Since Ally has returned from Kenya and to reality, the project has slowed down a bit but it is once again gaining momentum.
At the beginning of February, Ally and Wambua- our GAPS Kenya staff member- visited several of the rural girls boarding schools where the magazine will be distributed.
Our meetings with the schools firstly offered an introduction to the principal and teachers about the project and we then spoke to the schools 'journalism, media or writing clubs' which, at most schools, consisted of approximatey 30 students all of whom have a strong interest in writing and journalism. Needless to say, they were all very excited about the project proposal, offered their ideas on what kind of content they'd like to see in the magazine and were also enthusiatic at the idea of producing their own content which could potentially be included in the magazine.
Ally also had a question and answer session with the students regarding studying and working as a journalist and also a brief introduction to writing news or feature articles. From this, we have decided that for the next component of thee project we'd like to develop a journalism and writing module to be given to the students at these schools as they obviously have a strong interest in this area but lack the resources to develop and hone their craft.
We also had a project launch dinner with the students from KIMC, our editors Belinda and Wambua as well as another of our editors, Kwendo Opanga, who also shared some words of wisdom and inspiration with the students.
At the moment, we're dealing with some issues that have since arisen and we are finalising the content for the first edition which we hope to distribute by mid- May.
