Selam Capacity Building / Knowledge Brokerage Initiatives

Selam has been involved in knowledge brokerage initiatives mainly capacity building training by highly qualified professionals to upgrade the skills of Ethiopian musicians, sound engineers, artists, filmmakers, and other professionals. The capacity-building activities also include material support for young unestablished youth artists on various topics. To mention some: Technical training on the effective use of the internet for broadcasting purposes was delivered to young project participants. The training was aimed at raising awareness of youths on ethical and effective utilization of social media and equipping the right holders with the necessary knowledge and skill on content development and production of Internet Magazine, Radio/podcasts, and TV. Besides, the training was also meant to enable the trainees to effectively and responsibly use the internet and digital broadcasting platforms, such as podcasting, blogging, blogging for human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy. The training followed by practical hand on training and assisted by different training aid materials for practical application. After successful completion of the training, participants were made to practically apply the knowledge and techniques they gained from the training. The documentary film making & production training were planned to be conducted in all the projects implementing regional states and city administrations. The capacity building training was aimed at enabling young filmmakers to produce documentary films and use the films as a medium to convey different messages on human rights, democracy, social, environmental, and other cultural issues in their respective languages as well as cultural backgrounds. To this end, Selam has delivered different capacity building training on documentary film making in collaboration with different regional stakeholders. The project participants were trained on the three-film making technical areas: screenwriting, directing, cinematography, and editing techniques. The central focus of the training was equipping participants in effective utilization of the aforementioned filmmaking techniques to advocate freedom of expression, human rights, democracy, and other social and development issues. To this end, more than 16 documentary films were produced by all participants from more than 5 cities. One of the main activities planned to build the capacity of project participants was the provision of training on culture thematic area development. The training was meant to empower young activists and project participants, so as they would be able to craft thematic content on social and development issues, human rights, gender, and the environment. The culture thematic area development training was conducted in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray. Standard training content and materials were prepared and used for all of the training. A total of 241 (171 male and 70 female) participants have got the training. The capacity building for the circus group involved material and facility support. Through the project support, Circus Sina’s training facilities were able to be utilized by the end of December 2018. The work was successfully completed with administrative support from the culture bureaus, and in particular from the local woreda administration which provided its underutilized space for modification of the training space. Another circus group in the Amhara region, Circus Wude, also received material support within this activity period. Selam also rented a training space for the Tigray culture group within the premises of a local high school, ‘AtseYohanes’. The culture group is effectively rehearsing and sharing their knowledge and skill with the community in the space. In addition, by partnering with Circus Debre Birhan, as a senior circus organization in the country, took the opportunity further and organized an experience sharing opportunity in its office at Debre Berhan in other 2 regional cities for emerging circus groups. Besides this various networking and capacity building activities were implemented in the period. Different renowned music artists shared their career experiences in music-making and performance to young upcoming musicians. Senior musicians shared the possibilities and potential of music for cultural activism and advocacy which they often utilize to spread their messages. Apart from the technical music skill training, Selam has delivered technical training on studio and sound engineering; various training sessions were carried out in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray Regions. The training was accompanied by the practical sound engineering practices for both in-door and out-door musical performances. An initiative was taken on a series of workshops on different thematics as well as awareness-raising and advocacy efforts. Sighted and visually impaired and blind youth combined, can contribute to a decrease of stigmatization and marginalization of blind and visually impaired young people since the project can create a natural space for all the targeted young people to meet and get educated together. The project trained young people in hands-on skills within cultural fields and performed information campaigns and awareness-raising activities about the situation of blind and visually impaired people in Ethiopia. Selam Ethiopia in partnership with Yekignit Awtaroch amateurs’ youth association gave three months’ music training and practical workshops for two consecutive terms for almost 50 /27-M & 23-F/ visually impaired and blind youth in Addis Ababa. Similarly, in partnership with DebreBirhan Vocational teachers college and Circus DebreBirhana total of 38 /30 M, 8 F/ visually impaired, and blind project participants took music training by professional teachers from the college.