The project seeks to train on the use new media (Whatsapp and Facebook) to raise the voices of the Zimbabwean farm communities who have been largely marginalised after the country's government embarked on a land reform exercise so that their plight and views get to policy makers. We will use a mainstream media web platform to stir debate and discussion around rights to communal land and labour rights among other issues. Community based information groups (CBIG) are in existence and what they need most now is capacity building through intensive training.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Chegutu and Bindura
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Role: The CBIGs are two 30-members groups in two main farming provinces of the country and each of them have two group leaders who meet regularly at the Citizen Journalism committee meetings.
Underepresentation: Zimbabwe carried out a land reform exercise that left more than half a million citizens without jobs or tenure rights and these have been under constant political and labour persecution from the mainly government officials who are new owners of land. Since the land issue is still a topical issue as government continues to adjust policies on land, it is critical that these affected communities are part of the discussion.
The target communities have a relevantly low understanding of the advocacy power of social network platforms although they are largely connected to the internet
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Tapiwa Zivira, Senior digital journalist with the country's leading private media house and publishers of NewsDay Zimbabwe, the platform that will be used for #AMHVoices
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tapiwazivira Page: https://www.facebook.com/cjzimbabwepage
Blog: flowerstapiwa.wordpress.com
Website: newsday.co.zw
Twitter: @tapiwazivira
Shepherd Kuringenyika: A social scientist who extensively works within farm communities. https://www.facebook.com/skuringenyika1
Melody Chaitwa: Team leader of CBIG Mash Central Whatsapp +263 773 245 709
Andrew Kunambura Team leader CBIG Mash West https://www.facebook.com/Sir.Andrew1
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The vision is to stir debate around the entitlements of farm workers in accordance with the UN Human rights charter and the Zimbabwean constitution. Farm workers will tell their story of their experiences and share information to create a coordinated network using the cheapest, most available modes, Whatsapp and Facebook.
1. Labour , Health, sanitation, children's and women's rights in farming communities
2. Tenure rights for former and present farm workers.
3. Best practices stories of the little percentage of former farm workers who got land.
4. Awareness on the provisions of the new Zimbabwe constitution.
5. How to acquire basic registration documents (births, deaths, National IDs) for many farm workers who have had to miss out on aid and education because they do not have IDs
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
1. #AMHVoices, an existing partnership with NewsDay's citizen journalism digital platform to have the farm communities agenda aired on the country's most popular news website.
2. We have an existing partnership with the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union since we work with the same communities.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
During the project we aim to conduct a training of trainers for 20 CBIG members so that we can sustain the training as they will continue to train members of their communities as we envisage the network to grow.
We also hope to have a general training of up to 50 focal point community based persons farm community members on the use of social media for advocacy.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Technical skills: The lead trainer, Tapiwa Zivira, a senior digital journalist, brings a wealth of knowledge on the various social media tools, mobile photography, mobile video and general reporting and writing.
The second trainer Shepherd Kuringenyika, a social scientist will bring in his knowledge of issues affecting farm workers and train them on what to look out for when sending information.
Melody Chaitwa and Andrew Kunambura are both well versed on the human resources within their communities.
Technology awareness is important because most of these marginalised communities have access to 3G and many of them have access to basic feature and smart phones which, after training, can be important tools for advocacy.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshop venues will be at community levels and the tools will be three 3G connected laptops for the trainers, and a 3G enabled mobile phone for each participant.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
I am a digital journalist, and have worked for five years as an information officer for a farm workers organisation and it was during this time that I developed a strong understanding of the communities’ plight and I have also developed a close relationship with the communities since my family too was affected by the land reform exercise.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Challenges: Farm communities are sparsely located and it might be difficult to bring together the participants but we have since established central areas for each training centre and that would make it easy for all to attend.
Political challenges: Security concerns and fears of political interference. In all the meetings that we have held, we have got police clearance in accordance with the country's laws.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Success measurement will be done by monitoring the frequency of information received and by checking the Google Analytics on the readership of the citizen journalism articles brought in for the project.
We will also measure success by the number of people trained and by the quality of their contributions.
In the long term, we will measure impact by checking any movement by government to address farm communities’ concerns
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Training of trainers:A one-day trainings of 20 participants , will need two weeks.(an average of one training per week)
Training of 50 community members: two trainings of 25 participants each will take two weeks ( an average of one training per week)
In total the training requires about one month, June, a good time as it is off peak season for farm workers.
The subsequent implementation of receiving citizen journalism stories will stretch for the rest of 2014. Participants of both workshops will be instrumental in pushing citizen journalism text, video and audio to the #AMHVoices platforms
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Since we are assured all our participants have internet enabled phones, we will not be investing in mobile phones. The organisation also has its own laptops and 3G dongles.
Data bundles for use during trainings and the rest of the Rising Voices project (the data will be staggered during the period and in order to keep the momentum, we will be giving fresh data upon the constant submission of content)
To keep the budget low, trainers will be CJ-Z trainers who do not need a trainers fee
Community based trainers: 1000 MB Data each $30 X 20 trainers = $600
Participants: 500MB Data each $20 X 50 = $1000.00
Four Lead Trainers:1000 MB each $30 x 4 = $ 120.00
Fuel/tollgates for travelling to provinces for the trainings = $300.00
Lunch Per diems for the participants $5 x 70 = $350.00
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Tutorials on citizen journalism and advocacy and any IEC materials
Contact name
Tapiwa Zivira
Organization
Citizen Journalism Zimbabwe
3 comments
Interesting topic, given the farm workers of Zimbabwe are a very marginalised and they certainly need a voice. i wish the project could be larger
I have a question, The mobile revolution is surely sweeping across Africa, but what strategies do you intend to use for some of those former farm workers who have migrated to peri-urban areas?
You will notice that among the participants of our trainings are former farm workers, who will also get a chance to share their experiences and lead the future advocacy for the former farm workers concerns,