Our Executive Director, Sebit Martin checks Speaker Boxes and delivers them for distribution, June 2021
In a small part of Omugo Village Four – Omugo Extension Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda. Soot Semee is a new source of hope and happiness for the refugee communities living in the camp.
John Sebit is the block leader of Tank 39 in Omugo Village. In his location there are over 500 community members, interestingly, Sebit knows almost all of them by names, including the kids. He listens to them and visits every household at least on daily basis. During the launch of the project last year, the location received only two speaker boxes, but these couldn’t really meet the need of the population in the community. All ten divisions of the village soot semee has over 112 active listening groups, two of them in Tank 39. Recently we distributed 140 speaker boxes, this time a good number of them went to Sebit’s block. Since then, He ensures that his community members are listening by supporting the groups to charge their speaker boxes, receiving new programmes every week from the collections point for them and working closely with group members to create and contribute contents. He is a community hero.
Sebit told us “There is a real change in the people, when I passed through the village these days, I see a lot of smiles on their faces which wasn’t there, there is a sense of people in the area beginning to work together, living peacefully in their families and now there is hope…”
some of the listening group leaders in Tank 39 with their new Speaker box during the distribution, June 2021
According to the community leader, the information that the community is getting from the new speaker boxes has created a new atmosphere of hope and happiness in his area. The Community is happy to hear their voices for the first time, local and raw offering hope and a new radiant of joy. For the Omugo community, Soot Semee is not only a trusted communication channel but a voice sounding in tones that they get clear and understand better. Every member in the community can get involved, sharing their local community perspectives, and together taking an action for social change. The speaker-boxes are making a difference for the Omugo community, Thanks to the Amplifying Voices UK.
Tagged: Community-Centered Media, Community Engagement SootSemee Speaker Boxes Refugee Camp
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