LELC Media Centre: Getting Inside Project
Getting Inside Project is a social-driven entrepreneurship
endeavour with a three-prong focus:
- Getting Inside Me Project
- Getting Inside Story and
- Getting Inside Project.
Getting Inside Me Project (GIME) is a Self-Awareness
Vulnerability Indices Pointer targeted at all gender. It helps girls and women in particular to navigate personal challenges they face at school and workplace.
Getting Inside Story is an Investigative focus on
gender-based issues, education, science, crime, health, environment, civic
intelligence, and governance.
Getting Inside Project focuses on media career development, mentoring
and training of young undergraduate journalists, up and coming journalists and
broadcasters including mid-career practitioners in the media industry.
Between October and December 2018, Getting Inside Project
trained over 30 journalists early and mid-career journalist and 28 mass
communication interns across electronic broadcast organisations, print and
online.
ABOUT GETTING INSIDE ME PROJECT (GIME)
On 11 October, 2018, Getting Inside Me Projected collaborated
with the Ministry of Women’s Affair, NAWOJ, Association Against Sexual and Gender
Based Violence (AASGBV) and CMD Foundation to Mark International Day of the
Girl Child with 100 Girls of Westend
Secondary School, Asaba.
The leadership goal of GIME
was to mentor 100 Girls. I collaborated with Nigeria Association of Women
Journalists (NAWOJ), Ministry of Women Affairs,
Association Against Sexual and Gender Based Violence (AASGBV) and CMD
Foundation to deliver a speech-workshop tagged Getting Inside Me Project on how
students can use a Getting Inside Me Diary to reflect their career options,
career plans, personal thoughts, goals, challenges and solutions to them to
help them see patterns in their life early on so they can spot on time their
natural capacities and career options open to them to pursue: International Day
of Girls: https://medium.com/@ladyeumukoro/international-day-of-the-girl-2018-every-child-matters-7777a338a8d8
Following this event, with the help of different school
administrators, counsellors, teachers, students, police and anti-cult unit in
Delta State, I was able to carry out a successful undercover story on why there
is a Rise of Secret-Cult-Gangs in Secondary Schools Among Female Students. This
in turn informed the idea behind the Mentor-A-School Project I began
concurrently as a Social Civic-Intelligence response in giving support to the community
to curb this menace. Thereafter, the investigative story was published online,
posted on all social media and YouTube including a two-day spread on Pointer
Newspaper.
A follow-up advocacy awareness about this menace to amplify
the story to a wider audience was done on Bridge Radio 98.7 FM to talk about the undercover investigation into the
menace of secret-gang-cults in schools affecting both girls and boys, how they
are recruited, code words/dress codes they use, tips to help parents recognised
if their child has been approached or joined, and how children can come out of
these cults with support from their school, parents, the judiciary and police.
The thrust of the investigation shows that it takes a village to curb the
menace.
During the undercover investigation, it was found that:
Teenage girls from 10-16 years are given 3
initiation options: to pay registration fee between N3,000 – N4,000; have sex
with several boys (up to 10 or more in number); or be severely flogged (a
euphemism for physical abuse and assault).
Sex, money and power was at the root of why
girls were targeted aggressively.
Gang rape masked as initiation rites exposed
girls to demeaning acts, drugs, alcohol, emotional and physical abuse.
Girls who tend to ‘fall for’ secret-gang-cults
are those more prone to lying, cheating, stealing, curious about sex, have
strong sex drive, or come from home where they have been toughed-up with
constant emotional abuse, neglect, condemnation, physical beatings or lack
parental attention, discipline and love.
Mentor-A-School Project (Getting Inside Me Project, GIME)
This project was created in response to the investigative story about
secret-cult-gangs in two secondary schools in Delta. Interested school
administrators are currently working out how to establish a media club in
schools to keep students creatively engaged with a view to introducing them to
new career pathways in media, writing, speaking and tech skills development.
Two selected schools in Delta were chosen for this purpose. A
total of 228 students from Westend Mixed Secondary School and Ugbolu Secondary School in Delta State were mentored.
The focus was to achieve four key goals:
To
promote anti secret-gang-cult awareness and the need to complete their
education
To
create deliberate awareness in boys about the synergistic value girls add in
achieving a balanced society
To
awaken students to their five capacities and how to tap into each for wealth
creation, career choice and personal fulfilment
To
inspire girls not to limit their career options or be carried away by negative
peer influence
Introduce
Girls to the Getting-Inside-Me-Diary Project for Self-Awareness and Mindfulness
STORY IMPACT:
On Monday 26th November at 9:21 a.m. following the
publication of, and amplification of the story, Getting Inside Project (GIP) office received a call from
a member of the Council of SPC explaining that one of the hideouts and area
used for initiation by the cultists, the St. Patrick’s Church Asaba, began work
on fixing broken walls and raising the perimeter fence securing the premises by
two coaches to prevent access into the premises for such purposes. Incidentally, I was informed that the
premises was been used by armed robbers to hide away their guns used for operations,
which they often go back to retrieve for future robberies. I was told that this
story on secret-cult-gangs which I published gave them the jolt to take action.
On Monday November 3rd 2018, GIP went to verify this. The
entire length of the perimeter fence has been raised by extra coaches and the
holes in the fence have been closed up.
Following the report of the investigative report, many
students became emboldened to quit cultism and gangsterism. In January 2019,
One of the Principals’ whose students were victims explained to GIP in detail
that a large number of the students (over 50) who were victims approached the
school to renounce. The cult ‘leaders’ greatest concern was the drastic drop in
weekly and monthly dues should they allow any reduction in the number of
recruits. The more the members, the more money they make.
A follow-up impact assessment response was carried out to
determine how schools, parents and affected victims of cultism and gangsterism
are taking action since the story broke in October 2018 till date of this
publication. It showed that over 30 students have since renounced their
membership with many more students ready to come out. This is progress that
must be sustained.
The story on Secret-Cult-Gangs Among Females in Secondary
Schools in Delta was published in a 2-Part Series in Pointer Newspaper on
Wednesday 24th October and Friday 26th October 2018 and on https://ladyechannel.blogspot.com/2018/10/secret-cult-gangs-disturbing-rise-of.html
News Agency of Nigeria also picked up the story and it was
thereafter amplified by more than 25 online news outlets:
Radio
Advocacy Awareness on female secret-gang-cults in secondary schools on
Bridge Radio: https://youtu.be/JOi1qa9JNMg
Undercover
investigation: Confessions of a Female Gang Member: https://youtu.be/l6-5VD3XdR8
Undercover
report: How Secondary School Girls are recruited: https://youtu.be/R8Z9CTbqOow
GETTING INSIDE PROJECT (GIP)
Media Career Development Training
To address the gap in career advancement among journalists in Delta State, GIP carried out workshop training with Female Journalists, Mass Communication Interns, Members of Nigeria Union of Journalists and Online Publishers.
Workshop, Panel Discussion and Lecture on Managing 'Fake News' in Traditional Media, Online and Social Media
GIP worked in collaboration with Delta Online Publishers Forum to run a lecture and workshop on
digital skills for online publishers on. The training focused on the need to be
intentional about how online and traditional media need to change their
approach to covering and reporting
news.
It was equally important to heighten all
aspects of self-check, professionalism and consequences of poor reportage
during the panel discussion with stakeholders from across academia, civil
societies, the judiciary, government and by journalists. Achieving this was at the
heart of the call-to-action to all online publishers and reporters to improve
our craft.
An online coverage of the panel discussion was
produced based on the resolutions, suggestions and action steps to be taken by
all stakeholders to tackle the menace of disinformation, malinformation,
information disorders, rumours, and other false stories going forward and in
preparation for 2019 elections.
The third goal of this collaboration was to
be intentional about maintaining continuous advocacy on all media channels
about the negative impact of fake news (a redundant term) by helping audiences
differentiate between the different types of ‘fake news’: disinformation,
malinformation, information disorders, rumours, weaponisation of information,
conspiracy theories, false data, and false stories.
Online links: The Role of Media in 2019
election and Management of all forms of Fake News online and traditional media:
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How Online Media Publishers can Prevent
Proliferation of Disinformation:
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Role of Media in Collaborative Investigative
Journalism:
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Impact of Social Media on Political Campaign and
Nigeria 2019 Elections
Media Career Development for
Mass Communication Interns
A 2-Day Training
Workshop and Mentoring Session with Mass Communication Interns at Pointer
Newspaper on: Gender Reporting and Career Path Options in the Media Industry:
The training
focused on:
- Writing authentic content
- Developing a strong sense for news anywhere
- Gender reporting,
- Building self-confidence,
- Collaboration and
- Career choice options in the media industry
Interns were introduced to the Getting Inside Me Diary to
analyse their self-development goals and career path identification in the
media industry.
During the training, data gathered showed that:
- Out of the 25 attendees, only 3 were males
- More than two-thirds of the students were bored-stiff with print journalism
- Many said it was not a course of first choice
- Others complained of poor teaching styles, tools, and incentives to study
- Many did not think a story idea can come from them unless they were told what to cover
- Of the 25 who were given a story idea to report, only 3 had completed their stories for submission one week after assignments were given
- All of them were OND students. Many said they won’t follow-up the course at HND level.
Day 2: Media Career Plan – From Internship to Professional Practice.
In attendance were 21 interns: 7 males and 14 females. Of
these number:
- 3 indicated they wanted to be bloggers and wanted to know how to achieve this
- 4 indicated they would like to be reporters
- 8 preferred to work on radio or TV stations as presenters or newscasters
- 5 were unsure which field to settle in
- One was an NYSC member who schooled in Ghana and was back to Nigeria for his NYSC
- Age range was 21 – 28 years
Workshop covered: different types of beats, storytelling,
blogging, approaches to investigative journalism, intentional search for
developmental stories, developing strong nose for news, improving gender
reporting lens, balance reporting, self-development opportunities, skills
development in writing, researching, interviewing, speaking, and amplifying
stories to bring about impact.
POST TRAINING:
Students were more revved up to pursue journalism after the
workshop. Acting General Manager of
Pointer Newspaper requested for a similar workshop on gender-balance in
storytelling for upper management in 2019.
TESTIMONIALS:
Lovelyn Oseji (ND2): “After the training with Lady E, I was able to confidently write 3
stories. Something I was afraid I couldn’t do before. I wrote a story on Water
Scarcity in Ogwashi-uku, edited a police press release on Cultists Killing
Cultists and now I know how to analyse and report a charge sheet from court
after I covered a criminal case of a man who stole from a woman who owned a
filling station. The man turned out to be the woman’s friend.”
Kingdom Zorzor (NYSC Batch B1): “I am now a more confident
speaker since the training and I speak more freely than I used to be. Unlike
before when I used to keep to myself, after I was taught the importance of
collaborating with my colleagues, I now do it easily. I have also become more observant of people’s
attitude too, and have also written more than 6 stories since the training. I
intend writing a report about this training and have it published in Pointer.”
Ugah Juliet (ND2): “My confidence has seriously improved. I
used to be very shy before but after the training I learnt how to communicate
better and I have been using my GIME Personal Career Diary taught to us
to use to write my career plan. I also wrote two feature stories after we were
encouraged to think of more stories we find interesting to write. I wrote one
on general entertainment and the other on food spice.”
Nwakpa Gloria (ND2): “The Getting Inside me Project about
having a career plan by Lady E has helped me to see that for me to be a good
journalist I must always do thorough research, associate more with my
colleagues and learn to accept all kinds of beats and cover them. Now I know
how cases in court are to be reported and the requirements and consequences of
being a surety for someone as a guarantor.”
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Training members of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and Nigeria Union of Journalists
On Friday 14th November 2018, special training for female reporters of NAWOJ on:
Media Entrepreneurship Opportunities for
Female Reporters – A Career Plan. Journalist were introduced to the many areas
of start-up journalism and use of innovation as an effective tool and means for
impactful.
During the Question and Answer session, it was observed that
reporting ‘activities’ of government’s social programmes was considered the
equivalent of detailed journalistic report. In addition it was observed too
that many beats were under-reported or not covered by journalists in Delta
State. They include:
- Defence
- Oil and Gas
- Agriculture
- Business, etc.
GIME project in 2019 aims to collate all beats covered by
journalists in Delta State to determine areas of over representation,
under-representation, under-reporting including those beats left unassigned to address some of
these needs. Another important module to be added to this training is data
journalism, storytelling and fact checking. Many of the attendees were hearing of these terms for the first time. Added to this modules are workshop on Gender Reporting and Work Life Balance Effectiveness.
Future collaboration to bridge this gap will be done with WSCIJ, Africa
Check, Media Career Services and Code for Africa to run these trainings.
TESTIMONIALS:
SHULAMITE OWHOEKEVBO (Ministry of Information): “I
especially enjoyed the training, particularly in the area of how we tell and
present our stories in such a way that people can impact on the lives of people
and not just write a report just for the sake of writing one. As an information
officer, I’ve learnt about writing balance report about women and children and
not just men alone in the society.”
AUSTIN AZOR (NUJ): “It was a well-planned and well-delivered
workshop by the trainer, Lady Ejiro Umukoro who deemed it fit to come train our
female journalists on the need for media entrepreneurship. Many of us in the
Nigeria media space have this thinking that we cannot diversify but the
training has helped us to see how we can diversify our ideas and the
money-making opportunities that exists in the profession. There was a lot to learn in terms of report,
content development and be known for what one does. This has been a great
opportunity for me and I’m glad I didn’t miss it and will put my training into
good use.”
Stella N. Macaulay (Directorate of Orientation): “A new
vista has just been opened to me.”
EUNICE EMEYAZIA (Delta Broadcasting Service): “I have learnt
how to raise the bar higher in my profession. As a journalist we’re responsible
for educating members of the public. So if we don’t know the report or stories
we cover well enough, how do we educate the people? If we’re misinformed, we
equally misinform our audiences. I also leant about 5 Specific areas on how a
female journalist can utilize beats to make some cash (lol)…”
RITA AKPOTU (Ministry of Information): “I learnt a lot about
knowing other opportunities that exists for journalists to pursue their
career.”
EFENURE OGENERO (The Urhobo Voice Newspaper): “Great value.
But I need the resource person to mentor me so I can do well as a journalist.”
OBUNSELI PATIENCE: (NAPRO): “Equipping female journalists
with tools to work to maximum capacity.”
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GETTING INSIDE PROJECT: Civic Intelligence Keynote Lecture and Workshop
A Civic Intelligence Training Workshop
targeted at Youth on spotting disinformation, youth thuggery, political
violence, issues on voters rights and amplifying stories using Civic
Intelligence Value Chain and Road map to do so through intentional critical
thinking with members of Young African Leadership Network, YALI.
Friday 8th, December 2018. Members of Yali, NYSC, students,
young professionals, youth out of job, and Electoral officers were
beneficiaries of the training on: Civic Intelligence, The Missing Link to
Nigeria’s Democratic Future. The training workshop was tied in with the formal
launching of YALI NaijaVotes: Make It Count; a nationwide campaign based on 5
key areas:
a. Boost
voter participation
b. Promote
voting with integrity
c. Encourage
truth and accuracy in information-sharing
d. Speak out
against hate speech
e. Inspire
communities to reject violence
The training helped those in attendance understand what
Civic Intelligence is, the roadmap, and value chain of Civic Intelligence. Using
real life examples, participants using real life examples, Q&A, and peer
interaction, participants got ownership of the term, inspiring them to become
change agents. The significance of the power of information literacy in
managing ‘fake news’ and abuse such as weaponisation of information, disinformation,
helped participants identify the dangers of illiteracy and alliteracy and how
it affects, promotes and limits electorates and citizens.
Practical session of the training empowered members to tap
into their problem solving skills using context, data, demographic targets,
etc., in solving social issues.
The goal of the workshop was to equip attendees with the
mindset, skillset and brainstorming approach to be intentional and critical
thinkers who deliberately provide solutions to many of the social problems in
Nigeria that has to do with our collective thinking and psyche covering issues
on rape of young children (Ochanya), domestic abuse, election violence,
political thuggery, voters rights, respect for rule of law, the need to
follow-up and aggressively amplify stories that otherwise would not have been
heard, and proffering solutions to these using Civic Intelligence Value Chain
and Roadmap while consistently measuring impact to ensure suggested approaches
work: https://youtu.be/nWzLYMaHGOc.
Over 50 youth ages 21-36 years, including adolescents (14-15
years) from across secondary schools, members
of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), NYSC members, young
professionals and electoral officers in Delta state and from other parts of
Nigeria were in attendance.
Video coverage of the event was published on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nWzLYMaHGOc and www.emerald.ng titled: Civic
Intelligence: The Missing Link in
Nigeria’s Socio-Political Success.
TESTIMONIALS:
EDITH ENEMUWE (Yali Member): “I am most thrilled by the fact
that Civic Intelligence acts like a tap on one’s shoulder to get up and “DO”
rather than just sit and be a passive observer. It is like taking a sneak peek
into a vista of possibilities simply opening one’s mind and defining one’s
roles in the society within the aspects of civic intelligence according to
one’s capacities. The most interesting thing is that Civic Intelligence doesn’t
require that one develop or grow an entirely new set of skills or capacities,
rather it taps on the intelligence one is already gifted with and hones it for
better use.”
ARINZE O. AUGUSTINE (Electoral Officer, INEC): “What struck
me most on how Civic Intelligence works is the fact that it is a
result-solution oriented principle that caught me.”
Obimma Uchechukwu (Corp Member): “Your delivery on Civic Intelligence is
unlike anything I have ever seen before. I wish to invite you to speak in some
of the events I organise in schools.”
Austin Okorodudu (Yali Coordinator, Delta):
“Today was not just fulfilling, it was, to say the least, awesome!”
