CTN proposes to initiate a community communication hub in Vihiga county to enhance community members participation in decision making of matters affecting their lives and sharing their experience with the global world.The group will run a county weekly edition, a social media platform where members will be able to access vital information and also share. The group will also run a community journalism training center where coverage of public resource management from village level to county level.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Mbale Town
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Young people living in vihiga county come together and carried out a research on the most pressing issues in the wake the formation of the county government, and among the issues such as illiteracy and poverty, communication and access to information featured prominently. Vihiga county is largely a rural county and one with the highest level of poverty at 62%, ICT infrastructure is almost non existence with community members having to travel over 20 kilometers away to access cyber cafes and negligible population can afford internet enabled phones. As a trained journalist volunteering my skills and experiences will be one way to give back to my community and again I understand the community well. My target is the youth and almost 50% are computer literate and our group aims at increasing it
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Edwin Sagwa https://www.facebook.com/edwin.sagwa
Vivian Kayeye Amaitsa https://www.facebook.com/vivian.amaitsah
Iris Kinagwa
Don Sakwa https://www.facebook.com/don.sakwa
Elisha Aluboya
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
My vision for the Vihiga community is to make sure that by the next election which is 4 years away communities in vihiga will be well informed on all developments that have taken in their county and will make right decision in contracting new leader for 5 years. Through the communication initiative they will be able to share their experiences with the globe.
One the group will train selected community members in community journalism, two I will come up with a weekly county newspaper that will provide a platform for community members to contribute stories and at the same time access information on county matters it will have an online edition. Third we will launch social media platform on facebook and link it to twiter, we will also run a website where you will be able to access our work
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.
We work with youth groups and community based organizations that operate in Vihiga under different themes ranging from micro enterprise, security, agriculture, climate change, governance and others.
Vision Youth Group
Vihiga County Youth Bunge Forum
Mahanga Youth Group
Vihiga Self Help Group
Viyalo Friends Feeding Programme
Mosunzu Neighbourhood
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
50 member of different youth group from five constituencies will be trained in community journalism, these young people will be largely volunteers. Each constituency will have ten slots and depending on the number of youth groups.The project will set a realistic or rather affordable price tag to the weekly newspaper to sustain its production.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
I am a trained and experienced Journalist with skills in print and electronic media kin addition I have skill and experience working with communities in human rights and governance issues, while working for Kenya Human Rights Commission as a Programs officer I managed a number of community project successfully.Our constitution has given us own county government to run and manage, traditional public servant have collude with politicians to hoard important information on public spending and operation thus avoiding scrutiny accountability and transparency thus embezzling and misusing public resources. Armed with a platform to share and access information community members can get involved in planning, monitor and evaluate implementation of their projects
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will use a seminar hall at a local catholic church hall which we can access free of charge, the hall has electricity, can accommodate 25 people, it has 20 computer stations and wireless internet coverage. Our office will provide additional 5 laptops which can acces their virtual area network (VAN)
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 was born and raised in this community, I started working for the community after my high school when i mobilized youth and formed Tiriki Aids Awareness Movement in 2003, I lead a fundraising team and was funded by Kenya National aids control council and carried out activities. After university I joined other young people to form Vision Youth group. During my work with NGO I organized a number of legal aid clinics in the community and voter registration advocacy I look forward to seeking political leadership in future.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Accessing information from public officers – we will use constitutional provisions and jurisprudence existing that compels state or public officer to release public information.
Distribution of the newspapers throughout the county – here we will have to work closely with the county government and volunteers to complete the chain.
Security of our equipment and other materials – due to political nature of information that we will be carrying our premise might be vulnerable to vandalism, we already have plans to request for space within the county headquarters where security is provided.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Checking the quality and quantity of stories written and pictures taken by the trained citizen/community journalists.
The number of people who attend planning meetings, finding how they got the information.
the number of community members attending county assembly consultative meetings and proceedings.
Responses on our social media pages, the number of stories shared and responses from global partners
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
The first month will be for stakeholder analysis followed by stakeholder meetings that will involve the beneficiaries community, the county political and administrative wings and the youth groups.
The second month Selected participants will be taken for a one week training followed by another week of on job coaching
The third month will be for setting up the platforms, coming up with the editorial policy, making layouts for our print media and the social platforms.
The fourth month the project will be implemented and monitoring will start
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Project coordinator 50
Publication, printing, editing & distribution 700
Digital camera (still) x5 pac 150
Video Camera 400
Internet access 150
Training and workshop 200
Travel 100
Total 2350
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Capacity building for our members in latest techniques and practice in community/citizen journalism, best ways of collecting and sharing information.
Capacity building in fundraising to expand the project and sustain it
Contact name
Benson Chakaya Atonga Mwasimba
2 comments
Community Transparency Network is now operating under the name Vihiga Youth – Media & Transparency Accountability Network (VY-Metan). We are committed to using the media to help young leaders promote transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs and most importantly resources. Through capacity building we help young people in community civil activism, entrepreneurship and public affairs management, we encourage some young people to vie for political offices to represent their communities, lobby for positions in the county government administration on their behalf and train others in community activism and citizen journalism. Already we are running a news facebook page called Vihiga Pulse. Current plans is to conduct a citizen journalism training in conjunction with the county government, that will be followed by social media management training.
This project will go a long way in helping community members access credible information and hence help them make informed decisions in all facets of life. It will revolutionise Vihiga County.