The aim of the magazine is to promote feminist values, gender equality and female liberation, as well as to address social problems and challenges of great concern to the Sudanese woman. The magazine will be fully operated by young women and will distributed WEEKLY for free in schools, universities as well as cafes and public gathering hotspots across Sudan, and will be available online. As the most oppressed and underprivileged group in Sudan , we hope the magazine will restore the hope for better Sudan for women.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Khartoum
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
This project is the idea of famous fellow Sudanese women rights activist & blogger , Ms Samia Gallabi . For the past few years, she has been reaching out to young Sudanese women , to know their dreams and aspirations for Sudan , and to measure their satisfaction with the status quo. She landed on the idea of documenting and publishing these young women's ideas and perspectives , and envisioned a magazine , made by women for women, as the method to do it . Highly skilled young female journalists , activists & bloggers will operate the project from A-Z , under Ms. Gallabi's guidance & management .
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Ms. Samia Gallabi (editor in chief)
https://www.facebook.com/SamoQuoeen?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/ReaderGatecom
https://www.facebook.com/Darwishasamraa
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The magazine will highlight female achievements and initiatives across the country, expose women rights abuses & give voice to “unorthodox” female opinions. Politicians and decision makers will be put under microscope and their lobbing against women freedoms will not be overlooked anymore.
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.
My organization has established strong relations with women rights advocacy organizations and associations , which will definitely be of great help when recruitment of staff and volunteers. Also, we have long history with publishing houses in Sudan and prominent Newspapers & magazines ,that should ease the process a lot .
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
30 Staff members will be trained , 200 hundred volunteers will receive first hand guidance & mentoring , and a public of 50,000+ women will be directly reached & informed by the Magazine weekly.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
As a computer & Internet geek, I will offer my help with the website design , data encryption , and other related services , and as a Nonprofit Executive , I will personally train the management team of the magazine . Samia , on the other hand, has the journalistic and hands-on experience that will put the pieces together .
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Temporarily , the staff will use our office in Khartoum . It has Fiber-to-home high speed internet connection technology (7.2 Mbps) . Later on , we will have to reallocate the magazine to it's own facilities .
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?
My organization is Youth-lead , Youth-focused . Female make 80% of our staff and volunteer base . We have been involved in many women rights themed initiatives and projects , and we have what it takes to make this project a success story.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
We do expect governmental opposition to the project and official requests from conservative government bodies to have it shutdown . Nevertheless , we are used to the government opposing what we do , and we have developed our methods of dealing with such challenges . .
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
For the online version , monitoring evaluation is easy , as we will use the visitation date as well as the readers’ comments and complaints to asses the performance of the Magazine . For the printed version , readers will be able to contact and interact with our staff through the traditional methods ( mail , suggestion boxes at the Newspaper Stands .. etc) . The data they will provide will be of great help in conducting periodic rigorous performance appraisals.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
(pre-launching activities )
staff recruitment (June-July)
Training of trainers (TOT) (July)
Volunteer/interns recruitment and training (August)
Media / social media advertising (August)
Launching day (September 1st)
(There will be a press conference & inauguration ceremony)
First performance evaluation (September 1)
(it'll occur periodically, four times a year )
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
5 Laptops : 5 * 400$ .
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We will hold TOT workshops twice a year , and one annual conference. For that , we will need help bringing international and local trainers and speakers. Through the organization's connection we can invite those trainers and speakers to do their work pro bono, but we can't expect them to cover their own travel and accommodation cost . If Rising voices can help with that , that'd be great! . Also , if you can help, through your own connections, bringing and linking well known International Journalists , women rights activists and bloggers to our events and have them advocate for us , that would be of great help.
Contact name
Mohamed Salih Abubakr
Organization
O Noor (NGO)