This project intends to bring mutual support to parent living with autistic children to share their experiences and bring mutual support each other using Facebook and through mobile phone or computers in urban and rural settings. Autism is difficult to undertake with poor support like in Cameroon. Parent can connect each other and share their knowledge and get also online in contact with specialists that can bring them advices and orientation
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Yaoundé
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We will work with the association (Community based organization) of parent living with autistic children. This networking will help to get the integration of more parents that are not yet members of the association. The Association of parents living with autistic children was born when two parent met themselves in a health center and notice their child was having similar behavior and they realize the benefit of sharing their concern. Nowadays, this association is growing with more than 30 parents living with autistic children they now discuss their concerns about the future of their children and how to advocate for more support from decision makers
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
• We have the support of people welfare services in Cameroon that gives us possibility to meet in their meeting hall and work together (pws.cm.org@gmail.com). We also work with IRFD (initiatives For Research and Training for development) irfdcameroon@gmail.com organization based also in Cameroon that helps un in capacity building
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
• • This project will help create core ideas and a documentary named “ a day with my autistic child” this documentary will be posted on internet essentially on youtube and will serve as advocacy tool to connect with decision maker for the cause of autistic children in Cameroon
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.
As for now parent share their information only with sms
We are intending to improve the information sharing and network building through internet and in a simple manner through facebook that can connect most of the less complex phone sets.
We have to first build a solid network of parent that can physically meet and continue meeting through telephone. The support of IRFD will help have more capacity in engaging as a group that can influence decision maker. People welfare services will bring a help in term of logistic and access to internet to post most of the documentary product that will be made of parent decision maker and wide public interest.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
• We will train 30 parents living with autistic children, the advantage of this group in term of aggregating is that all of them in the context of Cameroon are realizing the states has abandon autistic children to parents alone. Consequently they need to build strong network the cure perception most of people have with autistic chidren and also call for action in their favor. There are the major elements that can fuel their participation and more action build an consolidate a group
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will learn how to describe a personal experience and share our concern, we will learn how to shoot image , to share our experience with other and how to used facebook with a phone set
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
• Our partner organizations which are People welfare services and Initiatives for Research and Training for Developement have experience in networking and also in posting of footage on internet they will bring their experience to build a professional documentary that can be shared with any partner and will be used for advocacy that they will be undertaken towards decision makers
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 all members of this association of parents living with autistic children
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Challenges are the follow :
• Get children involve reasonnably to the footage, it is a time consuming activity
• Encourage parents that are already despairing
• Enlarge our network to rural araes were autism is more associated with witchcraft
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
These are main element for success :
• The footage if made and made public on you tube and with picture on facebook
• The number of perant adhering to the netework Is increasing
• Decision maker are having time to listen to us
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 will begin as from may 2014 and will continue and be follow up till December 2014 the period we expect parent will reach the critical number to move the cause forward
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Compact video camero $520,00
Record documentary $460,00
Share video on internet and 02 TV channel in Cameroo n $240,00
“Organise meeting for capacity
building on facebook usage and creation of a the associaiton facebook page” $280,00
Transportation fees and refreshment during meeting $390,00
Advocacy plan building and 2 meetings with decision makers $360,00
Accossories $176,00
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Get more acces to resource that can help parent have a library for parent with autistic children
Contact name
Pascal Daha Bouyom
Organization
People welfare Services Cameroon