Social media is a good way to express your opinion,mostly for those who have something important to say. Working with social media needs some special knowledge and skills.With the help of it you can become a part of the world,promote democratical values,talk about sensitive issues. Our project is for young Georgian refugees,who have a lot to say to international society.Via social network they can contact young people with the same problems,share their feelings,redress relationship with young people from occupied territory and etc.They will have a chance to become real peace makers.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Gori Municipality, City Tserovani
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The main target group of the project are Georgian young refugees at the age of 16-18,who learn at school.They became refugees because of Russian aggression against Georgia in 2008.Many villages have been bombed by Russian soldiers,many citizens even died.Nowaydays they live in a special village created for refugees.They have many problems:they have left their houses,lost contact with their relatives,friends,they miss their native space.
The area of their expression is very narrow,but they have a lot to say.Their knowledge about social media and its impact is very weak.This project aims to involve them in social activities. Our mission is to give them a power and knowledge to share their problems,to start talking about it without hesitation.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Luka Khachidze-student of Grigol Robakidze University, Journalism and Mass Communication Program; Participant of Youth Side Event of Eastern Partnership(EaP)Civil Society Forum, Moldova; Participant of UNDP Data Journalism Bootcamp, Moldova;Graduate of Maestro Media School. http://facebook.com/lukadaily
Thea Ghvinadze- student of Grigol Robakidze University, Journalism and Mass Communication Program; International youth organization Aiesec program Enjoy My Origin, Poland; Russian-Georgian School of Journalism; Participant of UNDP Data Journalism Bootcamp, Moldova; Intern on a TV Chanel Ertsulovneba.
http://facebook.com/theaghvinadze
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
One of the results of this training will be Blog,which will be created by the participants of this project.They will study how to register,manage and share their stories with the help of bloging.On the base of theories about social media,which they will learn during this project,they will understand the power of freedom of speech.During the training we will write a plan of campaign about the topic,which is interesting for them.They will learn more about social media,its history,impacts and functions,advantages and disadvantages,differences between traditional media and social media,privacy and etc.Special activities and games will make this learning process more interesting and entertaining.For example, we will show them a movie “The social network” by David Fincher.
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’ve already made a little survey,with the help of Google Docs. We know, that target goup people are more than happy to participate in this kind of project. We’ve already talked to the school heads in the Gori Municipality and village Tserovani, where the refugees live.They agree to collaborate with us, but this agreement needs contact face to face. That’s why we plan to make one day trip before starting the project, go to chosen schools,check the equipment and do the last preparation before the training. We know, that this kind of projects are very popular among young refugees and we are sure, that this project will have the same result. In future we plan to deepen contacts with refugees and continue making this kind of events.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We plan to involve in this project 100 participants. 60 participants from Tserovani( Village for refugees, 80 km from capital Tbilisi, the city we live in) and 40 participants from Gori( City near occupied territory, 100 km from Tbilisi) We will visit 5 public schools in these two places and host 20 participants per school.Each training will last 2 days in one school. School heads will give us the contact information of motivated and highly marked pupils. We will contact them and give them all the necessary information about the project.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
During this project,the main technics we will use will be our laptops,school computers, photo and video cameras and projector. To make the training and our presentations more interesting and spectacular, we will use MS Powerpoint, MS Word, Adobe Photoshop, HTML. One of the main social platform will be Worpress, Blogspot, Social networks, such as Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,Youtube…
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Firs part of the training(first day) will be held in the classroom, where the pupils feel free and comfortable. Next day we will change the classroom and go to another, equipped with computers. As our survey has already shown, per school has 20-22 computers and at least one projector, which we will use during our training. These computers have a permanent internet connection, but we wont be able to use it for our PCs. School computers we need for the participants for making blogs. They won’t just listen to us and observe, but they will also practice.
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 have contact with some representatives of this target group. For example, big part of students in my university are refugees because of the War in 2008. We know the problems of this society and try to help to solve them. They agree, that young refugees have a power to change the current situation, but they don’t know how to do it. They still don’t know the main purpose of social media. We are a group of young journalists and social media is very close to our profession. That’s why we decided to choose this topic. We have some local and international knowledge about social media. For example, training organized by UNDP in Moldova, where the topic was Data Journalism and social media. We’ve also attended a course “Internet and human consciousness” and etc.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The main challenge we suppose to face during our trainings, is the wrong imagination about social media. They may think,that the only function of social media is the communication between friends, sharing photos, checking places they’ve visited and other stuff. We are hardworking persons and will try to show them the real image. We will explain and talk until they understand, use the specific games and activities. They may not know the meaning of some specific words, for example:platform, hashtag, follower, privacy, domain, and etc. We will explain all these words by showing examples from their everyday life. Learning how to make spectacular blog with good content can be a little bit scarring for them, but we will try to repeat it as many times as it’s possible.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
After the project is ended,We will advise them to make their own blogs, to write their own stories, discuss about their society, their problems, wishes and dreams. It will make them more social active. We will have contact with the participants after this project and will make a little survey to see and rate the results. We will check their blogs, content and give them some useful advises. It will be a big success, if someone’s blog or facebook status becomes interesting for mass media.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May-June 2014.
First day:
Brainstorming: Who I am and the role of social media in my life(30min)
PowerPoint Presentation: History of social media(40min)
Presentation: Differences between social media and traditional media(40min)
Presentation: Privacy(30min)
PowerPoint Presentation: Impact of social media(40min)
Game(20min)
Presentation: Advantages and disadvantages(40min)
Giving the homework: Prepare one blog post(Issue:Interesting topic for them)(10min)
Second day:
Brainstorming: Most interesting topics of the first day(20min)
Film “The Social Network” ( 1hr 20min)
Presentation: Blog(50)
Presentation: History of Malala Yousafzai(30min)
Presentation: How to make your own blog(40min)
Workshop: Hom to manage our blogs(adding text, uploading photos, changing designs and etc)(60min)
Anonymous survey ( What did participants learn, what they they liked or didn’t like, what they want to improve)(15min)
Certificate Ceremony(30min)
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Preparation:
Transportation-55 $
Lunch-20 $
Travel expenses: Transportation for 10 days(1 day round trip-35$,2 person)-350 $
Internet connection (Modem+fee for 10 days)-105 $
Stationary:
Notebooks for participants to make remarks (1 notebook=1 participant+10 extra) -65 $
Pens-15 $
Certificates(100 participant+5 school+15 extra=120)-70 $
A4 papers for the survey- 10 $
Coffee break for 10 days(100-120 person)-400 $
Expenses for trainers-1000 $
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Certificate for organizing this project.
Recommendation letters.
Contact name
Thea Ghvinadze