Yemeni Diaspora Digital Steps Fellows 2020

In 2019, we received 86 applications from over 18 countries to the Digital Steps Yemeni Diaspora program. All applicants were invited to an online training on digital skills for social change from 7th – 31st January 2020. 16 teams finished the entire training process; 68 teams actively participated in some portion of the online training. Over three weeks, we introduced teams to an intensive design and iteration process. Training topics included introduction to peacetech, theory of change, stakeholder management, human centered design and key risks and challenges. 

Based on the online training, 14 teams applied for the year-long fellowship program. We selected four outstanding local initiatives from across the Yemeni diaspora. These four initiatives worked on a diverse set of projects to build social cohesion within the Yemeni diaspora, and within the larger communities where the Yemeni diaspora live.

Their projects ranged from a digital platform that connects Yemeni women with resources and diverse community to enhance their lives in Sweden, a podcast series that bridges people together through humanizing the personal experiences of the Yemeni conflict, a digital campaign that shares labor laws with migrant workers so that they may have better working conditions, a series of fairy tales to connect the youth and parents of the within the Yemeni diaspora and their host community in Germany.

Sommaya

Composing fairytales and sharing them (likely to be digital) that elevate Yemeni and German cultures and histories. This is both a way to connect Yemenis in Germany to the German culture, to celebrate the Yemeni culture – and to also perhaps be a vehicle for language acquisition.

SabaaIn 

Based on democratic values, SabaaIn works with the Yemeni community and the Swedish communities for effective social integration and security, by leveraging cultural and legal understanding, empowering, and building capacities. Furthermore, to create a uniting umbrella and space for collaborating and connecting for an efficient Yemeni-Swedish society.

Yemenis in Exile

Yemenis In Exile Podcast is a free and open space for diaspora Yemenis to tell their stories of pain and struggle, in order to make an emotional connection between Yemeni people in the midst of political chaos.

EOHM

EOHM (Electronic Organisation for Humanitarian Media)  is an electronic campaign on social media to share labor laws with migrant workers in Kuwait to encourage greater knowledge and employment of labor laws in Kuwait.