Dear Colleagues,
I would like to inform you of mentorship opportunities with a new project,
Blogs for African Women (BAWo). BAWo is inspired by a similar project
organised by Katy Pearce - Young Caucasus Women. BAWo needs bloggers to
mentor young African women who are thinking of or just starting out on their
blogosphere adventures. Please read on and contact us if you are interested,
or forward to someone you know who might be.
Regards,
Ore Somolu
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OPPORTUNITY TO NURTURE WOMEN BLOGGERS!
Are you a blogger interested in encouraging more people to blog? Do you
enjoy working with young women?
Blogs for African Women (BAWo) is looking for mentors to participate in a
project for young African women who are new to blogging, from early May to
the end of July 2006. The project will initially target Nigerian students
aged 10 to 13, but will later extend to the rest of Africa.
WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ABOUT?
BAWo is a project for African women who want to start blogging or who are
new to blogging. The young bloggers will post each week on an assigned
topic. They will also be expected to comment on each others posts as well
as the mentors.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO?
Each mentor is assigned a week to post. You will post once at the start of
the week. Your post will provide the young bloggers with ideas and guidance
for their own posts.
You will comment on the young womens posts.
You are also encouraged to comment on the other mentors posts during
their assigned weeks.
We will work with you to come up with suitable topics for the young women.
WHAT QUALITIES SHOULD A MENTOR HAVE?
We welcome all bloggers who are culturally and gender sensitive and who are
interested in working with young women. We particularly encourage African
women bloggers to participate in this project.
WHY THIS PROJECT?
Internet use in the African continent, although growing, is still fairly low
due to many factors which discourage Africans from using the Internet and
other Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as no or limited access to the
Internet, erratic electricity supply, and low literacy levels. Womens
Internet use (and consequently blogging) continues to be very low. A cursory
browse of the African blogosphere will show that male bloggers make up the
majority of African bloggers, with many residing outside of the African
continent.
While this project cannot remove many of the barriers to ICT use, it aims to
introduce African women to blogging as a tool for self-expression within a
nurturing environment, and in the long-run encourage an active engagement
with technology.
The objectives of this project are:
To encourage African women who want to start blogging and support those
who recently started blogging
To help balance gender disparity in blogging
To encourage African women to report their own stories as an alternative
to mainstream media
To increase the amount of locally-relevant content available on the
Internet
To encourage a love for writing and reading
To promote weblogs as a method of democratic expression
To encourage more African women to think about how to incorporate other
technology tools into their lives
WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?
If you are interested in becoming a mentor or know someone who is, please
contact Ore Somolu at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Sokari Ekine at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please write a few lines about yourself and your interest in this project,
including your blog URL.
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