Yale Service Tours - Yale Alumni Travel Programs, Community Development, Volunteer Work

“A generation ago Sargent Shriver '38, a Yale alumnus renowned for his public service, gave voice to a new vision of global citizenship: that a single citizen could be as important as any institution; that it was possible to change the world one life at a time. His vision, of course, was the Peace Corps.”

Today the Yale Alumni Association keeps that vision alive with its Service Tours to help people around the world. Read more about it at the following link.

Yale Service Tours - Yale Alumni Travel Programs, Community Development, Volunteer Work

Anno's Africa

ANNO'S AFRICA is a UK based charity that offers an alternative, arts education to orphans and vulnerable children in some of Africa’s most desperately deprived city slums. The children who have been participating( Cut) in our Kenyan programme live in the most appalling conditions, sleeping either on the streets or in corrugated iron shacks with no amenities, where often families of eight or more struggle to feed themselves on less than a dollar a day. Scavenging on rubbish tips in an effort to find something to sell so that they can cobble together enough for an evening meal is the way many of these children survive. They are prey to many illnesses: malaria, intestinal worms, pneumonia and other lung infections and of course the ever present threat of HIV / AIDS.

Anno's Africa:

'via Blog this'

Global Pulse | Harnessing innovation to protect the vulnerable

The United Nations has launched a new project that may be of great value to many NGOs working to improve the conditions of communities around the Globe.

Global Pulse, is an innovation initiative of the UN Secretary-General, that allows for the analysis of patterns within big data and could possibly revolutionize the way NGOs and governments respond to economic shocks, disease outbreaks, and natural disasters around the world. You can find more information about this project at the online Forbes article: Data Philanthropy is Good for Business dated 9/20/11. Also, the United Nations has a Global Pulse web site [Link below].

In a nutshell, this initiative is working to “develop methods for harnessing real-time data to gain a real-time understanding of human well being.”

Global Pulse | Harnessing innovation to protect the vulnerable

Wherever the Need publishes its 2011 Summer Newsletter

Wherever the Need has been doing wonderful work for years. Focusing on Water Resources, Eco Sanitation and other resource issues, they have been mindful and balanced Development with Ecological responsibility.

They have just released their Summer 2011 Newsletter, and it is work a look.

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"If there is a holy grail with regard to sanitation, it is

finding a solution to the needs of the billions of people

who live in inner cities. Many live in slums and the cost

of infrastructure would be astronomical as water based

toilets are often regarded as the only option – although

where the water will come from is rarely explained

satisfactorily!" Quote for Wherever the Need Summer 2011 Newsletter.

2011 Summer Newsletter | Wherever the Need

From the Field: Community Engagement Inside Kibera (September 1, 2011) | Opinion Blog | Stanford Social Innovation Review

The Bazaar has been following Rye Barcotte and Carolina for Kibera for over 5 years now, and this article: " From the Field: Community Engagement Inside Kibera" recently appeared in the Sanford Social Innovation Review

"It’s easy to look at global poverty alleviation work abstractly. I spend a lot of time reading about and debating the meaning of “social entrepreneurship,” “community engagement,” and other popular jargon of our field, far away from communities in extreme poverty. But it only takes a minute of visiting a small nonprofit in, say, Kibera, a Nairobi slum of 1 million people, to remind you that distance is the wrong reference point.

This spring, I met Rye Barcott on a book tour for his memoir It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace, and learned about Carolina for Kibera (CFK). Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, CFK’s mission is to develop local leaders,
catalyze positive change, and alleviate poverty in Kibera. One of CFK’s core beliefs is that community problems require local solutions run by local leaders."

The rest of the article may be found at the following link:

From the Field: Community Engagement Inside Kibera (September 1, 2011) | Opinion Blog | Stanford Social Innovation Review

Business Daily: - Home |Mobile technology unlocks dairy farming potential

By FRANKLINE SUNDAY  (email the author)

 

On a typical day, Susan Wanjiru checks and replies to her emails, updates and checks off items on her appointment book before she starts work at a busy Nairobi hotel.

The young hotelier also receives a text message informing her of the progress of her small dairy farm in Kinangop. The message has come through an iCow application that is promising to change the way small holder farmers in Kenya manage their dairy cattle.

The iCow is a voice-based WAP enabled application that keeps farmers abreast of essential animal breeding and feeding methods through technology. A farmer can register his cows free of charge through the iCow portal and gets regular SMSs about the breeding and production patterns of the livestock.

 

Read more of this story at the following site:

Business Daily:  - Home |Mobile technology unlocks dairy farming potential

Africa: Zambia to Host Land Policy Meeting

 

 

By George Okore

LUSAKA----A stakeholder dialogue on land policy issues in Africa will held in Lusaka, Zambia from October 4-5, 2011 in Lusaka, Zambia.

The forum to address underlying transnational commercial land deals in Africa comes at time when many Western Super powers are promoting and perpetuating improper land acquisition and use, hence agricultural challenges and food crisis facing the continent. Former African colonial masters are land problems in many African countries including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Somalia, Ethiopia among others.

The High Level Forum on Land-Based Foreign Direct Investments in Africa comes at a time when recent discussions have focused on increasing demand of farmlands across the continent by both foreign and local investors. The meeting will explore and reach agreement and consensus on appropriate and concrete actions on how to address the issue of land based investments in the continent in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

To read more, go to the following link:

Africa: Zambia to Host Land Policy Meeting