The meeting composed of different people selected randomly from different places. Are there jobs in Kenya ? Jamme asked, many people were like not sure but later poured answers like jobs are there but corruption,  high qualifications and experiences, bad education system etc.

Jamme wanted to get a report, a report that she would take back to the World Bank, unlike all a long World Bank has been giving reports to Africans, this time they wanted a report from Africans to the World Bank.                                                                                                                                                                                    

Looking at some of the things that can be done to end poverty in Kenya and other parts of Africa, farming was coming out strongly as one of the best things one can embark on, but not all people can be farmers, again Kenyan youths feels that farming is not a” sexy” job to do, the youths would prefer clean office jobs, a white Kenyan farmer was then given a chance to present her talk, according to her farming is the way to go, she showed us what she had done and what she had achieved with farming. But still it was had to convince a Kenyan youth to turn into farming.   

We were then asked to define who an ordinary Kenyan is, after different people gave different answers on this, it then dawned to us that most people in this meeting were well off and were running there own businesses. How many people here comes from the slums, one person asked, I was the only one from Kibera slum, this was a challenge to the organizers because many unemployed youths comes from the slums, then the whole attention turned on me, I became like the reference point and I represented many unemployed youths from Kibera.

I had a lot of questions to answer, then we were quickly divided into three groups to find a  possible solution to the en rooting unemployment , from the the groups the most alarming issue was the bad education system that many suggested needs to be looked at a gain.

by Joshua Owino, Kibera News Network

Reposted from http://joshculture.wordpress.com/2012/05/

Research is a disciplined form of investigating what happens in communities and with the people who live there, including young people. Research may marginalize certain groups, especially the vulnerable or excluded. But, research also has the potential to give voice to the voiceless and make visible the
invisible.

A good example of youth research is the mapping exercise by youth living in the slum of Kibera who used modern technology to conduct research about their community. Through their research, they identified medical clinics and other resources in their community. Their research has made their
community visible and showed it as a place of many assets and not just challenges. Building on the local strengths identified, this research can be used to negotiate resources, advocate for their needs, and generate their own strategies for change.

For Mildred, the experience exposed her to the challenges on possibilities of youth, on a global scale.

We also had discussion on challenges to youth livelihoods which came out to be a stabstantial number of young people reside in areas in which poverty constitutes a major challenge .Another defining factor was that youth are very often concentrated in urban areas with limited access to basic social services. It also came to my notice that Employment was also one of the problems that bring challenges in life of young people.

After all this discussion it came to my notice that youth have particularly been the vulnerable group for a long time in the society. They at the same time, hold the potential for the future because young people are not as mired in the prejudice and are better at moving ahead in terms of confronting vices such as corruption, which the elderly on the other hand may consider inevitable. Further young people have ideas and vision and it is from their name that the leaders and politicians of tomorrow will step forward. However poverty and inequality have remained a major hindrance for the youth to unleash their potential.

Out of the UN general secretary youth engagement report will be of help to the young people and it will give them hope towards there vision and ambition. It will also give them courage to unleash their potential if only it happens. It was a nice experience to me as a youth in the community of Kibera. Being that my desire is to impact the community it will really be of help.

Map Kibera is a youth-led organization. The energy and willingness to experiment with the new and unknown are key to our work. We appreciate the opportunity to represent at this forum, and we hope Map Kibera can continue to participate in the global dialogue on the position and potential of youth.

“Hello!

Thank you for sending in the link on time and tagging it correctly. I just watched the video – love the narration and the background music. However the music and the sound suddenly goes off in the middle, and as per the submission guidelines the video cannot be longer than 10 mins . Please cut down on the video length, other participants also asked me if they can make a 13-15 minute video – and I had to say no.

Simply edit those segments, looking forward to your updated video by tomorrow night.

Nilofar.

This is a message we get from Nilofar after hurriedly submitting our video “From Wild To Digital World ” for the Digital Natives video contest.

The message was referred to John Musila, one of the KNN members that we had suggested to be the contact person during this contest. The message was demoralizing as time was not on our side.

We had one month to work on the video but were still busy doing some other things, though we registered in time. The contest required us to first write a proposal elaborating on what our video will be all about after reading and choosing a topic from one of the four books available online. We did all that and later got an email that our proposal was approved so we qualified and could go ahead and make a video that would be enrolled for competition.

It was only two days left to the deadline of submission of the videos, we had hardly started working on it, the previous two days we were very busy filming the Butterfly Works Project, so we were done and were now ready to work on this DN video before the deadline ends, only to realize that the footage we had saved on the hard disk for the video could not be used anymore, the hard drive had crashed, so we were stuck.

How will we start filming everything again and edit within the short time remaining? we thought, at some point we were stranded, but we could not afford to let this chance go, come on, we must do something, we all had the same spirit.

“Call Kepha, the Director, to help us fix the hard disk” someone suggested, yes I called Kepha, but this would take sometime before it is fixed and we will miss out the chance.

Still standing there inside Map Kibera Trust Office, looking at each other in a confused mode,

“Hey guys lets go and get new footage, we can’t sit here and wait for Kepha”  I said, then we quickly divided ourselves, Joe and Eddie were going to get footage of the Ngong forest and some shots of schools and hospitals, while Jacob and I were taking Mildred out to the field for mapping interviews and some more cutaways, Steve and John would remain back for editing, and off we went.

Back to the office we noticed that we needed an interview from a member of Voice of Kibera to make our story complete, luckily enough Sande appeared then we quickly set him up for an interview which was successful. The program was so tight that we had to do everything the same day, because the following day was the deadline, we then took Steve down to the railway line to let him talk about KNN, the tripod was so disappointing but we managed with it then rushed back to the office, now I was to go outside with Jacob to do the narration as Steve was previewing the shots we had taken so far, as we wait the shots from Joe and Eddie.

Time check 2pm Joe and Eddie brought the footage and editing started, by 8pm Steve was done, the video was ready for consumption, so we left it uploading overnight. Coming to the office very early the following morning, to check if our video was uploaded, I met a big message on the  screen,  “sorry the upload was interrupted due to internet interruption” I had to start afresh. The uploading process also became a nightmare, it could get up to 82% then stops there, but after trying three times without success, we almost gave up, then we decided to use a different computer which finally worked.

We were happy after sending the link to the DN, little did we know that we still had a lot to correct, the message in the first paragraph surprised us, we went back to the time line corrected the video and resent it, then quickly got a response from Nilofar that it was better now and that he loved it.

We were now relieved, I personally felt as if I had just walked out from a prison cell, I was a free man again after a very busy working week.

Before we submitted the video we called Kepha to view it and comment, “this is a winning stuff” is all he said, we were happy considering how hurriedly we worked on it, we had high hopes of winning, we mobilized our friends on Facebook and Twitter to vote for our video which they cooperatively did, the votes from the public alone were not going to determine the winner, there was a panel of judges to also watch and decide the top two winners.

Am happily writing this blog after the announcement that we were the top position, with over 10000 votes, followed closely by Marie a lady from USA with 9000 votes.

We have won a prize of 500 EUROS, I must say thanks a lot to everyone that helped us make it through, those who voted, those we interviewed the Digital Natives Staff, the Jury, all KNN members for a wonderful cooperation and Map Kibera Trust at large for the this great platform to exercise our skills.

By  Joshua Ogure,

KNN Coordinator

The single best consolidated open guide for teaching OpenStreetMap is definitely LearnOSM. If there’s any place I think the Map Kibera materials could contribute, it’s the GPS Surveying Guide, which goes into quite good detail on field survey techniques.

GroundTruth also produced materials for the Swaziland mapping project. The GPS Coordinator Manual may particularly be of wider use, at it describes precisely how to configure Garmin GPS units for surveying with OpenStreetMap.

Map Kibera is seeking a summer intern to help coordinate election monitoring preparation through Voice of Kibera! This is an amazing opportunity to get hands-on experience with a fantastic group of youth from Kibera, who are working on cutting-edge citizen journalism to help increase access to information and impact for slumdwellers. It’s also a test-run of the power of new technologies to prevent violence and support transparency for elections. See http://www.voiceofkibera.org. VoK is one of the three programs of Map Kibera Trust.

Preparations are underway for the next Kenyan presidential elections. The Map Kibera team wants to make sure we’re fully prepared and the entire Kibera community knows they have a way to express their voice and help monitor for any trouble. There is a great need for monitoring the upcoming election to avoid the kind of violence that disrupted Kenya in Dec 2007. During the constitutional referendum of 2010, we tested the use of our tools successfully (see http://www.mapkibera.org/blog/2010/08/12/reviewing-the-referendum-reports/).

The intern will support the members of the Map Kibera Trust to organize the current phase of development of Voice of Kibera as a key monitoring tool for the election, as well as pre- and post-election feedback. The plan includes popularising citizen journalism by mobilizing Kibera residents at community forums and training them on our toolset: SMS reporting, use of social media, still photography, online report submission, interviewing techniques, mapping reports. We will hold a series of workshops, community video screenings, and trainings during the internship period. We will also start to expand this model to other parts of Nairobi over the next few months. A select group will learn video news reporting and more in-depth reporting online and prepare to join our teams. Meanwhile, our mapping team will be identifying polling spots and ensuring that the current data on Kibera is correct.

Your role, as our intern, will be to help build capacity and support the team to achieve their goals, plus support them by providing training, facilitation and guidance in your technical, community-organizing, and/or new media skills.

This internship will provide hands-on experience with our Kibera team under the supervision of our Executive Director, Kepha Ngito. It will be tailored to the experience and needs of the intern and the organization, and could involve more in-depth work in program expansion, new skill training, and/or political awareness and civic engagement training depending on the skills and interests of the intern.

Required:

• Graduate level education completed or currently in process in a relevant subject area
• Experience in Kenya preferred; at minimum, field-level work experience in developing country environment required.
• Familiarity with tools of new media such as Ushahidi, blogging, online journalism, video production, podcasting.
• Familiarity with open source tools and concepts, and open data tools and concepts.
• Background in at least two of the following: journalism, political processes and democracy-building, mapping, ICT for development, mobiles for development, community or grassroots organizing, participatory development processes, software development.
• Ability to work in challenging conditions and with young people.

Please note:

• This is not a remunerated internship. The intern is expected to provide for all costs including transport to and from Kenya and costs of living in Nairobi. Map Kibera will provide assistance in finding an affordable place to live or shared living quarters to help defray costs. Basic local communication and transport may be covered.
• Map Kibera can assist with any documentation necessary for scholarships or grants applicable to this internship, as well as requirements of the intern’s University for course credit.

TO APPLY:

Please send your CV, a brief statement about your interest and qualifications for this internship to: contact at mapkibera dot org. We will also be asking those we choose to interview for your transcripts and recommendations.

With all the six Knn members present, Job takes us through the session, and from this we knew about Dan Gillmor the founder of Citizen Journalism, his name is so important that you should not talk about citizen journalism without mentioning him.

While  looking at what qualifies one to be a citizen journalist, the list was long and I believe we passed test and qualified to be one.

We later looked at How to generate story ideas, something that has really opened up our minds and will help us identify more stories in Kibera. It was a two hours interesting session that left us informed, and are now looking forward to 3rd April 2012 when Job will be coming back again to teach us more on media ethics.

Job has been doing a research on Citizen Journalism focusing on Kibera News Network, he has been with us for one month and during this time he decided to arrange for such trainings as his way of appreciation, on my own behalf and on the behalf of KNN team, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Job Mwaura and the the Management of Map kibera Trust at large.

By Joshua Ogure KNN Coordinator. Originally posted on: http://joshculture.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/knn-training-on-citizen-journalism/

Mildred and Mukuru residents with hand-drawn village boundraies (photo credit: Primoz Kovacic)

Youth Fund grant was delayed until mid-2011. Some of the other initiatives the team was working on included the establishment of the local agency Map Kibera Trust, with support from the Africa Technology and Transparency Initiative and the expansion to work (led by Map Kibera Trust ) to Mathare and Kwale.

Map Kibera Trust received the Unhabitat youth fund grant in order to expand its work to other parts of Nairobi. Given the existing ties with Mukuru (an informal settlement in Nairobi’s industrial area) and the demand for training from young people who had been introduced to mapping in 2009 and 2010, the mappers decided to implement the youth fund grant in Mukuru.

The Unhabitat youth fund grant is designed to support organizations led by young people in developing countries. The grant involves a component of skills development; young people from selected organizations are trained in project management, documentation and budgeting. The young people then put their newly acquired skills into action throughout the project lifecycle.

Primoz and I have been supporting the mappers in Kibera, however we believe the best way to learn is through experience. And so in order to see them develop the new skills, we have taken a step back and supported the project mainly through some limited technical assistance. The field work and documentation has been led by Mildred Anekeya, the mapper coordinator (herself a young mapper from Kibera) and Vincent Mutuku and Moses Wahor, young mappers from Mukuru.

Below is a question and answer from Mildred, Vincent and Moses that documents their experiences in mapping Mukuru during the first half of the youth fund grant cycle.  Their insights are important to those undertaking similar projects in similar contexts. These answers were submitted to Unhabaitat as part of a mid-term report.

What is the progress you have made [in mapping Mukuru]?

First of all we held two successful community forums, in Mukuru kwa Reuben and Mukuru Kayaba, which sensitized the community on the importance of mapping before we launched it. Finally we will hold other forums to confirm the mapping that we have done to the community.

We were been able to cover all five villages of Mukuru which are Mukuru kwa Njenga, Mukuru kwa Rueben, Mukuru Lungalunga, Sinai and Mukuru kayaba. We were able to train 24 trainees in data collection which involved usage of GPS gadgets, downloading the data, editing and uploading it which involved gaining of computer knowledge. We had problems like getting approval from the local authorities but we had to convince on what to implement on the ground and later they had to approve us. We also faced minor problems from the participants which are commitment towards the training and some were demanding allowance for their time, but after giving them the importance of the training they had to commit themselves fully. Insecurity was also one the problems but we had to find ways to curb it, and this was to work the residents from the same village.

What problems have you encountered during the first phase of the project?

At first we encountered problems from the administration, allowances of the trainees they were not ready to work without being paid, insecurity especially in Mukuru Kayaba and lack of commitment from the trainees especially Mukuru Kayaba where initially we had about 12 trainees and they all left remaining with 4. The obstacles that we faced in technical issues were: too few computers which led to extension of the timeframe and also it took time for the participants to catch up with what we were teaching them. Less internet modems which lead to limited internet access.

How did you overcome these problems?

Coordinators from Mukuru had to talk to the administration concerning the project and convince them for approval. They also coordinated and made the availability of the trainee to training centre. They ensured security was intact and organized for the venues. This made the mapping process run smoothly despite the challenges. Concerning technical issues we had to make use of what we had at hand and the administration of the  Map Kibera Trust made sure that we full credits for the modems and the computers were available each time we needed them.

What project activities are planned for the next 6 months?

Drawing of boundaries of the villages and their zones, drawing of paths and tracks, drawing the industries and also showing how they are close to residential areas which can be used to explain some of the risks that people in slums are prawn to, like in the case of Sinai tragedy.

Finalizing on the mapping process and ensuring that the trainees are able to comprehend what we taught them.

Making follow up on all the stakeholders that would be interested in using the final maps in their work groups such as Administration, Youth, women groups, trainees, Community based and Faith based organizations.

To understand the spread of development in every particular village and also make conclusion on how the developments could be enhanced.

Any other comments?

The mapping exercise is a very unique method of bringing out problems in informal settlements; hence it should be enhanced to cover all the slums in Kenya. The trainees will need to have ongoing exercises less they forget what they learned, this can be improved by having substations in Mukuru.

Sharing stories of local governance

To support their work on social accountability, the Kwale Youth and Governance Consortium mapped over 100 publicly and privately funded community-based projects. The projects were supported by the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Area Development Fund (LATF), NGOs and private donors. As one channel of sharing this information, the Consortium set up a blog called Nuru ya Kwale (Light of Kwale). According to KYGC the blog “features and addresses issues concerning promotion of demystified participatory community involvement in the governance processes towards sustainable development. We therefore expect interactivity on issues accruing around social accountability.” This involves sharing evidence about various projects and stories from the community.

One example is the documentation of the Jorori Water project in Kwale; through the mapping work, the Governance team collected details of the constituency development fund (CDF) project. The funding allocated to upgrade the water supply for the community was 6,182,960 ksh (approximately 73,000.00 USD). From their research the KYGC identified that the Kenya Open Data site reported that the full funding amount has been spent. A field visit to the site however revealed that project was incomplete and the community is still without a stable water supply, despite the fact that the funding has been “spent.”

Read more about the questions the team raised in terms of the governance of CDF projects, including the detailed the project implementation process and some reflections on why the project stalled. This is information on community experiences (tacit information) that is well-known in a localized context but has not been documented and shared widely. New media tools, a blog in this case, provide free (if you have access to a computer and the internet) platforms for sharing this information with national and international audiences.

Addressing violence against children and child protection

Another blog was set up by the Kwale Young Journalists. The Young Journalists, registered in 2009, have been working with Plan Kwale on various projects, including Violence against Children campaigns. The group has been working to set up a community radio station in Kwale to report on children’s issues. Thus far, their application for a community radio frequency has encountered several challenges – new media provides an interim solution and will allow the team to share their stories and network with partners on a national and internal stage.

The Kwale Young Journalists worked with Jeff Mohammed, a young award-winning filmmaker from Mathare Valley. The YETAM project not only equips young people with skills, but through peer-learn establishes connections between young people working on community issues throughout Kenya. The programme also provides young people with life skills through experiential learning – Jeff reflects on his experience in Kwale and says:

“My knowledge didn’t come from books and lecturers it came from interest, determination and persistence to know about filmmaking and this is what I was seeing in these Kwale youths. They numbered 12 and they were me. They are all in their twenties and all looking very energetic, they had the same spirit as mine and it was like looking at a mirror. I had to do the best I could to make sure that they grasp whatever I taught.”

Jeff worked with the Young Journalists on a short film called “the Enemy Within.” The film, shot with flip-cameras, tells the story of 12-year-old girl who is sold into indentured labour by her parents to earn money for her family. During the time she spends working, the young girl “falls prey of her employer (Mr.Mtie) who impregnates her when she is only 12 years old.” Jeff reflects that “early pregnancies are a norm in the rural Kwale area and what the young filmmakers wanted to do is to raise awareness to the people that its morally unacceptable to impregnate a very young girl, in Enemy Within the case didn’t go as far because the village chairman was bribed into silence and didn’t report the matter to higher authorities.” This is a common scenario in Kwale, and the young journalists plan to use the film in public screenings and debates as part of their advocacy work in the coming months.

Jeff and the Kwale Young Journalists shot the film in four days – they travelled to Penzamwenye, Kikoneni and also to Shimba Hills national park to shoot 7 scenes for the movie. Read more about Jeff’s reflections on working with the Kwale Young Journalists on his blog.

Sharing ecotourism resources

The Dzilaz ecotourism team – a group that encourages eco-cultural tourism in Samburu region of Kwale count – also integrated social media into their work. During the last week (November 8th-12th) the group set up a blog to market the community resources, services and products. They also plan to document eco-culture sites and the impact that eco-tourism can have on the community. As of November 10th, 2011 the Dzilaz team had already directed potential clients to their website and thus secured a booking through the information they had posted.

The importance of telling the stories behind the maps

One important component to mapping work is to tell the stories behind the map. The three groups in Kwale are working to build platforms to amplify their grassroots level work in order to share stories and lessons learned; the information documented on the various platforms will hopefully develop over time and contribute to a greater understanding of the processes at a local level – and where youth as young leaders can intervene to begin to change the dynamics of community development.

–

Cross posted on Linda Raftree’s blog Wait…What? and my health geography blog.

The Map Kibera team had a busy end to 2011. From August to the end of December 2011, we have been involved in projects in Kibera, Mukuru (Nairobi), Kwale (Coast) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Mappers from Kibera have travelling across the city, country and even regionally to share their skills with other young people in East Africa. They trained approximately 40 young people in Mukuru, 30 in Kwale and students from Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam. This networking and sharing is beginning to create an informal network of young people, with skills, experience and passion for mapping for change. Although they are not always working in Kibera, the exposure the mappers get also helps to continue to “put Kibera on the map.”

Work on the atlases and wall painting for Kibera is also ongoing. The final edits are underway and 2012 will be busy for the team – producing an atlas distribution strategy, contacting partners for atlas request, visiting schools and health clinics and painting walls! Of course, the team will also gather feedback and document the process to being to better understand how community information can lead to change.

As we move into 2012, the Map Kibera team wishes you a wonderful start to the new year!