TGSN is an international mutual aid community without borders united by an online portal. TGSN provisions rural community groups with supplies for small scale community improvement projects & provides information on the assets and needs of these communities to members and the world at large. It is a niche project that utilizes international travelers to carry material supplies identified by rural groups at the TGSN portal. With the help of a local support person, groups will document the use of these supplies by creating a photo blog hosted by TGSN. Travelers expand their view of the world.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Mbeya/Dar es Salaam, Naiorbi Kenya
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
1. (Remote) rural villages throughout the world
2. Ad hoc or extant rural groups that do not reflect existing social structure and are women/girl beneficial
3. Individuals from more industrialized countries that are traveling for business, education or pleasure to locations near a rural community project
I have vision from first-hand experience with African rural communities. As a byproduct of these activities TGSN expects to bring greater opportunities for women & girls to find ways to be online and to tap into local/national technology training opportunities. I have first-hand experience with travelers who want to carry something people really need and this group often lacks informed understanding of our world and miss opportunities to influence national responses.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Anthropology training and field/planning experience & nonprofit/NGO experience gave me knowledge of the pitfalls of the “industry” nature of both. This reinforces my commitment to involving rural community members in the planning & my cautiousness in soliciting individuals to help get this off the ground. This funding will assist travel to Tanzania & Kenya to explore identified resources for a pilot project. Recruited individuals from the US will have their roles defined after overseas input. Major players:
Herman Longo, University in Diversity Foundation coordinates many multinational projects e.g., http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Herman-Longo/1500870599
Julia Rotich(julia.na) offers me space at Ushahidi (Nairobi) to help find local tech resources
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
This is an asset based approach to viewing a local community (e.g., http://www.abcdinstitute.org/about). Content will be developed 1) when groups make an initial request and are guided through detailing positive things about their community and 2) in the blogs that they have to produce as a means of accountability. I envision this as being used to create academic standards content for K-12 at least. (Copyright assignment is an issue here and will be worked out with communities.) But again, this is a conversation to have first with people on the ground from overseas and integrated into known opportunities world-wide.
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.
See question re assistance in implementation. TGSN wants to provide infrastructure for rural groups and perhaps for NGOs. At Ushahidi I expect to have access to Akirachix http://akirachix.com and other tech resources at iHub. Tanzania has expanding technology, but it does not seem to have a robust gender component. But I will research that. Herman Longo has a strong relationship with the government and international projects and would be helpful in establishing necessary permissions. We have a potential partner from ESRI in South Africa, but that one is not as strong at the moment. TGSN has been evolved over a number of years. We have people waiting to carry items in suitcases.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We plan to take on the world village by village and make incremental impactful change in ways that protect the safety of females. The pilot project is in an area of the world where I have experience, but it is expected that it will expand all over the world. We will track those that go on for further training. But training strategy will need to be developed locally as the technology will need to be locally appropriate. We believe that many will explore the WordPress online modules. We anticipate the local resource person will develop strategies that work locally. But for every group that posts, there will be at least one person who gains additional computer skills that can be expanded on locally.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
1. TGSN will use WordPress because of its extant multilingual capacity and because it has WordPress camps internationally, online resources, and an in-place community to help with issues and new endeavors. TGSN's focus is creating infrastructure, confidence and catalyzing use of local resources.
2. The information has be posted by a community group member with the help of a local TGSN resource person. It will be posted in the language the person is most familiar with and translated on the TGSN portal, providing hands on interaction of how to make technology work for “me”. This process is also seen as a way to address vulnerability in females by providing technology exposure and direction to training that will reduce the need to become involved in exploitative survival activities.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
TGSN is a niche. We will find ways to direct females to tech/computer training. There are only two major funding needs long-term. The cost of keeping the network running and payment of local resources individuals who can assist linguistically and technologically. If there is a local computer cafe, we will network with that cafe to make the latter happen.
We do plan to have the administration of the project move to a different part of the world every five years and a plan for transfer & online and/or in-person mentoring will be one of the products of year 2.
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 known Herman Longo for 2.5 years over the Internet and have seen him in action addressing new ventures and mistakes. I met Julia Rotich at an ESRI conference and after my elevator speech she thought well enough of it to offer me a desk at Ushahidi. People find me credible.
.I lived/worked in rural South Africa 1993-1997 involved with women's issues university teaching, etc. and have homestay travel to other African countries
.I excel in start-ups
.I have a long history of advocacy and service delivery in women's issues
.It is well known that I plan to permanently relocate to an African country
. I was asked by South Africans to represent them at conferences, etc.
. I have extensive technology training and understanding and experience
.My background makes this possible
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
1. Getting the multilingual/responsive WordPress site up and going and finding putting local support who will support, not do it for in place (it development has been started but has been suspended because of additional information)
2. Getting government permissions so that the customs process goes smoothly
3. Getting airlines to support this endeavor with special fares, added baggage allotments (although we will educate about how to travel with fewer suitcases)
4. Setting up safeguards to rout on specious requests
5. Setting a location policy that makes sense to protect girls/women that are on line in light of vulnerability, trafikking, etc.
6. Establishing a copyright policy so that any proceeds are shared with local communities
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 that TGSN is known and that communities make requests, these are fulfilled by travelers and then a blog is created
.A measure of success will be the extent to which these community projects improve household and disposable income and education/skills training for women (and girls–but many of the technology training programs today focus on youth)
.Feedback from travelers that this process expanded their understanding of this world
.That we are able to successfully transfer administration of this network to different parts of the world every five years will be a measure of success.
NGO failure is often defined by the inability of communities to keep numbers and write reports. TGSN redefines success/failure to respond to rural communities and quantitative needs
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
1. Incorporate as nonprofit LLC (I have done a lot of research on organizational structure) (6/2014)
2. Establish flexible organization in the US with identified individuals. (7/2014)
3. Start blog June-July 2014 to talk about our approach
4.Further website development (6/2014)
4. Study of kiSwahili (5/2014)
4. Raise additional funds for overseas travel through crowdfunding (I have the resources to maintain myself on a day-to-day basis) (August or September 2014)
5. Travel overseas and start networking (Nov or Dec 2014)
a) Enter Kenya and Tanzania as participant-observationist (anthropology methodology) and speak with rural women, recruit programmers (largely female) and get information to make a decision on the best long-term organizational structure
b) Put international team/board in place to take this forward (2015)
c) Visit Malawi NGO contact to talk about the project (2015)
9. Work with tech team to refine website prototype ensuring multilingual and responsive capacity
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
LLC incorporation in California $1000 (I have priced this out and it is just under $1000)
Airfare subsidy to Tanzania $1500
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
The biggest challenge is going to be the coordination. We will need a legal advisor, and have Princeton and Thomson Reuters Foundation's Trust Law Connect as potential providers. Having Rising Voices behind us will give additional credibility. I have also identify individuals I want on my advisory board. Again having the Rising Voices name may help recruit them. Mentor me in this international process. Give me minds to bounce the ideas off and refine them. It would be very easy for me to present a more coherent plan. But I am in America and I need to get overseas. Just believe that this can be done.
Contact name
Adande Washington
