turkana (FOLT), (country partner of Oil Watch Africa) & the Center for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJD). We will ensure that the trainings are relevant and that we are focused on empowering the our young citizen journalists to advocate for their communities.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
To begin with, we will train 30 youth from Turkana, each representing different zones within the County. They will be selected through outreach by members of IPF, CEJD and FOLT. Our outreach team will also meet with local NGOs, CBOs, local authorities and religious leaders to ensure the project's acceptance, sustainability &community ownership also through IPF, citizen media platforms, library center & forums created by the youth & communities.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
We seek to partner with Rising Voices and the Rising Voices community to obtain additional legitimacy, advertising, outreach and potential partnerships for this project. We are hoping to connect with other similar organizations, foundations and media outlets through this opportunity. To ensure this project's success, voices of the experienced from the Rising Voices community are also welcomed.
Organization
International Political Forum
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