Home Lands Pilot Project
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Home Lands Pilot Project Brief
Concept
Home Lands is an internet television program made with entry-level technical resources that connects young refugees to their home lands and separated communities. Home Lands is underpinned by the premise that refugee youth resettlement is more successful if the young people involved are able to identify, communicate and engage with their home communities. Low-cost digital media production tools and networks overcome the previous barrier of privilege usually associated with access to traditional media production facilities. Evolving media technologies enable production, storage, streaming, broadcast, mobile communication and therefore new forms of storytelling to give true global access to an audience.
Aim of Home Lands Pilot
- To trial the Home Lands concept with two local communities and two matched communities in refugee camps overseas;
- To implement lessons learnt from the pilot to further develop the Home Lands project and to seek further funding towards broader capacity and outreach.
Production Teams
- Recently arrived Sudanese young people aged 14 – 25 living in Melbourne in collaboration with Sudanese young people living in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, age to be determined by context
- Recently arrived Karen young people aged 14 – 25 living in Melbourne in collaboration with Karen young people living in Mae La Refugee Camp, Thailand, age to be determined by context
Production Strategy
- Establish production teams in all four locations – Youth Worker recruits in Melbourne, seek and establish contacts and production teams in camps
- Establish lines of communication between each local group and their counterparts in each camp
- Establish the media technology available in the camps and to the production team working there
- Use the camp based technology as base technology for production in Melbourne
- Use communication between local groups and camps as the basis for content creation and as preliminary content
- Establish methodology for getting content into and out of camps
- Consolidate content into a ‘program’ – length to be determined by content
- Distribute program to participating communities locally and in camps
Communication tools – email, text, phone conversations, letter, blog, other: Content creation tools - video camera, lap top with edit suite, mobile phones, audio recorders, email, text, photography, drawings: Distribution tools – net, downloads, DVD screenings.
For more information see Media Delivery Platform.
Locations
Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
- Camp is managed by Lutheran World Federation - Department for World Service, Kenya-Sudan Project, in a tripartite agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Kenyan Government.
- The camp is home to 81,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
- The camp is hosted by the town of Kakuma, located in the [1] Turkana District, the north western most district of Kenya.
Getting there
- Access to the camp must be coordinated with UNHCR.
- NOTE: If traveling by road it is highly advised that one does so with one of the frequent UNHCR convoys.
- UNHCR advises flights to Lokichoggio, approx 100km south of Sudanese border, closest and safest means to get to Kakuma.
- Flights from Wilson Airport, Nairobi, to Lokichoggio are frequent.
Mae La Camp, Thai/Burma border
- Camp is managed by Thailand Border Consortium, 12/5 Convent Road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500.
Thailand .
- Approx 50,000 Burmese refugees in camp.
- Detailed information
Getting there
- Eight hours road trip from Bangkok.
Aims of Capability Audit
- interest in the Home Lands concept of communication between Sudanese communities in Australia and those that are in the camp;
- what kind of infrastructure is available, if any;
- what would our production team require should we manage to bring a small team to Kenya, and;
- to liaison with the camp, seek partnerships and explore ways to develop content there, identify and appoint "Project Coordinators" either directly in or to work within the camps (ALIN/Kenya, PETA/Thailand?).
Contacts
Karen community
- Ron Browning and Chitlu Wyn - Australia Karen Foundation, Tammay - AKO, CMYI
Sudanese community
- Matthew Albert, Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning Network, CMYI, Akoc – Sudanese Lost Boys, Scarab
Thailand
- Willow Kellock – AVI, Mahkampom Theatre Group, Saw Poeh - KSNG
- Saw Rocky - Karen Youth Organisation (KYO)
- Matt Yoxall – International Organisation for Migration
- Scott and Eh Doh Wah - Kaw La Film Project, Saw Paulu - Mae La camp
- PETA Mekong Project
- UNHCR Press contact: Kitty McKinsey, Tel: +66 2 288 1846
Kenya
- Andrew Heyduck – FilmAid International - PVP film project, contacts through Matthew Albert, Akoc, other
- ALIN - James Nguo, Regional Director, Arid Lands Information Network - Eastern Africa (ALIN-EA), +254 733 888 164
- Kenya ICT Action Network, Alice Munya, +254-20-4453671 / 2
Timeline for Pilot Phase
January 2008
- Employ Youth Worker
- Youth Worker establishes contact with and liaises with local Sudanese and Karen communities
- Liaison with camps, seek partnerships and explore ways to develop content in both camps, appoint “Project Coordinators” in camps
- Further funding sought (on going)
February 2008
- Youth worker recruits and engages 2 groups of 6 young people from the local Sudanese and Karen communities and determines time and place of workshop program
- Employ Content Producer
- Local workshop program begins
- Communication between local production groups and camps established
- Modelling of content creation on capacity in camps
March 2008 – June 2008
- Content creation and compilation based on communication between camps and local groups
- IT infrastructure research and recommendations based on field research
- Develop IT infrastructure to support project
- Broadcast/transmission/distribution of ‘program’ to participating communities locally and in the camps
- On going production teams established
July 2008 – December 2009
- Develop Home Lands production schedule to a more regular and anticipated production that is public and promoted over the internet
- Full and regular series of programs completed, catalogued and stored
Note: In 2008 forum held on refugee resettlement, cultural development across the ‘Diaspora’
