Despite Ugandan government efforts, over 16 women still die every day due to preventable and treatable pregnant-related complications. Child mortality rate is unacceptably high. The death of mothers and children remain invisible. Building on its advocacy efforts to improve child and maternal health in Uganda, Angels Compassion (a not-for-profit registered NGO: Reg. no: 9392) now proposes to organise 5-day hands-on workshops to train 20 college/University girls in using photography, stories, emails and blogs to report child and maternal health challenges in Uganda.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Kampala
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We orgarnised a meeting with a sample of 10 college/university girls in Mbarara district, where it was identified that child and maternal health is a major concern that has silently consumed the lives of many poor women/children. They also participated in writing this proposal. Globally, girls are under-represented in computing/online. There are few female maternal/child health activists online in Uganda. We will train 20 college girls in capturing photos, stories about child/maternal health challenges, uploading the information on our blog and marketing the blog. After training, 5 of the girls will be selected as coordinators and given digital cameras. The remaining 15 girls will use blogs & emails, and will also inform the coordinators’ of the cases to photograph.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The project will be implemented by staff at Angels Compassion (www.angelscompassion.org). These include:
Dr. Angella Musiimenta (PhD): email: admin@angelscompassion.org) is the Founder and Executive Director of Angels Compassion. She is recognized nationally and internationally as an advocate and implementer of interventions that aim to promote the rights of vulnerable women and children with particular focus on child and maternal health.
Ms. Birungi Immaculate (email: birungi.immaculate@gmail.com) is a journalist by profession and has done great work in capturing stories about women’s health issues in Uganda.
Ms. Cecilia Tusiime (email: info@angelscompassion.org) is in charge of communication, and has a strong passion in promoting the rights of women and children.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Our vision is a world where every woman and every child lives a healthier and meaningful life, and freely speaks out any violence of rights to health. Women will report neglected cases of child and maternal health at a family, community and health centre levels e.g. denied rights to access health services by family members or spouses; failure to be attended to or unfriendly services at health centres, disease outbreaks affecting women and children, child malnutrition, child/women abuse, HIV-related discrimination, measles outbreak, immunization challenges. The output will be inform of photographs, case studies, stories reporting on neglected cases of child and maternal health in rural district of Mbarara.
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.
With funding support from the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports, Angels Compassion has an established partnership with college girls in Mbarara district where our project will be implemented. Currently, we are training 20 girls in bakery as a form of income generating activity. Dr. Musiimenta has an established connection with school girls since she is coordinating a 2014 Google Rise project that aims to inspire school girls’ involvement in Science and Technology in Uganda. She also already have connections with University girls since she Lectures in both Mbarara University and Bishop Stuart University in Mbarara.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We will train 20 college girls in capturing photos, stories about child/maternal health challenges, uploading the information on our blog and marketing the blog. After training, 5 of the girls will be selected as coordinators and given digital cameras. These will take a lead in capturing photos and uploading them to the blog. The remaining 15 girls will get stories and upload them on the blogs, use emails to market the blog, and will also inform the girl coordinators’ of cases to photograph. Girls will be required to submit weekly reports of the progress.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will use digital photography, blogs to capture and publish child and maternal health challenges. Digital photography will be used to capture events as they happen. Uploading photos to the blog will create awareness to a wider audience and policy makers. Dr. Angella Musiimenta, has a PhD in Information Systems from The University of Manchester-UK. Her passion, expertise and previous experience in using digital media (e.g. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/726616, http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/2010/08/stigma-and-discrimination-surrounding-hivaids/) to advocate for respect of human rights will lead to success of this project.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
In a 5-days workshop, the 20 girls will be trained from Angels Compassion computer laboratory which has 13 computers connected to reliable internet (ADSL). The lab also has 7 laptops and 7 USB modems which will supplement the ADSL internet. We also have wireless internet which can accommodate 5 computers. The laboratory has a sitting capacity of 30 people. Other relevant facilities in the lab include a white board, and a projector. The 5 cameras will be purchased.
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?
Angels Compassion already have an established relationship with 20 college/university girls who are currently undergoing training in bakery at Angels Compassion. We also have an established partnership over 900 school girls who are currently involved in the Google Rise program coordinated by Dr. Musiimenta in collaboration with Mbarara University. Angels Compassion is the most appropriate organization to implement this project due to its already established relationship with local women leaders, its mission and track record of being the voice to the vulnerable women in rural Mbarara. Dr. Musiimenta also have established relationship with girls in the two Universities in lecture in.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Challenge: Sustaining girls motivated to capture stories, photos and upload them on the blog.
Strategy: We will request them to give us weekly progress reports and we will also organize monthly meetings to chart through progress, discuss challenges met and agree on the way forward. We will also provide them with small air time or transport reimbursement.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We will the participants a questionnaire before the training to capture their training needs, expectations, knowledge of computing, knowledge of maternal/child health. To find out the impact of our training, we will be give the trainees an end of training questionnaire which will assess whether their needs and expectations were met by the training, and will assess the changes in the knowledge (of child/maternal health) levels. Photographs and stories will be uploaded on the blog for a wider community to view and post comments. The blog will be evaluated based on the number of people visiting the blog. Emails sent to market the blog will be documented.
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: Recruitment of participants
July 2014: Training of participants
August 2014 – June 2014 implementation of the project. The trained 5 college girls will be capturing maternal/child health challenges using digital photography and uploading them on the blog, and marketing the blog using emails and Face Book. The 15 girls will be take up the responsibility of looking for maternal/child health challenges that need to be captured by the camera, and will also be getting stories and uploading them on the blog. They will also be involved informing the public about the blog using their emails and Face Book accounts. To access the internet and computers, the girls will be using computer laboratories in their respective colleges.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
5 digital cameras = $800
Training= $1000
Travel =$ 200
Airtime = $100
Printing = $200
Coordination= $200
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Publishing the project on the website for Rising Voices to increase awareness about the project.
Publishing best practices, lessons learnt, and challenges experienced by other projects so that we can learn from them.
Contact name
Dr. Angella Musiimenta
Organization
Angels Compassion
