This project is based in the rural area in Eastern province of Rwanda where people live mainly by agriculture. Since last years the agriculture production is decreasing and so we find some people flying the region to other parts of the country. The peasants need to have enough information to have enough crops and so to improve their living conditions. This project will help them to be able to use their land adequately because they will share all information regarding the agriculture because until now everybody works individually without consulting the experts in that scope.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
KIGALI
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
In this project is planned to start in the beginning with the raining people living the rural area. They live by agriculture and they do not have any other resources to earn money to survive. We shall start by a group of 30 people representing all the community and so their knowledge will be spread out in the entire region. It is planned the training in using the new technologies to have information via mobile phone . The population did not know to use the computer because of the lack of that tool but some of them are able to learn how to use it, however the phone use is common , they use it for various communication and some know already to connect to internet visiting the Websites and exchange short messages for social issues.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The team made of the community member in collaboration with our organization will be ready to execute all activities of the project. In fact they are training with regard to the new technology and they will organize the formation and to follow up to evaluate the impact of the project. The method to use is the training of the trainers (TOT), this will enable us to reach a big number of people in a short time.
NSABIMANA Jean Baptiste, www.fapdr.wordpresss.com, jbnsabimana@gmail.com, +250 788507777, Skype nsabimanajb
KALIGANYA Ernest, erneka2008@yahoo.fr, +250 735 309
TWAHIRWA Richard, twhirwapvk@yahoo.fr, +250 78840078
NTAKIYIMANA Jean Baptiste, foarpade@yahoo.fr,/ baptistchurch@gmail.com ,+250 788535673
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
We are going to prepare and to distribute regularly some information stories in relation with agricultural seasons while considering the weather report. The information will also contain use of fertilizing products and of seeds appropriated to the region. It is the opportunity to distribute the modern methods use for soil protection. People will learn how to us the irrigation methods .The introduction of mechanized agriculture is important as well as the identification of market To distribute all these information the main tool that is the mobile phone and to maximize its use. There will also be the regular productions of the unfolding and publications of the articles in the local newspapers and the broadcasts discussions via the local popular radio.
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.
Our organization executes its activities for a long time in the Bugesera region working with the communities of and then we know the habits of people and their life styles as well as their culture. They are already organized in various cooperatives that practice agriculture and the artisanal activities, some of them also practice the fishing in the lakes and the transportation of the goods or people using the bicycle and a lot of other.
We are going to work in collaboration with committees of cooperatives and others
Here is the list of the partners but the one is not exhaustive it may be too long
- Opinion leaders
– Religious leaders
– Cooperatives chairmen
– NGOs working on the same scope activities
– Political authorities
– ….
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
The population of the Bugesera district is estimated to300,000 people but w are going to start with 30 participants to the training and the activities planning because they represent all the population. The training seminars will be organized in the villages using the tools available in the region. It will be the opportunity to exchange ideas on the various means aiming how to spread out all information concerning the agriculture works vi the phone use. After to have the knowledge in that scope people will increase the agricultural production and find the market where to sell their products.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The phone staying the main tool , we shall use also the computer to be connected to internet by which we are going download all the required information for the project. So people will be trained how to use the computer and the phone to keep all the necessary and useful elements . This technology to be imported and practiced among the people will focus on the phone and different components and application as photos, video, short messages media (SMS), internet under it multiple aspects as face book, opera, and other systems like whatsap, Dropbox.
Our team have experience to use all the systems identified above and able to transmit the knowledge to the people living in the rural area.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We think to have all the skills required to execute the project in the rural are because we have access to the basis infrastructures as the rooms to gather the people and we have enough staff to train the people. The rooms contain all the materiel required for the adult formation. In addition we have two lap tops to use and they have capacity to keep power for a long time being given that there is no electricity supply. We will use the solar battery to charge the phone and other material what need the power supply.
Because they are is not connected to the national internet cable, the USB modems will help for the wireless connection.
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?
We are known in the community because as said above we collaborate with them to execute the social projects aiming to improve their living conditions. People trust in our actions and they are attracted by our behavior towards them and so they will keen to use the modern technology to improve the agricultural works to reach their objectives. We are going to collaborate with the religious leaders without any distinction and this will lead the beneficiaries to the holistic development and to increase the cohesion with the beneficiaries in the Rwandan society shaken after the genocide of 1994. Our plan is that the project will be executed in four stages: Identification of the needs, Contact of the leaders and identification of all tools and means, training activities, evaluation .
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The first challenge to face is the behavior change because the traditional agriculture practice is rooted in the mind of the people, and to resolve this problem we’ll use the various examples from other countries and to compare the results between ancient and modern methods. The climate perturbation is also a problem in the Bugesera region, this issue will be corrected by to environment protection planting different species of trees and using less wood through improved cook stoves a project is already we are running in the region such project.
Let us mention lack of permanent electricity and we thought to introduce the solar power system and to advocate to national electrical company to supply the villages.
Food security is threaten and the solution is to increase production.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
To evaluate and measure the impact of the project we’ll consider the number of the participants to the training and the participation rate reach 80 percent the project will be successful. It is planned the evaluation test of the knowledge, practice, and if we if the phone is used at75 percent of its capacity it is the evidence that the project runs adequately as weel as the out put of the tools.
In addition we shall see if the exchange the information with the people living in the same region is practiced by at75 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project .
In more we ‘ll see if the beneficiaries are able to import new technologies via internet, if the production higher than before .
We ‘ll measure also by the improving of living conditions of people.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Activity I: June 1st -15th 2014 Identification the participants and contact with the local
Authorities
Activity II: June 16th -30th 2014 Training seminaries conferences, public debates
Activity III: July 1st -30th 2014 Introduction and practice of new technologies
Activity IV: August 1st -30th 2014 Publication of the articles in the newspapers and
broadcast debates
Activity V: September 1st -30th 2014 Production of the tools include video to exchange via mobile phone
Activity VI: October 1st -30th 2014 Follow up of the activities within the region
Activity VI: November –December 2014 Final report and set of the system to continue the
activities in the future.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Office materiel: 140 USD
Electrical and electronically materiel : 290 USD
Internet access equipment and connection : 285 USD
Formation seminaries and training, conferences debates, public demonstrations: 840 USD
Translation and design and tools production: 250 USD
Broadcast events and television debates : 220 USD
Travel costs for the staff and other fees in relation to the transport of the trainers… : 145 USD
Activities coordination, evaluation, follow up: 290 USD
Total : 2467 USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
To assure the success of this project, we are going to collaborate with the volunteers for the actions requiring intervention like the short trainings. The training rooms to use are available will make The participants won't ask for the transport fees . We also have the experts to lead the audit of the project and that is the contribution from our organization because such action is expensive.
In addition we are contacting Onyealisi Ogechi from NIGERIA which the project is Local Initiative for Community Empowerment (LICEM)http://www.facebook.com/ngolifeonline because we share the same goal to empower the local communities and our partnership will be beneficial to our project because of their experience in this scope of work before we start the project activities.
Contact name
Jean Baptiste Nsabimana
Organization
FONDATION ARTISANS DE LA PAIX ET DU DEVELOPPEMENT AU RWANDA