The project aims to prepare a team of blind Twitter users in Nepal. They will contribute to the Twitteratti tweeting about the issues and concerns of totally and partially blind people. They will tweet vigorously during the Blind World Cup being played in South Africa this November.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Kathmandu
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The Cricket Association of Blind Nepal (CAB-N) has members who are proficient computers as well. Out of the 300 blinds who can use computers, around 60 can access internet and contribute to the online world. However, none of them use the social media like Twitter and blogs to express their feelings in the online world. Working with them will enhance their skills and bring forth contribution from an under-represented community, giving them voice in the internet in addition to enhancing their self motivation and confidence as well.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Along with Nepal Building Aspirations (NBA) the main implementer of the project, the Cricket Association of Blind-Nepal (CAB-N) and National Rehabilitation Society for Disabled (who is sponsoring the internet café for blinds) will be involved as well.
Website of CAB-N : http://cabnepal.com/
Facebook page of NBA :https://www.facebook.com/NepalBuildingAspirations?ref=hl
NBA group :https://www.facebook.com/groups/NepalBuildingAspirations/
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Microblogging will be the main medium used to create tweets and stories in Storify. The users will microblog to express their feelings and during the Blind World Cup Cricket the users will come up with tweets and stories in Storify related to the competition and the players. It will bring forth their side of the story through the tweets and stories.
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.
NBA has already worked together with the CAB during the team selection for the World Cup. NBA organized a free Dental and Medical check-up camp cum general health and well-being survey to find out the behavioral traits of the blinds who participated in the competition hailing from all parts of Nepal.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Around 30 participants will be trained in using Twitter and Storify. NBA will work together with CAB and the internet cafés for blinds to increase the number of users in the future. During the joint activities organized by NBA, CAB and internet café for blinds, the members who have already been trained will train more members so as to increase the members and encourage the community to be active in the internet and contribute more often.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
CAB and the internet café for the blinds already have capability to train the blinds to use computers. NBA has experience in research, social media and storytelling. Together they will train the blind community to go online and contribute to the internet. Internet and microblogging is a democratic means to express the feelings and as this community hasn’t contributed much to the online world, this project will bring forth the original content from this community.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Internet café for blinds sponsored by National Rehabilitation Society for Disabled at Anamnagar in Kathmandu will be used as the training venue. It has 12 computers with screen-reading software that can be used by visually impaired. We will use 7 terminals at a time. Each terminal is connected with ADSL and has internet speed of 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?
NBA will continue working with CAB-N to research on medical behavior of blinds for policy discussion. Currently NBA is working with CAB-N to find out behavioral traits of blinds. As NBA is already working with CAB-N and NBA being well versed in social media, it makes NBA the most preferred partner.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
While implementing the project, the blinds need to be motivated and they might not be attracted to the concept. However, NBA will provide them examples of successful mibrobloggers and microblogging to get them going.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The project’s impact will be determined by the active users and the stories, microblogs created by them. Besides, the growth in the number of Twitter users and their contribution will also be counted.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
June – selection of participants
July – August – Actual training
September – October – November – Tweets and stories in the internet
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Initial workshop – 250 USD
Training – 750 USD
Internet modems for the participants – 500 USD
Microblogging camp during Blind Cricket World Cup – 500 USD
Coordinator expenses – 250 USD
Documentation of the project – 250 USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
GV Authors can support in organising the training session. GV can carry stories of the training and outcomes to give more mileage to the project.
Contact name
Suraj Gurung,President ,NBA
Organization
Nepal Building Aspirations
