How CCCD is using social
media to advance women’s
rights
2011 CEO Leadership Forum, 17-18 October,
Nairobi, Kenya.
Presented by: Gertrude Pswarayi
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Why we do what we do
1. Did you know most women and girls in
Zimbabwe are marginalized, vulnerable,
unemployed, disempowered and voiceless?
2. Did you know these women and girls live at the
periphery of society; their voices
underrepresented, suppressed, unheard and
forgotten?
3. Their Communication Rights are violated on a
daily basis and they are unaware of it.
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Why we do what we do…cont.
 CCCD empowers women and girls with the
strategic and creative use of communication to
express their needs, to make their voices heard,
to manage their own communication, and to
participate fully in their own development for
long-term social change.
 Why?: Advancing their communication rights will
enable them to advance all other human rights
and build a stronger, more prosperous society.
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How we do it
 Mobile technologies
 Social media
 Citizen Journalism
 Theatre for Development
 Digital Storytelling for transformation
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The potential of social media
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ICTS are to development what
taps are to water
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ICTs transmit an essential resource: information, like
taps deliver water
The resource can do many things – with water,
industry is possible, growing food is possible, health
and more. With information all these things are
made possible too
The quality of the resource is important – bad water,
like bad information, does not help anyone
Who owns it is important, its location is also
important
The design of the ‘tap’ is important’
The tap can change things – like relationships of
power (gender!)
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Social media
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…sometimes referred to Web 2.0 is an umbrella
term that describes websites that connect
individuals somehow.
…rooted around the idea that the people who
consume media, access the internet.
…they use the Web not to passively absorb what
is available.
…users are active contributors, helping to
customise media and technology for their own
purposes, as well as of their communities.
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Social media…cont.
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…users have increase control over content and they
generate and receive content that is tailor made to
meet their needs.
Anyone who has INTERNET access and an OPINION
Social media is not a strategy but a communication
channels
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Social media redefining communication
The power to define and control messages and
ideas has shifted from opinion leaders,
government, mainstream media to individuals
and communities
 …communication is now more linked to “personal
and emotional connecting”
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What powers the conversation?
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Social Networks
News & Bookmarking
Blogs
Microblogging
Video & Photo sharing
Message boards
Wikis
Virtual Reality
Social Gaming
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How power is slowly shifting
 "...information and knowledge equate with
power. However, information and knowledge
become sources of power only if the necessary
infrastructure for their production, processing,
storage, retrieval and transportation is accessible
and when people have the skills to apply
information to social practice and to participate in
social networks through which information can be
used to further one's interests." Cee J. Hamelink
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Redirecting energy for sustainable
change
Increasing access to information
 Organising and mobilising for change in
laws and legislation
 Increasing avenues for information
access
 Increasing avenues to access services
through information
 Reducing stigma through sharing stories
 Amplifying women’s voices in policy
debates
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Redirecting energies: Focusing on
sustainable change
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Unearthing Forgotten Names: …use social media to speak
directly to the perspectives and needs of women.
Sharing Information and Creating Collective
Knowledge:…use social media to quickly and widely
disseminate news and information about rights violation,
share strategies and organise dialogue across national
boarders
Capacity building & Education:…use social media to harness
resources and information on the internet to develop
capacity building materials in line with your context and
location. …use the interactive capacity of social media to
develop online training modules
Media Alternatives: …use social media as an alternative
voice…also use social media for campaigns and event
organising
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Some of the challenges
 Inadequate skills and knowledge about how to social media
 Poverty
 Lack of ICT centres where women and girls can exploit ICTs
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in their activities;
Lack/limited internet connectivity
Frequent and erratic power cuts
Governance policies that hinder rather than encourage
affordability and universal access
Lack of information translated into the local language
closely linked
Low awareness of ICTs especially in rural areas
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How do we progress?
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Need to address ICTs challenges currently affecting
women and girls
Be more creative in ways we use social media by
adopting a triple bottom line approach i.e. looking at
the social, economic and environmental aspect
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10 tactics for turning information into
action using social media
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Mobilise people
Witness and record
Visualise your message
Amplify personal stories
Just add humour
Manage contacts
Use complex data
Use collective intelligence
Let people ask the questions
Investigate and expose
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Mobile Technologies
 Freedom Fone uses the fastest growing tool for
round-the-clock personal access to information (cell
phone) and marries it with audio voice menus and
SMS.
 It allows users to seek, receive and impact
information.
 Voice menus, voice messages, SMS messages, SMS
polls. Audio overcomes the barriers associated with
literacy.
 CCCD used Freedom Fone during the 16 Days of
Activism campaign last year. [More on the campaign]
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Theatre for Development
By involving local people in interactive plays we are:
 Creating a forum for creative, collective learning and self
expression
 Helping the community to make sense of the social
changes around them.
 In this way, even those with no formal education can
participate in this community learning activity.
 During the 16 Days of Activism (2010), the community
developed a play which toured churches in the
community [more on the tour]
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Citizen Journalism
 ….private individuals do essentially what professional
reporters do - report information.
 Information can take many forms, from a podcast
editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a
blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it's
basically all about communicating information of some
kind. The other main feature of citizen journalism is that
it's usually found online. In fact, the emergence of the
Internet - with blogs, podcasts, streaming video and other
Web-related innovations - is what has made citizen
journalism possible.
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Digital stories
 DS are stories produced, stored and disseminated using
digital media.
 The focus is on the story tellers' control over the medium,
choice of words (narration), pictures and music so that the
process is as powerful for the story teller as the end
product is to the viewer.
 CCCD is committed to challenging traditional approaches of
developing media which appropriates women’s voices,
misrepresents us, and disempowers us, our approach to
digital stories is one of empowerment, of women’s control
over their voices and stories, and respectful of process and
product.
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Contact us
Address: Number 1 Investon Road, Queens Park
West, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Telephone: +263 772 692 631
Email: cccddirector@yahoo.com
Blog:
http://wwwcreativecommuniction.blogspot.com
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