[Imc-africa] Maseno University Radio Project

[sphinx]

Hi John and Siyade!
This definitely very good news from that end.


My opinion is that from the indymedia point of view this whole radio 
project has
been about giving people in the community in Kenya the tools to enhance the
growth and development of INDEPENDENT MEDIA MAKING in a PARTICIPATIVE
DEMOCRATIC manner, which has always been the goal of indymedia.

In another circumstance one will want to put such a radio station in 
some social
or political center in the city for access to the general community including
students from all institutions in the city. But in the case were there are no
such kind of social centers and the indymedia Kenya groups is still budding,
putting the radio station in Maseno has a handful of advantages for all sides.
It means we do not have to start looking for money to rent a physical space in
town to put the radio.
Maseno University with limited resources has been struggling to get 
support for
equipment from Antioch and elsewhere. By having the radio in their 
campus their
students have the equipment to practice the journalism skills they learn.
Indymedia get?s the chance to meet and tell Maseno students about indymedia
which is about empowering communities to be able to tell their own story about
their lives and struggle, thus resisting mainstream media manipulations.
One other thing is the location of Maseno, which Chris pointed out is 
located in
a hilly area the radio signal will as such reach more people.


1-WHAT IS TO HAPPEN NEXT ? :

Judith and Charles are to start the most important part, which is mobilizing a
group of students and teachers who will like to be part of the radio project.
This group is going to be responsible for the communication with the school
administration and will operate the radio station with other community
activists that might join them via indymedia folks, other community projects
etc. Of course indymdia and Prometheus radio will share skills in this respect
with them during the WSF-IMC in workshops and hand-on learning.
If the school has allows clubs to exist in campus, this group could then
register with the school as a club.

2-WHAT IS INDYEMDIA?S ROLL?

For those of us involved with indymedia that will be coming to Kenya for the
WSF-IMC, our roll will be to exchange experience and skills with the Kenyan
activists involved in indymedia and the students from Maseno on how 
such radios
function elsewhere. Of course those from the school and the community who will
be involved in this project will ultimately determine how they want the 
project
to go in accordance with their local realities and struggles.

Indymedia Africa working group will raise the funds to buy all the equipments
that will be used for the radio station and we are engaged in fundraising also
to get as many activists as we can to Kenya for the WSF-IMC from which these
activists will share their skills and experience in making media.

Thus one can already hope that from now on indymedia Kenya activists will be
able to hold regular meetings with the group from Maseno in which they will
discuss about the core value of indymedia and their joined work 
together, which
is: all available here :
https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImcHowTo

On PARTICIPATIVE DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES, indymedia folks will run many 
workshops
on this form of organizing during the WSF. C.T. Butler who has spent the last
couple of years teaching formal Consensus will also be in Kenya to run ?train
the trainer? workshops on formal consensus.
http://consensus.net/ocaccontents.html


3-WHEN WILL WE BE THERE TO START WORK ON THE PROJECT?:

Again, our goal is to enhance the growth and development of INDEPENDENT MEDIA
MAKING in a PARTICIPATIVE DEMOCRATIC manner. Thus the radio plus computers and
all the tech stuff are only tool in the effort to achieve our goal of
empowering communities with helping the building of a participative democratic
culture.
Some people will be flying into Nairobi on the January 2, 2007 while 
most of the
other people will fly in on the January 7, 2007.
The first thing will be to get to meet with all who will be involved in these
wsf-imc events.
January 8 and 9 will be spent going around Nairobi together with the locals
buying all the remaining tools and equipments we?ll need to build the radio
station.
January 10-13 all of us together will be building the radio Station via 
Antenna
and studio.

4-WHAT SHOULD JUDITH AND THE MASENO FOLKS DO BY THE TIME WE START THE 
PROJECT?:
They should have already request from the School administration to give their
?Independent media club? a room in which we?ll build the radio studio.
They should have informed as many students as possible about the project
inviting them to participate.
All the Kenyan folks should do their maximum best to get information on 
all the
laws relating to operating a low Powered FM in Kenya. I think the fact that
this radio will be a non-commercial radio in a University campus could make
things a bit easier; as it could be understood as a station for students
studying journalism to practice.


5->Another issue that we discussed is the possibility of inviting some
 >journalism students from Maseno to attend the Indymedia workshops and >also
the World Social Forum in order to build their capacity.

This I think is an automatic situation. We see ourselves as coming to 
share radio and computers skills, as well as sharing our skills and 
possibilities in
fundraising to support the people in Kenya/Maseno-students who wish to use
radio to empower their community. We do not see ourselves as coming 
there to do
?OUR? thing. So one automatically hopes that Judith and Charles will make
announcements in every class to all students and all teachers in their school
and even in nearby schools and others doing any kind of community development
project to come to learn the skills they can learn and share with us 
the skills
they can share in our overall efforts to make the world a better place.

That is my thought, hope others could correct or add what they thought I left
out or did not put correctly.
Sphinx


Quoting John Bwakali <jonbwak at yahoo.com>:

> Dear Colleagues,
>  I am pleased to inform you that Judith the head of the 
> communications department of Maseno university and myself had a 
> fruitful meeting last evening here in Nairobi.
>
>  For those of you who may not be knowing, Judith wasi ntroduced to 
> Indymedia by Chris of Antioch University when she was in the US a 
> couple of months ago. It was then that the idea of a low powered 
> radio at the univesrity was mooted.
>
>  We agreed with Judith that she will work on establishing the radio 
> project in Maseno as a student led initiative and a partnership 
> between Maseno and the local community for purposes of building the 
> capacity of students and availing relevant information to the local 
> community.
>
>  In order to mimimise misconceptions, we just need to provide Judith 
> with more information on what Indymedia's role will be in the whole 
> arrangement. From email discussions, that we have been having, it 
> seems clear that Indymedia together with Promotheus will provide 
> technical and material support. I know we have discussed this before, 
> but for purposes of clarity could someone in the list and also 
> someone from Promotheus send a summary of the degree of support that 
> Indymedia and Promotheus will provide. In addition, it will be useful 
> for Maseno to know when we would like to go there to start work on 
> the project and what they should have done by that stage. Judith is 
> confident that there should be no hitches with the administration 
> because of the student angle. I think approaching it from that 
> perspective will greatly minimise the bureaucratic and legal hurdles 
> that would have hampered substantive progress. Another issue that we 
> discussed is the possibility of inviting some
> journalism students from Maseno to attend the Indymedia workshops and 
> also the World Social Forum in order to build their capacity. After 
> the Forum, these students can be the ones to play a leadership role 
> in the project together with support from Indymedia Kenya. We would 
> appreciate to get response soonest so that Judith can set the ball 
> rolling in Maseno.
>
>  Cheers,
>  John Bwakali
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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