- Rising Voices Microgrants 2013 - https://rising.globalvoices.org/microgrants2013 -

South Africa: Show Me Your Best….

· Rising Voices

Categories: South Africa, Digital Storytelling, Digital Photography, Mobile Phones, Social Networking

I propose to bring together online different migrant groups living in Yeoville, Johannesburg, South Africa. The migrant groups will use the online platform to showcase their best in terms of clothing, culture, food or something they feel proud about. It will be a forum whereby they can interact and learn about different cultures while learning how to use social media. I plan to have an online competition for the best dressed person/food/picture.

Topical focus:

Digital Storytelling [1]

Country:

South Africa [2]

What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?

Johannesburg

Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.

I propose to work with migrant communities from Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and any other migrants that have made South Africa their home. Most of these migrants have fled their country due to instability or are economic refugees. Their presence has transformed the landscape of Yeoville and its interesting to see how they still maintain their culture even in a foreign land. Most of their cultural practices are undocumented especially digitally.

What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?

I plan to use different themes such as “Show me your best…Dress/Food/place” etc. The participants will use their cellphones to take pictures of the different themes and share them online. The pictures will have brief descriptions and there will be a vote by the online community to select the best of those themes. To carry out this successfully, the participants will undergo training on how to take pictures and upload online.

What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?

Digital Photography [3], Mobile Phones [4], Social Networking [5]

Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.

In 2009 as part of my personal project, I photographed Congolese migrants living in Yeoville. My focus was their famous culture of La Sape, the culture of elegance whereby they don designer labels. My project focussed on reality verses fantasy. I still have contact with them and would like to pursue this project further because I believe its not fully exhausted and they need to tell their own stories for others to understand why they do so

How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?

I plan to have 16 participants – 4 groups of people from different countries so that they can easily work as groups or in pairs. I plan to use the community boards to send out the call for participants. Once I have the numbers, they will receive training on social media using their mobile device and how they can share images on online platforms. The project can then develop from there.

Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?

Training equipment, mentor/s and translator/s.

Contact name

Caroline Kaminju

Link to Existing Project

http://caroline-kaminju.photoshelter.com/gallery/Migrant-Culture/G0000iL6zVqYWiY4/ [6]