The project aim is to mobilize the people of ijegun community who have been perpetual victims of environmental pollution, to monitor their environment. This involves the capturing of image(photo & video) of pollution , for documentation and environmental reporting. Recently, a nigerian owned state Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation spilled into the community water and for weeks and months, it was not in the media and public domain. The mobile activism project is to give the people a ready voice through the picture and video representation of their environmental degradation plights.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Ijegun community, Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The community members under the aegis of Ijegun community residents association are the target group. After the recent oil ERA visited the community. Information gathered through discussions and testimonials indicate that the community folks are willing to support and participate in any intervention that presents their plight to the government, public and world. Segments of the community folks are naive to the importance of documenting environmental pollution to engender media attention or government response. Images of the spill and effects on the environment captured ERA team were subsequently uploaded
to ERA website www.eraction.org. Choosing the community is based on their readiness to be trained and on environmental justice principle of ERA
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The project will be co- implemented by the following professional
Yinka Olugbade- ICT expert
Rotimi Arowa-Audio-Visual/Multimedia expert
Wale Obayanju- Photography expert
Tosin Akinola- Developement/Environment expert
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
There is going to syndicated news articles, focusing on the different angles of the pollution such as health and livelihood. There will be catalogues of firsth hand testimonies from the community folks..Individual views and experience will be expressed freely while possible solution will be sourced and debated. In addition and as a platform for implementation, we are going to put in placee are going to put in place a toll free greenlines for emergency alert purpose on future environmental pollutino and also for seeking environmental information and advice. The platform will include a facebook page and twitter handle where experiences and collaborative solution can be discussed. In addition, we would also get a BBM enabled phone for us to be able to broadcast issued to the public and med
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.
ERA/FoEN has built a strong relationship with the Ijegun community residents association over the years and has also at several times had an interactive session with the community. We have worked in the community in the past with great success when there was an explosion from a busted pipeline, killing hundreds of people. We have a formidable partnership with journalists, most especially environment reporters. They include journalists from major print media, newspapers, audio, online, and television. A new partnership we are building is with the civil defense and and with the local government authorities. The later will provide legal and regulatory framework, while the former will provide needed security in the community.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
From ERA’s last visit to the community in February, the executive of the Ijegun residents association told ERA team that only six landlords out of the 820 registered members of the association have not indicated there williness to participate in the training program. In addition, about 530 locals have pre-registered with the association for the training exercise. The pre-registration of community folks and willingness of the executives show high participation and expectation level. In total a minimum of 1500 community members will be trained.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will make use of mobile phone technology which ERA has also deployed in other parts of Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta where we have engaged communities in environmental monitoring through regular training. ERA field monitors are experts on mobile advocacy and field report writing which are posted on ERA website: www.eraction.org . The advantage in using mobile phones to document environment impacts is because of the growing usage of mobile phones in Nigeria. About 60 per cent of the community folks in Ijegun have access to mobile phones, in some cases smart phones. This method is the cheapest and most accessible to the community which has also been proven to be very effective as it shows from the Niger Delta case studies.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We are going to use their town all with 750 sitting capacity. 10 laptops that are internet-enabled, mobile phones, and a projector screen will be used for the training. In addition, a 5-KVA electric stand-by generator for power backup will also be available during the training. Approximate internet speed will be 85.0Mbps. Training duration will be 4 days. ERA always makes use of trained volunteers that have been associated with ERA programs and events.
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 relationship with the community is very cordial. ERA/FoEN has visited Ijegun community on several occasions. A component of the planned training is to incorporate the local community folks into the Host Community Network (HoCoN) initiated by ERA to enable communities across Nigeria suffering impacts of extractive activities to share experiences on environmental monitoring and peacefully agitate for better environment in communities that host extractive companies and hosts to such facilities that ruptures. We have always delivered on our promises to the people and we are a trusted and tested organization. Part of our plan is to present representatives of the community to appropriate forum, where that can present their case themselves, like we have done in the Niger-Delta cases.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
A only possible challenge in the implementation of the project is the possibility of power outage which may occur during the trainings. We intend to surmount this challenge by the availability of a 5-KVA electric generator as a back-up power source. It will safe-guard the equipment and enable the training to go seamless.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The impact of the project will be measures and evaluated based on the following:
1. The number of participants in the training
2. Using In and Out slips to determine level of knowledge before and after training
3. Opinion poll
4. Quantity and quality of environmental reporting (photo and video) taking place with the duration of the program. A pilot domain will be set up to test acquired skills
5. Another measure will be the level of routine reports done by the community after the training.
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 duration is three months. We hope to carry out below important activities to give voice to the community which has been under reported in the media
July 1 – 12: Registration and public awareness campaign
July 14 – 19: Community sensitization and mobilization; meeting with local authority; meeting with civil defense
July 21 – 31: Participant grouping and making ready the town hall
Aug. 4- 16: Pre-training begins; In-slip evaluation
Aug. 19 – 23: Full training
Aug. 25 – 30: Training continue; mid evaluation
Sept. 1 – 5: Final combined meeting with local government, civil defense, journalists, and community executives
Sept. 8 – 13: Pilot environment reporting test
Sept 15 – 20: Final training and launch of Host Community Network (HoCoN)
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Activities Amount(USD)
Workshop/Training materials 1060
Internet Broadband 300
Travel and communication expenses 670
Electricity connection for equipment 235
TOTAL 2265
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We would like resource material that can provide example of similar initiative in other part of the world where Rising Voice have funded community mobilization.
Contact name
OLATUNJI BUHARI
Organization
ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION