The project seeks to promote citizen journalism and digital story telling among the young people of Chitungwiza. 40 citizen journalists will be trained on citizen journalism and digital story telling so that they can tell their stories in their own words. These trained citizen reporters will be responsible for generating content that will be loaded on the online www.chitownews.com.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Chitungwiza
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
The project will work with young men and women between the ages of 16 -35 years residing in Chitungwiza. Chitungwiza is a dormitory city of Harare with estimated population of nearly 600 000 inhabitants, but the third largest and fastest growing urban area in Zimbabwe. The town did not have have a media of any form until January 2013 when the organisation started an online citizen reporting platform.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
They are expected to generate content on developmental challenges prevailing in the town. These include poor service delivery, human rights abuses, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, environment, participation rights and livelihood situations. The content is expected in one form or another to provoke thinking and analysis of pertinent developmental challenges affecting the town.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Other tools
Website. Http://www.chitownews.com
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
The organisation already have the website www.chitownews.com which is up and running and is already receiving an average of 1 400 visitors a day. The organisation also has a membership of 800 individuals. The organisation has also formed networks and alliances with grassroots organisations that are based in Chitungwiza. The organisation is currently on active drive to market the project through social networking sites.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We hope to train 50 participants from diverse communities of Chitungwiza. Their participation will be sustained by linking them to events that will be taking place in their communities so that can report on that. Their participation will also be sustained by involving them in the production of image, audio and video content.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
Besides the grant, Rising voices can also offer us resources that can be used on citizen reporting, project management and on improving the effectiveness of the project.
Contact name
Eddington Mutakiwa Shayanowako
Organization
Chitungwiza Community Development Network