Social media is arguably the fastest way to spread and receive information globally. We have chosen to evolve with the world by strengthening the capacity of young journalists to enable them to utilize digital tools for advocacy purposes.
With support from the Luminate group, Education as a vaccine under the Safe to Surf project trained 19 female campus journalists from different institutions across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones on digital rights and advocacy.
Under 72 hours, we walked them through the rudiments of digital rights, Technology gender-based violence and solutions. They will subsequently use social media to collate stories of violence perpetrated against women and advocate for women’s digital rights online.
During the opening remark, the executive director of Education As a Vaccine, Toyin Chukwudozie, spoke on the goal of the safe to surf project/training being the birth of young female digital rights advocates and her hopes for its continuity.
She noted that this set was the pilot of the project and she is hoping that we as an organization would be able to take advocacy conversations to a broader audience and gather stories using various online means to expose existing online and gender-based violence with the knowledge they have gained.
She added that the online space liberates people. It enables people to have different opinions on politics, women, children, family, etc. while accommodating these opinions without bullying has become difficult.
“If you can’t randomly slap someone at the bus stop for saying something that does not sit well with you, why should you slap them online?”
She added.
EVA’s program coordinator, Grace Gara, took the first session on Gender-Based Violence, its forms, and factors that promote it. She mentioned some forms of GBV, including; verbal violence, physical violence, psychological violence, economic violence, and sexual violence. She also stated that all forms of GBV have a psychological impact as the aim is to hurt the integrity and dignity of another person.
Mr. Ofim Kelechi of TechHer delivered a presentation on Technology and Sexual Gender-Based Violence (TSGBV).
He assigned the girls to various tasks to depict women’s current reactions to technological and sexual gender-based violence; he explained the various forms of TSGBV: cyberbullying, doxing, cyberstalking, non-consensual pornography, trolling, and so on.
He also talked about the various causes of TSGBV, including cultural norms, gender inequality, sexism, discrimination, and gender stereotypes.
Mr. Andrew Madaki from TechHer spoke on Digital Security for Feminists and Female Journalists on the second day of the workshop. He explained cyber security in detail and how we can protect ourselves online.
On the same day, Kunle Adebajo spoke about Understanding the Civic Space and Digital Media and demonstrated the use of digital tools.
Finally, Mr. Ofim Kelechi discussed Digital Storytelling and the components of a great story, including point of view, dramatic question, human angle, voice, soundtrack, economy, and pacing.
He also mentioned digital storytelling tools and showed us how to use the Canva app to create.3