This Sky FM/Witaba Foundation project seeks the promotion of Citizen Journalism through the use of new media tools among youth and women aged 18-35. We hope to empower underrepresented voices through digital media and citizen journalism by providing an online platform to share stories, and raise awareness about issues that are often overlooked by mainstream media and matter most to underserved communities.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Kakamega
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Many voices in this community go unheard. Besides, many of them lack the knowledge and know-how to communicate their concerns, needs and experiences. This project seeks to provide a space to 60 participants for responsible and accurate reporting by offering selected members the skills to share the stories otherwise not covered by traditional news media–because of societal constraints, lack of resources, or poor access.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Charles Oduor www.facebook.com/charlsea.aloyse
Steve Shisia www.facebook.com/stevewitaba
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Participants will blog stories about themselves(daily experiences about social justice) as well as their respective societies. These stories will range from democracy, development, human rights and other news of social concern.
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.
The Foundation already engages the community through its various development programmes aimed towards awareness of ICT tools among the communities and empowering them with hands-on training. This will thus be a perpetuation of already existing connections
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
he workshop will be a space where 60 young men and women will be given a scholarship to participate and learn how to use simple ICT tools to document their stories and news that take place in their respective communities, and be able to disseminate them primarily through Web 2.0 namely social media, blogs, wikis and other digital platforms. Their participation shall be sought through organized public forums, and printed ads.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
ICT4D as well as C4D skills. The project is necessary considering about 65% of the rural population have access to cellphones, and over 80% of social media access is via smart phones especially among the youth between age 18-35.This makes the project valid
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The space will be a 60 pax capacity hall equipped with a projector, Flip charts, Broadband Internet, LCD laptops, 2 Camcorders. Participants will also be encouraged to carry their Internet enabled phones, own laptop, digital camera, handy-cam etc.
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?
Our organization has set up base at the heart of the community to effectively impact in lives of many through its digital inclusion programme aimed at creating a knowledge society and bridging the digital divide gap in order to help achieve MDGs 2015 and Kenya’s Vision 2030.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
There may be limited Internet bandwidth and or access at the workshop considering the large number of participants who may be uploading audios and videos online at the same time. Participants will be encouraged to bring their own 3G devices to supplement the Internet at the venue of the workshop.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
A pool of trainer of trainers created to train other community members on citizen journalism, Participants able to collect and develop stories for citizen journalism, Participants able to produce short videos and audio clips that will be able to support their stories, Participants beginning to use social media, blogs, wikis for publishing and campaigning their stories.
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 is scheduled for 16th June 2014
Call to participate: 19th May 2014
Selection: 2nd June 2014
Booking venue for Workshop: 4th June 2014
Communication to selected participants: 6th June 2014
Preparation of workshop material:7th – 11th June 2014
Workshop: 16th June 2014
Follow Ups: 23rd June – 28th July 2014
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Catering 500
Training venue 400
Event Badges 40
Coordinators Stipend 300
Communication & Dissemination Cost 80
Workshop Material 400
Projector & Internet 450
Transport for participants 330
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Event Awareness, Additional training materials
Contact name
Bonface Witaba
Organization
Witaba Foundation
