The project will be organised by the nonprofit organisation Music Crossroads International (MCI).
The project aims at introducing our students’ stories, at the local academies in Mozambique and Malawi, to the global community.
The project will empower the musicians, sharing skills on effective music recording and knowledge on how to spread their message to larger audience using social media tool, to start a global conversation.
Music is extremely important in Southern Africa and this project will give our young students a voice in the community and online through their music
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Lilongwe and Maputo
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The young musical talents, specifically in our academies, have a fundamental role in this project. Many of our students come from underrepresented backgrounds in their community and would benefit from knowledge and skills on music production and online media tools for musical success.
The underrepresentation of young male and female African musicians online, is not due to their lack of talent, but to their lack of access to the means and knowledge to reach a global online audience and gain the recognition they highly deserve.
Music is an extremely important form of community sharing in Southern Africa, as a larger percent of the population listen to music than read books. The students have access to computers at our academy, but need to develop the skills to share their music.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
At the Music Crossroads Mozambique Academy the team will consist of:
Marilia Pessane, our experienced communications officer and Filipe Mondlane, who will be externally invited to shed some expert light on recording, to our other teachers and students.
At the Music Crossroads Malawi Academy the team will consist of:
Elizabeth Karonde, the academy communications officer and Augusto Gamaliel and Terêncio Tovela, the academy music teachers and professional musicians.
Director of Music Crossroads Joe Herrmann and project management employee Rikke Lorenzen, will also help with the preparation and implementation procedure, from the International Offices in Brussels.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
In this project, audio files will be created by our young talented musicians and will be uploaded and introduced to our and our students network.
The Audio files created, will be shared with the community in which they live, on citizen media and the global digital community.
The students will be encouraged to produce and share music that represents their voice and place in their society. The songs created will contain messages that they would like to convey to their society and the global online community. Messages about the struggles they face daily in their community, like HIV and gender inequality and the obstacles they have fought to overcome these struggles. Ultimately aiming at starting a global conversation online through music.
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.
Music Crossroads is one of a number of projects developed by Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), the largest youth music NGO in the world.
Music Crossroads now has numerous International and National partners, which will contribute to the workshop projects success.
Music Crossroads is partners with The Global Music Academy (GMA), based in Berlin. They are Music Crossroads Pedagogic Partner, who will bring in specific music educational competence and content in general, and specifically in relation to the implementation in an African context.
The Music Crossroads academies are also partners of Southern African cultural and music education stakeholders in their community, as well as local governments.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
There will be about 60 participants trained in our workshops and who will benefit from this project, 30 participants at each of the Music Crossroads Academy.
This project workshop will happen every year, with new young academy students participating. The students, who benefitted from the workshop this year, will be encouraged to help train the students who will participate in this workshop next year.
We will also promote the workshop on local media sites, as to ensure that a network of young musicians gets involved and participate.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The workshops will be held at the Music Crossroads Academies. Each academy has established musicians that will help make the audio recordings. The tools needed include: musical instruments, microphone equipments, Software for recording and audio editing.
The academies also have communication officer employees, with academic backgrounds in communications, who will be teaching the students how to upload and share their music recordings using Internet and video marketing tools. The free social media platforms and tools for this project including: Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, SoundCloud and Twitter.
This is the appropriate technology to use, as it responds to the need of the student, to fill the Media skills gap and knowledge needed to start a global conversation through music.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshops will be held at the Music Crossroads academies in Mozambique and Malawi. Each academy has the space necessary to have 30 participants.
Each Academy is equipped with basic recording equipment needed, including microphone equipment and 5 computers at the Malawi academy and 5 at the Mozambique academy.
The academies have an ADSL Internet connection to publish and share the music on the social media sites and networks.
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?
MCI is one of the biggest cultural development initiatives in Africa. The Music Crossroads program has involved more than 150,000 young musicians and reached more than a million audiences in Southern Africa. Which makes the organisation the appropriate entity to host the workshop.
The academies in Malawi and Mozambique have strong relationships with the community. The academies are partners of Southern African cultural and music education stakeholders in their community, as well as local governments.
The Music Crossroads academies, with the support of Music Crossroads International, are creating strategies for long term sustainability, ensuring a long-term commitment to the communities. Which will in return, ensure the sustainability of the workshop project.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The challenges we are expecting when planning and implementing the project include:
•The inconsistent electricity and Internet access may be a challenge during the workshops, but the academies have experience overcoming these challenges.
•Poor transportation opportunities may make it difficult for participants to reach the academies. The academy bus at each academy will be provided to facilitate the transportation as much as possible.
•Use of the equipment during the implementation and or running of the project. Each piece of musical and recording equipment needs to be accounted for and checked after every workshop.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The Measurement of success:
• The students sense of empowerment and future initiatives to record and do more, after learning how to share and spread their music and message.
• The acceptance online, in Music Crossroads and the student’s social networks.
• Viral success of our musicians’ recordings and their messages.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May:
Preparation of the workshop and materials needed
Advertising the workshop in the community
June and July:
2 workshops will be held in each academy (recording the music).
August:
1 Workshop will be held in each academy, teaching students how to share their recorded music using online media tools.
August – December:
The Music Crossroads International office will help upload the student’s recordings onto the network and will help spread the music and voice of the workshop participants to the global community.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Amount requesting: BUDGET: $2500
Personal work and training: $ 1000
Internet and software: $ 300
Materials and recording: $ 600
Marketing: $ 200 ((Facebook ads, Google ads, website banners, etc.).
Maintenance: $ 200
Local transport: $ 100
Refreshments: $100
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Support our musicians in our Southern African academies.
Contact name
Joe Hermann
Organization
Music Crossroads International