Train 30 youth of Butiaba sub County as community internet usage trainers and user mobilisers in internet phone setting and facebook usage to be local community insperators as engines of citizen journalism. These shall popularize the use of facebook, recruit blog/groups users and inspire community issue reporting on oil, gas and youth voices in social, cultural and citizen issue amplification for action from the duty bearers at local and national level. It shall also increase the level of issue appreciation and link the community issues with action media as radios to amplify community voices
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Butiaba
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Buliisa is one of the most remotest area in Uganda. The local community voice needs to be heard and become part of the national and global communication community. This is however very challenging given the low levels of access to internet. MICOD held community civic discussions that revealed that communities lack sharing platforms. The district has no any public access internet. There is very limited use of internet by the communities. The district has no any radio. Buliisa district has no electricity. The youth will undergo training in internet setting training, to serve as community trainers and support communities in access to internet, using, responding and posting to community issues on facebooks and amplifying their voices. The project targets youth at community level
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Masindi District News Network MANET. This is a popular and growing social network on facebook that spearheads social citizen activism on issues of governance and social accountability in Masindi. Specifically, Mr. Akweterieho Johnathan the coordinator MANET shall provide team support in training the youth in site management, ethics, citizen journalism posting and attraction to both the readers and users. https://www.facebook.com/groups/masindinewsnetwork
MTN Uganda Masindi Field Team. This is the leading telecommunication firm in Uganda. It provides free access to facebook services on Facebook Zero. Specifically, the field team shall train the 30 youth in internet setting, appreciating the need for an internet café in the sub county and internet data services
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The key stories shall be service delivery in terms of roads, water, health services, youth concerns and friendly services and delivery mechanisms. Also, it shall share key opinions on local, district, national global governance and service delivery issues. Thus, in a long run, the blogs, facebook groups shall amplify local people opinions and strengthen the realization of freedoms of expression and conscience. This shall make the communities’ voices count. It is envisaged that the citizen agenda shall be set by the communities as opposed to receiving it from the leaders and governments.
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.
MICOD is implementing a Civic Education Project in two of the sub counties of Buliisa District, this implies reduced cost of administration of the project. Also, it has strong linkage and working relationship. Masindi District News Network (MANET) shall be a strong partnership as a learning and sharing platform for the new site that that unite the communities in Buliisa. This shall also give space of dialogue among the youth, establish a platform of integration of multiple age groups and both men and women. Also, it shall create learnings on the style of posting, activisms, attraction to citizen issues as contract and tender management and addressing the macro (national) issue as the 2015 elections and large investments as in oil and gas and infrastructure under the local content.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
The whole project shall be community led. The blogs and facebook groups shall be manned by and at the community level. Also, to give it sustainability, the project shall address community concerns, seek community led initiatives, require issues that affect the people of Butiaba and Buliisa district in particular to give it more community ownership. Also, the use of internet is becoming a right globally. It is expected to boost the rise in internet usage given the curiosity the youth have. Thus, a youth led initiative shall have majority participation since Uganda’s population is over 78% youthful.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The training shall require a set of 4 modems, four lap tops, a projector and phones connected to the internet. These technologies save phones shall be provided by MICOD. The lad technology shall be mobile phones with data for internet that shall be provided by the community. For training purposes, MICOD shall need three phones.phones shall be used because they are widely in community supply. MICOD shall complement the 30 youth with basic skills in advocacy messaging, development of an interesting, appealing and easy to read short stories, pictorial animation and selecting a correspondence picture for posting in the advocacy
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
MICOD currently has 2 functional laptops and a modem. It shall also secure a training Projector. These shall be put use during the training. The community shall provide the training venues while the 30 youth shall each provide their own personal mobile phones during the training.
The trainings shall require and procure internet data for training purposes
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?
MICOD is currently implementing the Citizen Manifesto initiative in Buliisa. The organization that deals in democratic and human rights is increasingly getting a niche in Buliisa district. This is thus a step in furthering the closer working relationship with the communities especially youth and women in both Butiaba Sub County and Buliisa district in general. The organization is working on oil governance and the great percentage of oil and oil activities are in Buliisa district. This makes a bond relationship between MICOD and the communities whose rights are at risk of violation.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The initial planning meeting as a citizen engagement meeting organized by MICOD at Butiaba landing site indicated sectarian groupings based of Beru and Umoja social groupings on Alur and Bagungu tribal lines. These are expected to affect the implementation of the project especially truibal discussions featuring at the facebook and other social networking groups. However, deliberate efforts shall be made at the training level to guide the lead initiator teams and trainers to enable a uniting posting at the on set. Also, linkages with MANET shall provide positive engagement at a community and macro levels of media usage.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The key measure of success shall be based on the number of new facebook users on the blogs administered by the trained 30 youth. The trained youth shall voluntarily help communities to have internet mobile phone settings, make friends requests, post lead stories and phots of governance, rights and service delivery events and issues, opinions on national and global issues of concerns. MICOD shall also, working with the community volunteers assess the number of postings, responses and number of consistent facebook users. For purposes of efficacy and impact, a news network shall be set for use across the Sub County and district as a solidarity group for all the people that shall be stressed for impact. Also, the skills developed and acebook blogs or groups formed.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
June 2014: Selection of youth beneficiaries and preparation of the training workshop and materials and tools
June 2014: Contacting the resource persons and trainers (scheduling with the facilitators aligned to the topics)
July 2014: Conducting training work-shop (training the 30 youth in phone internet setting practical facebook and community journalism by youth as community facilitators and trainer of communities)
September 2014: MICOD conducts a follow up meeting with the key youth facilitators to review progress of the facebook groups and citizen issue journalism
September 2014 to May 2015: Regular follow up and networking the sites support by communities.
January 2015: Linking the created groups with existing groups at a district, regional and national as Masindi District News Network (MANET) and Uganda at Hearts (UAT)
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Procurement of a Community Modem 100$
Transportation of two Facilitators to the communities 160$
Follow Ups on initiatives 240$
Lodging/accommodation 240$
Training materials 80$
Digital Camera 140$
Meals for training (Food) 800$
Coordination related Expenses 360$
Internet services 200$
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
It would be vital if MICOD staff are trained in child rights, gender reporting and citizen journalism. This shall help MICOD staff to train other communities and project beneficiaries and make focus on children, youth and women issues at a local, national and international level. Linking the Facebook blogs created by communities with other global networks for increased citizen voice raising. Raising voices could also link MICOD to other global partnerships in human and democratic rights to support the organizational working efficiency in working with local citizens and supporting other citizen initiatives that can amplify this initiative.
Contact name
Kangula Lawrence.
Organization
Mid-western Region Centre for Democracy and Human Rights
