As youth workers working with young women and girls in Africa, we see how social media affects their outlook. Girls like Awino see their horizons opened up. They are exposed to new ideas, cultures and values that they have never discussed with their parents or teachers, and which we, as adults, may not be aware […]
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As African women working with young women and girls, we realised that there was a big contrast in how we, often from the generation before universal connectedness, thought about and used the internet, compared to the young women we seek to empower. This isn’t just a gap of understanding: it can be a gap in […]
We cannot always build a future for the youth but we can build our youth for the future. Franklin. D. Roosevelt In the space of a few weeks, Awino has changed from a somewhat ‘simple village girl’ to a popular, connected city girl, thanks to her new smartphone. The speed of this transformation is a […]
Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. Christian Lange It is interesting to consider how the young African women and girls we work with are introduced to digital technology. A lot will depend on the context of their first contact with a mobile phone or the internet. Was it in the context of […]
If you can find your footing between two cultures, you can have the best of both worlds. Randy Pausch Young African women and girls are torn between two seemingly incompatible realities as we enter the fifth industrial – digital – revolution. On the one hand, our young women live in a world rich in culture […]
You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive. Maya Angelou We hope that the exercises here have not only given you the tools and […]
Good social media is authentic. What makes social media work is actually having something to say. Steven Levitt Chidi was taking some photos for one of her donors when Nicole, a young woman who had started to volunteer, asked, “will we put these on Facebook and Instagram?”. Chidi confessed that the girls’ club didn’t have […]
Chidi applied for money for the youth club from a UK charity. On the application form it said “website”. Chidi didn’t have one so she left out that part. The charity wrote back saying that as she didn’t have a website they wouldn’t be taking her application forward. The next week another friend of a […]
What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything. Aaron Siskind Our goal is to communicate your youth club’s message through a young woman’s story. Here are some tips that may help you during the filmmaking process to make your video more impactful. Remember that […]
Chidi knew that her funders in the USA wanted a video of her youth club. She had a friend working in Nollywood, so knew it wasn’t as simple as sitting down with one of the youth club girls and filming her. Her friend had spent a weekend making a 3-minute-long film! Where do you start […]