22,23,24 March 2023

(Image credit: VOA News)

Belle and Co workshop: Community Engagement and Cultural Outreach

Over 3 days, Belle and co delivered an intense online workshop for 4 project winners of the Goethe Institut Sudan’s Next Level Fariq Project.

As part of the project development phase, the winners need to attend a few project management workshops, including a workshop to help them develop a Community Engagement plan around their public intervention.

Our workshop included a guest speaker (Case Study) presentation by Roshana Naidoo, Project and Community Facilitator for Baz Art Public Art Festival.

Topics covered:

• COMMUNITY OUTREACH : LESSONS FROM CAPE TOWN (Case Study of Baz Art Public Street Art Festival)
• CROSS CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT: DESIGN THINKING
• CREATING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

Trainers:

Background: Next Level Fariq Project 

Over the past 30 years, public space in Sudan has not been a place for the general public. Discourse and cultural expression shifted to private space. Reclaiming public spaces, reusing and redefining them is part of urban development initiatives and neighborhood committees. During the revolution, opinions were “”taken to the streets”” to act as catalysts for change; this process of change and transformation is ongoing.

Despite the commitment of neighborhood committees, their resources are severely limited. Although public spaces and squares exist and are places of gathering, the most visible are sometimes planned or spontaneously organized small speeches on specific topics, around which crowds of people form to listen and join in the discussion.  – However, these places are not further equipped and designed. Due to the lack of equipment, the public spaces are unattractive, especially for women, young people and children, and are mainly used by men.

The NEXT LEVEL – Fariq project aims to give the neighborhoods the opportunity to make these public spaces more attractive and to make them a place of gathering for families and the wider society, especially marginalized parts. The project will support the initiative and creative ideas of the residents and the committees related to the valorization and revitalization of the public space in their neighborhood.

About Projects Winners 

Up to four project ideas will be further developed and promoted through workshops, exchange and mentorship. In the first half of 2023, a five-day training on project development and project management and a three-day training on cultural outreach and community engagement will take place, with a total of up to 8 participants. In the second half of 2023, the implementation of the projects will take place. For this purpose, the selected project initiatives will be paid the awarded funding amounts in several installments and they thus have the opportunity to redesign the public spaces according to their interests and desires, in addition and they will be accompanied in the implementation where necessary.

1. Environmental Awareness in Khartoum 3 – Intisar Al- Agali ( Khartoum 3 Women’s Association)

The project in Khartoum 3  aims to provide a clean environment by following good health procedures that reduce pollution, and effective activities related to improving basic environmental conditions that affect the health and well-being of the residents of Khartoum 3 neighborhood. The project will train a number of young people on voluntary work and sanitation of the neighborhood environment, in addition to rehabilitating 3 triangles of sites that are converted from a garbage dump to a green place and a model of a square in the middle of the neighborhood and teaching high school students to preserve the environment.

2. Green Neighborhood in Shaabiya in Khartoum North  –  Amro Awad ( Al- Shaabiya Neighborhood Committee)

The project aims to plant fruit trees that are beneficial to the environment in the neighborhood (roads, health center, club, kindergarten, and three schools) the trees are followed up by the project team and includes training the women of the neighborhood on how to take care of the trees, the training will be by agricultural experts. 

The project also includes full care of the environment for all neighborhood facilities (clubs, schools, market and health center), providing trash cans throughout the neighborhood to take care of cleanliness in the neighborhood, making monthly bazaars to provide new (productive) seedlings for all residents of the neighborhood to be planted inside homes, and finally making cultural activities and awareness in schools and the market.

3. Revitalization of Banat West Women Association Garden, Omdurman – Hamida Alfadil ( Banat West Women’s Association)

Due to the lack of safe spaces for women and children in residential neighborhoods and the use of most of the spaces as football fields exclusive to men, the West Banat Women Association proposed to rehabilitate the park as a space and outlet for women and children of the neighborhood, by paving and fencing it with fruit trees and using it as a club and a gathering area for the activities of the association, and a reading club by providing solar lighting when the power is cut off and also children’s play area, as well as creating an economic activity to preserve the park and ensure its continuity. 

4. Development of Al-Hurriya Square, Khartoum North – Mohamed Kamal ( Al- Mazad Neighborhood Committee)

Al- Hurriya Square project targets needy families and male and female students of Al-Hurriya School in the sports facility, where a basketball field and a volleyball field will be established, and the football field will be repaired. As for social activity, a special place will be established for families and children, and the previously established club in the neighborhood will be repaired. For needy families, three kiosks will be established as small projects for families from the neighborhood to increase income. Also, this project will be fenced with trees to create a clean environment and also to achieve safety and privacy for all. There will be consideration in the form of implementation to suit people with special needs, their toys and their needs.

To view more information on the background of the project call, see below: