The State Institution in charge of laying-out and developing industrial zones in Cameroon is currently carrying out forceful evictions nationwide. On the 27th of March 2014, 2300 houses were demolished in Douala, leaving about 20.000 people homeless without any State guaranteed protection. Cameroon bears the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate housing, owing to its ratification of the ICESCR, on 27 September 1984.
This project is geared at empowering the victims to use social media to build a network, tell their stories and raise pre
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Douala
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We will be working with young people between 17 and 25 years, victims of the forceful evictions specifically of the Nkomba and Bessengué quarters in Douala. Most of these youths who were living in urban slumps, come from economic weak homes with low academic backgrounds and basic ICT knowledge. Only about 8% of youths from this part of the city are privileged to develop their ICT skills due to lack of infrastructures and services.
These youths actively took part in an initial survey carried out on the field a week after the incident. Following the determination and dynamism expressed during survey, we are convinced of their engagement in this project.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Dynamic Citoyen (Littoral branch): A network of more than five hundred civil societies in Cameroon working on diverse social sectors independently monitoring public policies and strategies for cooperation.
Web: http://www.dynamiquecitoyenne.org/
Association des Refugies Sans Frontières Douala: An NGO based in Douala Cameroon with mission to promote and defend refugee rights
Web: http://arsfinternational.com/
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The news content will be designed from text, photos and videos describing the situation before during and after the incident. The idea is to show case the negative impact of the forceful evictions both at the individual and community level with special interest on the health, education, economic, cultural and political aspect of it..
Participants will be trained and distributed in actions groups through which they will be expected to create the content themselves using mobile phones, computers and free Web2.0 tools.
The output of the content will be a huge data network online with enough exhibit of the violation of the economic, cultural and social rights of the victims that can influence the development of and adapted policy.
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 already established partnership with local NGOs, media houses and networks and a host of dynamic and engaged journalist interested in such social issues amongst which are:
Association des Refugiées Sans Frontières: http://arsfinternational.com/
Un Monde Avenir : http://unmondeavenir.org/
Dynamic Citoyennes : http://www.dynamiquecitoyenne.org
Radio Bonne Nouvelle : http://www.radiobonnenouvelle.org/dla_index.php
Amy Banda (Journalist) : http://amybanda.wordpress.com/
We are planning to work in close collaboration with Habitat International Coalition, Global network for the right to habitat and social justice: http://www.hic-net.org/
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We will train one hundred (100) participants in our project.
These participants will be selected among those that took part in an initial survey carried out on the field to find out exactly what happened. We have their phone numbers and email addresses. Besides, additional participants will be recruited online.
After training, participants will be distributed in action groups with individual roles. Each group will be given a leader to coordinate on the field and a symbolic allowance to use. At the end of the project, special prices will be awarded to the first three groups with exceptional results.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Workshop course is made up of three modules that explore Web 2.0 concepts and tools through computers and mobile phones including:
• Blogging and micro-blogging using tools like: Twitter and Wordpress
• Image and video-sharing applications: Flickr and YouTube
• Social networks and bookmarking and online activism using Facebook. These technologies are appropriate because of their mobility, availability and accessibility on most gadgets that are attractive to youths and have the possibility to share resources in a circular manner in a short time.
The project manager, Excel Asama (excelasama.wordpress.com) is an ICT Expert with an International certification from the Internet Society; Internet Next Generation Leaders program (internetsociety.org). Our partners our human rights activists
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshops will be held in the conference room of a hotel not far from the incident zone with the following facilities:
• Surface area 600m² (30X20m)
• Provision for handicap persons
• Air conditioning (AC)
• 120 conference chairs
• Internet access (Wifi) but we have to get another with a higher bandwidth
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?
I-Vission International was founded 2008 in Douala. Since then we have been working in close collaboration with this community through interactive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) outreach programs both on radio and TV. We have as well carried out surveys in this community in the domain of cyber criminality.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
One of the major challenges we are anticipating is the displacement of the populations involved due to the evictions.
Most of the inhabitants of Komba will move either to the parts of the city or to a different town. As of now, we are working in collaboration with Dynamic Citoyen, a network of civil society organizations. This network has a more complete database of the victims. In case of any displacement, we will be able to contact them via SMS, phone calls or emails.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Success in this project will be defined in terms of: The number of participants trained and skills developed on their basic rights and how to organize and defend them; percentage of public awareness raised; support from the general public and reaction from the government and the international community.
This will be evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively.
It involves the number of trainees and the knowledge gained using evaluation forms and attendance sheets; the number of visitors on our web platform (at least 20 000 at the end of the project); number of Facebook likes (at least 5000 at the end of the project); number of partnership contracts, press articles, TV/Radio talks, Policies developed etc.
Online surveys and polls will be used to measure and evaluate project impact.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
•Preparation and planning meeting with project team and partners
April 26th, 2014
•Purchase of project materials (Digital Camera)
(1 day after receiving funds)
•Production of workshop materials (production of brochure, evaluation forms, attendance sheets, flyers, banners.)
2nd to 9th day
• Designing of web platform (website, newsgroups, email listing, Facebook page, YouTube channel, Flickr account.
10th to 24th day
•Booking of conference hall, video projector and sound system
25th -26th day
• Recruiting of workshop trainees
26th to 33rd day
•Online survey 1
34th – 48th day
•Promotion of project online and in newspapers
Ongoing
•Workshop
50th day
•Collection of data from the field by action groups
51st day – project end
•Monitoring of activities
From the 57th day and then twice a month
•Meet term Evaluation meeting
80th day
•Online survey 2
85th day
•Price award ceremony
90th day
•Final evaluation
•93rd day
•Project report
120th day
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
TOTAL= 2950, personal contribution = 650, Amount requested = 2300
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• Preparatory and planning meeting with project team and partners ($100)
• Purchase of project materials: Digital video Camera ($650)
• Production of workshop materials: brochure, evaluation forms, attendance sheets flyers, banners etc. ($250)
• Designing of web platform: website, news groups, email listing, Facebook page, Youtube channel, Flickr account etc ($475)
• Booking of conference hall, video projector and sound system ($200)
• Promotion of project online and on news papers ($200)
• Workshop: lunch break + transport for 100 participants+ allowance for facilitators ($700)
• Collection of data from the field by action groups ($ 100)
• Monitoring of activities on the field ($50)
• Meet term Evaluation meeting ($50)
• Final evaluation ($50)
• Price award ceremony ($100)
• Project report ($25)
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We are requesting Rising Voices to connect us to other organizations world wide with similar interest in the issues of forceful evictions in particular and the violation of the human rights in general. This will be an opportunity for us to create synergies, share good practices and create solid networks.
Contact name
Asama Abel Excel
Organization
I-VISSION INTERNATIONAL