Jonathan's Journey to Uganda

I've been presented with the opportunity to travel to Uganda in early March of 2014 to help create a youth entrepreneur building conference dedicated specifically to hip-hop and digital media education.

This is a huge opportunity and will give me the chance to do some quality international reporting around music, tech and youth development in Kampala, one of the fastest growing capital cities in Africa. Stories abound in Kampala right now and with 78% of their population under 30, this is a great time to be invited to come and document a young generation of Ugandans who are rapidly embracing digital media.

This will also be my first trip to Africa! So I'm stepping out on faith and asking for friends, family and community to help me make it happen.

For anyone that doesn't know, I'm in a graduate program [slowly] working on a Masters of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington. Going on this journey will keep me focused on all of my passions at once: working with youth, journalism, music, digital media, community building and I'll get the chance to do it at the international level. I gotta go.  

I'll be traveling with UW associate director Scott Macklin and I found out just yesterday that I got partial funding from the university for this trip!! That's a huge blessing. Still, there are costs that I need help with.

All money raised will be going to airfare, equipment needs, lodging, food and transportation while in Uganda for 2 weeks.

While in country we'll be helping a young entrepreneurs digital media conference come to fruition. I'll also facilitate a workshop on music journalism and digital storytelling.

Currently, the organizers in Kampala are working to put together a conference March 3-8th, 2014 that in their words will:

"¢ Use media to overstand the problems affecting youth in Uganda & document possible practical solutions youth have used (so far) to address the immediate challenges affecting their communities.

"¢ Create a digital story through photography to tell & share stories of young people.

"¢ To use creative approaches to teach youth in communities how to use media to create markets & audience for their products

"¢ Teach young people from different communities so that they can teach more young people in their communities (on the concept of "each one, teach one")

All of this is value aligned with who I am. This trip is where I'm supposed to be. I'm also slated to speak at the EMP Pop Conference
in April, presenting on our experience in Kampala. None of this can happen without your support. Any generosity you're able share to help me on this journey will be GREATLY appreciated and I'll certainly pay it forward every way possible.