CCCD Director wins the 2011 Kurt Schork Award

The founder and Director of the Creative Centre for Communication and Development, Gertrude Pswarayi, has won this years' Kurt Schork Award. "Pswarayi's passion for advancing Communication Rights for marginalised groups and her writing skills are a valuable assert to the organisation" said the Board Chair of CCCD. 

Read more: 
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Citizen Jounalism Training

Creative Centre for Communication and Development is empowering women and girls to become citizen journalists, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information in order to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide ranging and relevant information that a democratic Zimbabwe requires.

The overall objective of this empowerment training is to amplify voices of marginalised women and girls, uplift their lives, enlighten and enliven their community in general, enable them to earn respect while participating in issues that affect their lives.

It is expected  that women will be empowered with skills to practise citizen journalism and women will use ICTs to advance their communication rights and other fundamental freedoms. There will be a wide spread and rapid access to information by women and women will use ICTYs to amplify their voices, seek, receive and impart rights-based information.

AWDF conducts Monitoring and Evaluation exercise on CCCD programmes

Back row from Left to Right: Nafi Chinery, Capacity Building Officer (AWDF), Eunice Mugorongi, CCCD Board member, Zeytuuna Abdella Azasoo, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer (AWDF) Front row from Left to Right: Pastor Febie Chuma, CCCD Board member, Gertrude Pswarayi, CCCD Director

The African Women’s Development Fund, a grant-making foundation which supports local, national and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment recently made a visit to the Creative Centre for Communication and Development in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to assess the organisation’s programmes, implementation and its capacity.  

The assessment visit which took place on April 18 was part of AWDF’s annual monitoring and evaluation routine monitoring and evaluation plans which enables AWDF to assess projects funded by the organisation. 

During the assessment visit, the Creative Centre for Communication and Development had the opportunity to share some of their project success stories particularly successes related to the project funded by the AWDF. The AWDF officials, Zeytuna Abdella Azasoo the Monitoring & Evaluation Officer and Nafi Chinery, the Capacity Building Officer also had the opportunity to interact with some of the Creative Centre for Communication and Development’s Board members, director and beneficiaries to learn more about the successes, challenges and future plans of the organisation. 

During the 16 Days of Activism campaign in 2010, AWDF awarded the Creative Centre for Communication and Development, a small grant to conduct an advocacy campaign that used a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) called Freedom Fone, developed in Zimbabwe by Kubatana Trust and awarded a Knight Frank award in 2008. The Freedom Fone provides for round the clock personal access to information. It uses mobile phones and marries it with interactive audio programming – allowing users to conduct SMS polls, collect user generated audio content via a voice-message system, and allowing callers to listen to content on the cell phones.

The project had a big impact in the community. The project resulted in increased access to information to women and girls on issues of Gender Based Violence. The project offered women a platform to reveal GBV cases that they experience without fear of intimidation and harassment. Women and girls particularly from the church now have a platform to get information and help. 

http://wwwcreativecommunication.blogspot.com/2011/02/mobile-technologies-bring-luster-to.html

Women gear themselves to claim their rightful place in the community

Bulawayo: After being marginalised in the media in particular and the community in general, some 26 women in Queens Park, Bulawayo have committed to challenge the status quo that favours men at women’s expense.

The women expressed their interest in telling their own stories in the media instead of having men reporting women’s issues. The women realized that most of the stories in the local media did not portray women positively, a situation that perpetuates discrimination and abuse of women and girls. The women also noted that besides being portrayed negatively in the media, their voices were also underrepresented. During a media analysis exercise, the women noted that most of the voices that dominated the newspapers that were available during the workshop were those of men.

During the workshop that was held at Noah’s Ark Ministries in Queens Park East, participants at the workshop were introduced to the world on citizen journalism and social networking using modern information and communication technologies. For the first time in their lives, the women opened e-mail addresses as a stepping stone into communicating at a global level. The women then got into the serious business of learning how to tell their stories. The women were introduced to the five ‘W’ and an ‘H’, (Who, When, Where, What, Why and How) the basic requirements for a good story.

The women then got the opportunity to put what they had learnt into practice. They wrote brief news articles and later shared their stories with the rest of the group. Faustina Maravanyika, 26, one of the participants felt that given the opportunity, she could now write better stories for the community, stories that uplifts and empower women and girls.

“All my life I had never had an interest in newspapers. I always thought that newspapers were for men. Even the local gossip and celebrity stories were all male dominated and uninteresting. With the coming in of internet based social networks, I will now have interest in news because I will be one of the people contributing through the creation of original content told by a woman for other women to read. I have now understood that there are websites that are of interest to me and other women,” said Maravanyika.

The workshop was organized by the Creative Centre for Communication and Development under the first phase of its project ‘Giving back marginalised women and girls their voices.’

This first phase, Capacity building in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), seeks to increase ownership and control of the media by women and girls in Zimbabwe through ‘laying technology into their hands’. This phase challenges the monopolistic nature of the media environment in Zimbabwe where government owns and controls most media outlets and where men dominate. It is intended to bridge the gender gap in the ownership and control of the media while using ICTs and journalism to empower women and girls, provide people with access to information, allowing for community development and human connection. Beneficiaries will be trained in Advanced Computer skills including using Internet technologies and Web 2.0 in particular. Beneficiaries will be empowered to become citizen journalists, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information in order to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide ranging and relevant information that a democratic Zimbabwe requires.

The programme was made possible through a generous donation from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC).

Mobile Technologies bring luster to women in Bulawayo

BULAWAYO: Diana Svosve had no dreams of ever owning a mobile phone. Her only major form of communication was through writing a letter, which took days to reach its destination. Her main access to local and international news was through the state controlled radio. Today, Svosve lives in a different world.

Four years ago, a sim card for a mobile phone was going for as much as USD100 or more. A handset was also going for as much. The local name for a mobile phone is mbozhanhare, literary meaning a phone for the rich. Today a sim card can be purchased for as little as USD1. The mobile phone has now proliferated into all the corners of the country, changing people’s lifestyle and way of seeking, sending and receiving information.

Over the years, Zimbabwe has seen an increase in the number of women owning a mobile phone. This motivated the Creative Centre for Communication to develop a programme with a goal to increasing access to information on (women's) human rights using mobile technologies.

The objectives of the exercise were to raise awareness of the 16 Days of Activism in Zimbabwe using mobile phones and to promote women and girls' communication rights through making information available in a format that they can use and in a way that is affordable.

With a generous support from the African Women Development Fund, the organisation embarked on an advocacy campaign using free open source software called Freedom Fone that was developed in Zimbabwe by Kubatana Trust and awarded a Knight Frank award in 2008. The Freedom Fone provides for round the clock personal access to information. It uses mobile phones and marries it with interactive audio programming – allowing users to conduct SMS polls, collect user generated audio content via a voice-message system, and allowing callers to listen to content on the cell phones.

The project had a big impact in the community. The project resulted in increased access to information to women and girls on issues of Gender Based Violence. The project offered women a platform to reveal GBV cases that they experience without fear of intimidation and harassment. Women and girls particularly from the church now have a platform to get information and help.

During the implementation of the project, the organisation received information through the Freedom fone about a case in which a father raped his daughter, resulting in her falling pregnant. Participants in the programme met and decided to come out with a drama, to highlight this and raise awareness about this form of violence against women in Zimbabwe.

The Creative Centre for Communication and Development now plans to use the Freedom Fone to advance other women’s human rights. The facility is cost effect and has the capacity to reach a wider audience considering the increased proliferation of the mobile phones in the country.

For women in Bulawayo like Mrs. Svosve, the mobile is no longer just a gadget for sending and receiving messages, but a great source of news and information on pertinent issues pertaining to women.