[Imc-africa] sent report to imc-finance

[andrés]

Good work, thanks Jay.

Jay dijo el 07/05/2007 22:29:
> Hi everyone,
> I just sent the below report to imc-finance.  If 
> anyone has anything to add we can send other e-mails too.
> Jay
> ***
> Hi imc-finance,
> 
> In January 2007, dozens of international 
> Indymedia actitivists, including several members 
> of the Kenya IMC, came together in Nairobi, 
> Kenya, to participate in an international IMC 
> convergence and radio station "barnraising" to 
> coincide with the World Social Forum.   Planning 
> and fundraising for the convergence took place 
> throughout the summer and autumn of 2006, when 
> Indymedia organizers from several continents 
> communicated face-to-face and via e-mail, IRC and 
> conference call to coordinate the project.  In 
> November, 2006, imc-finance awarded the 
> imc-africa working group $4250 to put toward 
> radio equipment and other needs for the 
> convergence.  Here is the initial proposal 
> (http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-finance/2006-November/1107-qw.html). 
> 
> 
> The IMC/WSF Nairobi convergence came and went 
> with a number of successes, some difficult 
> lessons learned and the hope that in some way 
> what happened there helped advance the 
> independent media-making movement in Africa.  Some successes include:
> 
> -- the on-site building of an on-air low power FM 
> radio station, broadcasting for [???] days from 
> inside the World Social Forum conference 
> site.  Participants in the convergence from 
> countries such as Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, 
> the US, Germany, etc [help me list the countries 
> participants came from] worked together to 
> phsyically build the station and create original 
> programming while it was on the air.  According 
> to a January 24, 2007, report from Danielle 
> Chynoweth of the Urbana IMC 
> (http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/0124-p4.html), 
> "About 20 African citizen-journalists ­ most of 
> them producing audio for the first time ­ have 
> created hours of interviews about the issues of 
> housing, HIV/AIDS policies, gay and lesbian 
> rights, human rights, youth issues, and the importance of independent media."
> 
> -- Printing and distribution of 5,000 copies of a 
> newspaper about goings-on at the World Social 
> Forum in English and Kiswahili, written by 
> indpendent journalists from several countries, 
> mainly from Africa.  [can someone help me find a 
> link to this on-line?  Also, were all the 
> journalists African?  From which countries?]
> 
> -- connections made with local low-powered radio 
> projects in Nairobi, such as Koch FM (
> http://kochfm.blogspot.com/) and the Pro-Active 
> Youth Group, which has is planning to open a radio station,
> Ungem FM, in a recycled shipping container.
> 
> -- building of a long-term low-powered radio 
> station at Kenya's Maseno University.
> 
> -- Working with the Kenya IMC to share skills 
> that will be able to advance their organizing, as 
> well as learning lessons from the Kenya IMC and 
> other African independent journalists that will 
> help advance independent media oragnizing outside of Africa.
> 
> -- Connections made between international 
> independent media media makers, many discussions 
> and informal skill shares about Indymedia and 
> independent media-making within an African context.
> 
> -- the Prometheus Radio Project distributed at 
> least 10 low-wattage radio transmitters (two 40 
> watt and the rest 1 and 1/4 watt) to indepenent 
> media activists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, 
> Uganda, Somalia, Kenya and Nigeria.
> 
> -- Organizers were able to raise approximately 
> $24,000 to support this project, including the 
> $4250 from imc-finance, about $15,000 from 
> Umverteilen to support travel of delegates, 
> $1,900 from the X Minus Y foundation to support 
> radio supplies and other essentials, 
> approximately $2000 from the Urbana IMC and about 
> $1250 from local IMCs and individuals around the 
> world.  IMC-Finance's money went specifically 
> toward radio station supplies and 
> directly-related materials.  The organizers did 
> not spend all of imc-finance's money, and have 
> therefore returned $1842 to imc-finance.  An 
> extensive accounting spreadsheet for the project is available upon request.
> 
> Some lessons learned and items for further growth and discussion include:
> 
> -- The impenetrable Kenyan and World Social Forum 
> bureaucracies resulted in a number of IMC 
> activists from around Africa not being able to 
> receive visas to travel to Nairobi for the convergence.
> 
> -- There was little to no successful work done on 
> planning the IMC skill shares and the "indymedia" 
> part of the convergence (as opposed to the the 
> "barnraising" part of the project, which the 
> Prometheus Radio Project primarily 
> coordinated).  There was a general breakdown of 
> process, especially in formal consensus.
> 
> -- Many difficult lessons learned, and in the 
> process of being learned, about the 
> race/economic/cultural differences between Africa 
> and the US/Europe/Australia, many difficult 
> discussions about race-class privilege were had 
> and still need to happen, many hard lessons were 
> learned about the realities of organizing across vast cultural divides.
> 
> Many thanks go to imc-finance for its continued 
> support imc-africa!  If you're curious to see 
> some of the faces behind the convergence, 
> Philadelphia-based photographer JJ Tiziou 
> (http://www.jjtiziou.net)  put together a video 
> of his many photographs of the project: 
> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8655853024533360412".
> 
> Jay
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
andrés