Mission Media U

We are passionate about training women to create media for their mission.

Why we are needed?

The Middle East is increasingly visual, story-driven and mobile dominated. It’s urgent we identify, equip and mobilize women to create media to share peace building, freedom of belief and women's empowerment messages. Despite the growing challenges in the region, many are seeking counter-narratives and stories of hope. As a result, we gather women through our online platform and regional workshops for training, mentoring, networking and collaborative purposes to create media projects for our organizations and communities. All the more, women need role models who can support and guide them. With the desire to empower a new generation of women leaders, we focus on their need to receive training, develop action plans and partner in collaborative media initiatives.

Our solution:

Since 2013 the Middle East Women’s Leadership Network custom designs workshops and online media training to equip women to create media to share their mission. The web-based trainings are ideal for groups of 30
participants to foster relationships and collaboration within their network or community. Our instructors helps students develop common vocabulary and learns to tell, write and produce stories that will accelerate the students' growth objectives. The combination of training and follow up mentoring helps participants build confidence and develop a personal action plan. Together we create TV, film, audio, print and internet projects. Our Media Training contributes to the larger movement of developing female leaders and innovative media projects to impact the MENA region.

Our strategy and outcome:

Our strategy is to equip women who can have a lasting impact
through their networks and communities. We help empower women to become media producers, decision makers, influencers and mobilizers, impacting on a national level. We convene women at online forums, make strategic connections, and follow up afterward to achieve their personal and organizational goals. The following are our expected outcomes:

• Host workshops and online training to introduce network participants
• Spotlight the needs and the contributions of women's initiatives
• Showcase media experts, innovations, & collaborations for the MENA region.
• Provide effective story, branding and media strategies to expand our particpant's outreach
• Gather focus groups that can research and respond to field driven initiatives
• Encourage participants to co-author goals of actionable items (which include a plan and a commitment)
• Challenge our high-impact leaders to mentor emerging leaders
• Partner together to create collaborative media projects that strategically impact their community.

Mission Media U contributes to the larger movement of developing

female leaders and innovative media projects to reach millions globally.
To see some of the films that women in our network have produced, visit
the MEWLN Films page: www.mideastwomen.org

Mission Media U is a new online training platform to equip women leader in the Middle East. We are the only virtual network that brings together women from a variety of communities and organizations to train them in collaborative leadership and media projects. By using zoom conferencing platform we can host 30 or more students for each media training course, with the potential for more students long term. As a result, several innovative the media projects have developed for United Nations, NGOs and faith based networks.

By using zoom conferencing platform, we can host 30 or more students for
each media training course, with the potential for more students long
term. We can convene students from multiple countries and regions of the world at the same time. This leads to relationship building and collaboration opportunities. Students are also offered mentoring with instructors via Skype calls and email. As a result, several innovative the media projects have developed for United Nations, NGOs and faith based networks.

We currently instruct about 80 students from 30 nations each tri-mester. With adequate resources, marketing and funding, we believe we can train 500 participants who represent strategic leadership networks in the coming year.

Our vision is to help women become world-class leaders by creating media for their mission. We want to reach 1000 strategic women leaders in the MENA region to help them increase their visibility, platform and outreach. With a special focus on training peace-promoting media producers, we believe we can accelerate the women's empowerment movement to promote peace and security for years to come.

We have created a network of women leaders who are passionate about media. Together we partner and collaborate to reach more women with our training, mentoring and media initiatives. Through networking forums and online meetings, marketing, newsletters, press releases, and social media we continue to reach more women around the world to challenge them to create great content for their mission.

We currently have about 2,000 women (and men) in our extended network. We convene these participants at networking events, forums and online trainings. Together we have a global impact through our various media projects and networks.

With adequate resources, we anticipate reaching 1,000-2,000 new women leaders and training them to create media for their mission. The sectors include peace building, freedom of belief, trauma healing and women's empowerment. Together we can train emerging leaders in collaborative media and leadership projects.

We are innovative media producers. We train and equip leaders to produce cost-effective media products that help networks, communities, NGOs and faith based organization increase their visibility and outreach.

We raise fund through grants, foundations and individual resource partners. In some cases, we ask students to pay a small fee for our workshops and online training. However, we scholarship many students also.

We are delighted to partner with Solve to expand our outreach and help support your efforts. Together we believe we can reach more women leaders around the world to become peace-promoting citizens.

Some of the key barriers to our success is staffing and marketing. We simply don't have enough staff to expand your training, mentoring and marketing projects. With adequate resources, we can expand our outreach and collaborative media initiatives.