The Widows’ Voice Campaign is a project by Widows Empowerment Trust (a registered organization based in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe). This project seeks to use social media to amplify the voices of the widows who are marginalized and excluded in Zimbabwe. Through training of key focal persons who are widows in using smartphones, taking pictures and videos, citizen journalism, storytelling and using social media; the project will empower the widows to tell their story and share it with the world. It will further help reduce stigma, discrimination, exclusion and abuse of widows in rural Matabeleland.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Bulawayo
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
- This project is developed with the widows and it's the widows that shall be directly benefiting.
– Because of cultural practises widows in Matabeleland in are underrepresented in all spheres as they don't have an organized platform and system of organizing themselves and advocating on their issues. Lack of access to education and technology is another factor hindering their visibility online.
– Widows Empowerment Trust has been working with widows in Matabeleland for year on a project called Strengthening Widows’ Advocacy and Rights Mechanisms where issues of enabling widows to advocate on their issues and tell their story has come out strongly.
– Zimbabwe has an average literacy rate of over 90% and an average of 3 out of 5 adults own a cell-phone.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The Project shall be coordinated by Khumbulani Maphosa from Widows Empowerment Trust (http://khumulanimaphosa.wordpress.com) and done with technical expertise from the following:
1. A female media Expect
2. A female lawyer
(links for the two external resource persons could not be added here as we have not yet made formal arrangements for them to offer the trainings)
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Once trained the participants shall be sending to the Whatsapp platform that shall be created:
1. short stories documenting the challenges and successes they encounter in their communities,
2. Short video recordings of incidences happening in their communities,
3. Pictures documenting their challenges and successes.
– Once sent to this focal coordination centre, the coordinator shall therefore edit the language, consistency and quality of story, pictures or videos and send to the broader platform of people in the contact list. It is also at the coordination centre that such information shall be shared on the Widows Empowerment Trust Blog and Twitter page and other social sites. Some of the information shall also be shared with media house, journalists and policy and decision makers.
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.
Widows Empowerment Trust shall seek to collaborate with various partners and stakeholders for the successful implementation of this project:
1. Currently the organization is in the process of being member of the National Association of NGOs in Zimbabwe,
2. Initial contact and communication to join the South Western Region Gender Network was made in 2013 ad the organization is awaiting a decision from the network.
3. The organization is also seeking connections with other strategic partners like Musasa Project and the Ministry of Women Affairs.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We are looking at training 15 participants (all of whom are widows) and 8 shall be drawn from Bulawayo (targeting 4 metropolitan areas and 4 semi urban areas) and 7 shall be drawn from the rural areas of Matabeleland South.
Of the 15 widows that shall be trained efforts shall be made to ensure that about 5 of them are young widows before the age of 35 years.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
When training we shall make use of:
1. Smart cellphones as tools they shall also be using in the field.
2. Internet Connected Laptop to demonstrate how the information they share through their cellphones shall be disseminated to other platforms
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The place where we shall conduct the workshop is a women's centre premise in the low density suburb of Bulawayo.
Because the space does not have computers, we shall make use of two personal laptops connected to the internet sing a USB modem.
The place where we shall be doing this training has chairs, tables, access to water, access to electricity and cooking facilities.
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?
About 80% of the communities we shall be working with are the communities we have previously trained on the other programme, the Strengthening Widows’ Advocacy and Rights Mechanisms (SWARM Project) which trained the widows in the wards on advocacy and rights.
I think we are the most appropriate organization to implement this project because we are an organization focusing on amplifying the voices of the widows and empowering them in various ways. We are not an organization which focuses on anything and everything but on widows’ right specifically. We also are best placed as we have widows’ structures who are already conscious of their rights and the needs to advocate for their issues themselves. Their advocacy capacity have been built now we shall be practicalising the theory they learnt.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Challenges and Solutions
1. Lack of accommodation for out of Bulawayo widows coming for the training
– we shall be engaging widows from Bulawayo requesting them to accommodate those from out of Bulawayo for one night
2. Libel and defamatory laws of Zimbabwe
– the coordination centre is mearnt to edit the clips to ensure that there is nothing defamatory in the articles sent by the widows
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
1. Number of articles sent by widows from the community to the coordinating centre
2. Number of newspaper articles written on widows issues emanating from the platform issues sent by widows
3. Motions and questions asked in Parliament by Members of Parliament in Parliament question government policy and actions affecting widows in Zimbabwe
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 participants : By 31 May 2014
Weekly Monitoring : Monthly from 31 April
End of Project Reporting : 31 October 2014
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Transport for Bulawayo participants
7 people X $20 per person = $140
Transport for out of Bulawayo participants
8 people X $5 per person = $40
Workshop Refreshments
15 people X $5 per person = $75
Workshop Venue Hire = $50
Workshop Stationery = $20
Facilitation Allowances
$50 per person X 3 = $150
Purchase of Smart Phones
$100 X 15 phones = $150
Airtime for participants over 6 months using the platform
$4 per person per month X 15 X 6 months = $360
TOTAL = $2 335
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
The other support we may get from Rising Voices include:
1. linking us to other social platforms and activism sites where we can share our information
2. offering technical support and advise on making se of the information to influence decision and policy making in and outside Zimbabwe
Contact name
Khumbulani Maphosa
Organization
Widows Empowerment Trust
