l am proposing to conduct a training programme targeting citizen journalists. The training helps to lay the foundation for civil society advocates to become citizen journalists.
It brings together journalism skills and advocacy goals to help citizen journalists share their perspectives and experience with decision makers and wider audiences to influence the discourse around community and related developmental issues.
We have developed a training manual called change the world.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Harare
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
This will target community members who have played citizen journalism roles already and and realize the importance of social media but having need to improve their skills through modules from our training manual.
They have not played a role in the development of the proposal but they are already abreast with the importance of social media in society. We intend to work with them to develop their skills and most of them are computer and internet literate.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Social Mapuranga, a social media trainer will be on the team to help implement the programme. Her facebook account is under the name: Sofia Mapuranga.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The participants are going to benefit from training modules focusing on advocacy and the media, writing news stories, the art of the interview, journalism and ethics, photography and blogging, just to mention a few.
From each module they will be an exercise to be presented to the facilitators and they have to complete this and it will be assessed.
At the end they have to produce media output to be posted either on social media platforms or the mainstream media.
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.
With the support of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Key Correspondents Team we have been instrumental in producing the Change the world: A toolkit for citizen journalists which we will use for the training programme.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Initially with the funding we hope to train a total of 50 participants and link them up with mainstream and other social networks to sustain their participation.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
l am a trained journalist and an award winning photojournalist. l have won three photojournalism awards and have written widely to include online media. We will focus more on social media due to its current worldwide use and reach.
My partner has had social media trainer of trainers training at Radio Netherlands International.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We intend to hold the training at the Media Centre in Harare which has at least 10 desktop computers and seven laptops and 10 digital cameras for use.
We have appropriate internet connection speed, WIFI and broadband cable connection.
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?
We are conducting a survey of citizen journalists who contribute to mainstream media and frequent on social media platforms to capacitate them.
Our journalism background and experience makes us suitable candidates to implement the project. l have been personally been trained in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on news writing, blogging, social media and digital storytelling (photography and video) under the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Key Correspondents programme
(www.keycorrespondents.org).
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Our media environment is conducive and we have the facilities to conduct the programme. With the funding support we hope to execute the project.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We will have follow ups with our trainees and to assess their media output. We will also make them evaluate the training programme and make follow up on future training needs.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
15 April 2014-Finalising selection of suitable training candidates.
30 April 2014-Training programme beings.
10 May 2014-Completion of training.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Workshop facilities-$1000
Equipment hire eg laptops/cameras-$200
Travel expenses for 50-$500
Coordinator expenses for 2-$550
Certificates for 50-$50
Teas and lunches-$200
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Training material, alternative social media links, online publishing links and online tutors.
Contact name
Wallace Mawire
Organization
n/a
