Several of our June applications proposed projects that use online media like blogs and podcasts to engage in conflict resolution and peace-building. And example of such a proposal is Ljubisa Bojic's application from Serbia. Vickie's project in Sierra Leone is another example of using citizen media to encourage post-conflict dialogue. Please add you thoughts here as to how that can best be accomplished.

Give a Rising Voice to Citizens of Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone)

 

uNight Witness: Blogging for War-Effected Youth in northern Uganda (Uganda)

 

Blogging for Peace (Moldova)

 

Communities Connected (Kenya/Sudan)

 

New Media Trainings for Refugees of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict (Azerbaijan)

 

Rising Voices Serbia (Serbia)

 

Piloting Grassroots ICT4Peace: Augmenting Citizen Journalism in Support of Peace in Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka)

 

Dubrovnik's; Darlings (Croatia)

 

Think Build Change Salone Initiative (Sierra Leone)

 

 

Give a Rising Voice of citizens in  Sierra Leone

Media Foundation for Peace and Development

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

The funding targets and seeks to support the vision of MFPD: is a country with opportunity for voices of its people towards their country’s development. We believe that The Global Voices initiative will close the participation gap in Sierra Leone.

We are seeking Rising Voices funding to support two internet access points one in Freetown and one on Bo town (the second largest community with traditional totalitarian authority on its people extended to the radio stations there.

These communities will have access to internet resources centers at a cost recovery rate to replicate resources centers in other marginalized communities. And so it grows to more communities. 

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

News on social inequalities that affects the development of children, violations of womens Rights, Stories of injustice especially to those who don’t have access to those that administer justice sometimes due to ignorance and illiteracy. Thematic reports on bad law that affects freedom of expressions and participation, stories on social and bad cultural practices that affects women and children and the illiterates.

 

It is visioned that citizens in Sierra Leone live in a free society and becomes aware and educated or rather informed on amplifying its voices without fear online and progressingly through the local media.

 

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

 The contents will be generated by the news editors at Radio-Bo and SKYY radio stations plus over 75 community radio broadcast Journalists and the people themselves

Citizens journalists will be trained to be volunteer Authors and regional blogger-editors to help generate contents with the people.

 

The target audience comprises of the citizens in Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans in the disapora as well as interested people who make or influence decisions on Sierra Leone. With growing number of Computers now online in almost all major government and state institutions, the international organizations with interest on Sierra Leone, the project will target them.

 

It will be distributed online daily in English and Krio (most common vanacular).

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We expect participation from those who are computer/internet literate as well as the illiterate recording their voices on telephone or in writing. Global interaction is expected. With reduced cost to browse, people view the blog topics as screen savers.

Provide information on free tools to use. 

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

We have led in providing a forum for citizens to participate in our weekdays live radio discussion programs for 13 years they are outspoken on some issue but not on few considered dangerous for the local media. Because we have led in providing voice (airtime) to the people of the regions.

 

We have 13 years experience in news information and stories people can use. We have not done it online but we believe it is an acceptable channel of citizen outreach.

 

All of the following programmes each open phone lines for unedited free expressions: “Women’s Hour”, “Kidies radio”, “Youth Voice” and “Democracy Now”.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

We will use 4 PC’s and establish a website to post the nation’s blogs. Mobile phones are now in the hands of many and affordable to send SMS text messages that very cheap. People will call and leave voices contents, text or internet.

 

Local SMS texts, and spreading information around through the radio stations.

 

The project need mobile phones, 4 PC’s 2 printers, website and ISP connectivity fees

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

The project will be evaluated content and participation.  The number of citizen support to advocate for freedom of expression in the country without fear of censorship or prosecution. Testing hard to discuss stories on the two local radio stations without censorship or prosecution. The frequency at which local Broadcast Journalists run Global Voices stories and subscribe to the  headline cover   The number of unheared voices added to the mainstream media will also be used to evaluate the impact.

The diaspora contribution to blogs from citizens in sierra Leone will be evaluated. An estimated 175 local radio broadcasts journalists and 5,000 citizens will participate in the first year.

 

We seek to share the operating cost as a cost recovery while increasing the number of participants. The cost to access the internet is five thousand Leones ($1.75) We charge three thousand Leones ($1.00).

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

The challenges of illiteracy will be overcommed by using volunteer interpreters and educators. The challenges of maintaining the computers in working order will be overcomed by volunteer ITC technicians (themselves citizen blogers).

The challenges of increasing the number of PC’s will be overcomed by online appeals for donations to strengthen the capacities of the citizens.

 

The challenges of running cost of the internet centers will be overcomemed by charging a reasonable fees.

 

 How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

Facilitate the replication of internet centers targeting citizen blogers and publicizing the ways in which open source and free tools can be used by citizen journalists and other people to express themselves.

 

With information publicized in internet cafes, newsrooms, over the radio stations and in newspapers, the citizens participation becomes a routine to browse the Global voices online without which then becomes accessible widely.

 

Fundraising online and on the radio will be used in addition to seeking co funding from organizations who support freedom of expression without censorshio or prosecution.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Providing training materials and guides, adding u on your links, Let us traing and recruit our reporters and contributing editors. We need funding of $5,000.00 which will matched by us ($2,5,00) and Search For Common Ground ($3,000).

 

uNight Witness: Blogging for War-Affected Youth in northern Uganda

www.unight.org

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

uNight is seeking Rising Voices funding to create blogging workshops as a component of uNight’s empowerment initiatives in northern Uganda. The UN calls northern Uganda “the world’s worst forgotten humanitarian crisis.” The young people of northern Uganda—some of whom have been forced to become child soldiers, all of whom have been denied educational opportunity—are acutely affected victims of this crisis. Setting up a blogging program at our youth centers will allow young people to gather and share information about their situation and to form international connections.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

uNight Witness bloggers will collect and produce written, video, and photographic content about their personal life-stories. The content will cover the current situation in northern Uganda and will give young people a chance to present information about their history and heritage—priceless knowledge that is endangered by a situation that has destabilized all sense of cultural and community identity. Bloggers will present a unique, firsthand, up-to-the-minute account of events as they unfold—information that does not often make it into mainstream media, especially in the Western world.

 

As recent literature has shown (Dave Eggers’ What is the What, Ishmael Beah’s Long Way Home), readers are receptive to testimonials from people who have personally witnessed atrocity close at hand. The uNight Witness program will expand the opportunity for the youth of northern Uganda to voice their experiences, and will create an ever expanding body of work to document a longtime struggle. Testimonials will include photographs so that readers can form personal connections with the people behind the stories. By incorporating a response/comments section, we hope that bloggers will forge connections with individuals from around the world that will give the bloggers hope for, and confidence in, their future.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The content will be generated collaboratively by young adults (age 10 to 16) and their mentors, themselves war-affected youth and young adults (age 18 to 30). The youth will be carefully selected by the project leader Emmanuel, chosen from child soldier rehabilitation centers, orphanages, and a school with which uNight has a trusted relationship. An esteemed youth leader in his own right, Emmanuel will lead the mentoring team chosen from amongst trusted youth community leaders, and students who are part of the “uNight Chapter” at Gulu University.

 

We hope that the content generated by uNight’s “trainee bloggers” will have global reach. To facilitate an international viral awareness campaign for northern Uganda the participants will send their content bi-weekly to uNight’s supporters and volunteers. Four particular target groups within our network are: i) uNight Chapters—dozens of uNight student groups across high-school and college campuses throughout the US and UK (each with their own separate mailing list); ii) the 2,000 subscribers to uNight’s e-newsletter; iii) an additional 1,600 members of the uNight facebook group and cause campaign; and iv) multiple Africa- and Uganda-related e-news forums and interest groups, especially those led by Ugandans in the diaspora, an number of whom are founding members of uNight. These groups will also be encouraged to translate the content into other African languages, especially Swahili and Luganda.

 

The teenagers shall write half their content in their mother-tongue, Luo, and, with the assistance of their mentors, half in English. It will be the responsibility of the mentors to translate the Luo, so that their ability to have their voices heard isn’t limited by the language-barrier.

 

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We hope that uNight’s members will leave comments on the blog and pass on the materials. We will encourage our supporters to pass on testimonials, thus augmenting support for the uNight campaign via financial resources or area expertise. For instance, each youth participant in the Uganda program will have a Ugandan mentor and an international one, with whom they can cultivate a relationship and learn skills such as literacy and professional qualifications.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

Daniella has lived in Uganda for a total of almost two years, wrote her undergraduate thesis on modern Ugandan politics, and is closely associated with the Ugandan diaspora community. In addition to writing numerous editorials on northern Uganda, she has blogged on the Huffington Post on the subject. Emmanuel, who grew up in Uganda, is an experienced community activist with formal training in “participatory rural appraisal” and development. She and Emmanuel are both in close contact with several members of the local Ugandan media.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

Our practical needs are outlined below in the budget. We will utilize the internet, digital photograph and film, and basic blogging software.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

Because the blogging program seeks to cultivate confidence and literacy, we will measure the effect upon the youth bloggers by their grades and participation in school and their overall communication skills. As the director of the Uganda program, Emmanuel will devise a questionnaire for the participants and fill out a quarterly report. The larger impact will be measured by the international connections that are formed between bloggers and readers/mentors.

 

The pilot project will include 24 teenagers, at least half of whom will be female. Each will work in teams of four, with a minimum of one mentor assigned to each group. We will start small, with only trusted mentors carefully screened by Emmanuel and we will encourage the  mentor’s continued participation by providing each mentor with his or her own international mentors. For example, a medical school student who has volunteered for the Uganda program will be paired with a doctor who is part of the uNight network in the US or the UK.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

The initial challenge will be finding suitable and committed mentors. However both Daniella and Emmanuel are confident that there is a local population eager to help the youth of northern Uganda and that with adequate publicity these individuals will step forward. We will publicize the project through approved channels and take recommendations from trusted individuals on the ground. We hope to set up a recruitment program, whereby individuals who are approved as mentors will then become responsible for bringing, or at least encourage to bring, new mentors into the program.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The uNight witness blog constitutes only one part of uNight’s program. uNight has been involved in extensive fundraising campaigns since its inception and this campaign will continue, with increased intensity, over the next six months. Much of the funds provided by Rising Voices would cover onetime start-up costs. The cost of maintaining the program would be much lower as other costs (basic infrastructure such as the building housing the computers, etc.) would be covered by alternate funds. As the first computers and other technological devices age and break, uNight members will seek additional sources of funding for new machines.

 

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Rising Voices could assist this program by providing information on how to tap into the existing blogosphere and assure that our content makes an impact by publicizing the campaign among successful bloggers. Rising Voices could also assist with the arrangement of the website and the content management system so that we are able to easily upload participant content.

 

Blogging for Peace

www.irffmd.net

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

For project Blogging for peace. As you may know our small country the poorest in East Europe is separate in 2 parts Moldova and Transnistria with a silent war (political conflict), also its have a lot of other problems as underdevelopment country.

 Therefore our organization with a goal: offering the psychological and financial aid to all those who are in needs start to help resolving this problems by joining the UN millennium development goals to develop a global partnership for development we planed a development project below.

We really ask you to help our country to resolve this by holding this very important project with a grant.

 

Our project will benefit the community we are targeting by workshops in the most remote localities from both side of our country. Our project will teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of new media tools like blogging and podcasting.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

We will put on the net news, stories, information from communities where we will hold this project to start working communication between 2 parts of our country - Moldova and Transnistria. Workshops we will hold will teach about conflict resolution and peace building, also techniques how to post and manage a blog and an podcast in internet.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The content will be generated by our staff (5 people), volunteers and also we will hire professionals for this. Also we will invite international volunteers on the field to ensure better development of the project.

Target audiences are youth and teachers from schools in locations where we will hold the project.

We plan to visit 10 remote locations to do this project during 2 month and

 set and workable and replicable model of this kind of project then we plan to propose it to other interested groups from our networks. During each workshop we will post blogg and podcast on internet

 

Trainings will include:

·    Activities and trainings for forming peacemakers ,

·    Efficient communication and conflict resolution,

·    Training for Video spots and podcasst,

·    Training for making and develop bloggs,

·    Organizing spare time: cultural programs and contests,

·    Identifying and solving community problems. Team management, selecting and motivating the volunteers, teamwork, service projects,

 

Languages available in will be English, Russian, Romanian.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We are expect youth and teachers also policymakers to participate and from the readers/listeners/viewers of our content.

We will encourage participation by promoting our work throw internet, and mass media.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

During last years throw our projects we develop an network of 40 youth initiative clubs throughout Moldova so we will chouse the best one 10 clubs to hold workshops and put results of their work on the net.

We are best because we have experience in this issue also we have a network of prepared people to do it.

Yes we do have experience in media outreach often we work with national radio about and in our summer camps we did this kind of activities.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

 Technologies and tools our project will use to produce the content will be workshops work in the communities collecting info and posting it in internet.

Standard workshop will have workshops about peace building, workshop of blogging and podcasting.

 

We will bring to the project: writing articles making and posting and managing bloggs. Also making thematic video spots and podcasting them.

 

Since we have video camera and one laptop we need one more laptop to make video spots and podcasting workshops simultaneously.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

We will measure our project impact by number of participants of direct beneficiaries main participants, we expect 300 participant direct beneficiaries at this 10 workshops, 30 in each location, also since they will host our team the will contribute by hosting and providing workshops sites for our team. At the end of project we would like to make an meeting with contest to evaluate the best materials during project.

On the larger communities we will evaluate by response to our bloggs and posts.

Since we are working in this direction we will do every summer this kind of projects.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

We expect to face different challenges as usual for our projects one is poor participation so we plan to overcome it by inviting not only youth but also teachers so they know better youth from they localities and will invite the best of them for our project by this we will have good attendance too.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

Since problems witch we try to resolve are very appropriate to our country and techniques witch we will use are very new and innovatory to resolve this problems so it will attract sponsors to found this project in the future. Our concrete plan like we describe before we will do this project every summer.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

First of all we are asking to provide us the best teaching materials of blogging and podcasting to make an impact with Rising Voices project, also one of you professional could came to help us to develop project on higher level.

Second to support the project financially for well developing of it.

 

 

Communities Connected (Kenya)

 

www.freewebs.com/ericwanjamah

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

The rising voices funding is being sought to enable the communities that I work with to echo their voice to a global audience. It will benefit the community through interactions aimed at finding solutions to existing local problems. The community will have an opportunity to tell a story and share their problems. A problem shared is a problem half solved. It is likely that the community will benefit from creating crucial links that will potentially bring development within the grassroots. This project aims at also giving the community the opportunity to tell about their culture and showcase some of their traditional practices.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

I work with two communities; one is in South Sudan and another in Kenya. The Sudanese community will share stories about the conflict in South Sudan and especially the steps being made to realize peace and the stumbling blocks to those efforts. The community will take us through a journey to how the conflict started and the effects that they have so far witnessed. They will share their culture and indeed some cultural practices will be shocking to a many audience. Problems faced in one of the remotest regions in Africa that has suffered devastating effects due to the 20 year war will be told. Dramatic episodes of narrow escape will be na       and images to capture the ruin and maim broadcast to the global audience. The community will share the problems that they currently face especially as it concerns education, food, health and security. It is expected that solutions that can be applied at the local level will be suggested and hopefully implemented. The Kenyan community will share the story of a different kind of conflict – crime (a conflict of the haves versus the have not’s. The US and the UN have issued travel advisories against traveling to Kenya due to a sharp increase in crime. Stories will be told by the people who commit these crimes, the offenders whom am supervising in the community. Startling revelations will be made about a wave of criminality and drug cartels. The community will echo its voice to the concept of community based rehabilitation of offenders. I envision a project that brings young people together to learn about blogging and how they can share their world through the internet. My dream is for a vibrant community that embraces these latest technologies to solve their problems and enhance their living conditions.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The content will be generated by the communities that are targeted. In the Sudanese community, people especially the youth will have the opportunity to find news and information and then have chance to tell it to the world. The communities themselves will do it since the audience will be more interested in a story told by the real players. In the Kenyan context, content will be generated by the players in the field of offender management. Community service officers will have an opportunity to showcase projects completed by individuals on community service. Offenders will tell the world of why they commit crime, young offenders will also tell of how they have become part of an intricate web of crime and law enforcers will share the steps they are making towards eliminating incidences of crime. The target audience is the international development organizations who are willing to commit funds to addressing problems faced by the two developing societies. Kenyan and Sudanese nationals who are in the Diasporas will have an opportunity to share in the development of the communities by offering advice and sometimes resources. They will have a forum where to explore ways of helping the communities in need. The information will mainly be shared through blogging and video blogging as and when available. The information will mainly be shared in English or translated from other languages from which it is told. The communities in these regions mainly speak Arabic and Nuer (Sudanese community) and Swahili and Kikuyu for the Kenyan communities.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

 Readers/listeners/viewers will be expected to contribute ideas to address the problems that the communities concerned will raise. They will offer positive criticism to methods employed by the communities to address their problems by offering alternatives. They will be encouraged to link these populations in the developing world with resources that will bring about sustainable development. They will be a listening partner to the community, providing that therapeutic satisfaction gained by those who share their problems, goals and aspirations. A system of giving feedback scores to participants will be put in place to reward contributors.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I have worked with the two communities for a period of two years, divided equally. I work full time as an employee of the Republic of Kenya and part time as a trainer in South Sudan. I have been involved in training computer literacy classes in Sudan and it would be a great idea if I would go back there for a period of time and train people of photography and how to make documentaries. The youth would really see what that computer can do, far from which they know – mainly word processing, data management and presentation. In the Kenyan context, am a member of the same target community and aims at engaging the youth in better and rewarding occupations. I have prior experience in training and disseminating information through online networks, blogging and radio audience (through BBC).

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

The project will use audio visual tools to capture the contents. It will require the use of digital video cameras and internet access to share news and information. I bring to the project a wide network of people working in the field of computer technology and are willing to assist in the success of such a project. I am trained in Information technology with a deep knowledge of internet tools and connectivity. My technical needs are the hardware needed to set up a digital centre where people access the internet and produce short films targeted to a global audience.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

As for the Kenyan community, the project’s impact will be evaluated on the basis of behavior change. The youth will be encouraged to learn about use of internet tools to share their world and thereby enticed away from crime. As a participant in offender management, I will be able to evaluate the impact by looking at re-offending. Generally, it is expected that the youths who gain these skills will not find it reasonable to go to crime yet they could develop their knowledge further. The impact on the Sudanese community will be measured by how fast the community gets donor aid for their projects highlighted by this project. The impact of the other contributors will be measured by their level of involvement and how much energy they put into the activities of the project. The project will initially involve ten participants from each community. The participants in the Kenyan context will be offenders themselves and this will be a way of empowering them and thereby discouraging them from crime. In the Sudanese community context, participants will be mainly be the elite in the community who have basic computer skills, they will receive further training of how to handle the audio visual equipments. The participants will definitely see the results of their work through interactions with their audience and such connections will automatically sustain their involvement in the project.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

Challenges expected include working in a hostile environment especially in South Sudan. We can overcome this problem by conducting the project in peaceful periods during the year. Internet connectivity is a big problem since we require a router and access internet through satellite communication. The same is not reliable and altitude and weather determines the level of connectivity or lack there of. The option would be to save the information collected in a storage media and share it while in Kenya where internet connectivity is reliable. Lack of power supply is another problem since most regions of Sudan lack electricity. We could overcome this problem by using available sources of power especially solar energy and also generating from fuel during periods when it is overcast. Most of the participants lack prior experience in handling audio visual equipments and generating content for a wider audience. This problem will be addressed through provision of training and other useful materials to the participants.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The project is sustainable in the sense that organizations out there are willing to support community initiatives but lack the knowledge as to their existence. By broadcasting such initiatives, the donor community will be keen to assist the communities especially when the community articulates its problems well. Having worked in Sudan and sharing my experiences through photography and blogging, a lot of interest was generated by organizations to support that community. To sustain this project, we will rely on the links we create with development organizations for support. The sectors of livelihoods within the community that will benefit from this media coverage will be expected to contribute towards the project some money to sustain the campaign. Other ways of raising revenue will be explored especially the emerging tools like Google’s adsense and drop cash campaigns that are popular in online communities. The youth will be challenged to make documentaries that could be sold for profit and the same ploughed back to the project. I will use my existing networks with giant broadcasting houses like BBC and connections with members of online communities to raise revenue from some of the content that we generate.

 

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Rising Voices can support this project by sourcing the materials for us in the developed countries as it may be cheaper. The financial resources given could be directly used to purchase the audio visual equipments and other technical needs that Rising voice is best able to bargain upon and ensure that we get quality and durable tools. They can help us by designing and hosting our website that will form the core of our operations. They can offer to us some online form of training for this project and especially the target participants who are hearing about blogging for the first time. They can guide us on how we can do a beautiful project that will succeed and one which is sustainable. Above all, Rising voices should consider giving these duo communities an opportunity to echo their voices.

 

 

New Media Trainings for Refugees of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

www.tol.org

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

The project will raise awareness of the problems that the refugees from the Karabakh conflict area face in their daily lives. We will train them to use various new media tools to document their life and debate issues they find controversial. The project’s objectives are manifold. First, we hope to empower the Karabakh refugee community to articulate their grievances and communicate the hardship of their daily lives.  Second, it would increase national and international awareness of their problems. Third, it would promote blogging per se as a medium of communication in a region that is still largely missing from the map of the global blogosphere.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

The project would entail the creation of a series of blogs  aggregated on a particular URL (perhaps, with a social news “digging” function) where members of the refugee community would provide insights into their daily hardships, living conditions, views on the past and the future of the Karabakh conflict, personal experiences, etc. Selected members from the refugee community will go through a formal training course on the know-how of blogging and subsequently report on the issues surrounding their community. We would encourage them to report on the  most overlooked problems that their communities face in their daily existence.

They will receive a monthly allowance covering the internet café hours, as well a digital camera to facilitate their reporting. The content of the blog will include photo and video content.

The participants of the project will also be encouraged to promote their blog through online and other media outlets.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The content will be generated by the members of the Karabakh refugee community (on both sides of the conflict).

We expect that the audience would be journalists, NGO workers, activists, academics, and anybody else broadly interested in the conflict. We plan that the policy makers involved in solving the conflict would be especially interested in reading the blog. We especially hope that by translating the most interesting blogs in this mini-network in English, we would be able to raise international awareness of the conflict.

We plan to have around 5-6 posts per week on all blogs. This number may be significantly higher, depending on the “buy-in” rate from the refugee community. As stated above, all posts will be aggregated on the main page, perhaps, with an extra layer of community editing.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We expect to generate a dialogue between the refugee community and those interested (for instance, the Armenians from Karabakh). We expect participation in the form of comments on the blogs plus requests to start new individual blogs about the issue from the general public.  

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

Transitions Online has been involved in the region for more than a decade. We held numerous media (both old and new) trainings in Prague and locally. We also run a popular regional blog at www.neweurasia.net and thus have both training and outreach activities in the region. Two key trainers come from the region. Sanan Mirzayev  (Azerbaijan) has many friends, neighbors and classmates from Karabakh. Irakli Jibladze (Georgia) is eager to use experience gained in this project to kick off a similar program in Georgia. Both of them  graduated from Nationalism Studies Masters program at the Central European University and together they blog at “Steady State”(blogs.tol.org/conflicts), a TOL blog about unresolved conflicts in the region.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content? What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

We  plan to use MU Word Press to host blogs. TOL has years of experience in running web-sites and blogs, both on TOL domain and outside.

 

The project requires allowance for covering internet café hours and the purchase of a few cheap digital cameras.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

We want to see the members of the refugee community to take up the responsibility and speak for their group. We hope to see those individuals promote their cause by actively engaging with the community at large and the national and international media. Ideally, the participants, as qualified insiders, will write for magazines and newspapers, not just the Karabakh blog. We would to our best to translate the best posts from the network and distribute them among pertinent English-language blogs.

 

We will also monitor the local media to assess whether the viewpoints of Karabakh refugees are then better reflected in news coverage of the conflict. We hope to see the community benefit from this project by raising awareness about their situation. We believe that articulation of the problem is the first step towards its solution and that largest projects start with small steps . Some of the basic benchmarks we plan to use are: a number of posts, a number of comments, and a number visitors to the web-site.

 

We expect to have about 5-10 regular contributors. Foremost, the involvement in the project should be motivated by their wish to gain experience in blogging. Understanding that we would not be able to pay them, we will motivate their involvement with internship opportunities with TOL, participation in conferences and further trainings in Prague.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

We expect difficulties with finding qualified participants (with the right educational background and political views) – for this we are hoping to gain some support from the local NGOs.

 

Another potential obstacle we expect is the language barrier, which we hope to overcome by personally translating the blog content into English.

 

Sustaining the level of motivation for participants may be a problem, and we plan to adjust our compensation strategy accordingly, relying on internal community competition 

 

And lastly, we hope to gain support with the promotion of the blog from the existing blogging, media and NGO outlets.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future.

 

A big chunk of our expenses lie in training. So once we have conducted the first series of training, we hope that the knowledge will be diffused locally at almost no cost by other participants (i.e.”train-the-trainers” approach).

 

We also hope that we would be able to figure out a cheaper Internet solution to the project participants with time (there are hopes that the Internet will get cheaper with time or that we would be able to find another grant to provide them with a few laptops, which would enable dial-up connections at minimum) .

 

We plan to identify a few commumity leaders who would be eager to play the moderator’s role after the project’s funding expires.

 

 

 

Rising Voices: Serbia

www.ljubisabojic.com

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

I am enthusiastic Global Voices contributor and journalist. Bloging in Serbia is not so popular as it is in the rest of the world. Numerous individuals haven’t ever heard about this term, other people know it is something on the internet, and the small number is aware about the meaning of the word. Those say that bloging is electronic dictionary, but have never seen a blog. There is only small number of those who understand the essence of bloging, and use it from time to time, within few major portals. My previous idea was to found a blogger’s association, in order to improve overall situation. Now, I think, the best way to start is by implementing planned educating sessions, for people in need to have their say. That is why I would like to take part in the project.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

People from Kosovo will be stimulated to share experiences from the past, about the civil war, in order to contribute reconciliation, healing, and to improve relations between Serbs and Albanians. The main task is to show similarities, and bonds, to create a vision of joint future. Thus, their blogs will contain personal stories, confessions, opinions about political situation, etc. Serbs will introduce their history to Albanians, and vice versa.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

I will be targeting people with some computer skills, but those who never heard about bloging, and its value.

 

Most of them, should be individuals who live in Kosovo province, or refugees from that area, but interested labor working in a factories facing corrupt privatization, entrepreneurs, founders of some NGO, or students from areas outside the capital city, may be accepted for the program, as well. All in all, target group is population with a need to get their voice out.

 

The content will be distributed frequently over two years, and beyond by spreading the network of blogs, and enabling participants to educate their friends.

 

Blogs will be in Serbian and English language.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

I am quite experienced in areas of team leadership, and motivation. I have arranged a series of seminars about different issues. Whatever the cause was, the main task has always been to boost creative atmosphere with plenty of interaction empowering participants to take active part in learning and using their skills.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I have many friends from Kosovo province. I took a part in drafting some projects about Kosovo Euro zone, as a way to overcome crisis in the region by integration of all Balkan countries in the European Union. As I mentioned before, I am GV author since October 2006. I have been bloging and making web sites since year of 2000.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

During the course of the project one laptop, video camera, and LCD projector, certain number of digital cameras, and desktop computers, will be used.

I bring a skill to use all above mentioned because I have experience in television, photography, giving presentations (Power Point), using all kinds of PC software, and ofcourse, blogging.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

There will be few main parameters used to measure impact. First, number of posts published. Second measure is the number of comments made within their blogs. Third, and more important, is quality of the content. When I say quality, I mean the essence of their messages. This will be measured by anonymous marks given by their counterparts. The main question - Is it portraying their problems? Does it stimulate goals stated above, to be fulfilled? Is it producing effect within bloging and wider community? That will be evaluated by press clipping. I expect twenty to thirty people to take part in our workshop, but I am not sure about this, it may be less or more, it all depends from various reasons. The potential participants will be called by media, who will provide information about Serbian Rising Voices Initiative both by publishing announcements and by reporting from a press conference that will take place in Serbian Journalist Association. I will stick information on ads boards at numerous universities. I will sustain their involvement by using my motivation skills, but primarily by pointing out the fact what it means to them to get their voice out.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

The main challenge is promotion of this workshop, and placing the right people in the program. Therefore, in order to have a successful project I need to invest a bit of hard work in the beginning to do the promotion in mainstream media.

 

 

www.cpalanka.org | www.groundviews.org | http://radio.voicesofpeace.lk | http://ict4peace.wordpress.com

 

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

Fostering people’s participation through ICT frameworks to support peacebuilding and conflict resolution is one central to the mandate of the Media Unit at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in particular and complements my work on ICT4Peace (http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/what-is-ict4peace). Regrettably, I live, as do many others in Sri Lanka, enmeshed in violent conflict. This project aims to create, through the innovative use of ICT, citizen journalism and grassroots dialogues amplifying vital dialogues necessary to foment peace, reconciliation and democratic governance in Sri Lanka.

 

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

Already, through effective web-based technologies, citizens who have been effectively cut out of mainstream media have found new ways of expressing their concerns, their aspirations and their ideas for resolving violent conflict. Often, these conversations are raw, visceral, impatient, irreverent, pithy and provocative – yet vital to the texture of peacebuilding. In Sri Lanka, it is a conversation that’s largely still in English, and also limited to urban centres. The potential of networking civil society – from grassroots to the national level - is its ability to provide fora in English as well as the vernacular for all citizens – male and female, of all ethnicities, castes, classes and religions.

 

Issues that civil society is engaged in and that the project will help secure, strengthen & archive for posterity are:

 

a.    Governance

b.    Gender equality and equity

c.    Democracy at the local level

d.    Corruption and service delivery by state agencies

e.    Day to day life challenges

f.    Inflation and related economic problems

g.    Stories on marginalised communities such as sex workers, domestic labour, migrant labourers

h.    Stories from IDPs and refugees, including communities at the front-lines of conflict as often as possible

i.    Peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

Content generation:

2 journalists (working in English as well as the vernacular) who will interact closely with NGOs, CSOs & CBOs working primarily in Western, Southern and Up-Country provinces. Each journalist will produce 2 – 3 pieces a week comprising of:

 

1.    Short article of around 500 words

2.    Photograph, podcast or mobile video coupled with above

 

featuring the voices of those in the community.

 

Target audience:

a.    Civil society organizations in Sri Lanka – primarily those engaged in strengthening sustainable development, social justice, governance, democracy and peace, working in any one of the three languages spoken and written in Sri Lanka

b.    Their own (local) constituencies primarily – we provide the tools to help them effectively document, store and disseminate their ideas and work with like-minded organizational, local, national, regional and international.

 

Distribution:

a.    Though under-reported, civil society is extremely vibrant in Sri Lanka. The tools we provide will give them a means through which they can update their work, the outcomes, the output (in whatever language as well as through multimedia and mobile phones) in a manner that makes it easy to access, store, cooperate and collaborate with other actors in the sector or region

b.    Content will be produced & disseminated by each NGOs operational imperatives – we will provide the tools through which they can do so without being locked in to proprietary solutions that don’t respond to the needs of civil society in a violent country.

 

Languages:

In English, Sinhala and Tamil. Content will be textual and also multimedia in the form of vodcasts and podcasts. All textual content will be UNICODE standards based enabling cross platform compatibility.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

ICT will facilitate community participation in ways hitherto impossible to achieve using traditional media and physical networking. Communities can piggyback on the exponential growth of mobile phones and contribute to and access content using these devices, but also through PC’s at cyber-cafes (government and private) or through their own NGO as well as through the regular and sustained interaction with the journalists reporting in the field.

 

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I was born & live in Sri Lanka and have worked with the target communities, at all level, for over 7 years through a spectrum of civil society initiatives. I’ve networked NGOs (www.voicesofpeace.lk), introduced citizen journalism (www.groundviews.lk) introduced podcasting to civil society (http://radio.voicesofpeace.lk) and created the first Peace Library in the region (www.peacelibrary.org).  My personal blog on ICT4Peace (ict4peace.wordpress.com) is widely read and I am also advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation in Geneva (www.ict4peace.org).

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content? What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

A website based on open standards and tri-lingual (like www.groundviews.org) will be developed. It will work on mobile phones and in austere conditions, follow Web 2.0 best practices in functionality & features and adapted for the local context.

 

The Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independently recognized world leader in the creation of citizen journalism solution and civil society support mechanisms for peacebuilding.

 

Technically, the core need is to create a way in which the journalists as well as communities can create, access and comment on content on the web in their mother-tongue, without the need for technical expertise.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

It is difficult as an advance projection to measure the impact of social change through ICT especially in cycles of increasing violence and human insecurity. However, based on previous experience and emergent trends in media in Sri Lanka, voices from the grassroots and at the front lines of conflict can play a powerful role in progressively fertilizing larger debates on peace and war by perspectives not found in mainstream media. The policy changes that are a result of information from the grassroots in the public domain is deeply subversive and can be a powerful catalyst in promoting peace, thereby benefiting the entire population in Sri Lanka.

 

We will also measure impact based on the following:

 

·    The number of posts made on the tri-lingual website, including podcasts and videos

·    The number of comments left on the website by community members, including feedback on the e-newsletter and print newsletter

·    The number of page-views generated online to the trilingual website

·    The number of times where content generated by citizens through this project is featured in the mainstream media 

This pilot project will dovetail into larger, longer-term projects set up to support local democracy and provide such initiatives with a vital bedrock of content to help in social transformation.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

·    Internet access costs tariffs remain high, debarring citizens from fully accessing and contributing to online citizen journalism initiatives

·    The opinions expressed through the activity do not, or are not perceived to be, influential in shaping policy, leading in turn, to a decreasing participation and interest amongst stakeholders in the project

·    The embryonic nature of UNICODE fonts standardisation for Sinhala prevent users from contributing their thoughts online in the vernacular

·    The publisher and the reporters in the project, stand a greater risk of violence directed against them for flagging concerns and issues that run against the official government line or rile armed groups in various parts of the country.

 

It is impossible to address all these risks through the project. The journalists who will be brought into the project will be trained in safety and core project staff will also take adequate measures to protect their security. The conditions on the field can be exhausting and traumatic, and the frequency of updates will be determined by the freedom to travel and the perceived and real security threats in a larger context to citizen journalists and media.

 

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

Our work in new media and citizen journalism for peace has already received wide publicity and acclaim. The content generated through this project, in the vernacular as well as English, will be archived and distributed under a Creative Commons license that freely allows them to be copied and edited for non-commercial purposes. The Centre for Policy Alternatives is already the recipient of funding to continue grassroots journalists activities with new media – these longer and larger initiatives can be shaped from the lessons identified in this pilot project for which funding is sought.

 

The target audience is not in a position to support the initiative without external financial support. There is also no culture, as yet, of paying for online news & information, especially from the grassroots. Accordingly, the content generated will, after the project, reside in an archive that can be searched in all three languages to ensure that those who wish to avail themselves of the content can still do so.

 

The website will be registered for 5 years with unlimited bandwidth (transfers as well as upload capacity). The website will also be located in servers outside of Sri Lanka – this is not just for high quality of service, but also to ensure that content cannot be blocked by Government censorship. Donors will be approach after the pilot, and together with the publicity generated during the pilot phase, we are confident of funding to scale up and expand or footprint.

 

This pilot project will dovetail with ongoing and planned initiatives to foment citizen journalist in support of peacebuilding in Sri Lanka by the Centre, funded by other donors keenly interested in our path-breaking work.

 

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Resources requested from Rising Voices is primarily financial. Given the potential of global reach, and utility in other conflict zones and peace process to augment civil society voices, Rising Voices will also be looked upon to highlight our work on a regular basis, through its website to support our own media advocacy programmes throughout the lifetimes of the programme. It would be useful, for instance, to feature content in English from the project website into Global Voice’s own blogs and web mechanisms, so as to ensure a larger audience for issues on peace and democracy that are of interest beyond our borders.

 

The Centre for Policy Alternatives works in close partnership with other leading civil society organizations, and will leverage these professional networks and relationships to support the development of this project.

 

 

Dubrovnik's Darlings

www.nlj.com

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

 

I’m seeking funding to continue my passion of telling stories of the underprivileged, specifically refugees affected by war. I want to allow a group of women in Dubrovnik, a Croatian city that was bombed during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, to write stories and post pictures of their products, such as sewing, restoration of national costumes, and even making homemade jam. The project will benefit the local community by making it more aware of such work and help the women by allowing them to learn computer, photography, writing and other skills during a fun project that could also lead to better exposure and sales of the products.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

My goal is to partner with Desa Dubrovnik, an NGO in Dubrovnik formed in 1993 to help female war refugees that has since expanded to help women find their independence in society through educational programs, classes and activities. My project would aim to establish a separate Web site (that would link from the NGO’s site) to display the works of the center’s participants. These could include information about what the women are working on and why, such as the significance of Croatia’s national costumes and why they need to be restored; photos of the products women would take with digital cameras and post on the site; as well as ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories about them and their projects.  The women will also be encouraged to post multimedia content, such as short videos and audio clips where they talk about themselves and their work or show how they make their products.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The content will be generated by the women of Desa Dubrovnik. The target audience is the greater Dubrovnik community —  a town of about 40,000 in southern Croatia — so residents can be informed of these women’s talents and accomplishments The site would also be informative for outsiders looking to get a feel for the culture and people of Dubrovnik, which typically only gets media coverage for its tourist attractions. The goal is to update the information weekly and the women could alternate responsibility for the task. The content would be available in Croatian, which is the local language, as well as English. Desa’s Web site is already in both languages so it has built-in resources for English translation.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

The site would include an e-mail address, where anyone viewing the Web site would be encouraged to ask questions and post comments. With the center’s discretion, these comments would then be displayed on the site in a blog format, further encouraging feedback. A number of methods of encouraging participation could be used, such as allowing the first few people who respond to attend a free workshop, get a discount for some of the women’s crafts or a modest giveaway prize.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I spent 12 years living in Dubrovnik and know the language, the lifestyle and the culture. I would oversee this project both remotely and through my regular visits there.

 

I have six years of reporting experience at three newspapers and have won 12 awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as a special achievement award for covering immigration and a Greek cultural fellowship. I know how to help others get involved as I have taught several journalism workshops on topics such as immigration and ‘bringing other countries to your paper.’

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

I would use the NGO’s on-site computers and purchase two digital cameras with basic audio and video capabilities.

In addition to my journalism expertise, I have worked with a number of photographers so I know the basics of photography and am familiar with the basic tools of creating a Web site as I am in the process of doing that myself. I would look for additional technical skills by teaming up with a local webmaster to ensure any unforeseen problems with the Web page are quickly addressed.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

I will start by getting 20 women directly involved with the project. I will sustain their involvement by regularly checking in with them to ensure they have all the tools needed to keep the project going, whether it be access to a camera or feeling comfortable using a computer. Because the center regularly offers computer classes, I would collaborate with the instructors to incorporate this project into these classes to ensure regular participation.

I plan to measure and evaluate the project’s impact by tracking the number and types of postings on the project’s Web page as well as surveying the participants every six months. The survey would ask them to grade the project’s various aspects and suggest areas of improvement. I would open participation in the survey to the center’s staff as well in order to include their observations and suggestions.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

I think my challenge will be making sure the women feel comfortable about this project, as many of them may have had limited access to the Internet, the Web, digital cameras, etc. I plan to overcome this by making sure I spend a lot of time at the center in the beginning to meet the women, get to know them on a personal level and get their ideas for the project. I will also make sure I get the staff involved so we can rely on each other’s expertise and resources to move the project along. My plan is to hold several information sessions at the center to inform everyone about the project, keep them updated about the progress and make myself available for any questions, comments or ideas. As my time in Dubrovnik will likely be limited, I will appoint someone from the center to supervise the project on a daily basis while I concentrate on overseeing it.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The participants would be asked to use their newly learned skills of keeping a Web site, blogging and using a digital camera to inform the local community about their products and hold a yearly fund-raiser, which would involve selling these products (jam, traditional dress, sewing works, etc…) In addition, I would work closely with women’s groups and governmental organizations in Croatia to generate support, which could include the Zagreb-based Zenska Infoteka (Women’s Infoteka), the Center for Women’s Studies in Zagreb and Zenska Mreza Hrvatske (Women’s Network Croatia). After the start-up costs, the project would strongly rely on existing resources, such as computers and cameras that are already there, trained computer instructors who already work at the center, and the participants who already come there regularly.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Raising Voices could help me get the funding to start this project by allowing me to purchase cameras. While I would still pay the vast majority of the costs of traveling to Dubrovnik, the grant would help me subsidize those trips to ensure I spend enough time at the center to successfully launch the project.  A grant from the organization would also give the project credibility and meaning and encourage participation by making the women feel a part of a larger, global cause.

 

 

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

Seeking funding to highlight, record, and share the implementation of the Think Build Change Salone Initiative in Sierra Leone. The TBCS Initiative introduces youth in Sierra Leone to the tools and thoughts they need to be actors of Social change so that they may participate in Sierra Leone’s postwar rebuilding efforts. The Initiative will provide young people with ICT training and paid internship positions with local non-profit organizations so that they may gain work experience and contribute to development projects. Interns will also travel to different parts of the country to conduct citizen media outreach workshops. Additionally their participation in this initiative will change the generally held belief that youth in Sierra Leone are idle and destructive.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

The interns and program manager will be responsible for providing content but most of the burden will be on the interns. Program Manager will assist interns in format, and technique. The content will cover the implementation of the TBCS Initiative, intern experience at local NGOs and highlight different communities as they deal with different socioeconomic issues. Interns will be responsible for identifying the communities and issues they want to highlight.

 

The Vision for the TBCS Citizen Media Outreach Project is that it will cover such issues as health, environment, democracy, post conflict reconstruction, women’s issues, Information technology, education, government accountability & transparency, community development, and much more but entirely from the perspective of young Sierra Leoneans who may otherwise not have an outlet to express their views and experiences.

With this project we aim to put a more holistic image of Sierra Leone to the International community that goes beyond blood diamonds, Charles Taylor, and amputees.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

Interns will generate content for the project from local communities and from their internships at NGOs. Though the target audience for this project is the International community, it is more specifically geared towards the 500,000 or more Sierra Leoneans who are displaced all over the world as a result of the civil conflict. The content provided by the interns will show the many positive developments are happening in Sierra Leone and also highlight the thousands of individuals who are contributing to the nation’s development. We will show the sierra Leonean community in the diaspora and beyond that Sierra Leone is back in business and making strides.

 

Working in groups and individually interns will use audiovisual and written tools to gather and present their stories. Interns will become narrators, translators, and storytellers of ongoing struggles and efforts for social change and development.

 

Using the material they collect they will conduct workshops in urban and rural areas to introduce underserved communities to the ideas and tools they use to gather and provide content.

 

Daily and weekly updates will focus on the implementation of the TBCS Initiative, while weekly and bi-weekly updates will focus on the interns’ community project and NGO presentations.

 

Content will be provided in Krio (lingua franca in Sierra Leone) and English.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We expect different levels and types of participation and types from audience.

All readers, listeners, viewers will be encouraged to add comments and reactions as well as influence content by providing suggestions and questions. Audience will also be encouraged to interact with interns via email or on the project site. We will encourage participation from Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora by advertising on online community portals such as the visit sierra leone website

 

To encourage local participation in the media outreach project we will advertise on community radio, create and distribute flyers, provide refreshments at workshops and give pre-paid internet hours to participants who sign up and attend the workshops.   

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

Sierra Visions has three years experience providing free ICT training in the form of workshops, seminars, and classes in Sierra Leone. The organization also has local corporate sponsors who provide computers and internet services for trainings.

 

Also as program manager, I have been involved in development related activities since 2003. I also maintain a blog and website on several Sierra Leonean issues. Additionally as a young person I am more accessible to my peers and also my elders.

 

Sierra Visions has some experience in media outreach but not in this capacity. However, we hope that by partnering with global voices that we will learn from GV resources and best practices in the field.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

We will need computers with internet access, video recorders, digital cameras, and mp3 voice recorders to produce content. Led by a group of Sierra Leonean professionals, Sierra Visions has extensive experience in ICT, education, and human resource development.

 

Our technical needs include video recorders, digital cameras, and mp3 voices recorders (corporate sponsors in Sierra Leone will provide computers and internet access for workshops and training)

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

1. We will evaluate impact on main participants (interns) based on their level of participation (quality and frequency of the content the collect). We will also use a pre and post evaluation tool to assess how their level of participation and access with online media tools change over time.

2. Seek international involvement from the Sierra Leone community and beyond by using Sierra Visions’ website which averages 22000 hits a month, visit Sierra Leone website which is the premier Sierra Leone online community, and by outreach to various Sierra Leonean organizations in the diaspora. We will also use HI5, Facebook, Myspace and other community networks to promote our content.

3. We will assess and evaluate media outreach workshops based on the number of participants and self reported post workshop knowledge.

4. Assess larger community based on comments on project website, feedback and contributions from the audience

5. We expect to reach thousands of people at home, abroad, and in the international community.

 

10 Interns (provide content and run outreach media workshops with program manager). 6 two-day workshops (Bo Town, Kabala, Makeni, Moyamba, Port Loko) with 25 participants each. 18 one-day workshops (Freetown) 25 participants each. And thousands of visitors to the project site.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

Challenges include electricity shortages (which can be reduced with the help of generators), recruiting non traditional participants (women, physically disabled, and socio-economically disadvantaged) in the media outreach workshops. We will encourage all of these groups to participate in all of our print and radio ads and provide resources to alleviate financial obstacles to workshops such as transportation.

We will also have literacy and language barriers so we will make our ads available at the lowest reading levels and provide announcements in multiple languages. Interns will be a great asset as all students in Sierra Leone learn how to read and write in local languages.

Though cultural and local attitudes to ICTs will act as a barrier to access, interns who are from Sierra Leone and aware of those local attitudes will develop material that will encourage participation and change some attitudes.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The Think Build Change Salone Initiative is a three year long initiative and so it will continue after the Rising Voices funding has ended. Though we may not be able to continue to do media outreach on a national scale after the funding ends, subsequent interns will use the tools that we purchase this year to continue to provide content and past interns will serve as trainers to new interns. Additionally we hope to continue our partnership with Global Voices so that we may increase our knowledge of citizen media outreach and best practices.

Sierra Visions has applied for funding to several foundations to cover all TBCS program costs for the next 3 years. We will also look to local partnership and sponsorship. The TBCS Initiative also has individual donors all over the world.

Finally interns can raise funds locally and internationally by selling DVDs and photos of their work.

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

Rising Voices can provide training materials, proven methodologies and best practices for citizen media outreach, assistance in publicizing intern efforts once the project is up and running, feedback on content, and funds to purchase equipment and run workshops.

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