Need: Maman Shujaa Media Training Center Program – Bukavu, DR Congo

Neema

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Tags:

• Technology and Innovations
• Media and Communications
• Leadership and Empowerment
• Gender-based Violence
• Education and Training

Two butts in most every seat

In July of this year we opened a Maman Shujaa Media Training Center in Bukavu, DR Congo to train educated women in basic computer literacy, while providing exposure to the global online community.

The vast majority of educated women in Congo, even women in leadership positions, do not have any experience using computers, nor especially the internet. The main objectives of the program are:
• To create access and enlighten women regarding web 2.0 platforms; ie. World Pulse,
• To create a community atmosphere where women are esteemed for their life-experience and successes in dealing with their hardships,
• To convey the personal and community impact of sharing their stories with others,
• To train them on simple, professionally tailored curriculum to write their stories and solutions.

The purpose of the Maman Shujaa Media Training program is to create a core of strength and connection among women leaders, from which a movement for peace and transformation in Congo can be established.

In July we rented a training room in a cyber café in Bukavu with 12 computers for 3 hours each evening. The interest has been so high that we often have two women sitting in each chair. During the sessions we share about the various forms of gender violence we are subjected to in our culture. We share stories posted online by women from our country, and our sisters around the world. We point out the similarities, and how the most powerful and effecting stories posted on the internet reveal how the problems are being faced, or confronted.

We call ourselves Maman Shujaa, which means “Hero Women” in Swahili, knowing that by speaking out, telling our stories and sharing our solutions with one another, we are creating a new culture. We are becoming activists for love and peace, speaking into the new Congo we envision. We know we are only part of the solution, but we also know that we carry its heart, and “from the heart, the mouth speaks,” putting a demand on the Congo we hold in our hearts to manifest.

OUR GOAL is to open our own Media Training Facility, providing our community of women better connectivity and support, and giving more women an opportunity to participate due to all-day operations. Our goal is to connect and empower 1,000 women over the course of next year.

With this goal in mind, I want to purchase 28 used IBM Lenovo laptop computers from a utility in Dallas Texas, during my stay in the U.S., to take back to Congo. The utility is selling the used laptops to me at a greatly reduced price. I will need to box them up with the power cords in six, 40lb boxes and ship them to Congo.

You can help us get these laptop computers to Congo by contributing online through our U.S. fiscal sponsor. Just click on this link: Alliance for the Earth, then click on the drop down box in the Program Designation section, and select "Women Witness Congo". Or you can write checks payable to "Alliance for the Earth" (mention Women Witness Congo) and send to PO Box 8031, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87504. My partner at Alliance for the Earth, Cynthia Jurs, would also be happy to talk to you and answer any questions you might have. You can contact her at 505-986-9232 / cynthia@earthtreasurevase.org.

World Pulse is not equipped to act as a pass-through for this project, so please donate to me through the Alliance for the Earth link above.

Thank you sincerely,

Neema Namadamu