Girl Power Clubs Africa (http://girlpowerclubs.blogspot.com) is a women leadership program that trains teenage girls to become agents of positive change through sport, culture, art and dance. New clubs were recently launched in rural Siaya County, which also has amongst the highest rates of poverty, child mortality, early marriage and pregnancies in Kenya. The aim of the project is to give girls a voice, to enable them to begin to pinpoint issues that affect their lives and seek help through providing a communication system between the clubs and the Girl Power headquarters and change agents.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Sigomere Ward
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
This proposal has come about as a result of a workshop run in Sigomere, in which 178 girls openly dicussed the problems that they faced and emphasized their need to stop being isolated and share with other girls in our program, from 26 schools in Nairobi and its environs. We can better dare
We wish to address school drop-out, moving into the labour market early to work as house maids and child carers in the cities, in the bars, malnutrition and abandonment of orphans from HIV-AIDS infected parents, and provide enough information on AIDS Transmission menstruation and pregnancy and nutrition. Mobile connectivity is possible and using the android phone will provide a much needed digital lifeline to the rest of the country, as we suspect that problems extend into Nairobi as well.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Margaret Naphthalie Jayoung: https://www.facebook.com/jayoung.margaretotieno
Mary Florence Atieno: https://www.facebook.com/mary.florence.14?fref=ts
Maria Okong’o: https://www.facebook.com/maria.okongo?fref=ts
Women Win: https://www.facebook.com/WomenWin?fref=ts
Vital Voices: https://www.facebook.com/vitalvoices?fref=ts
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Personal stories of each girl, through digital storytelling, will, not only give voice to every girl, but will also form the basis for adjusting programs for women and girls in the area, and encouraging new emphasis by local government on girls issues in Siaya County. We will publish material for girls who accept to be posted online, through an acceptable platform such as Ushahidi, as it will also map the hot spots, but also provide Facebook and Twitter linkage, microblogging, video website, and regular citizens poll and preasurize to improve services
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 partnerships with Women Win will help handle critical data collection and analysis, while Vital Voices have experience in mentorship of the girl leaders. Currently we are using Goal Book, which provides a manual for building self awareness. We have established important links to the Principals of the schools, one teacher-patron and local dominant Catholic Church. As a result of the micro grant, we have additional interest from the local MP, the Siaya County and Nairobi County women leadership and Citizen Media Group, who wish to help publish to a regional audience through their networks. We hope to bring in Safaricom Foundation to help open opportunity to more girls countrywide.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
400 girls: about 200 in Siaya County and 260 in Nairobi. They will be encouraged to continue by training other girls and receiving certificates and recognition for their participation.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We already have the following abilities:
Use of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Blogging
Basic editing of video clips
Basic audio storytelling knowledge
Sms platform
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will hold the workshops in rural Siaya County, where the girls would be using android phones with ability to video, take photos and sound, and send to us in Nairobi through Safaricom mobile. We would be receiving and directly loading on our webserver, edit and prepare to post on our Girl Power platform, where we have 2 laptops, a server with connection speed on 1 Mbps.
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?
Girl Power Clubs Africa has more than 8 years experience in working with girls and made an impact within Nairobi and its environs, and have mentored an average of 600 girls annually. We were approached by concerned women leaders and school principals in the community, who were very concerned. We have already, as a result, an office with a laptop and mobile phone, a bicycle, a project assistant, a sports trainer, a teacher patron in each of 7 schools and a prominent ladies football team led by a local lady media journalist who will help champion the process.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Negative reaction from perpetrators of the activities, who benefit from the status quo. This includes some teachers, bar owners and labour agents. We will involve the local security police, provide SMS backup numbers to all girls to local community groups providing child protection services in the area.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
1. Attendance of girls to club sessions, 2. patron reports 3. Number of stories received 4. number of people reacting online to Facebook and Twitter 5. Number of call-ins on Citizen radio 5. Reactions to polls from the digital community 6. Committment by the County leadership in effecting change, verbally and through initial action.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Preparation phase: July 2014: Purchase 6 mobile phones, Select two girls per school as ComConnect Assistants, select 7 rural and 7 urban schools to pilot
Training: August 2014: Train ComConnect Assistants on how to use multi-media messaging, blogging and digital storytelling. Girl Power Clubs Assistants to learn how to edit and post material.
Action: September – November 2014: establish regular communication between Girl Power Head Office and between clubs
Expansion: extend the use of mobile phones to the rest of the Girl Power Clubs with support from other donors.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
6 Android Mobile Phones – 917 US$, internet data bundles for 6 months – 635 US$, coordinator expenses – 175 US$, workshop training – 260. Total = 1988.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We would be grateful if we could get a volunteer to offer professional support in training of the girls to edit and place the material online on appropriate platforms, and help streamline data collection. We would be happy to host a female intern or volunteer for about 2 months in Nairobi and Siaya for this purpose, and provide accommodation, and offer a certificate of achievement at the end of the period.
Contact name
Dr. Elizabeth Odera
Organization
Sadili Oval Sports Academy