While not formally part of the StoryMaker project that is being implemented in four Middle East and North Africa countries, there is another project utilizing the StoryMaker app to further citizen journalism in Zimbabwe. The project Mobile Community Zimbabwe [1] (MCZ) has been operating in Harare as a citizen journalism school training young Zimbabweans in the skills and techniques to tell their own local stories. From their website [2]:
MCZ hopes to contribute to plurality and diversity of news and informational content in and from Zimbabwe by;
- Promoting citizen journalism as a tool to empower young Zimbabweans to have a voice
- Enabling uncensored information on and from different localities in Zimbabwe
- Engaging with local communities in discussions and issues that directly affect them
At the recent StoryMaker Camp in Amman, Jordan, we spoke with one of the trainers, Privilege Musvanhiri, who has been teaching citizen journalism skills using mobile phones. In this short audio podcast interview, he describes the trainings and the local community stories created by the students.