Last month, mapper Mildred represented Map Kibera at the Youth 21 Global Youth Leadership Forum. The result of the Forum is the Nairobi Declaration, recommendations from youth to make global governance process inclusive and accountable to young people. The section on research emphasizes the importance of youth led, resident led, community based information, and highlights Map Kibera.
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.
Map Kibera trained hundreds of young people and professionals last year, to contribute to OpenStreetMap and report on their communities. We created manuals, and as all of our work and outputs are shared in the commons, we’re releasing them here.
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 Trust (www.mapkibera.org)
Dates: June-September, 2012 (approximate dates)
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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.