We will train parents of children with disabilities in Kibera slums, Nairobi, in citizen media. This will enable them to share their stories and those of their children with disabilities with the world through video, photography, and social media. We will train them to report on Project Play Day, in which children with and without disabilities from Kibera slums, Nairobi work side-by-side on art and play together to promote mutual understanding and inclusion. Giving a voice to disabled children in slum areas will increase social inclusion of disabled children in Kenyan society and beyond
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Nairobi
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Children with disabilities and their families are excluded from Kenyan society due to stigma. As disabled children are kept indoors, most people remain unfamiliar with disabilities. The parents have no skills to share their stories with the world; yet, familiarizing people with the life of a disabled child can greatly enhance social inclusion. We aim to give the disabled children from Kibera a voice, through their parents. A group of five parents of children with disabilities in Kibera slums will be trained in basic photography, introduction to video and using the internet to tell the stories of social inclusion of children with disabilities including blog, Facebook Twitter and You Tube. The target population has no familiarity with computers or internet, and no existing online presence.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Maria Omare, Executive Director, The Action Foundation
Blog – http://www.theactionfoundationkenya.org/blog/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheActionKenya
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Action-Foundation-Kenya/184470088233375?fref=ts
Website: http://www.theactionfoundationkenya.org/
Pauline Njau, Program Mgr, Hot Sun Foundation
Blog – kiberafilmschool.blogspot.com
Twitter- @HotSunFd
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/hotsunfilmschool
Website: www.hotsunfoundation.org
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The participants will create the following media output:
– Six short videos (90 seconds) each telling a story or illustrating an issue about social inclusion through art activities of children with disabilities;
– Series of photos of Project Play Day activities;
– Social media stories about social inclusion through art activities of children with disabilities.
Vision for the content:
We will show the world the joy of young children with and without disabilities working together on art activities and the pleasure of their families seeing them accepted by other children and being creative. The content will illustrate the challenges faced by parents of children with disabilities in Kibera slum while raising their children, their future hopes and aspirations.
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.
For implementation of this project, we will collaborate with Hot Sun Foundation, an organization aiming to bring about social transformation through art and media. Hot Sun Foundation has been training youth in making short films and screening films throughout East Africa for the past six years.Hot Sun Foundation will provide their expert trainers and equipment for the training sessions, and assist in broadcasting the output.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
A total of five participants will be trained in this project. This will include parents of the children with disabilities enrolled in The Action Foundation Rehabilitation program. The parents are very involved with the program, and we will select four of them who are most eager to learn these skills and share their stories. Later on, participants can pass on the skills to the other parents in sessions organized by the organization. We will continue to include materials produced by the parents in our website, social media, and publications.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will work with parents to brainstorm the video stories about their children and the Playday program of inclusion through art. From the story outlines, we will use digital video cameras and still photographs to tell those stories visually. Hot Sun Foundation Film School staff will edit the video stories, reviewing the process with the parents. They will explain how to set up YouTube, facebook, blog and twitter accounts and how to use them. They will train the parents how to upload the 90 second videos and photos to YouTube, to their blog, to facebook and to twitter. YouTube, blogs, facebook and twitter have very wide usage in Kenya. Parents of children with disabilities will greatly benefit knowing how to use social media to tell their stories.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will hold the Internet trainings at Hot Sun Foundation. Hot Sun Foundation has a film training centre that includes a large training room, an editing room, an equipment room, a sound room and an office. We have seven editing stations equipped with Mac computers and Final Cut Pro. We have two DSL video cameras and two DSLR video cameras that also take still photographs. Our internet is an unlimited, high speed connection. Project Play Day sessions will take place at the rehabilitation center of The Action Foundation, in the heart of Kibera.
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?
The Action Foundation has been running a community-based rehabilitation program for children with disabilities and their families in Mashimoni community, Kibera slums since 2012. We have a Parent Support Program including income-generating activities and psychosocial support. Therefore, we have an excellent relationship with the parents of the children with disabilities. Our long-term presence in the community will help us to provide follow-up support where needed. Our organization is set up by a young passionate Kenyan woman and largely run by staff from Kibera and volunteers. This ensures we are in tune with the needs of our target group, and the problems of social inclusion in Kenyan society.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The parents are completely unfamiliar with the internet; therefore, we will need to familiarize them with using the internet, as well as ensure they understand how they can use the skills obtained in the project to share their stories. Another challenge will be to build an audience for the stories, in a society where persons with disabilities are not accepted. We will use our collaboration with Hot Sun Foundation and our current supporters’ base to overcome that obstacle. Also, the parents will not have the necessary equipment to use their skills after the project ends. Kibera has internet cafés, and The Action Foundation has a photo camera. We will aim to periodically make video equipment available, especially when organizing events, so that the parents can use their acquired skills.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We will evaluate success through human output (number of parents trained in citizen media) and material outputs (number, quality of videos, photos, stories). We will interview each parent before, during and after the project about how they will use their citizen media skills. We will measure impact through likes on facebook, followers and retweets on twitter, views on facebook, on our blog and subscriptions. We will hold a community screening, inviting parents and friends to discuss the videos and how to use them. We will contact traditional media (radio and TV) to bring attention to the social stigma of children with disabilities and to our social networking sites. Hot Sun Foundation will include the short videos in their community screenings, held in Kibera and other communities.
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 : Activity 1: Mobilization and Selection of Participants and Trainers. General meeting with participants and trainers to define and explain project and schedule.
July-August 2014 Activity 2: Training parents in video, photography, and story writing
August-September Activity 3: Internet training in social networks: facebook, twitter, blog
September- October Activity 4: Video editing
November 2014: Screening of videos and photo exhibition at The Action Foundation and other locations, including community screening by Hot Sun Foundation
December 2014: Evaluation, reporting and follow-up
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Trainer: photography, video – 2 people, US$40 each per day, 6 days – US$ 486
Interns – in kind expenses only, 2 people, US$ 9 each per day, 6 days – US$ 111
Transport training team to The Action Foundation Rehabilitation Center – US$12 per person, 2 people, 6 times – US$ 139
Communication – US$ 93
Supplies – US$ 28
Coordination – US$ 17 per person per training, 2 people, 12 trainings – US$ 417
Editing: photos and videos – US$ 694
Transport for participants to Hot Sun Foundation for internet trainings – US$23 per training, 6 trainings – US$ 139
Trainer for internet trainings – US$ 35 per training, 6 trainings – US$ 208
DVDs (12) – US$ 14
Hard Drive (1) – US$ 116
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can help to spread the videos, photographs, and stories through digital media. Also we hope to connect with other projects to share our experiences and learn from each other.
Contact name
Maria Omare
Organization
The Action Foundation
