GKP Stocktaking of ACTIVITIES relevant to BOTH the WSIS and MDG

Slums Information Development and Resource Centers
SIDAREC COMMUNITY MEDIA AND ICT PROGRAM

- Programme
- Publication
- Training and Capacity Building
- Resources (Publications,Guidelines, Toolkits, etc)

SIDAREC COMMUNITY MEDIA AND ICT PROGRAM
In a world that is rapidly evolving in information dissemination, literacy in information technology has become a basic tool of development. Promotion of knowledge and enlightenment of marginalized groups of people or communities has helped in the development of such groups in all aspects of life.
Most communities, especially slum communities are left behind in development as access to ICT has proven to be a great hurdle. Due to poverty and illiteracy, most people in slums can hardly afford to educate themselves in IT.

SIDAREC community media and ICT include a well-stocked community library in Pumwani, a publication known as ‘Slum News’, community recording studio, civic education, theatre, computer training with a cyber café and bureau services. The program empowers the youth and communities at large to seek knowledge and bridge the educational gap between the rich and poor. This gives them an opportunity to achieve their carrier dreams and aspirations in turn giving them hope and a bright future.

Youths are encouraged to make maximum use of the ICT program for skills development and betterment of their community to keep them away from social vices.

1.) COMMUNITY STUDIO
SIDAREC echoes the slogan that 'community problems need community solutions'. In order to achieve long lasting solutions to problems, community participation in solution seeking is vital. Putting in mind the poverty level in slums, community members cannot afford education and hence curtailing their participation in Slum News, the community studio was initiated. This gave a chance to community members to air their issues.

The studio is a manifestation of humility of SIDAREC, simplicity and innovativeness of the youth. It is a structure that is soundproofed using locally available materials and recording is done using computer softeware. Recording of positive music made and sung by the youth takes place in the studio and this is a way of promoting local upcoming artists.

2) Digitalizing community Library
Over a long time, SIDAREC strived to put up a community library complete with the entire infrastructure based on the identified need in the community (that is lack of a conducive learning/studying environment and inappropriate studying facilities). The physical structure is already complete. The second phase was to solicit and stock the structure with books. The stocking of the SIDAREC Community Library was made possible through the generous contribution of assorted books (for primary, secondary, vocational and University) from a foundation in the USA known as Books For Africa. Currently the library has about 25,000 copies of assorted books.

The digitalization of community Library with 25,000 text books to be accessed by major Slums in Nairobi whose total population is approximately 1.7 million, will increase the usage to a bigger audience within and out of the community. Through accessing of books from one Library linking to many other slums.

3) SIDAREC COMMUNITY TELECENTER
It is a well-known fact that Africa lags behind in information Technology. The most affected areas being urban slums and rural areas. The advent of Internet as the fastest means of communication, yet expensive to afford has almost relegated these vulnerable groups to the periphery where only the rich have access to the information technology.

The SIDAREC computer center was initiated in the spirit of imparting basic computer skills to the slum youth. Computer illiteracy is a major cripple especially with the evolution information communication technology. With the making of the world a global village through the Internet, many slum youth are thrown overboard by lack of computer skills.

This prompted SIDAREC- in pursuit of its objective of using communication as a mobilization tool to foster development- to open a computer center to impart computer basics to the youth in preparation for integration of the slum into the global village through Internet surfing.

The center admits students from the slum areas of Nairobi with priority given to SIDAREC volunteers. The volunteers are trained free of charge in software application to motivate them in their work. The computer center is open all day long for classes and for surfing Internet in the afternoon. The youth are taught on ways of using Internet resourcefully for outsourcing of relevant opportunities experiential sharing to access information that will go towards personal development and eventually community development.

4) Publishing Desktop - SLUM NEWS
The Slum News/Habari Vijijini magazine addresses slum issues and articles are written by the slum dwellers themselves, as they understand their problems better than anyone else hence SIDAREC adopting the slogan ‘Community problems need community solutions’. Slum News/Habari Vijijini

Slum News/ Habari Vijijini was initiated to act as a communication tool and hence a community information source. The main objective of Slum News magazine was to identify and enhance the writing skills among the youth so that they could in turn utilize these skills to enhance their living standards.

For convenience and wide readership, Slum News is published in two languages - English and Kiswahili. This makes the magazine to be accessible and appreciated by people from different academic backgrounds. As an achievement for SIDAREC, the process of layout and formatting is carried out using desktop publishing computer room. This has minimized errors and improved on the overall outlook of the magazine.

Since its inception, Slum News magazine has reached and penetrated most of the slum areas and the surrounding estates in Nairobi. This is because, more people have appreciated and acknowledged the role played by the publication. Presently, the magazine is circulated and read in the following areas; Embakasi, Kibera, Pumwani, Mathare and Kawangware with the highest recorded readership percentage coming from Kayole, Soweto, Pumwani, Mukuru Kwa Njenga in Embakasi and the city centre.