Guza Initiative is a swahili word for touch, The project aims at touching the community, through different tools of citizen media especially in Kibera slums. Guza Initiative is aimed at empowering youths from Kibera slums to be able to use Digital media tools to tell their own stories by themselves and make their voices heard. Guza Initiative is a project that will involve training youths from Kibera slums on using camera, mobile phones and Blogging sites to be able to make video and online reports on what goes on in their community, hence give the community a voice.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Nairobi
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The projects targets youths between the age of 15 to 35 living in Kibera. since they are the ones being misused by politicians during elections. and most Government projects don't reach to the slum.
Working with these youths will help reduce idleness and create a community that can speak out and not be taken advantage of. Kibera slums has a very low number of computer literate and the few who are only use Facebook. The project will close the gap through the trainings that will be conducted in every village. the stories they make will be shared in the social site hence bring change and make the community part of policy making.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
1. Joshua Owino Ogure, A practicing Community Journalist, will help train the youths on coming up with video and blog stories, since He's been part of similar programs in Mathare and Mukuru slums in Nairobi.
2. John Musila Mutua will also be part of training the youths and ensuring the project is a success.He's been part of a tax Tracking campaign in Denmark and has expertise in Web. He'll share his skills with these youths during the entire period that the project will run.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Guza Initiative will produce Video Stories, sms reports and Blogs that will be posted online on issues that affect the community in general, such as unimplemented Government projects, human rights violations, high cost of living, drug problems, lack of basic education and in access to Government funds.
The stories will be part of empowering youths to raise their voice and speak out on this and many other issues that affect their daily lives in the slum. thus, giving a voice to the voiceless and under-represented community of Kibera.
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.
Since me and my two colleagues who will spearhead the trainings have been part of similar projects in other slums, We'll bring on board representatives from these other slum areas to share with the youths their past experiences, challenges and how they overcame them. in order to instill confidence in the youths who will be part of the whole project.
The project will identify various youth groups within the villages that make Kibera, to work with in offering quality trainings and hold forums that will educate the youths further on the need to be able to tell their own stories, in their own perspective.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Kibera Slums consists of 16 villages, the projects targets to train at least 4 youths from every village, which will add up to 40 youths being trained.
Guza Initiative will identify youths through the help of various youth groups that will be partners in the project, such as Olympic youth for peace, Langata youth networks, Victoria youths among others.
The grant will help to Finance the workshops in terms of paying for the hall and hubs where the trainings shall be conducted. The grant will also be used to give allowances to participants as a way of sustainability during the entire project since most of them will be expected to give their best in terms of time and ability. thus they may not have time to attend to their normal tasks that earns them their daily bread.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The project will put into use various social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube among others to share our videos and blog stories online. we'll mainly use hand held flip camera to collect video stories and mobile phones to take pictures, that will be used to put together blog stories. Me and my two colleagues ( Joshua and John) will head the trainings since we've been part of similar initiatives slums and have the skills to pass on to the participating youths which will ensure achievement of the objectives.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We'll hold the trainings in different locations within and outside Kibera. Training workshops on how to use flip cameras and mobile phones to put together video, sms and blog reports will be conducted at Mchanganyiko hall, which has a large space and frequently hosts forums, it's also located almost at the centre of Kibera which makes it easy to reach.
the same applies to P.A.G Church hall and A.I.C Church halls.
However, trainings on how to upload stories online will be conducted at the Nai-lab, The I-Hub and Global Platform Nairobi.
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?
Guza Initiative project leaders have been all brought up in Kibera slums and went through the violence that hit Kibera in 2007 post election violence. they have witnessed violence erupt from time to time due to poor information flow and romour mongering.
It takes more than just few individuals to bring change and that's what this project aims at achieving.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Challenges:
1. some youths will be reluctant to be part of the team.
2. Moving from point to point in kibera might be hard especially when it rains, since the villages stretch far apart.
3. community members might find it challenging to know about the project since most don't access internet.
How to Overcome:
Partnering with youth groups will help make the youths understand the objectives of this project and how it will work to bring positive change.
The project will work to provide umbrella and gumboots to access the villages easily in case of bad weather.
There will be community forums and screening to educate the community about 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?
1. the first stage of measure and evaluations will be right after the trainings when we'll determine how much skills the participants will have acquired in being able to tell their stories in video and blog.
2. The second is the number of video and blog reports and the number of audience we'll be able to reach by sharing the stories in as many social sites as possible.
3. the response, by the policy makers, to the issues we'll have raised in the video and blog reports that will be generated in the entire period the project will run, including the community response.
We'll consider the project a success when the community finally has a voice that can be heard and they are part of policy making in this country.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
The project will kick off in August 2014;
4thAugust – Guza Initiative project pilots meet with different youth group representatives to identify youths who will take part in the project from every village in Kibera slum. Meeting will be held at Mchanganyiko hall.
12thAugust – selected youths called to meet at Mchanganyiko hall on Friday 15th to get the program of activities on how the trainings will run during the entire project period, the meeting will also set the training dates which will run for approximately two to three months.
In October, community forum will be held at Mchanganyiko hall where the videos will be screened and discussions open,
a date shall be set for a follow up forum which will include Government representatives, these meeting shall set an action plan on the issues that shall have been raised.
the Blogs and video stories shall be then uploaded online and follow up stories be discussed.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Proposed Budget:
Cameras – 300USD
Editing Computer – 450USD
External Microphone – 40USD
Workshops & Trainings ( includes cost of hiring halls and hubs) – 600USD
Travel Expenses (in and outside Kibera) – 300USD
Allowances (for participants) – 500USD
Cordination ( Training Allowance) – 250USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can provide a platform for the youths to share their stories wider and reach a larger audience and help call for action on different issues that will have been highlighted by the youths.
this will help amplify the voice of Kibera people on their cry for equal justice.
Contact name
Stephene Oduor
