Monitoring and Evaluation report
VOICELESS VOICE PROJECT
PROJECT SUMMARY
| PROJECT TITLE | Voiceless Voice Project |
| GRANT NO | 181206 |
| FINANCED BY | Stichting Doen |
| FINANCIAL CONTRIBTION | 140,000 Euros |
| PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS | Amplify marginalized Communities Voices in Rwenzori and Kigezi region through providing filmmaking skills to locally based aspirants |
| IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATION’S DETAILS | Native Voices International, National Theater Building, Plot six Dewinton Road, P.O. Box 36796, Kampala – Uganda, Tel: +256 (0)393206351, Email:inativeveoices@gmail.com, www.nativevoicesinternational.or.ug |
| TEAM LEAD | Sarah Kizza Nsigaye, Chief Executive Officer +256 (0)772408257, nsigayesarah@gmail.com |
| REPORT SUBMITTED TO | Arjuna Hiffler Mani, Team Officer International Culture |
Table of Content
INTRODUCTION
This Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) report presents a summary and analysis of results accomplished at the Voiceless voices project that covered the period from November 2018 to December 2021.
The report emphasizes the findings and conclusions that have been compiled from various monitoring activities and data sources available on the unit. The monitoring and evaluation program is designed to serve as an important link between Plan implementation and on-the-ground accomplishments. Evaluations in this report serve as a springboard to any needed changes within the Area Plan or its implementation. The M&E program determines and informs the organization on whether:
- Goals and Objectives are being achieved;
- Design Criteria are being followed;
- Implementation effects are occurring as predicted;
- Emerging or unanticipated issues are arising.
These community-focused initiatives were implemented through different stake holders on the ground, local community leaders, educators, and volunteers. In these cases, Native Voices International produced the content and curricular design, provided the materials and tools, and trained local individuals in their application.
The M&E report demonstrates visibly there are a number of initiatives underway and a good number of accomplishments have been achieved. The full effects and resulting conditions of many projects cannot be measured until a longer period of time has passed.
Some of the highlights of this M&E report include:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report describes the processes and outcomes of the Voiceless Voice project, which Native Voices International, formerly Native Travel Festival, undertook with the goal of amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the Rwenzori and Kigezi regions by providing filmmaking skills to locally based filmmaking aspirants, opening film clubs in the areas where the most of the trainees’ hail, accompanying them on their filmmaking career path, and instituting a film festival.
The project builds on the success of the Voice of Karamoja (VOK) Project, which was funded by the Stichting Doen foundation from 2016 to 2018. The initiative has trained over 90 filmmakers in the Karamoja region, supplied them with equipment to continue production, and established film clubs in six districts, with many using their newly learned talents to tell tales from a Karamojong viewpoint and earn a livelihood.
This achievement inspired us to expand the chance to the Rwenzori and Kigezi areas, where Stichting Doen granted financing support of 140,000 Euros under the Voiceless Voice initiative to amplify the voices of vulnerable communities in these regions from November 2018 to December 2020.
While the project was originally scheduled to complete in December 2020, this completion report covers the period from November 2018 to December 2021, having been postponed to March 2021 with permission from Stichting Doen for a variety of reasons, including;
- The 2021 election violence threats that saw Native Voices extend the technical training post-election.
- The COVID – 19 enforced lock down.
- The subsequent departure of key staffs and the ill health of the executive director.
However, the Voiceless Voice project described in this report was effectively executed and finished. This report describes the project’s performance including; accomplishments, issues encountered, gaps, lessons learned, and recommendations. Despite the hurdles, we have built on our previous successes to provide more significant outcomes for Uganda’s burgeoning film sector, our alumni, and Native Voices International’s organizational health and growth.
The processes that led to the successful completion of this project were made possible by a combination of factors such as the participants’ passion, commitment, and interest, the skillfulness of the trainers, the funding support and guidance of our lead partner Stichting Doen, collaboration and support from the host institutions and financial support and advice from other entities such as non-profits, businesses, and some government agencies.
Methodology
The consultant monitored the project from the onset and gathered information on the target dates, activities and outcome. An evaluation of the report was carried out thereafter to inform the project on its success.
| No | Objectives | Input/activities | Outcome indicators |
| Amplify marginalized communities’ voices in Rwenzori and Kigezi regions by training at least 150 locally based aspiring film makers | Key stakeholders in training and stakeholder dialogue | LC V chairperson Kisoro district local leaders Security agencies Councilors
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| Engaging local partners in hosting trainings and to oversee film club activities post training.
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| Contribute to ongoing government efforts to combat unemployment by providing community members especially the youth with filmmaking skills from which they can earn a living | Notifying the community Radio advertisements, posters and fliers, CBOs, Churches cultural leaders, civil society
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| Selection of trainees by working with partners including; teachers, music producers, journalists, university students, civil society workers, cultural institution staff and even local government employees. | |||
| Develop at least fifteen films made by the trainees during introductory and specialized workshops. | We conducted two regional trainings in Kasese and Kisoro and seven specialized trainings (Two Screen Acting Workshops, Television Production, Screen Writing, Documentary Lab and two Technical Labs). | 60 of 100 successful participants turned up | |
| The 2nd training was held in Kisoro, where we got over 50 successful applicants but failed to get a host school and conducted the training in a hotel. We could not take on many and overall, we had twenty-two participants although only seventeen completed and got certificates.
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| Community Screenings | in Kisoro, we screened in six villages majorly Batwa strong holds at Rukeri, Mukyubugu – Mgahinga National Park, Mukozi, Chuho, Rubuguri and Kigoma), reaching about two thousand people | ||
| Develop a film culture by establishing at least eleven film clubs in the districts where trainees hail from in both regions, providing them equipment to continue with production and securing local partners to host the film clubs and supervise their activities. | Opened eleven film clubs in ten districts (Kasese, Bwera, Bundibujyo, Ntoroko, Bunyangabu, Kyegegwa, Kamwenge, Fort Portal, Rukungiri, Kisoro and Zombo) | only seven film clubs are active (Kasese, Ntoroko, Bwera, Bundibujyo, Rukungiri, Kisoro and Zombo | |
| The film club of Fort Portal suffered a natural death because most participants were students of Uganda Pentecostal University who study from Fort portal but do not necessarily live there, while the few Fort Portal based participants live far from the University where the club was based.
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| The two alumni from Bunyangabu lived far apart stayed but joined Ntoroko film club, which was engaged in film production. We, therefore, ended up with seven active film clubs. Ironically, Zombo not part of the program was most vibrant. Zombo district is outside the targeted Rwenzori and Kigezi regions but thanks to the enterprising Kasese participants who hails from Zombo and a partner organization LICO that requested for his participation in the Kasese lab, we now have a strong film club in Zombo. In Rwenzori and Kigezi region, only six film clubs are active (Kasese, Bwera, Ntoroko, Bundibujyo, Rukungiri and Kisoro). | |||
| Restore the marginalized communities’ integrity and self-esteem by giving them skills, tools and platforms to tell stories from their perspective | Establish structures | While we tried to establish structures by forming film clubs and local leadership selected by the area alumni themselves in ten areas of Kasese and Rwenzori regions, only six film clubs (Kasese, Bwera, Ntoroko, Bundibujyo, Rukungiri and Kisoro), are rooted.
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| 15 Films by trainees to gauge the skills they acquire | We produced 18 films; 4 in Kasese, five in the documentary lab, three in Kisoro, six in the Technical Lab. | ||
| Specialized training | Under the Voiceless Voice project, we conducted seven specialized trainings: Two Screen Acting Workshops, Screen Writing, Documentary Lab, Two Technical Labs (Cinematography, Photography, Editing, Sound, Lighting, Graphics and introduction to Animation). Five female trainees attended the technical filmmaking organized by the American Embassy together with 256 and Nabwiso Films under the American Showcase program, some alumni attended the UNESCO Filmmakers peer to peer workshops first with Ugandan filmmakers, Kenyan filmmakers and South African filmmakers, others attended the Script writers camp organized by the script guild.
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| They also attended Sound and Lighting Workshops organized by the National Theater in collaboration with Alliance Françoise.
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| Seek justice for victimized communities by bringing to light their conditions through holding Stakeholder Dialogues and Community Film Screenings followed by discussions | Conduct regional festivals and dialogue | The festival in Kasese was held in three venues for two days. The third day, which was the festival climax set to be televised live on NBS TV, featuring the stakeholder dialogue and graduation ceremony among other activities, found us under siege. All activities were cancelled following ungrounded police accusations that our festival and stakeholder dialogue was political. In Kigezi, we successfully held the festival and stakeholder dialogue although it was much smaller | |
| Ensuring that marginalized tribes get justice through documenting abuses against them and drawing them to the attention of the authorities, understanding their rights and appreciation and understanding the role film can play in seeking justice | In both regions (Rwenzori and Kigezi), we discussed issues of their rights, violations they experience and how film / media as a tool is very effective in the pursuit for justice but also recognize that achieving this Justice is a continuous process, which must be realized by the alumni and those they inspire / who come after them. However, we planted the seed. | ||
| live-streamed activities online from Kigezi reaching over 10,000 people during and post event. | |||
| Reach at least 33,000 people in sixty-six villages during community screenings, 20,000 people during the two annual festivals and stakeholder forums and 5,000,000 more during the live television broadcast | |||
| Promote peaceful co – existence between the communities by training rivaling tribes together, enabling them to produce films that creatively express their differences and similarities and platforms to showcase these works. | 150 Filmmaking Aspirants | Trained 147 filmmaking aspirants in Rwenzori and Kigezi regions, West Nile and fourteen new members recruited in Karamoja film clubs (Kotido, Nakapiripiriti, Abim And Kaabong) and from Kisoro, Bundibujyo, Ntoroko, Bwera and Kampala who joined the last technical Lab. | |
| Training members of rivaling tribes together, making them appreciate their differences and honestly discuss the tribal rivalries, developing strong connections where they saw each other as a family of film makers working jointly on projects and visiting each other even at home. To us this is huge success that could be explored to forge broader communal relations, ultimately peaceful co – existence. | While over ten of the applicants from Bundibujyo (Bwamba) declined to join training, four attended, joining thirty-five Bakonjo, 10 Batoro and one Musongora. At Kisoro, we had five Batwa join mainly the Bafumbira and Bakiga who normally despise them and prevent them from joining their activities. | ||
| Creating filmmakers that hold leaders’ accountable, instituting platforms for the leaders and communities to access their works, analyses, exchange and get feedback. | Part of the training involved drawing to participant attention issues of accountability and film’s potential to that realization. They also made films dealing with accountability issues. We also set up structures like film clubs to ensure that trainees can continue production with accountability as one objective. We are very encouraged by some initiative’s alumni have initiated. Baker Bwambale after the tech lab set up a YouTube page and he has been documenting issues that either promote his community or expose injustices in. Pius has a blog to promote positive things but also expose injustices, Satrina is on radio and keen on promoting gender equity, Ezekiel uses both poetry and film to expose injustices and issues of discrimination, Henry has been doing films that advocate against domestic violence, Late Brian’s short film was also about short domestic violence, which is high in his region. However, the process is continuous | ||
| Training of aspiring Batwa and Bakonjo filmmakers | Trained fifty-six people from the marginalized tribes thirty-seven Bakonjo, 6 Bwamba, five Batwa and one Musongora, 7 Karamojongs | ||
| Host International Human Rights Day Celebrations on 10th December, where all stakeholders including; Media, Civic Society and government agencies came with a view of drawing national attention to the Batwa plight | 2 Regional Festivals | We held two regional festivals at Kasese and Kisoro. Later however, we held a mini festival during the Documentary Lab graduation ceremony at the Uganda National Theater |
