Introducing ‘Connecting The Dots’ Fellowship
#DefyHateNow is proud to announce the new Connecting The Dots fellowship, a three-months program for youth working in the areas of peacebuilding, research, media, and digital rights.
This fellowship aims at mapping out current challenges and creating strategies to tackle the difficulties encountered by the information consumers . The program is focused on how to cultivate the skills needed for creating a healthier and safer online experience devoid of toxic ideologies, hate speech, misinformation, disinformation and fake news.
Through our fellows, #ConnectingTheDots hopes to create conditions that make it difficult for hate speech and fake news to proliferate by helping users and organization develop the resilience and knowledge needed to tackle such vices.
Our first cohort is a diverse team of professionals with communications, broadcast journalism, community development and education backgrounds. They each bring unique and broad perspectives on #DefyHateNow’s efforts towards creating safe and cohesive online spaces.
Over the next three months, each fellow will work on a unique idea that they will implement within the framework of #defyhatenow programs and projects in any of the five countries we currently operate in. Unlike our previous internship programs, the fellowship allows fellows to have a broader scope of work and more autonomy and recourse to enable them to perform their tasks in the most optimal environment possible.
Each fellow will be embedded in a department and assigned a supervisor who will provide guidance and program mentorship during the three months.
This first cohort of fellows will tackle topical issues in some of the thematic areas listed below:
-Digital Rights and Civic Space
-Media Development
-Hate speech mitigation
-Fact-checking
-Research
Meet Our Fellows!
Judyannet Muchiri is a community development advocate, researcher, writer, and editor. She has worked with non-profits in different capacities for the last 10 years. Judyannet’s work sits at the intersection of gender, youth, digital media and development. Her doctoral research explores the influence of safe/r spaces on young women’s civic participation in Kenya. Judyannet does creative writing in her spare time.
Eleanor Macheso is a trained teacher with two years experience in the education sector. She is currently finishing a Master of Arts degree in Diplomacy and International Relations at Kenyatta University. Her interests are in communications, policy, and conflict management strategies.
John Ngor Arok holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies from Makerere University in Kampala. He is the former President of Makerere University South Sudanese Students’ Association. He is passionate about leadership,and hopes to use his skills to empower the community and alleviate poverty.
Deng Atem is a graduate of Bachelor of Commerce in Business Administration and Management from Daystar University. He is also an artistic person with interests in creative writing, film production, music production and fashion design. He hopes to be an integral part of the socio-economic development of South Sudan and Africa at large.
Kiden Lucy is an administrator by profession, and has over seven years experience in the radio industry, having worked with Spirit Fm, City Fm, Radio One and Eye Radio in Juba. She is also a poet/writer and loves to sing. In October 2019, her poem, ‘Pure Cotton’ was featured at the Oxfam #IMatter launch in New York. Lucy is passionate about the youth and their growth.
