[Imc-africa] Update from Nairobi

Sun Dec 3 09:20:24 PST 2006

hi all,

i'm about to head to the southern usa, nashville, tennessee, for a major 
organizing project that will be done december 12th.  elena botkin-levy 
and andy gunn at prometheus are going to have some clarifying updates to 
send to this list in the next few days that will be helpful for all 
involved, and we'll have questions too about the logistics of purchasing 
equipment and planning our travel, as well as the timing of the radio 
workshops.  this update is very helpful, john, and i am sure we will 
have questions for you.

just wanted to let you know we are monitoring this list and planning 
here in philadelphia.  we are looking forward to learning and sharing 
skills with all of you.

with excitement and solidarity!
hannah s.
prometheusradioproject

On Sun, Dec 03, 2006 at 02:14:00AM -0800, John Bwakali wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>   Visa letters: I am in touch with Oloo about this and intend to try and see if you can receive the invitation letters this week so that you can start making any relevant arrangements. I just talked with him a while ago and we agreed to try and meet tomorrow to follow up on the same.
>    
>   Accomodation: The WSF will be held at Moi International Sports Centre in Kasarani, about 10 kilometres from the city centre of Nairobi. On friday last week, I visited the WSF secretariat here and established that most activities will take place at Kasarani. As such, the guest house that I had in mind at Lavington will be a bit far from Kasarani and I have thus identified another one that is about 10 minutes drive from Kasarani itself. The proprietor of this guesthouse is a company known as Reed International whose Director is Allan Busula. I have a meeting with them today (sunday) in the evening and will send you a full update about the meeting tomorrow. Given the fact that a lot of people will be looking for accomodation near the WSF venue, I think that once I agree with Reed International, we should proceed to secure the guesthouse soonest possible. I will send you the full address and photos of the house before the end of this week. 
>   
> Transport: If we secure the guesthouse that is near the WSF venue, then people should be able to walk for about 20 - 30 mins to the venue. Otherwise we can also arrange for a small vehicle to be on standby at the guesthouse to transport people to the city centre, Kibera and any other place within Nairobi.
>    
>   Radio Frequency in Nairobi: Last week I was in a meeting with Riruta Environment Group, an organisation here in Nairobi that sought for a radio frequency to operate here in Nairobi but they were informed that Nairobi is for now saturated, so they had to opt for Kitale, a smaller town about 300 kilimeters west of Nairobi. I have however established that there is a new community radio station in Kibera known as Ghetto FM and another one in Korogocho (another ghetto about 10 mins drive from WSF venue) known as Miss Koch FM. If we want to go on air in Nairobi 'legally', then we might want to talk to these radio stations and strike some sort of partnership. Reed International has made it clear that they wouldn't want to get into trouble with the government because an 'illegal' radio is being operated in their premises (the guesthouse).
>    
>   Permanent Radio Station in Maseno: Last friday, I had a meeting with Felix (the tech radio person from Maseno) and he informed me that things are on course in Maseno. They are even already putting up the building that will house the radio station. I have requested him to send a full update to all of you. We arranged for a group of ten students and lecturers to stay with other Indymedia people in Nairobi and partake in all our activities in Nairobi. The long term strategy for the Maseno team to then assist in setting up other community radio projects in other parts of Kenya.
>    
>   Working groups: We are already setting up working groups and soon you will have the names of the people who are coordinating different things. 
>    
>   Cheers,
>   John
>    
> sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org> wrote:
>   Hi Wytze!
> 
> > Dear Valentine, Thanks for the call. I had to still write you but 
> > it's quite >busy here at the moment.
> > The Africa group met and had more questions about the project.
> > One is: what are you going to do with the radio during WSF?
> > Participants will not listen to radio during WSF it seems to the group.
> 
> 1-Sharing skills of building and running a Low Powered Fm radio Station.
> We?ll start construction of the radio on January 7, with the active
> participation of all the delegates for the Convergence indymedia Center; and
> the radio will be on the air on the 13th January-that is a week before the WSF
> starts- till the end of the forum.
> The first step is to build the Station with locals and the other African
> delegates for them to learn how to build such a simple radio station 
> for use as
> an organizing tool in their own communities. So the first thing is to 
> share the
> skills of building a Low Powered Fm radio Station with the African delegation
> and the other activists who will be assembled in Nairobi for the event.
> 
> 2-Providing an independent coverage of the WSF for locals and online audience.
> The radio will cover the WSF event for locals and of course all who will be in
> Nairobi for the WSF and wish to get an independent perspective on the events,
> discussions, procedures and you name the rest on the WSF can tune in. Amongst
> the many workshops will be workshops on basic journalism skills like 
> performing
> interviews, running automations on the radio, programming etc
> May be it worth mentioning that lots of the equipment for the radio will be
> bought in the local market and the station will be build from scratch, thus
> demystifying the equipment and placing at the disposal of those present from
> all over Africa a tool that could be used in their communities both for
> organizing and updating everyone in their communities of their local 
> struggles.
> 
> 
> > If it is for other people, how will they know about the radio-station and
> > the frequency?
> >
> IMC-Kenya folks are working on the Frequency question right now,
> as soon as that is settled we?ll put the information in our lists, wikipages
> and of course there will be a print version of indymedia reporting which will
> amongst other things inform the World Social Forum audience on what frequency
> the Independent media Convergence Center Radio will be broadcasting. Note that
> this will be going on for three weeks. Of course we?ll be online too on
> www.kenya.indymedia.org, www.radio.indymedia.org, www.indymedia.org and a host
> of other online sites will be carrying our broadcasting as well as providing
> global feedback on the events in Kenya.
> http://wiki.radiolivre.org/Main/GLOBALRADIONODESONWSF
> 
> 
> > Furthermore it would be helpful if you can write down what you will do
> > with the apparature after WSF. You told me through phone but it gets
> > stronger if I can give the group a written explanation.
> 
> After the WSF the equipment will be dismantled in Nairobi and rebuilt 
> in Maseno
> University in Kusumu. This provides a secure space for the equipment, and the
> radio will be running from Maseno Campus. Independent media activists 
> in Kusumu
> as well as others involved with community projects in Kusumu both in the
> University and out of the University will jointly run the radio, with
> participative democracy/consensus as the bedrock of the structure of 
> the radio.
> >
> > Warm regards,
> >
> > Wytze
> >
> >
> All the Best and I?ll happily answer any other questions on the project.
> Sphinx
> 
> 
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hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject

building radio stations = awesome
http://www.prometheusradio.org
215-727-9620