This is a training for 10 women in Ibasa to become citizen journalists and report issues of women online. The women will learn how to report breaking news with their phones and also social networking.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Ibasa-Lagos
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The project will focus on empowering 10 women to become citizen journalists. The women will be selected from Ibasa, Igbojegun, Ikaare and Imore water communities in Oriade local council development areas.
We work with these communities because they are cut off from the mainland due to lack of bridge and their is no electricity in the communities. We reach them by boat, or we swim.
Due to lack of electricity, the women and girls do not have any presence online until our organization began to work in the community. We have introduced the girls to computer and with little assistance they will be able to navigate the internet.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Naomi Levitz https://www.facebook.com/naomi.levitz?fref=ts
Victoria Lola Bamise https://www.facebook.com/funmilola.bamise?fref=ts
Jennifer Timmons https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.j.timmons.3?fref=ts
Ch Urmila https://www.facebook.com/urmila.ch http://worldpulse.com/user/3715
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Community News report
Breaking news, especially issues of women
Women's roles in community development
Advantages of internet for the backward communities
Peaceful web for women
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 will work closely with World pulse, Safe world for women, and we will use our rich facebook platform to share the stories
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
10 women, we have been working with these communities in the past 4 years. We already have existing relationship and presence in the riverside communities.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
I have rich social network and friends who believe in our cause of Tranforming the lives of women and girls in the riverside communities in Nigeria. in addition, I am one of the Voices of our Future correspondent (2009) that have been trained in Citizen Journalism. I am an expert in social media.
In addition, I learned film making, photography and editing in India, these skills will be used to develop films for the project.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
This year, I won Nigeria's 2013 Change-A-Life Hero's award, therefore, I was opportune to have a 4 room flat at the riverside to continue my Transformation work among the riverside people. In addition, I established the first story books library in Nigeria in 2012, and I have been able to start a new story books library at Ibasa, we will use the library as the training space.
Currently, we have 3 computers in our Festac town office, we will transfer the computers to Ibasa riverside. we also have 4G Swift internet connection modem.
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 have been working in Ibasa riverside, since 2010. On a personal level, I have trained more than 100 women in tie and dye, tailoring etc free of charge. Last year, I won the Woman of Courage Award and was able to buy 10 new sewing machines for the training the community women.
The support for the poor has earned our organization a good name and the community members are happy working with us. In addition, we started the Tosin turn trash to treasure project in Ibasa this January, with the support of kanthari Institute of Social entrepreneur, we have been able to start a 1 year project, free of charge for 30 women, after the 1 year training, these women will train 20 women each for 1 year.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The major obstacle is electricity. The best solution is to buy a generator. Electricity is a major challenge in Nigeria, but in Ibasa, there is no electricity, the government is just working on erecting poles and wiring the community, for 6 years, there is not light at all in Ibasa.
We enjoy a robust relationship with the community, because in transformation, we give ownership of projects to the community.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Success is when these 10 Ibasa women can use a computer independently, when they can log on to a website like worldpulse and post their articles…… In addition, working successfully with the computer, Skype, email, twitter and comments on networking sites are some of the indicators for us.
The community has less regard for the girl child, and women, but when they discover that their women are using computers and are progressing, they will contact us to register more girls into schools
The presence of the riverside community women will be felt online; especially postings on social networking sites for women.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
6 months
Activity
Announcement in communities 1 week
Recruitment of trainees 1 week
introduction and registration 1 week
computer training 2 months
citizen journalism training 2 months
social media training 1 month
examination 1 week
report and evaluation 1 week
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Item Cost in US Dollar
Workshop materials 300
Snacks during classes 300
2 computers fairly used 600
Fuel for 6 months 300
Generator 500
transport for facilitator 6 months 300
internet for 2 months 100
Total $2,400
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Link and referral to other social networking sites for women and girls. Support us to raise the voices of the women when they report their stories and news online
Contact name
Olutosin Oladosu Adebowale
Organization
Star of Hope Transformation Centre
