At first I thought that the letters AFAP stood for Africa, Asia and the Pacific because the do good works in all three of those geographical areas. But after a bit of reading I learned that the acronym is for the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific. But even that had grown out of an organization with an even more specific geographic focus.
According to its web site, the AFAP is an independent member of the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI). The FSPI is a network whose affiliates have been working in the Pacific since 1965. The FSPI is the oldest, largest, and most experienced secular NGO network in the Pacific.
Established as a non-profit, non-religious organization in Australia in 1968, the AFAP began work in Asia with program initiatives in Viet Nam. By 1996 AFAP became the first Australian NGO to have its permanent representative office registered by the Vietnamese Government. Today AFAP is an innovative overseas aid organization making a positive difference to the lives of people not only in Asia but throughout Africa and the Pacific as well.
As a membership organization, AFAP also aims to raise public awareness in Australia of the current situation in the countries of the Pacific, Asia and Africa. Towards this goal it provides volunteer opportunities for Australians who wish to offer their services in support of our overseas development programs. These volunteers provide technical expertise, assistance with project implementation and with fundraising and membership.
As with many other Wonderful organizations helping people around the world, that were brought into being one or two people, the AFAP was the inspiration of one woman -Elizabeth "Betty" Bryant-Silverstein and her husband, Maurice "Red" Silverstein.
In the early sixties, Betty (who was a prominent Australian actress) and Red (who became President of Metro-Goldwyn-Myer International, a division of MGM) developed a friendship with Stanley Hosie, an Australian Marist priest.
Hosie, who had done an extensive field study of its Pacific Islands missions in Melanesia and Polynesia in early 1963. This friendship, and Hosie's study led to the creation of the The Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSP). So, lets just stop for a moment to make sure we have this straight. Betty and Red found the FSP, which later goes international and becomes FSPI. And in 1968 AFAP is initiated as an affiliate of FSPI. If you still need some help with this, you'll have to unravel by reading AFAP's history .
AFAP's currently has several programs that cover six major areas.
1. South-East Asia: Dengue fever control, rural development and environmental restoration.
2. Africa: Rural development, environmental restoration, water supply and HIV/AIDS.
3. Solomon Islands: Rebuilding civil society and refugee repatriation.
4. South Pacific: Disaster preparedness, storm tracking and warning and disaster recovery, environmental recovery.
5. The MSS program to provide medical support to rural communities throughout South Asia and the Pacific.
6. The TimorAid East Timor rebuilding program.
The organization also partners with a large number of smaller programs internationally in order to extend the reach of their benefits.
In Africa, AFAP has programs in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In Kenya AFAP partners with Concern Universal (CU), an NGO that has been active in Africa for over 20 years, to operate the Maa Community based HIV/AIDS Response Program. This program is funded by AusAID and primarily targets the people of the Maasai nomadic community who are difficult to reach by traditional HIV/AIDS awareness strategies. Because of this difficulty they are often left out of national awareness programs. The joint AFAP/CU program engages in awareness raising of HIV/AIDS issues in schools and has also been working with Maasai traditional birth attendants to protect them from infection and to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Maa Community based HIV/AIDS Response Program
In Malawi AFAP's again partners with CU on two AusAID funded initiatives.
The first of these is the Chimaliro Water and Sanitation Project. This project provides much needed safe water and sanitation facilities in Malawi. This project provides new boreholes, and thousands of pit latrines and also includes a hygiene education awareness campaign and practical training component to maintain the facilities.
A second project in Malawi is the Kamenyagwaza Livelihood Improvement Project in the Dedza district of Malawi. This is a food security project aimed at assisting approximately 20,000 vulnerable people to better meet their own food security by lessening ongoing impacts of the food crises by providing access to seed for planting and small livestock for food and income generation. By meeting these needs the project helps the beneficiaries survive the state of emergency that was declared in Malawi since early 2002 due to the food shortages affecting most parts of the country. http://www.afap.org/programs/malawi.html
Mozambique is the third country where AFAP operates a program in partnership with CU. This is a program to Strengthening Community based organisations through Adult Literacy
As part of the Southern Africa Integrated Development Program, AFAP supports a literacy project in the Zambesia province of Mozambique. The program is needed to offset the effects of recently ended the long-running civil war that demolished the education system leaving women's literacy rates at 25% and less than half of high school population in school.
The end of the has brought political stability and growth in school enrolment, but there are not enough trained teachers in this, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Literacy circles have been established and they develop learning materials that utilise the existing knowledge of participants as a starting point using no pre-printed materials. HIV/AIDS prevention and care information is made available through the literacy circle network as well. http://www.afap.org/programs/mozambique.html
In Zambia AFAP provides assistance to the Chikuni Parish Home Based Care Program, which proveds HIV/AIDS treatment and awareness training. The Chikuni Mission Hospital has 93 beds and serves a population of approximately 25,000 people in order to alleviate the burden on the under-resourced local health facility and reduce the distress of the patients. The treatment facility is complemented by a community awareness campaign, which makes use of a variety of communication mediums such as radio announcements, workshops and community meetings to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in general. This project is funded by both AusAID and from donations from the Australian public. http://www.afap.org/programs/zambia.html
In Zimbabwe AFAP partners withs the Community Technology Development Trust to conduct the Forest Garden Zimbabwe Program. Plagued by constant droughts, floods, pestilence and disease Zimbabwean and Southern African farmers are hard pressed to produce the crops necessary to feed their nations. The Forest Garden Program works to restore degraded uplands, improve watershed management, enhance local bio-diversity, reduce local pressure on old growth forests and improve living standards of the population. This is done by providing farmers' with immediate food or income and gradually enhance their long-term food security. It also intends to help incorporate indigenous and local agro-forestry techniques into the current practices.
There are currently three major Forest Garden Centres in three separate provinces. They provide a variety of nurseries, greenhouses and related training resources. Villagers now come to these centers to receive the training and resources necessary to establish their own Forest Gardens in their individual community areas. http://www.afap.org/programs/zimbabwe.html
Well, the clock on the wall says that I gotta go. But you know you can always find out more about the great organizations at their web sites. And you can find AFAP here. Take a look at the history of this organization and see how ONE THING JUST LEADS TO ANOTHER.
AFAP
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
THE PRACTICA FOUNDATION : Recognizing The Importance Of Technology
The Practica Foundation was established in 2001 in Delft in The Netherlands to address the problem that the huge need for the development and promotion of technology for the rural poor is much underresourced. Practica recognizes that technology is an important driving force for social and economic change in both the richer parts of the world and in the world's poor areas.
In order to address this problem, Practica aims to facilitate research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries.
In the first year of its existence, Practica won the shared first prize in the International Competition for Innovative Irrigation Rechnologies for Small Farmers. This award was organized by World Bank, IDE and Winrock International.
Practica receives requests from developing countries and looks at their implementing ability, financial aspects, and their relevance in terms of market potential, social and environmental desirability. Once it has done this, Practica continues to help develop the initiatives through technical assistance and by linking proposals with financial resources and marketing opportunities. In order to help ensure the success of the initiative, Prctica makes sure that the agreements on the rights to the technology are clear. In this way, this innovative organization functions as both a clearinghouse for funding as an entity that helps with the dissemination and commercial application of promising technologies.
One unique aspect of Practica is that it makes it very clear that commercial promotion is as important, if not more important, as the development of technology.
The aim of the Practica Foundation is to facilitate research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries. Water and energy-related technology were chosen because of the understanding that these are often "prime movers" in rural livelihoods. And even though they are the prime movers there is still much to be done in order to reduce the cost and improve the quality of the technologies in use.
Because Practica believes that the commercial promotion is as important, if not more important, as the development of technology even though it is supported by private donors, foundations, Water Authorities and organizations, it works with a network of numerous partner organizations that engage in the business of producing, promoting and selling improved rural products.
Because it deals very much with engineering and such practical matters as that, Practica has a leadership team that is heavily weighted towards engineering. Frank van Steenbergen PhD, the Chairman of the board us a Social geographer, 20 years experience and specializes in water policy change. Wout Snijders MSc is Secretary and treasurer of the board. Snijders has been a Civil and environmental engineer for 25 years. The list of Board Members is quite long, but they include, among other professions, Land and water management engineers, Mechanical engineers, a (Geo)hydrological researcher, a Sanitary engineer, Agronomist, a Sociologist who is also a ceramist and an Irrigation expert
Some of the Technologies with which Practica is involved are:
The Volanta pump, which is a flywheel operated deep well piston pump driven by hand or engine
The micro diesel, which is a simple and small size engine expected to be available to farmers at an affordable price.
Practica has developed a Manual well drilling package consisting of the Rota-sludge and Stone-hammer
Motorize Rope Pump that can be used for pumping water from deeper wells than is possible with motorized pumping using suction pumps powered by a diesel or gasoline engines.
The Ceramic water filter is the same water filter made by Potters For Peace mentioned in the article of October 17, 2005.
I am going to stop listing technologies here, but you can read about the rest at: Practica Technologies
Practica has several Ongoing Projects as well, such as:
The Solar Thermal Motor
The Volanta ultra pump deepset
The Motorised ropepump
The Micro Diesel Engine and
The Stonehammer drilling method
All of these ongoing projects can be viewed at: Ongoing Projects
In additions to the listings of their Technologies and Ongoing Projects, Practica has a
LIBRARY SECTION and a section called, SMART WATER SOLUTIONS where they deal with water technologies.
Three is a lot to see at Practica. I was told about it by Ron Rivera of Potters For Peace ; and whether you like to see what is coming at you from over the technological horizon, or just like to browse through page after page of thoughtful solutions to some of the world's problems, Practica's web site is a Great place to visit. PRACTICA
In order to address this problem, Practica aims to facilitate research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries.
In the first year of its existence, Practica won the shared first prize in the International Competition for Innovative Irrigation Rechnologies for Small Farmers. This award was organized by World Bank, IDE and Winrock International.
Practica receives requests from developing countries and looks at their implementing ability, financial aspects, and their relevance in terms of market potential, social and environmental desirability. Once it has done this, Practica continues to help develop the initiatives through technical assistance and by linking proposals with financial resources and marketing opportunities. In order to help ensure the success of the initiative, Prctica makes sure that the agreements on the rights to the technology are clear. In this way, this innovative organization functions as both a clearinghouse for funding as an entity that helps with the dissemination and commercial application of promising technologies.
One unique aspect of Practica is that it makes it very clear that commercial promotion is as important, if not more important, as the development of technology.
The aim of the Practica Foundation is to facilitate research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries. Water and energy-related technology were chosen because of the understanding that these are often "prime movers" in rural livelihoods. And even though they are the prime movers there is still much to be done in order to reduce the cost and improve the quality of the technologies in use.
Because Practica believes that the commercial promotion is as important, if not more important, as the development of technology even though it is supported by private donors, foundations, Water Authorities and organizations, it works with a network of numerous partner organizations that engage in the business of producing, promoting and selling improved rural products.
Because it deals very much with engineering and such practical matters as that, Practica has a leadership team that is heavily weighted towards engineering. Frank van Steenbergen PhD, the Chairman of the board us a Social geographer, 20 years experience and specializes in water policy change. Wout Snijders MSc is Secretary and treasurer of the board. Snijders has been a Civil and environmental engineer for 25 years. The list of Board Members is quite long, but they include, among other professions, Land and water management engineers, Mechanical engineers, a (Geo)hydrological researcher, a Sanitary engineer, Agronomist, a Sociologist who is also a ceramist and an Irrigation expert
Some of the Technologies with which Practica is involved are:
The Volanta pump, which is a flywheel operated deep well piston pump driven by hand or engine
The micro diesel, which is a simple and small size engine expected to be available to farmers at an affordable price.
Practica has developed a Manual well drilling package consisting of the Rota-sludge and Stone-hammer
Motorize Rope Pump that can be used for pumping water from deeper wells than is possible with motorized pumping using suction pumps powered by a diesel or gasoline engines.
The Ceramic water filter is the same water filter made by Potters For Peace mentioned in the article of October 17, 2005.
I am going to stop listing technologies here, but you can read about the rest at: Practica Technologies
Practica has several Ongoing Projects as well, such as:
The Solar Thermal Motor
The Volanta ultra pump deepset
The Motorised ropepump
The Micro Diesel Engine and
The Stonehammer drilling method
All of these ongoing projects can be viewed at: Ongoing Projects
In additions to the listings of their Technologies and Ongoing Projects, Practica has a
LIBRARY SECTION and a section called, SMART WATER SOLUTIONS where they deal with water technologies.
Three is a lot to see at Practica. I was told about it by Ron Rivera of Potters For Peace ; and whether you like to see what is coming at you from over the technological horizon, or just like to browse through page after page of thoughtful solutions to some of the world's problems, Practica's web site is a Great place to visit. PRACTICA
Monday, October 17, 2005
POTTERS FOR PEACE : Who Cares If They Need Haircuts
Every since I joined Nabuur.com I have been feeling a little guilty. This is because I feel like I have an army of worker bees finding great non-profit organizations that I can write about. The Nabuur "Neighbors" share information about potential non-profit resources and my blog has been reaping the benefit of their work. But don't get me wrong; I have been sharing information with them about the wonderful non-profits that are the subjects of this Blog's articles.
Well, today I have another Great Find that was suggested by a Neighbor of one community that I am hoping will work out great for another community as well.
The name Potters For Peace brings to mind (for an "old timer" like me) images of young people in the sixties heading to remote locations in the American Southwest to try to figure out what they could do to make the world a better place. These were the kind of people who, when I pointed them out to my mother would say: "That's nice, dear, but don't you think they should cut their hair?"
Anyway, I don't know if the folks at Potters For Peace are old "hippies" or not, but they sure have a hell of a good idea for making the world a better place.
Since 1998, these guys have been developing a low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water filter.
I know, I know, I didn't quite understand it at first either, but here it is. What this is, is a porous ceramic pot placed inside a plastic or clay bucket with a spigot, and the clay pot is saturated with a germicide/disinfectant called colloidal silver. The water filters through the clay pot saturated with the colloidal silver germicide and is ready for consumption as clean, safe water.
Now, to be honest, I didn't know what "colloidal silver" is, even after a Google search told me that it is a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a "colloidal base."
I eventually found a definition on Potters For Peace's web site that said:
Colloidal Silver
"Colloids are submicroscopic particles of material suspended in a liquid. Silver is converted to colloidal silver by running a positive electrical current through bars of pure silver suspended in water. The size of colloidal silver particles is generally between .015 - .005 microns. Upon becoming a colloid, silver takes on a positive ionic charge.
"In its ionic colloid state, silver is recognized as a germicide, or in some cases as a bacteriostatic. It is believed that silver is able to disable the particular enzyme that pathogenic bacteria and fungi use for oxygen metabolism, thus suffocating them. Other pathogens are destroyed by the electric charge on the silver particles, causing their internal protoplast to collapse, and still others are rendered unable to reproduce. Parasites are also killed while in their egg stage."
But, when I had Googled "Colloidal Silver" earlier, a lot of pages came up where the "pros and cons" of humans ingesting colloidal silver are being debated. And after a fairly close read it's my understanding that, the Potters For Peace does not say with certainty that the using the water filter does not involve ingesting colloidal silver. (Correct me if I an wrong, guys.) In their FAQ page they put it the following way:
"Q. After water passes through the PFP filter, is silver in the water? If so, how much?
Good question"
But Potters for Peace is very candid about this controversy and takes no position on the claim of colloidal silver's effectiveness as an antibacterial agent to be directly ingested in relatively large daily, or regular doses." They do state, however that there is a "historical and well-documented application of colloidal silver as a safe and effective water purification agent used in conjunction with various filtration and storage methods for both large and small water systems." They go on to state that Colloidal silver is not listed as a toxin by the Environmental Protection Agency's Poison Control Center and that the Food and Drug Administration has no regulations regarding the use of colloidal silver as an antibacterial in any form or method, but that some sort of guidelines will be forthcoming.
The site gives an account of the toxic side effect (Argyria) from ingestion of silver as mentioned earlier, but cites that while medical science recognizes Argyria as specifically caused by intensive long-term exposure to silver compounds, such as silver nitrate, silver sulfate, silver sulfadiazine, etc., it is not believed to come from micro-particles of ionic silver.
At a later point in this discussion that indicate that while the total amount of colloidal silver used in their filter relatively minute, it is still possible that even smaller trace quantities of the material could pass directly into the filtered water. But to date, "no medical study conducted on colloidal silver has indicated that it poses a threat to human health."
There is much more to the information on that page than I have posted here, but time and space requires me to move on and urge the reader to finish reading this material at: Colloidal Silver
It needs to be said also that Potters For Peace has a link posted on their web site that leads to a page where they have posted he results of a study financed by USAID that gives the following information:
"In September 2001, Jubilee House Community contracted with USAID to provide intrinsic and field investigations of the Potters for Peace colloidal silver impregnated ceramic filter." …
Potters for Peace manufactures filters which are sold to NGOs that implement a water filtration program in the communities they work within. Working with three partner NGOs, a total of 33 homes in seven communities were visited during the three-week field trip. Twenty-four of the 33 homes (73 percent) were using the filter at the time of the unannounced visit.
The results of the water quality monitoring in these 24 homes were:
Silver concentration in the finished water does not pose a human health risk.
Water quality parameters measured were not outside normal values.
· Only 4% of the filters removed total coliform, 25% removed H2S-producing bacteria, and 53% removed E. coli when it was present. This is due to contamination of the receptacle and inadequate storage of water.
· Latrine ownership, household cleanliness, and plastic receptacles were correlated with microbial removal.
· No household with a filter that removed microbial contaminants had a child with diarrhea in the last month.
There are some recommendations that follow this portion of the report, which I will leave for the reader to review himself or herself. The report can be found at:
Field Investigations
Potters For Peace also say on their web site that this filter has been "cited by the United Nations' Appropriate Technology Handbook, and is used by the International Red Cross and the Nobel Prize winning medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders." That sounds like a couple of votes of confidence to me.
They also say that field "experience and clinical test results have shown this filter to effectively eliminate approximately 99.88% of most water-born disease agents."
The people at Potters For Peace state on their web site that they "are potters first and foremost, working on the Ceramic Filter Technology project in conjunction with a wide variety of medical and scientific agencies." By pooling our collective talents, they hope to put our skills to use benefiting people. They also say that they "welcome and encourage constructive criticism."
What they are hoping is that they can "provide potential incubation assistance to a badly needed cottage industry; the production on a village, and semi-industry level, of low-tech ceramic water filters." They believe that their filter is and efficient way for rural, communities in developing nations to secure safe water. And they believe that this process is "well proven."
By presenting their information on the Internet, they are hoping to generate an interest in this technology and fostering discussions among those concerned with quality of life issues in the developing world. And, of course they are hoping to meet the urgent need existing in the world today to provide safe water in rural and marginalized communities, while providing employment for local potters.
There may be some controversy about Colloidal Silver, but I think I feel pretty safe if the International Red Cross and the U.N. think these guys are on to something. But don't take my word for it. Surf on over to Potters For Peace's Ceramic Filters web page and take a look for yourself. And also, I've linked to their Home Page as well.
I Think These Guys Are Doing Something To Make The World A Better Place.
Well, today I have another Great Find that was suggested by a Neighbor of one community that I am hoping will work out great for another community as well.
The name Potters For Peace brings to mind (for an "old timer" like me) images of young people in the sixties heading to remote locations in the American Southwest to try to figure out what they could do to make the world a better place. These were the kind of people who, when I pointed them out to my mother would say: "That's nice, dear, but don't you think they should cut their hair?"
Anyway, I don't know if the folks at Potters For Peace are old "hippies" or not, but they sure have a hell of a good idea for making the world a better place.
Since 1998, these guys have been developing a low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water filter.
I know, I know, I didn't quite understand it at first either, but here it is. What this is, is a porous ceramic pot placed inside a plastic or clay bucket with a spigot, and the clay pot is saturated with a germicide/disinfectant called colloidal silver. The water filters through the clay pot saturated with the colloidal silver germicide and is ready for consumption as clean, safe water.
Now, to be honest, I didn't know what "colloidal silver" is, even after a Google search told me that it is a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a "colloidal base."
I eventually found a definition on Potters For Peace's web site that said:
Colloidal Silver
"Colloids are submicroscopic particles of material suspended in a liquid. Silver is converted to colloidal silver by running a positive electrical current through bars of pure silver suspended in water. The size of colloidal silver particles is generally between .015 - .005 microns. Upon becoming a colloid, silver takes on a positive ionic charge.
"In its ionic colloid state, silver is recognized as a germicide, or in some cases as a bacteriostatic. It is believed that silver is able to disable the particular enzyme that pathogenic bacteria and fungi use for oxygen metabolism, thus suffocating them. Other pathogens are destroyed by the electric charge on the silver particles, causing their internal protoplast to collapse, and still others are rendered unable to reproduce. Parasites are also killed while in their egg stage."
But, when I had Googled "Colloidal Silver" earlier, a lot of pages came up where the "pros and cons" of humans ingesting colloidal silver are being debated. And after a fairly close read it's my understanding that, the Potters For Peace does not say with certainty that the using the water filter does not involve ingesting colloidal silver. (Correct me if I an wrong, guys.) In their FAQ page they put it the following way:
"Q. After water passes through the PFP filter, is silver in the water? If so, how much?
Good question"
But Potters for Peace is very candid about this controversy and takes no position on the claim of colloidal silver's effectiveness as an antibacterial agent to be directly ingested in relatively large daily, or regular doses." They do state, however that there is a "historical and well-documented application of colloidal silver as a safe and effective water purification agent used in conjunction with various filtration and storage methods for both large and small water systems." They go on to state that Colloidal silver is not listed as a toxin by the Environmental Protection Agency's Poison Control Center and that the Food and Drug Administration has no regulations regarding the use of colloidal silver as an antibacterial in any form or method, but that some sort of guidelines will be forthcoming.
The site gives an account of the toxic side effect (Argyria) from ingestion of silver as mentioned earlier, but cites that while medical science recognizes Argyria as specifically caused by intensive long-term exposure to silver compounds, such as silver nitrate, silver sulfate, silver sulfadiazine, etc., it is not believed to come from micro-particles of ionic silver.
At a later point in this discussion that indicate that while the total amount of colloidal silver used in their filter relatively minute, it is still possible that even smaller trace quantities of the material could pass directly into the filtered water. But to date, "no medical study conducted on colloidal silver has indicated that it poses a threat to human health."
There is much more to the information on that page than I have posted here, but time and space requires me to move on and urge the reader to finish reading this material at: Colloidal Silver
It needs to be said also that Potters For Peace has a link posted on their web site that leads to a page where they have posted he results of a study financed by USAID that gives the following information:
"In September 2001, Jubilee House Community contracted with USAID to provide intrinsic and field investigations of the Potters for Peace colloidal silver impregnated ceramic filter." …
Potters for Peace manufactures filters which are sold to NGOs that implement a water filtration program in the communities they work within. Working with three partner NGOs, a total of 33 homes in seven communities were visited during the three-week field trip. Twenty-four of the 33 homes (73 percent) were using the filter at the time of the unannounced visit.
The results of the water quality monitoring in these 24 homes were:
Silver concentration in the finished water does not pose a human health risk.
Water quality parameters measured were not outside normal values.
· Only 4% of the filters removed total coliform, 25% removed H2S-producing bacteria, and 53% removed E. coli when it was present. This is due to contamination of the receptacle and inadequate storage of water.
· Latrine ownership, household cleanliness, and plastic receptacles were correlated with microbial removal.
· No household with a filter that removed microbial contaminants had a child with diarrhea in the last month.
There are some recommendations that follow this portion of the report, which I will leave for the reader to review himself or herself. The report can be found at:
Field Investigations
Potters For Peace also say on their web site that this filter has been "cited by the United Nations' Appropriate Technology Handbook, and is used by the International Red Cross and the Nobel Prize winning medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders." That sounds like a couple of votes of confidence to me.
They also say that field "experience and clinical test results have shown this filter to effectively eliminate approximately 99.88% of most water-born disease agents."
The people at Potters For Peace state on their web site that they "are potters first and foremost, working on the Ceramic Filter Technology project in conjunction with a wide variety of medical and scientific agencies." By pooling our collective talents, they hope to put our skills to use benefiting people. They also say that they "welcome and encourage constructive criticism."
What they are hoping is that they can "provide potential incubation assistance to a badly needed cottage industry; the production on a village, and semi-industry level, of low-tech ceramic water filters." They believe that their filter is and efficient way for rural, communities in developing nations to secure safe water. And they believe that this process is "well proven."
By presenting their information on the Internet, they are hoping to generate an interest in this technology and fostering discussions among those concerned with quality of life issues in the developing world. And, of course they are hoping to meet the urgent need existing in the world today to provide safe water in rural and marginalized communities, while providing employment for local potters.
There may be some controversy about Colloidal Silver, but I think I feel pretty safe if the International Red Cross and the U.N. think these guys are on to something. But don't take my word for it. Surf on over to Potters For Peace's Ceramic Filters web page and take a look for yourself. And also, I've linked to their Home Page as well.
I Think These Guys Are Doing Something To Make The World A Better Place.
Friday, October 14, 2005
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY : Giving A Damn
One of the things that really caught my eye about Architecture for Humanity is that they have a book coming out entitled "Design Like You Give A Damn." But I'll talk more about that later.
Architecture for Humanity was founded in 1999 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization to "promote architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises."
The organization uses competitions, workshops and educational forums to foster its work. It also partners with aid organizations and other entities to create opportunities for architects and designers worldwide to help communities in need. They believe that innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference in areas of the world where resources and expertise are scarce.
Past initiatives have included three international design competitions that enhanced the quality of life in the recipient communities. And several more of their projects are listed below.
Another initiative being carried out by Architecture for Humanity supports humanitarian-directed design through advocacy on a number of projects. To put this in layman's language it means that they have consulted with (and urged) government bodies and relief organizations to consider in greater depth the interface between societal and cultural issues and environmental factors into the design process. Some of these projects include: "mine clearance programs and playground building in the Balkans; earthquake resistant construction techniques in Turkey and Iran; school building in Calcutta; refugee housing on the borders of Afghanistan and responding to Hurricane Ivan, Emily and Katrina."
In addition to this Architecture for Humanity has also provided referrals and advice to a number of organizations, such as: the Oprah Foundation, the Kansas City Economic Development Corporation, Kids With Cameras, Habitat for Humanity, Common Ground, Planned Parenthood International, to name a few.
They also foster public appreciation for the many ways that architecture and design can improve lives by bringing media attention to this topic through exhibitions, conferences and forums in addition to normal press releases.
Architecture for Humanity has used Educational Workshops on Elementary and high school levels as well as on the university level. The organization says that on the university level, "architecture and design programs around the world have used our competitions and design criteria as a model for semester-long projects. In addition we have hosted student-led workshops focused on humanitarian-directed design at a number of universities." Their web site says that elementary and high school students have benefited from our design initiatives through after-school workshops.
Through its additional web site, www.afh.meetup.com Architecture for Humanity fosters the formation of local groups made up of individuals who want to "lend their time and talents to community groups and advocate for better planning and design in their communities." This initiative was begun only two years ago, but now over 1500 designers meet regularly to discuss and participate in design projects in cities such as New York, London, Atlanta, Boston, Belfast, Chicago, Dublin, Los Angeles, Sydney, Seattle, St.Louis, Toronto, Washington DC and many more. Interested persons can sign up on the afh.meetup.com web site. You can sign up for some local groups right from Architecture for Humanity's Home Page.
Given the character of this organization, it not difficult to see that it was co-founded by an architect with an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design and a freelance journalist with a deep understanding of urban issues. The architect is Executive Director and Co-founder Cameron Sinclair and the journalist is Kate Stohr . Their full bios are linked to their names.
The organization recognizes that "At the heart of Architecture for Humanity is a core group of people who have generously donated their time and efforts to keep AFH running. With advocates around the world Architecture for Humanity is truly becoming a global organization that encourages designers to make a difference." And like any successful non-profit organization it has a "deep bench" of hard working Staff, Board Members and Advisors. I should also mention that they have a group of four "Design Fellows."
Architecture for Humanity has been getting noticed and proudly displays on its Home Page the following quote from Robert Ivy of the "Architectural Record":
"Architecture for Humanity represents the finest of the new breed of architectural leadership, employing architectural skills and directing them for the larger good. Committed, unapologetically architectural in name and mission, Architecture for Humanity stands up for people in need."
Some of Architecture for Humanity's projects, which I shall mention only briefly here and you can read in more detail at their web site, are:
Rethinking Tent City - This project is scheduled for late 2005 through 2006 and will "focus on a potential to achieve target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals to help improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Their Tsunami Reconstruction project began in 2005 and is ongoing. Since January 2nd of 2005 Architecture for Humanity has been partnering and supporting a number of groups in Tamil Nadu, India and Pottuvil and Kirinda, Sri Lanka on the rebuilding of civic and community buildings. This project is partnering with students from Montana State Universitys' Center for Community Design as well.
Now, back to where I started: Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises - to be published in early 2006 - is a book that will offer a history of humanitarian design efforts as well as provide a compendium of innovative architectural and design projects that have helped improve lives in communities around the world. One purpose of the book is "to be a resource for both designers and relief organizations involved in humanitarian development and reconstruction."
Other projects - that you will have to read about at Architecture for Humanity's web site are:
Kids With Cameras - The name of this project is fairly revealing.
Siyathemba - a project that challenges designers to create the perfect 'pitch' in Somkhele in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. And you'll never understand what this is about unless you visit the web site.
Rebuilding Bam, Iran - a 2004 project that helped to provide long term housing for thousands of residents left homeless by the tragic earthquake which left over 41,000 dead.
Mobile Health Clinics to Combat HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa - an ongoing project that began in 2002.
Transitional Housing for Kosovo's Returning Refugees - a project that ran from 1999 to 2000.
In addition to these projects, local groups also participated in projects in their various communities.
On their Home Page, Architecture for Humanity has a link titled: "People we Like." And there they list other organizations that believe are doing good work. Well, Architecture for Humanity is/are People I Like and I really think it would be worth your time to visit their place on the Internet and visit with People Who Give A Damn.
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity was founded in 1999 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization to "promote architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises."
The organization uses competitions, workshops and educational forums to foster its work. It also partners with aid organizations and other entities to create opportunities for architects and designers worldwide to help communities in need. They believe that innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference in areas of the world where resources and expertise are scarce.
Past initiatives have included three international design competitions that enhanced the quality of life in the recipient communities. And several more of their projects are listed below.
Another initiative being carried out by Architecture for Humanity supports humanitarian-directed design through advocacy on a number of projects. To put this in layman's language it means that they have consulted with (and urged) government bodies and relief organizations to consider in greater depth the interface between societal and cultural issues and environmental factors into the design process. Some of these projects include: "mine clearance programs and playground building in the Balkans; earthquake resistant construction techniques in Turkey and Iran; school building in Calcutta; refugee housing on the borders of Afghanistan and responding to Hurricane Ivan, Emily and Katrina."
In addition to this Architecture for Humanity has also provided referrals and advice to a number of organizations, such as: the Oprah Foundation, the Kansas City Economic Development Corporation, Kids With Cameras, Habitat for Humanity, Common Ground, Planned Parenthood International, to name a few.
They also foster public appreciation for the many ways that architecture and design can improve lives by bringing media attention to this topic through exhibitions, conferences and forums in addition to normal press releases.
Architecture for Humanity has used Educational Workshops on Elementary and high school levels as well as on the university level. The organization says that on the university level, "architecture and design programs around the world have used our competitions and design criteria as a model for semester-long projects. In addition we have hosted student-led workshops focused on humanitarian-directed design at a number of universities." Their web site says that elementary and high school students have benefited from our design initiatives through after-school workshops.
Through its additional web site, www.afh.meetup.com Architecture for Humanity fosters the formation of local groups made up of individuals who want to "lend their time and talents to community groups and advocate for better planning and design in their communities." This initiative was begun only two years ago, but now over 1500 designers meet regularly to discuss and participate in design projects in cities such as New York, London, Atlanta, Boston, Belfast, Chicago, Dublin, Los Angeles, Sydney, Seattle, St.Louis, Toronto, Washington DC and many more. Interested persons can sign up on the afh.meetup.com web site. You can sign up for some local groups right from Architecture for Humanity's Home Page.
Given the character of this organization, it not difficult to see that it was co-founded by an architect with an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design and a freelance journalist with a deep understanding of urban issues. The architect is Executive Director and Co-founder Cameron Sinclair and the journalist is Kate Stohr . Their full bios are linked to their names.
The organization recognizes that "At the heart of Architecture for Humanity is a core group of people who have generously donated their time and efforts to keep AFH running. With advocates around the world Architecture for Humanity is truly becoming a global organization that encourages designers to make a difference." And like any successful non-profit organization it has a "deep bench" of hard working Staff, Board Members and Advisors. I should also mention that they have a group of four "Design Fellows."
Architecture for Humanity has been getting noticed and proudly displays on its Home Page the following quote from Robert Ivy of the "Architectural Record":
"Architecture for Humanity represents the finest of the new breed of architectural leadership, employing architectural skills and directing them for the larger good. Committed, unapologetically architectural in name and mission, Architecture for Humanity stands up for people in need."
Some of Architecture for Humanity's projects, which I shall mention only briefly here and you can read in more detail at their web site, are:
Rethinking Tent City - This project is scheduled for late 2005 through 2006 and will "focus on a potential to achieve target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals to help improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Their Tsunami Reconstruction project began in 2005 and is ongoing. Since January 2nd of 2005 Architecture for Humanity has been partnering and supporting a number of groups in Tamil Nadu, India and Pottuvil and Kirinda, Sri Lanka on the rebuilding of civic and community buildings. This project is partnering with students from Montana State Universitys' Center for Community Design as well.
Now, back to where I started: Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises - to be published in early 2006 - is a book that will offer a history of humanitarian design efforts as well as provide a compendium of innovative architectural and design projects that have helped improve lives in communities around the world. One purpose of the book is "to be a resource for both designers and relief organizations involved in humanitarian development and reconstruction."
Other projects - that you will have to read about at Architecture for Humanity's web site are:
Kids With Cameras - The name of this project is fairly revealing.
Siyathemba - a project that challenges designers to create the perfect 'pitch' in Somkhele in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. And you'll never understand what this is about unless you visit the web site.
Rebuilding Bam, Iran - a 2004 project that helped to provide long term housing for thousands of residents left homeless by the tragic earthquake which left over 41,000 dead.
Mobile Health Clinics to Combat HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa - an ongoing project that began in 2002.
Transitional Housing for Kosovo's Returning Refugees - a project that ran from 1999 to 2000.
In addition to these projects, local groups also participated in projects in their various communities.
On their Home Page, Architecture for Humanity has a link titled: "People we Like." And there they list other organizations that believe are doing good work. Well, Architecture for Humanity is/are People I Like and I really think it would be worth your time to visit their place on the Internet and visit with People Who Give A Damn.
Architecture for Humanity
Thursday, October 13, 2005
BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL: From The Mind And Heart Of One Woman
Those of you who have followed this blog for some time know that my favorite stories are those about organizations that are brought to life by the inspiration of one individual who then acts upon his or her heartfelt compassion and acts on that emotion to make the world a better place. Well, I am sure that you have guessed by now, that this is one of those stories.
Book Aid International was founded in 1954 by Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly as the Ranfurly Library Service. Her husband was at that time Governor General of the Bahamas. During Lady Ranfurly's travels she became aware of the desperate shortage of books for children in the Bahamas. As a result of this experience, she instituted a process that brought donated book to that the Bahamian children. She began by asking her friends and contacts to send surplus books from the UK. These books were then re-distributed to schools and libraries that needed them. When Lady Ranfurly returned to the UK in the early 1960s she was asked by the then Colonial Secretary, Lord Boyd, to continue her efforts and indeed expand them to other parts of the developing world.
Today, in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in Palestine, Book Aid International is hard at work providing over half a million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and schools. This is because Lady Ranfurly's organization believes that books are the basic tools of literacy and education. And they are trying to get books to the millions of children and adults across the developing world do not have access to them.
This organization reminds us that not only to children need them to foster their education but farmers, nurses, mechanics, development workers and teachers all need them to support their work.
The bulk of the work of Book Aid International is in support of rural and urban libraries that provide free access to everyone. Partnering with libraries, Book Aid International helps them to develop their pivotal role in the community.
In pursuit of a long-term goal, Book Aid International is supporting the growth of local publishing and bookselling "so that affordable books can be produced which reflect the local languages and culture".
Lady Ranfurly incorporated this charity as a company limited by guarantee on 3 June 1966 as the Ranfurly Library Service. By 1994 the charity had sent an estimated 15 million books to over 70 countries worldwide and in January 1994 its name was changed to BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL to help raise awareness of the need for book aid, to heighten the profile of the organization for potential supporters and to give clarity in explaining what it does.
Lady Ranfurly passed away on 11 February 2001 but remained as President of the organization until that time. At the present time, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh is Patron of the organization.
Currently, for the three-year period of 2004 - 2006, Book Aid International has set new goals for itself and restructured the organisation to meet them. These areas in which it has set these goals (to paraphrase) are:
- Increase access to Books and Information
- Gain wider support for the Book Chain
- Increase the effectiveness of its Partnerships in working to achieve common goals
- Enhance Reading Promotion by more effectively reaching out to readers
- Promote Advocacy by increasing books and information for development
- Measuring Outcomes and Impact to enhance the role of evidence
- Enhance the Training and Learning of partners
- Continue Internal Development
Just to highlight a few of these goals, I will quote from Book Aid International's web site.
"Access to Books and Information"
"Book Aid International aims to increase opportunities for learning and personal development, and to strengthen the capacity of partner libraries to develop new ways of providing access to information
"We will:
provide over two million good quality books and other materials in English and in African languages, targeted to meet community information needs support partner libraries to meet local needs in priority areas such as health, HIV-AIDS, vocational skills and African fiction, through purchase or donation of relevant materials from UK and African publishers work with partners to create attractive and vibrant libraries, by encouraging effective weeding, creative displays, outreach activities, adult literacy classes and other innovative services support partners to increase the availability and use of Internet and ICT in libraries advocate best practice among book donating agencies."
"Partnerships in working to achieve common goals"
"Book Aid International aims to work in partnership with those organisations overseas who are committed to meeting the information needs of disadvantaged communities, and with those organisations in both the south and north who can help us to deliver our mission more effectively
We will:
use partnership agreements with our library and book trade partners to ensure that programmes are focussed and effective work with partners who reach out to disadvantaged communities and provide services relevant to their needs develop country programmes in key sectors such as primary education, health, and human rights that contribute to development and have a direct impact on the reduction of poverty work to promote the interests of women and girls through all programmes develop strategic alliances, increase networking and the sharing of best practice."
"Training and Learning"
"We aim to learn together with partners, share best practice, and support partners in developing professional skills and creative and sustainable approaches to delivering services for their users
"We will:
foster the conditions for reciprocal learning with partners support partners in meeting their training needs for professional development, management and leadership ensure training and learning is relevant to the local context, and helps equip partners with skills to meet the information needs of their communities on a sustainable basis."
I know that it has taken me a bit to get back to one of the original points, but I don't want to end this article without identifying the 18 sub-Saharan African countries that are aided by Book Aid International. Those nations are:
Cameroon
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Namibia
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia and
Zimbabwe
If you are interested in increasing the availability of books to children in these countries (all of them, or some of them) surf on over to Book Aid International and read more about this thriving organization that began just as the generous compassion of one person. And while you are there, give some thought to how much harder this world would be if it were not for people like Lady Ranfurly.
Book Aid International
Book Aid International was founded in 1954 by Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly as the Ranfurly Library Service. Her husband was at that time Governor General of the Bahamas. During Lady Ranfurly's travels she became aware of the desperate shortage of books for children in the Bahamas. As a result of this experience, she instituted a process that brought donated book to that the Bahamian children. She began by asking her friends and contacts to send surplus books from the UK. These books were then re-distributed to schools and libraries that needed them. When Lady Ranfurly returned to the UK in the early 1960s she was asked by the then Colonial Secretary, Lord Boyd, to continue her efforts and indeed expand them to other parts of the developing world.
Today, in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in Palestine, Book Aid International is hard at work providing over half a million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and schools. This is because Lady Ranfurly's organization believes that books are the basic tools of literacy and education. And they are trying to get books to the millions of children and adults across the developing world do not have access to them.
This organization reminds us that not only to children need them to foster their education but farmers, nurses, mechanics, development workers and teachers all need them to support their work.
The bulk of the work of Book Aid International is in support of rural and urban libraries that provide free access to everyone. Partnering with libraries, Book Aid International helps them to develop their pivotal role in the community.
In pursuit of a long-term goal, Book Aid International is supporting the growth of local publishing and bookselling "so that affordable books can be produced which reflect the local languages and culture".
Lady Ranfurly incorporated this charity as a company limited by guarantee on 3 June 1966 as the Ranfurly Library Service. By 1994 the charity had sent an estimated 15 million books to over 70 countries worldwide and in January 1994 its name was changed to BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL to help raise awareness of the need for book aid, to heighten the profile of the organization for potential supporters and to give clarity in explaining what it does.
Lady Ranfurly passed away on 11 February 2001 but remained as President of the organization until that time. At the present time, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh is Patron of the organization.
Currently, for the three-year period of 2004 - 2006, Book Aid International has set new goals for itself and restructured the organisation to meet them. These areas in which it has set these goals (to paraphrase) are:
- Increase access to Books and Information
- Gain wider support for the Book Chain
- Increase the effectiveness of its Partnerships in working to achieve common goals
- Enhance Reading Promotion by more effectively reaching out to readers
- Promote Advocacy by increasing books and information for development
- Measuring Outcomes and Impact to enhance the role of evidence
- Enhance the Training and Learning of partners
- Continue Internal Development
Just to highlight a few of these goals, I will quote from Book Aid International's web site.
"Access to Books and Information"
"Book Aid International aims to increase opportunities for learning and personal development, and to strengthen the capacity of partner libraries to develop new ways of providing access to information
"We will:
provide over two million good quality books and other materials in English and in African languages, targeted to meet community information needs support partner libraries to meet local needs in priority areas such as health, HIV-AIDS, vocational skills and African fiction, through purchase or donation of relevant materials from UK and African publishers work with partners to create attractive and vibrant libraries, by encouraging effective weeding, creative displays, outreach activities, adult literacy classes and other innovative services support partners to increase the availability and use of Internet and ICT in libraries advocate best practice among book donating agencies."
"Partnerships in working to achieve common goals"
"Book Aid International aims to work in partnership with those organisations overseas who are committed to meeting the information needs of disadvantaged communities, and with those organisations in both the south and north who can help us to deliver our mission more effectively
We will:
use partnership agreements with our library and book trade partners to ensure that programmes are focussed and effective work with partners who reach out to disadvantaged communities and provide services relevant to their needs develop country programmes in key sectors such as primary education, health, and human rights that contribute to development and have a direct impact on the reduction of poverty work to promote the interests of women and girls through all programmes develop strategic alliances, increase networking and the sharing of best practice."
"Training and Learning"
"We aim to learn together with partners, share best practice, and support partners in developing professional skills and creative and sustainable approaches to delivering services for their users
"We will:
foster the conditions for reciprocal learning with partners support partners in meeting their training needs for professional development, management and leadership ensure training and learning is relevant to the local context, and helps equip partners with skills to meet the information needs of their communities on a sustainable basis."
I know that it has taken me a bit to get back to one of the original points, but I don't want to end this article without identifying the 18 sub-Saharan African countries that are aided by Book Aid International. Those nations are:
Cameroon
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Namibia
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia and
Zimbabwe
If you are interested in increasing the availability of books to children in these countries (all of them, or some of them) surf on over to Book Aid International and read more about this thriving organization that began just as the generous compassion of one person. And while you are there, give some thought to how much harder this world would be if it were not for people like Lady Ranfurly.
Book Aid International
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
$100 LAPTOP: MIT's Media Laboratory's "One Laptop per Child" Initiative
While surfing around the Internet looking for items of interest I often come upon some really cool sites. I had been noodling around the African Technology Forum for the past day of so, and never noticed until just now a link titled: "MIT's $100 Laptop Initiative."
Since I have been working with two groups at Nabuur that are looking for computers, one for a village school and the other for an Internet Café' / Training Center I was naturally curious - actually, intrigued.
When I brought up the Home Page for the "$100 Laptop" the first thing at the top of the page was the following notice:
"Please note that the $100 laptops-not yet in production-will not be available for sale. The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives."
"Ummmm" I wonder, is this a good thing? Or will dealing with large government initiatives bog the effort down in bureaucratic red tape until computers become obsolete? But reminding my self of my "self improvement pledge" not to prejudge, I continued to read.
The project is the brainchild of the MIT Media Laboratory, which has created a new, non-profit association called One Laptop per Child (OLPC) to carry out the goal to develop a $100 laptop. The MIT Media Lab believes that this technology "could revolutionize how we educate the world's children." Being a "sixties child" anything that contains the word "revolution" (or any variation thereof) sounds good to me. So, now I definitely want to read further.
In January 2005 this initiative was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland by Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founding chairman of MIT's Media Laboratory. And what the people at MIT's Media Laboratory are proposing is to develop a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power - including wind-up. This computer is intended to be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. They are also intended to rugged, be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and several USB ports. (The web site actually said "have USB ports galore," but I don't know how many a "galore" is. I guess just a few less than a "google.") Oh, and the current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.
Making the point in its FAQ section of the web site the group states the case that these laptops will be "a window into the world" that will also be "a wonderful way for all children to 'learn learning' through independent interaction and exploration."
The FAQ page also states that providing these children laptops is a better solution than providing them desktops because while desktops are cheaper, mobility is important. The mobility of the laptop allows the child to take the computer home at night. Providing kids in the developing world the newest technology, really rugged hardware and innovative software meets the challenges presented by their environment and as well as their educational needs.
Citing the fact that "bringing the laptop home engages the family." The group gives the example of "one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home." The Media Laboratory folks also said that their recent work with schools in Maine has shown them the huge value of using a laptop across all of one's studies, as well as for play.
The group also points out that even if refurbished desktops were used, it would take at least forty-five thousand work years to make the same number of computers available. "Fourty-Five Thousand Work Years?" you say? Oh, perhaps I forgot to mention that they are planning on their initiative making ONE HUNDRED MILLION LAPTOPS available to children. MIT's Media Laboratory is not opposed to recycling of used computers; it just does not think that that would be the solution for their One Laptop per Child initiative.
Okay, so everybody is wondering: "How is it possible to get the cost so low?" For one thing, the Media Laboratory is planning on significantly lowering the cost of the display.
The say that their first-generation machine may use displays that will cost approximately $35 but still "can also be used in black and white, in bright sunlight, and at four times the normal resolution." They describe it as "a novel, dual-mode LCD display commonly found in inexpensive DVD players."
They also say that because two-thirds of the software in modern laptops is used to manage the other third that mostly does the same functions nine different ways there is a lot of fat in the systems. This is fat that they plan to eliminate.
The third way in which their plan will reduce the cost is by marketing these machines in very large numbers directly to ministries of education, with the idea that those ministries will distribute them like textbooks.
There may be some other questions running through your head. Questions like:
Well, what about the argument that the kids can access computers at community centers?
What about connectivity?
Can a $100 machine compete with a $1000 machine?
And what about marketing?
And how in the world will they build 100 million laptops?
But if I answered them for you, you wouldn't have the incentive to go to the $100 Laptop web site and look it over for yourself. But I guarantee that if you visit their web site these and other questions will be answered. And if you have any questions after that, they have a link where you can contact them.
So, all you folks that say you are serious about closing the digital divide, to take a look at this very, innovative idea at the $100 Laptop .
Since I have been working with two groups at Nabuur that are looking for computers, one for a village school and the other for an Internet Café' / Training Center I was naturally curious - actually, intrigued.
When I brought up the Home Page for the "$100 Laptop" the first thing at the top of the page was the following notice:
"Please note that the $100 laptops-not yet in production-will not be available for sale. The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives."
"Ummmm" I wonder, is this a good thing? Or will dealing with large government initiatives bog the effort down in bureaucratic red tape until computers become obsolete? But reminding my self of my "self improvement pledge" not to prejudge, I continued to read.
The project is the brainchild of the MIT Media Laboratory, which has created a new, non-profit association called One Laptop per Child (OLPC) to carry out the goal to develop a $100 laptop. The MIT Media Lab believes that this technology "could revolutionize how we educate the world's children." Being a "sixties child" anything that contains the word "revolution" (or any variation thereof) sounds good to me. So, now I definitely want to read further.
In January 2005 this initiative was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland by Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founding chairman of MIT's Media Laboratory. And what the people at MIT's Media Laboratory are proposing is to develop a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power - including wind-up. This computer is intended to be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. They are also intended to rugged, be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and several USB ports. (The web site actually said "have USB ports galore," but I don't know how many a "galore" is. I guess just a few less than a "google.") Oh, and the current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.
Making the point in its FAQ section of the web site the group states the case that these laptops will be "a window into the world" that will also be "a wonderful way for all children to 'learn learning' through independent interaction and exploration."
The FAQ page also states that providing these children laptops is a better solution than providing them desktops because while desktops are cheaper, mobility is important. The mobility of the laptop allows the child to take the computer home at night. Providing kids in the developing world the newest technology, really rugged hardware and innovative software meets the challenges presented by their environment and as well as their educational needs.
Citing the fact that "bringing the laptop home engages the family." The group gives the example of "one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home." The Media Laboratory folks also said that their recent work with schools in Maine has shown them the huge value of using a laptop across all of one's studies, as well as for play.
The group also points out that even if refurbished desktops were used, it would take at least forty-five thousand work years to make the same number of computers available. "Fourty-Five Thousand Work Years?" you say? Oh, perhaps I forgot to mention that they are planning on their initiative making ONE HUNDRED MILLION LAPTOPS available to children. MIT's Media Laboratory is not opposed to recycling of used computers; it just does not think that that would be the solution for their One Laptop per Child initiative.
Okay, so everybody is wondering: "How is it possible to get the cost so low?" For one thing, the Media Laboratory is planning on significantly lowering the cost of the display.
The say that their first-generation machine may use displays that will cost approximately $35 but still "can also be used in black and white, in bright sunlight, and at four times the normal resolution." They describe it as "a novel, dual-mode LCD display commonly found in inexpensive DVD players."
They also say that because two-thirds of the software in modern laptops is used to manage the other third that mostly does the same functions nine different ways there is a lot of fat in the systems. This is fat that they plan to eliminate.
The third way in which their plan will reduce the cost is by marketing these machines in very large numbers directly to ministries of education, with the idea that those ministries will distribute them like textbooks.
There may be some other questions running through your head. Questions like:
Well, what about the argument that the kids can access computers at community centers?
What about connectivity?
Can a $100 machine compete with a $1000 machine?
And what about marketing?
And how in the world will they build 100 million laptops?
But if I answered them for you, you wouldn't have the incentive to go to the $100 Laptop web site and look it over for yourself. But I guarantee that if you visit their web site these and other questions will be answered. And if you have any questions after that, they have a link where you can contact them.
So, all you folks that say you are serious about closing the digital divide, to take a look at this very, innovative idea at the $100 Laptop .
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
SOCIAL FUND FOR DEVELOPMENT (SFD) at the Embassy of France to Kenya
This will be a relatively short article, but I just wanted to bring attention to the Social Fund for Development that is operated by the Embassy of France to Kenya.
The French Embassy's Social Fund for Development (SFD), now in its third year of existence says that its main goal is the eradication of poverty in Kenya.
This SFD is hosted by the Co-operation Service of the Embassy of France but works in a close partnership with various partners in key areas of development: water and sanitation, and health, primary education and the improvement of conditions of living of the poorest segments of Kenyan society.
In the area of water management, sanitation and health, the SFD works in the areas of communal chemistries and the dispensation of water, among other things.
Construction of classrooms and rehabilitation are its main focus under the umbrella of primary education.
The poorest of the poor in Kenya, as in most developing nations are women who live in slums and poor rural areas, street children and the disabled.
While projects dealing that help to improve the quality of life for all members of a community benefit women and children as a part of that community, one third of SFD's funding goes to matters related to women's issues and another twenty-nine percent go to programs dealing with youth. This means that over half of the SFD's budget goes towards women and children specifically.
In the three years that SFD has been in existence, it has approved 14 projects and another 12 are currently under study. Of course the request are much more numerous. During that same period of time the Selection Committee of the Social Fund for Development has received 250 requests for assistance.
The Selection Committee considers the application to determine the self-sustainability of this project as well as the context of the matter and the aims of and goals of the applicant. Of course, the means needed to carry out this project are carefully considered as well.
Seriousness of the applicant and self-sustainability of the project are the two conditions, which are considered guarantees of the project's likelihood of success.
The funding limit for any applicant project is 5.000.000 Ksh and the project cannot run more than one year. Additionally, the recipients must contribute, financially or in kind at least 30% of the total budget of the project submitted.
During the fiscal year 2003-2004, 600.000 Euro (i.e. 50.000.000 Ksh) were available, for any project located in Kenya that met the SFD Selection Committee's approval.
SFD partners financially and operationally with many NGOs and other state run organizations and agencies including: the government of Kenya and local authorities; agencies of the United Nations, such as UNEP; international foundations such s the Aga Khan Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium, Handicap International and many more. In addition to this the Co-operation Service of the Embassy of France gets technical support from many agencies and organizations such as the French Agency for Development (AFD), the British High Commission, DFID, GTZ of Germany and various UN agencies.
As I said in my last article, I do not usually write about governmental agencies, but the Social Fund for Development of the French Embassy to Kenya definitely deserved to be known for its good work. You can find their web site at:
Social Fund for Development of the French Embassy to Kenya
Vive la France!
The French Embassy's Social Fund for Development (SFD), now in its third year of existence says that its main goal is the eradication of poverty in Kenya.
This SFD is hosted by the Co-operation Service of the Embassy of France but works in a close partnership with various partners in key areas of development: water and sanitation, and health, primary education and the improvement of conditions of living of the poorest segments of Kenyan society.
In the area of water management, sanitation and health, the SFD works in the areas of communal chemistries and the dispensation of water, among other things.
Construction of classrooms and rehabilitation are its main focus under the umbrella of primary education.
The poorest of the poor in Kenya, as in most developing nations are women who live in slums and poor rural areas, street children and the disabled.
While projects dealing that help to improve the quality of life for all members of a community benefit women and children as a part of that community, one third of SFD's funding goes to matters related to women's issues and another twenty-nine percent go to programs dealing with youth. This means that over half of the SFD's budget goes towards women and children specifically.
In the three years that SFD has been in existence, it has approved 14 projects and another 12 are currently under study. Of course the request are much more numerous. During that same period of time the Selection Committee of the Social Fund for Development has received 250 requests for assistance.
The Selection Committee considers the application to determine the self-sustainability of this project as well as the context of the matter and the aims of and goals of the applicant. Of course, the means needed to carry out this project are carefully considered as well.
Seriousness of the applicant and self-sustainability of the project are the two conditions, which are considered guarantees of the project's likelihood of success.
The funding limit for any applicant project is 5.000.000 Ksh and the project cannot run more than one year. Additionally, the recipients must contribute, financially or in kind at least 30% of the total budget of the project submitted.
During the fiscal year 2003-2004, 600.000 Euro (i.e. 50.000.000 Ksh) were available, for any project located in Kenya that met the SFD Selection Committee's approval.
SFD partners financially and operationally with many NGOs and other state run organizations and agencies including: the government of Kenya and local authorities; agencies of the United Nations, such as UNEP; international foundations such s the Aga Khan Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium, Handicap International and many more. In addition to this the Co-operation Service of the Embassy of France gets technical support from many agencies and organizations such as the French Agency for Development (AFD), the British High Commission, DFID, GTZ of Germany and various UN agencies.
As I said in my last article, I do not usually write about governmental agencies, but the Social Fund for Development of the French Embassy to Kenya definitely deserved to be known for its good work. You can find their web site at:
Social Fund for Development of the French Embassy to Kenya
Vive la France!
KIST : An Award Winning Innovator
As many of you know, I try to limit my articles to private organizations involved in non-profit work. But today I must give respect to a public organization that I believe is operating in the spirit of "Self Help" that this Blog seeks to recognize.
The award winning Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management (KIST) is the first public technological institute of higher learning in Rwanda. The Institute only came into existence on November 1st, 1997 as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project. And since that time it has won Ashden Award For Sustainable Energy First Prize in 2001 for its improved bread oven. It won an Ashden Award again in 2005. This time it was the Special Africa Award for its Biogas plants projects in three prisons in that country. The projects were the 'Management of Toilet Wastes Through Anaerobic Technology.' And the award of £30,000 was given to KIST for "underlining the vital role which small-scale sustainable energy can play in tackling both climate change and poverty in Africa."
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy have been awarded for the past five years for "inspirational and innovative renewable energy projects which both provide social and economic benefits to local communities and contribute towards protecting the environment by curbing deforestation and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels - thereby helping tackle climate change."
When KIST opened it had major degree programmes in engineering and management and it was part of Rwanda Government's mission to build a strong post-genocide human resource base. Such a base was desperately needed after the terrible violence that took so man lives in the early nineties. The establishment of KIST as an institute of science, technology, and management has been part of rebuilding process in Rwanda by addressing the shortage of qualified technical experts since that violence who could help rebuild the infrastructure.
When the Institute was developed, it was made possible by the combined efforts of the Government of Rwanda as the main stakeholder, UNDP (Rwanda) as the executor of the project, and the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) as the implementing agency. This cooperative effort was funded by a UNDP core funding and a UNDP Trust Fund obtained from contributions by the Governments of Japan and the Netherlands. Japan and the Netherlands continue to be very supportive of KIST along with the UNDP and GTZ (a German owned Development Agency).
Working to build an indigenous scientific and technical human resource base through its regular, part-time, and outreach programs, KIST's impact is already being felt in most parts of the country. Today, KIST has two campuses, four faculties and a Centre for Continuing Education (CCE).
KIST also operates a number of service and training centers and/or demonstration units and key facilities in furtherance of its mission.
These include separate centers for:
Gender Studies and Women in Development (CGSWD)
Inovations and Technology Transfer (CITT)
Technology and Business Incubation (CTBI)
Information and Communication Technology Service
The KIST/ DFID Information and Communication Technology Training Centre; and
Career Guidance and Counseling.
In January of 2005 the UK Secretary of State for International Development recognized KIST's rising prominence during a lecture when he stated that "an organization like KIST - the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, in Rwanda - is a superb example of building African scientific capacity."
The Institute's received further international acclaim when the March 2005 Report of the Commission for Africa named KIST as one of several "excellent centers, institutes, universities and partnerships" that exist in Africa.
The Bread oven, whose design won KIST the 2001 Ashden Award uses a quarter of the wood used by traditional wood-burning ovens. It was principally designed for institutional use and can bake 320 small loaves at a time. It also presents a good opportunity for baking bread on a commercial basis as fuel consumption of this oven is low.
The rate of deforestation in Rwanda is estimated to exceed the rate of tree planting by a factor of twenty. This makes the need to reduce dependence on wood as cooking fuel very obvious, and KIST's oven cuts consumption by 75%. Also, while normally fired by burning wood, the oven can be adapted to use methane from a biogas plant.
Realizing that the oven fits into the overall economy of the nation KIST teaches artisans how to make the stoves in workshops at its Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer (CITT) in Kigali. The Institute also conducts follow-up training sessions in small workshops in towns outside Kigali. In addition to providing training in oven construction, KIST has also run training workshops on bread making, and on business and marketing skills.
It has been training bakery operators through the Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer how to understand their market, to properly estimate the size of their market and what they can reasonably expect to sell.
Since the award was received in 2001, approximately 200 stoves have been produced, 120 of these at the KIST workshops, the rest by private operators who were originally trained by KIST and who are now working outside Kigali. The Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer has trained 15 people how to make the new ovens, a total of 10 entrepreneurs have been taught how to bake and have been given some basic business skills to help them sell their bread.
Biogas Production Process - Rwanda houses 120,000 genocide suspects in prisons currently awaiting trial. Because of this, this nation's prisons must prepare many meals and treat a great deal of sewage. In fact, each of its prisons must dispose approximately 50,000 liters of human waste each day.
KIST found one solution to both of these large problems. It designed a method of capturing the methane from the raw human sewage and turn it into cooking gas. This process even has a byproduct as the residue left after capturing the gas from the sewage can be safely used as fertilizer on crops to feed the prisoners.
Because of this system, less firewood has to be produced, thereby saving forests and enhancing the environment - a more efficient cooking fuel is produced - waste management is made more efficient and fertilizer is produced inexpensively.
Five of the country's largest prisons now have these systems which are largely built by the prisoners themselves under the guidance of trained masons and other skilled professionals. Work, which by the way, gives the prisoners skills that will serve them and their communities well when they're eventually released.
It is certainly easy to understand how such creative thinking could win an award.
Rwanda and KIST are making future plans for this process, as it might be easily adaptable to schools and other institutional environments.
I think that this is one Government run organization that I think you should really read about.
Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management
The award winning Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management (KIST) is the first public technological institute of higher learning in Rwanda. The Institute only came into existence on November 1st, 1997 as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project. And since that time it has won Ashden Award For Sustainable Energy First Prize in 2001 for its improved bread oven. It won an Ashden Award again in 2005. This time it was the Special Africa Award for its Biogas plants projects in three prisons in that country. The projects were the 'Management of Toilet Wastes Through Anaerobic Technology.' And the award of £30,000 was given to KIST for "underlining the vital role which small-scale sustainable energy can play in tackling both climate change and poverty in Africa."
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy have been awarded for the past five years for "inspirational and innovative renewable energy projects which both provide social and economic benefits to local communities and contribute towards protecting the environment by curbing deforestation and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels - thereby helping tackle climate change."
When KIST opened it had major degree programmes in engineering and management and it was part of Rwanda Government's mission to build a strong post-genocide human resource base. Such a base was desperately needed after the terrible violence that took so man lives in the early nineties. The establishment of KIST as an institute of science, technology, and management has been part of rebuilding process in Rwanda by addressing the shortage of qualified technical experts since that violence who could help rebuild the infrastructure.
When the Institute was developed, it was made possible by the combined efforts of the Government of Rwanda as the main stakeholder, UNDP (Rwanda) as the executor of the project, and the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) as the implementing agency. This cooperative effort was funded by a UNDP core funding and a UNDP Trust Fund obtained from contributions by the Governments of Japan and the Netherlands. Japan and the Netherlands continue to be very supportive of KIST along with the UNDP and GTZ (a German owned Development Agency).
Working to build an indigenous scientific and technical human resource base through its regular, part-time, and outreach programs, KIST's impact is already being felt in most parts of the country. Today, KIST has two campuses, four faculties and a Centre for Continuing Education (CCE).
KIST also operates a number of service and training centers and/or demonstration units and key facilities in furtherance of its mission.
These include separate centers for:
Gender Studies and Women in Development (CGSWD)
Inovations and Technology Transfer (CITT)
Technology and Business Incubation (CTBI)
Information and Communication Technology Service
The KIST/ DFID Information and Communication Technology Training Centre; and
Career Guidance and Counseling.
In January of 2005 the UK Secretary of State for International Development recognized KIST's rising prominence during a lecture when he stated that "an organization like KIST - the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, in Rwanda - is a superb example of building African scientific capacity."
The Institute's received further international acclaim when the March 2005 Report of the Commission for Africa named KIST as one of several "excellent centers, institutes, universities and partnerships" that exist in Africa.
The Bread oven, whose design won KIST the 2001 Ashden Award uses a quarter of the wood used by traditional wood-burning ovens. It was principally designed for institutional use and can bake 320 small loaves at a time. It also presents a good opportunity for baking bread on a commercial basis as fuel consumption of this oven is low.
The rate of deforestation in Rwanda is estimated to exceed the rate of tree planting by a factor of twenty. This makes the need to reduce dependence on wood as cooking fuel very obvious, and KIST's oven cuts consumption by 75%. Also, while normally fired by burning wood, the oven can be adapted to use methane from a biogas plant.
Realizing that the oven fits into the overall economy of the nation KIST teaches artisans how to make the stoves in workshops at its Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer (CITT) in Kigali. The Institute also conducts follow-up training sessions in small workshops in towns outside Kigali. In addition to providing training in oven construction, KIST has also run training workshops on bread making, and on business and marketing skills.
It has been training bakery operators through the Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer how to understand their market, to properly estimate the size of their market and what they can reasonably expect to sell.
Since the award was received in 2001, approximately 200 stoves have been produced, 120 of these at the KIST workshops, the rest by private operators who were originally trained by KIST and who are now working outside Kigali. The Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer has trained 15 people how to make the new ovens, a total of 10 entrepreneurs have been taught how to bake and have been given some basic business skills to help them sell their bread.
Biogas Production Process - Rwanda houses 120,000 genocide suspects in prisons currently awaiting trial. Because of this, this nation's prisons must prepare many meals and treat a great deal of sewage. In fact, each of its prisons must dispose approximately 50,000 liters of human waste each day.
KIST found one solution to both of these large problems. It designed a method of capturing the methane from the raw human sewage and turn it into cooking gas. This process even has a byproduct as the residue left after capturing the gas from the sewage can be safely used as fertilizer on crops to feed the prisoners.
Because of this system, less firewood has to be produced, thereby saving forests and enhancing the environment - a more efficient cooking fuel is produced - waste management is made more efficient and fertilizer is produced inexpensively.
Five of the country's largest prisons now have these systems which are largely built by the prisoners themselves under the guidance of trained masons and other skilled professionals. Work, which by the way, gives the prisoners skills that will serve them and their communities well when they're eventually released.
It is certainly easy to understand how such creative thinking could win an award.
Rwanda and KIST are making future plans for this process, as it might be easily adaptable to schools and other institutional environments.
I think that this is one Government run organization that I think you should really read about.
Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management
Monday, October 10, 2005
KEEP A CHILD ALIVE : A World Of Generosity And Compassion
It is said that the seed of Keep A Child Alive was sewn in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002. In that year, the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic (ARFCC) set up a pilot program to offer free antiretroviral therapy to a number of needy children through an effort spearheaded by Leigh Blake. Leigh Blake had initiated and funded this program with royalties from one of her previous fundraisers. One day a mother came into the clinic with her 3-year-old son. The child could receive care for AIDS at the clinic but the clinic could not supply the anti-retroviral drugs needed.
At that time the anti-retroviral drugs generally cost in the range of $11,000 a year. Hardly any Africans could afford such an expensive drug. The mother of the 3-year-old boy insisted that her son be given the same chance at life as any child in a western nation. At that point, Leigh Blake made a commitment to pay for the drugs the child needed out of her own pocket. In that year, the drugs cost about $1200 a year through New York University Hospital's AIDS Research Dept. This department was overseeing care at the ARFCC through Dr Shaffiq Essajee who eventually became Keep A Child Alive 's Treatment Grant Director.
The Keep A Child Alive web site says that as "Leigh began to tell people about the mother in Mombassa with the 3-year-old, many of her friends offered to do the same for children at the clinic. And at the same time Dr Essajee was telling people about this story as well, and his friends were offering to do the same." As many generous people stepped up to open their hearts and their wallets Keep A Child Alive was born.
Three years later the organization has grown to where it is operating in five countries saving children and their families. They have built clinics, provided medical staff to serve the communities where they operate and also train medical personnel. The services have expanded to such an extent that they range from "nutritional support to diagnostic testing to community outreach workers." Their clinics are located in Mombassa, Durban, Kigali, Soweto and the Zone B sector of Namuwongo, Uganda. And while all of these clinics are doing great work, I the length restrictions on this article dictate that I only discuss one of these clinics at this time - and that clinic is Mombassa.
Keep A Child Alive's persistent message is that while in "the U.S. and other wealthy countries, anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) have transformed AIDS from a virtual death sentence to a chronic, manageable disease, over 95% of all people with HIV/AIDS live in impoverished countries and can't afford these medicines." Only about 400,000 if the 6 million people with HIV/AIDS in poor countries are getting the urgently needed treatment. These figures show that only 7% of people in need in poor countries are getting the treatment. But in Africa, only 2% of the people are receiving it. And Keep A Child Alive says that the number of children receiving treatment in Africa is even lower than 2%.
Keep A Child Alive also makes it a point to educate people to the fact that most children with AIDS eventually become orphans. It is easy to see that one of the best things that can be done for these children is to keep their parents alive.
The ARFCC in Mombassa provides a comprehensive range of free medical and psychosocial services to families living with HIV within an environment that is capable of supporting clinical HIV research. The has a dedicated laboratory that offers HIV tests, basic hematology and chemistry tests, CD4 counts, and specialized HIV PCR testing to aid in the early diagnosis of HIV infected infants. Through a unique partnership with the New York University Medical Center, diagnostic testing services are provided.
Through the Keep A Child Alive program, at the end of each month, the ARFCC receives a shipment of generic anti-retrovirals directly from the main Kenyan distributor. The ARFCC maintains close contact with the distributor and all shipments are tailored to the precise needs of the patients receiving treatment. This ensures that there is minimal wastage of medications while at the same time securing a consistent and uninterrupted supply.
Patients come to the clinic at the start of each month in order to receive the next month's medications. The clinic requests those patients or their caregiver return with their old bottles and sign for the medications so that the clinic may assess compliance.
Every antiretroviral visit is recorded in and the resulting data is collected into an electronic medical record that can be accessed by program staff at New York University. Also, "the physicians at the ARFCC select the drug regimen for each patient based on the overall condition of the patient, the presence of other illnesses such as anemia and tuberculosis, the ease of administration and the age of the child." The patients are also counseled at each visit. The Keep A Child Alive web site says that: "To date all the patients in the program have kept all of their appointments and most have already shown excellent responses to the antiretroviral treatments."
While the staff and volunteers of Keep A Child Alive and the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic are the Real Heroes, Keep A Child Alive is also supported by a number of celebrity artist. The list of these generous entertainers include:
50 Cent
Ashlee Simpson
Avril Lavigne
Coldplay
Dave Matthews
Good Charlotte
Alicia Keys
LilJon
Nelly
Rod Stewart
Simple Plan
Toby Keith
I hope to revisit Keep A Child Alive and give you an update on its progress and talk about the great things that the other clinics are doing; but I have to wrap up for now. You may want to continue to read about this great organization and its companion clinics without having for me to post another blog article. And if you do, go to the web site for Keep A Child Alive
and read for yourself how GENEROSITY AND COMPASSION CAN MEAN ALL THE WORLD TO SO MANY IN THE WORLD.
At that time the anti-retroviral drugs generally cost in the range of $11,000 a year. Hardly any Africans could afford such an expensive drug. The mother of the 3-year-old boy insisted that her son be given the same chance at life as any child in a western nation. At that point, Leigh Blake made a commitment to pay for the drugs the child needed out of her own pocket. In that year, the drugs cost about $1200 a year through New York University Hospital's AIDS Research Dept. This department was overseeing care at the ARFCC through Dr Shaffiq Essajee who eventually became Keep A Child Alive 's Treatment Grant Director.
The Keep A Child Alive web site says that as "Leigh began to tell people about the mother in Mombassa with the 3-year-old, many of her friends offered to do the same for children at the clinic. And at the same time Dr Essajee was telling people about this story as well, and his friends were offering to do the same." As many generous people stepped up to open their hearts and their wallets Keep A Child Alive was born.
Three years later the organization has grown to where it is operating in five countries saving children and their families. They have built clinics, provided medical staff to serve the communities where they operate and also train medical personnel. The services have expanded to such an extent that they range from "nutritional support to diagnostic testing to community outreach workers." Their clinics are located in Mombassa, Durban, Kigali, Soweto and the Zone B sector of Namuwongo, Uganda. And while all of these clinics are doing great work, I the length restrictions on this article dictate that I only discuss one of these clinics at this time - and that clinic is Mombassa.
Keep A Child Alive's persistent message is that while in "the U.S. and other wealthy countries, anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) have transformed AIDS from a virtual death sentence to a chronic, manageable disease, over 95% of all people with HIV/AIDS live in impoverished countries and can't afford these medicines." Only about 400,000 if the 6 million people with HIV/AIDS in poor countries are getting the urgently needed treatment. These figures show that only 7% of people in need in poor countries are getting the treatment. But in Africa, only 2% of the people are receiving it. And Keep A Child Alive says that the number of children receiving treatment in Africa is even lower than 2%.
Keep A Child Alive also makes it a point to educate people to the fact that most children with AIDS eventually become orphans. It is easy to see that one of the best things that can be done for these children is to keep their parents alive.
The ARFCC in Mombassa provides a comprehensive range of free medical and psychosocial services to families living with HIV within an environment that is capable of supporting clinical HIV research. The has a dedicated laboratory that offers HIV tests, basic hematology and chemistry tests, CD4 counts, and specialized HIV PCR testing to aid in the early diagnosis of HIV infected infants. Through a unique partnership with the New York University Medical Center, diagnostic testing services are provided.
Through the Keep A Child Alive program, at the end of each month, the ARFCC receives a shipment of generic anti-retrovirals directly from the main Kenyan distributor. The ARFCC maintains close contact with the distributor and all shipments are tailored to the precise needs of the patients receiving treatment. This ensures that there is minimal wastage of medications while at the same time securing a consistent and uninterrupted supply.
Patients come to the clinic at the start of each month in order to receive the next month's medications. The clinic requests those patients or their caregiver return with their old bottles and sign for the medications so that the clinic may assess compliance.
Every antiretroviral visit is recorded in and the resulting data is collected into an electronic medical record that can be accessed by program staff at New York University. Also, "the physicians at the ARFCC select the drug regimen for each patient based on the overall condition of the patient, the presence of other illnesses such as anemia and tuberculosis, the ease of administration and the age of the child." The patients are also counseled at each visit. The Keep A Child Alive web site says that: "To date all the patients in the program have kept all of their appointments and most have already shown excellent responses to the antiretroviral treatments."
While the staff and volunteers of Keep A Child Alive and the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic are the Real Heroes, Keep A Child Alive is also supported by a number of celebrity artist. The list of these generous entertainers include:
50 Cent
Ashlee Simpson
Avril Lavigne
Coldplay
Dave Matthews
Good Charlotte
Alicia Keys
LilJon
Nelly
Rod Stewart
Simple Plan
Toby Keith
I hope to revisit Keep A Child Alive and give you an update on its progress and talk about the great things that the other clinics are doing; but I have to wrap up for now. You may want to continue to read about this great organization and its companion clinics without having for me to post another blog article. And if you do, go to the web site for Keep A Child Alive
and read for yourself how GENEROSITY AND COMPASSION CAN MEAN ALL THE WORLD TO SO MANY IN THE WORLD.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
NABUUR : Fostering True Global Villages
Today I got "my socks blown off" by a really great organization and a tremendous web site. The organization is NABUUR.com and it is a type of global village that describes itself as a "Global Neighbour Network".
The concept is that communities that want assistance come to this web site and state what their problem happens to be. Volunteers come to this site as well and select communities that they would like to help solve their problem. The volunteers that select a community become a "Neighbor."
The communities are called "Villages" whether they are rural or urban. And there are villages from all over the world. I spent a greater part of the day visiting villages and reading about their problems. I became a neighbor is several villages and began trying to help them solve their problems.
I am so excited about this, because this is one of the things that I had hoped the All African (Self Help) Bazaar could do for non-profit organizations and communities. And while people come here to find assistance, it is nowhere near the scale of NABUUR. In Africa alone, there are 6 communities from Kenya, 5 from Uganda, 2 from Zambia and one each from Burundi, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal.
Some of the communities are looking for help with building a school or a health clinic. Others want to start a childcare center so mothers can go to work and earn an income, still others have other dreams and goals. I spent a lot of time posting messages about the various organizations that offer the assistance the communities are seeking. And I am hopeful that there will be some wonderful partnerships that come out of this.
Another thing that astounded me was that NABUUR has been around for a few years and I never heard about it before.
NABUUR.com is run by Stichting NABUUR, a Netherlands based not-for-profit- registered foundation and is an independent NGO that does not adhere to any political ideology or religious creed. The organization started on 30 October 2001 as the NABUUR Foundation.
NABUUR says that its dream is to give "tens of thousands of local communities ('Villages') in developing countries access to the resources they need to solve their problems." And they are trying to do that by bringing "'Villages' all over the world into direct contact with people who live elsewhere and who want to help them. These people ('Virtual neighbors') can help by finding the resources needed by the local community."
At the NABUUR web site is the following information:
"Ambition:
NABUUR's ambition is to create a mechanism that will enable the problems of local communities to be solved on a scale that really matters. NABUUR aims to provide a mechanism that will be able to help a large number of communities all over the world.
Mission:
The mission of NABUUR is to give local communities access to their global Neighbors via the Internet. And through these Neighbors to the huge reservoir of resources (knowledge, solutions, energy and money) that is available elsewhere.
NABUUR has selected a number of local communities were the mechanism is being tried out. In 2004 and 2005 we aim to connect hundreds of local communities to NABUUR. After 2006 NABUUR should be able to serve an unlimited number of communities wordlwide."
I'd say that that is a pretty good Ambition and Mission.
A BIG cheer for NABUUR and all of the Neighbors who are working to help solve problems in the developing world. And my wish for today is that all of you will visit their web site, become a Neighbor of one or more villages and begin to work with them to MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.
NABUUR
The concept is that communities that want assistance come to this web site and state what their problem happens to be. Volunteers come to this site as well and select communities that they would like to help solve their problem. The volunteers that select a community become a "Neighbor."
The communities are called "Villages" whether they are rural or urban. And there are villages from all over the world. I spent a greater part of the day visiting villages and reading about their problems. I became a neighbor is several villages and began trying to help them solve their problems.
I am so excited about this, because this is one of the things that I had hoped the All African (Self Help) Bazaar could do for non-profit organizations and communities. And while people come here to find assistance, it is nowhere near the scale of NABUUR. In Africa alone, there are 6 communities from Kenya, 5 from Uganda, 2 from Zambia and one each from Burundi, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal.
Some of the communities are looking for help with building a school or a health clinic. Others want to start a childcare center so mothers can go to work and earn an income, still others have other dreams and goals. I spent a lot of time posting messages about the various organizations that offer the assistance the communities are seeking. And I am hopeful that there will be some wonderful partnerships that come out of this.
Another thing that astounded me was that NABUUR has been around for a few years and I never heard about it before.
NABUUR.com is run by Stichting NABUUR, a Netherlands based not-for-profit- registered foundation and is an independent NGO that does not adhere to any political ideology or religious creed. The organization started on 30 October 2001 as the NABUUR Foundation.
NABUUR says that its dream is to give "tens of thousands of local communities ('Villages') in developing countries access to the resources they need to solve their problems." And they are trying to do that by bringing "'Villages' all over the world into direct contact with people who live elsewhere and who want to help them. These people ('Virtual neighbors') can help by finding the resources needed by the local community."
At the NABUUR web site is the following information:
"Ambition:
NABUUR's ambition is to create a mechanism that will enable the problems of local communities to be solved on a scale that really matters. NABUUR aims to provide a mechanism that will be able to help a large number of communities all over the world.
Mission:
The mission of NABUUR is to give local communities access to their global Neighbors via the Internet. And through these Neighbors to the huge reservoir of resources (knowledge, solutions, energy and money) that is available elsewhere.
NABUUR has selected a number of local communities were the mechanism is being tried out. In 2004 and 2005 we aim to connect hundreds of local communities to NABUUR. After 2006 NABUUR should be able to serve an unlimited number of communities wordlwide."
I'd say that that is a pretty good Ambition and Mission.
A BIG cheer for NABUUR and all of the Neighbors who are working to help solve problems in the developing world. And my wish for today is that all of you will visit their web site, become a Neighbor of one or more villages and begin to work with them to MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.
NABUUR
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
KIBERA COMMUNITY YOUTH PROGRAMME Empowering Youth To Have A Stake In The Future
This unique, community-based organization formed, and run by young people in the Kibera slum of, Nairobi, Kenya has been able to leverage partnerships to get a lot of things going.
To begin with, it is registered under the office of Vice President and ministry of Gender, Sports and Department of Social Services Ref: DSS/NP/5/4/VOL. IV/2002 (217) and this gives it a connection to that ministry.
Its web site is sponsored by Kabissa and looks very professional.
The mission of this organization is the "advancement and well-being of young people in Kibera. We aim to provide opportunities that promote proactive participation in community development." And its vision is to "create an enabling environment in which young people can maximize their potential as well as play a more pivotal role in their personal growth and societal development." And it wants to do this by enhancing the integration of youth in community development
I have written about Kibera previously in our August 22nd article featuring Carolina for Kibera , but to refresh your memory, it is one of the largest slums in the world and as a result faces many problems related to urbanization. And the young people realize how important it is to have a community movement to address some of those problems. This was why they founded the KYCP in early 2002.
These young people felt the need "to join hands and offer our services to the greater community in areas such as environment management and capacity building, as well as in creating awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic." As a result these youth have attained a sense of social responsibility through their community service and also through the creation of a theatre group and soccer team.
Some of the issues to which the youth of Kibera are being sensitized are the dangers of drug abuse, illegal firearms, domestic violence, child abuse and HIV/AIDS. Development issues are also brought to the attention of the youth.
KCYP is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious organization that includes both Christian and Muslim members from the various ethnic groups found in Kibera. In addition to ethnic and religious diversity, gender equality and respect for persons with disabilities are important to the group as well.
Because the organization has leaders and policy makers who are the young people living within Kibera it is "in touch with the experiences, needs, concerns and aspirations of the community it wishes to serve."
KCYP has an eight-member management board of young people and anAdvisory Board from different professions. The management board formulates all the policies and receives input from the Advisory Board. These policies are implemented by the Secretariat headed by a Director who is the Secretary to the Management Board. The organization gained its legal status in October 2002.
Some of KCYP's projects are
- the successful implementation of a stigma reduction campaign on HIV/AIDS in Kibera through community theatre in partnership with Population Services International-Kenya.
- the initiation of environmentally sustainable income generating project of assembling simple and affordable solar panels.
- 20 young volunteers have been trained in theatre for development skills.
- 60% of the volunteers have been trained in entrepreneurship skills.
- effectively promoted active participation by youth and community activities i.e. sports, clean-ups, workshops etc.
- attracting both local and international volunteers.
There are many other accomplishments that can be found at their web site, but I would like to point to the recognition that the organization received from the BBC and local media for its solar panel project. Read BBC story here.
In the future, KYCP would like to:
- Set up a multi-resource center for both the youth and the surrounding community
- Start computer training to teach young people how to use current technology
- Start a cyber café to beef up our resources and support other projects therefore fostering sustainability
- Initiate a sports tournament for young people
- Establish a voluntary testing and counseling center
among other things.
In addition to Kabissa, KCYP partners with
* VSO-Jitolee, East African Volunteering www.jitolee.org
* African Regional Youth Initiative www.aryi.interconnection.org
* ActAlive www.actalive.org
* Ecoventures International www.eco-ventures.org
* Students Global AIDS Campaign-Weslayan University Chapter
* Population Services International-Kenya
It also partners with Students In Free Enterprise , which we wrote about on August 1st 2005
Time is getting short, and I am going to have to wrap up this article, but I would like to say that KCYP is interested in:
Capacity Building
Leadership Development
Income Generating Projects
Sports Development
Volunteerism and Internship and
Recreational and excursion activities, exchange visits
And you can read more about each of these objectives at the KCYP web site.
This is a very determined group of young people who accomplish what they set out to do. So, for a really inspirational story and a wonderful model as to how people can partner with others, make a difference and make a change, go to the KCYP web site.
Kibera Community Youth Programme
To begin with, it is registered under the office of Vice President and ministry of Gender, Sports and Department of Social Services Ref: DSS/NP/5/4/VOL. IV/2002 (217) and this gives it a connection to that ministry.
Its web site is sponsored by Kabissa and looks very professional.
The mission of this organization is the "advancement and well-being of young people in Kibera. We aim to provide opportunities that promote proactive participation in community development." And its vision is to "create an enabling environment in which young people can maximize their potential as well as play a more pivotal role in their personal growth and societal development." And it wants to do this by enhancing the integration of youth in community development
I have written about Kibera previously in our August 22nd article featuring Carolina for Kibera , but to refresh your memory, it is one of the largest slums in the world and as a result faces many problems related to urbanization. And the young people realize how important it is to have a community movement to address some of those problems. This was why they founded the KYCP in early 2002.
These young people felt the need "to join hands and offer our services to the greater community in areas such as environment management and capacity building, as well as in creating awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic." As a result these youth have attained a sense of social responsibility through their community service and also through the creation of a theatre group and soccer team.
Some of the issues to which the youth of Kibera are being sensitized are the dangers of drug abuse, illegal firearms, domestic violence, child abuse and HIV/AIDS. Development issues are also brought to the attention of the youth.
KCYP is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious organization that includes both Christian and Muslim members from the various ethnic groups found in Kibera. In addition to ethnic and religious diversity, gender equality and respect for persons with disabilities are important to the group as well.
Because the organization has leaders and policy makers who are the young people living within Kibera it is "in touch with the experiences, needs, concerns and aspirations of the community it wishes to serve."
KCYP has an eight-member management board of young people and anAdvisory Board from different professions. The management board formulates all the policies and receives input from the Advisory Board. These policies are implemented by the Secretariat headed by a Director who is the Secretary to the Management Board. The organization gained its legal status in October 2002.
Some of KCYP's projects are
- the successful implementation of a stigma reduction campaign on HIV/AIDS in Kibera through community theatre in partnership with Population Services International-Kenya.
- the initiation of environmentally sustainable income generating project of assembling simple and affordable solar panels.
- 20 young volunteers have been trained in theatre for development skills.
- 60% of the volunteers have been trained in entrepreneurship skills.
- effectively promoted active participation by youth and community activities i.e. sports, clean-ups, workshops etc.
- attracting both local and international volunteers.
There are many other accomplishments that can be found at their web site, but I would like to point to the recognition that the organization received from the BBC and local media for its solar panel project. Read BBC story here.
In the future, KYCP would like to:
- Set up a multi-resource center for both the youth and the surrounding community
- Start computer training to teach young people how to use current technology
- Start a cyber café to beef up our resources and support other projects therefore fostering sustainability
- Initiate a sports tournament for young people
- Establish a voluntary testing and counseling center
among other things.
In addition to Kabissa, KCYP partners with
* VSO-Jitolee, East African Volunteering www.jitolee.org
* African Regional Youth Initiative www.aryi.interconnection.org
* ActAlive www.actalive.org
* Ecoventures International www.eco-ventures.org
* Students Global AIDS Campaign-Weslayan University Chapter
* Population Services International-Kenya
It also partners with Students In Free Enterprise , which we wrote about on August 1st 2005
Time is getting short, and I am going to have to wrap up this article, but I would like to say that KCYP is interested in:
Capacity Building
Leadership Development
Income Generating Projects
Sports Development
Volunteerism and Internship and
Recreational and excursion activities, exchange visits
And you can read more about each of these objectives at the KCYP web site.
This is a very determined group of young people who accomplish what they set out to do. So, for a really inspirational story and a wonderful model as to how people can partner with others, make a difference and make a change, go to the KCYP web site.
Kibera Community Youth Programme
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
ORGANIZATIONS THAT HELP WOMEN AND CHILDREN
This Blog has been running since May of this year, and every so often I get an email from non-profit groups wanting to be featured in an article. However many of these organizations do not meet the criteria to be the subject of the All African (Self Help) Bazaar Blog. So, I am going to run a series of articles that review the organizations that have been featured, and explain why I wrote about them. Today's article will focus on some of those organizations that help children and women. And because many organizations that I have written about have more than one focus, some organizations that help children or women, as one of several goals, may be listed under other categories.
To begin, I have to say that I have only written about organizations that have (or have had) existing programs. Many organizations say that they "plan" to do a particular thing, or that they "are going to" provide a particular benefit. But until it has a project that goes operational, an organization will have to wait to be the subject of an article.
STAND UP FOR AFRICA
The first organization that I wrote about that helps children is Stand Up For Africa (SUFA). Led by Elsie Nemlin, this London based organization, among other things, has worked to tackle the problem of child poverty and to foster "Youth Empowerment." SUFA also sponsors 10 children in Benin, and in 2004 Stand Up For Africa published a report on Child slavery. Our choice of SUFA shows that you don't have to be a large organization to be featured on the Blog, just as long as you are doing something.
The full article: Stand Up For Africa
OPRAH WINFREY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOR GIRLS
While the Oprah Winfrey Academy has not yet opened, the money for the project has been committed, there has been a ground breaking and the academy is scheduled to open in 2006.
The full article: Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls
FAWE
Forum For African Women Educationalists, a registered charity in Kenya seeks to ensure that girls have access to school, complete their studies and perform well at all levels. FAWE has instituted a Girls' School in Kajiado, Kenya as one of it's "Centres of Excellence." It serves rescued girls and has boarding facilities to accommodate 50 girls.
The full article: FAWE
STREET CHILD AFRICA
Street Child Africa's goal is to support African Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and Charities working with and for street children in Africa. They intend to do this by
- Fundraising on behalf of African agencies working with street children
- Raising awareness about the plight of street children in Africa's towns and cities
- Generating fresh approaches to working with and for street children in Africa
- Shareing information with all agencies working with and for street children in Africa.
- Offering advocacy to any agency working with and for street children in Africa, and to any individual street child in Africa.
The full article: Street Child Africa
THE WORLD THROUGH MY EYES
In the first phase of The World Through My Eyes, children were provided photographic equipment and taught basic photography to see if they had the aptitude to excel. At the end of that program, after these children had produced their own photography portfolios, they received a program certificate, ten of their photos in an album and a photo CD.
The long-term goal of The World Through My Eyes is to create a permanent photography school for young Mozambicans.
The full article: The World Through My Eyes
ACTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT
One project in this program works with child-mothers, the most vulnerable victims of the civil war that raged for ten years in Sierra Leone. Helping girls that were captured, sometimes as young as 12, and abused in every manner (physically, sexually, psychologically) by rebel troops, this project seeks to enable this group of girls to recover from the damage inflicted on them during the war. Counseling is provided, along with basic education and skills training to help them rebuild their lives.
Another of this organization's projects deals with that part of the horror of the civil war in Sierra Leone, which made use of amputation as a weapon of terror by both factions. This practice targeted many young men who, although they were not involved in the conflict, were targeted in order to prevent them fighting for the other side. A group of young men and boys who suffered amputations banded together to form the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club (SLASC), which has over 30 team members and is recognized by the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) as the unofficial Amputee Football Team of Sierra Leone.
The full article: Action For Children In Conflict
SOS - CHILDREN'S VILLAGE LIBERIA
SOS is a large international NGO operating in many countries. It is said to be the world's largest "orphan and abandoned children" charity. They have two children's communities in Liberia, one in Matadi District in Monrovia and the other in Juah Town in Bassah County located in northern Liberia. A short term emergency relief program was also established in Monrovia in June of 2003 for over 7000 refugees who had fled the violence of the civil war.
The full article: SOS - Children's Village Liberia
THE UGANDA CHILDREN'S CHARITY FOUNDATION
The Uganda Children's Charity Foundation (UCCF) works to provide orphaned and other disadvantaged children in Uganda education and care that will enable them to become self-sufficient, assume leadership roles, and have a positive impact on Ugandan society. The organization was founded in 995 by Alexis Hefley after she had lived and worked with AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in the capital city of Kampala for 18 months. UCCF has goals in addition to that stated above. Among other things they seek to increase global awareness of HIV/AIDS and its impact on children
UCCF conducts successful fundraising tours of the "Children of Uganda" dance troupe, which bring the organization notoriety and help to deliver its message.
The full article: The Uganda Children's Charity Foundation
THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN
Through The Eyes Of Children operates a photographic workshop in Rwanda where children using disposable cameras photographe the world around them. This project was begun by David Jiranek and inspired by Rosamond Carr, an American woman who had lived in Rwanda for over 50 years and who had founded the Imbabazi Orphanage there.
UNICEF, in its publication "The State of The World's Children" recognized THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN in their 2003 publication and said: "Through the process of learning photography, young people can develop and broaden their confidence and self-esteem as they acquire vocational skills and a new perspective on their lives."
The full article: Through The Eyes Of Children
SOS AIDS ORPHANS PROJECT
SOS has projects helping more than 48,000 African Children orphaned by AIDS in more than twenty African countries, and is growing as rapidly as its resources allow it. This help consists of practical help, food, medicine and love.
There are several aspects to this program, but initially the focus of these programs is on medical assistance, payment of school fees, donations of clothes and foods, regular visits to the patients, as well as activities of information, education and communication. They also have Family Carer Programs, Social and Medical Clinics and many other programs.
The full article: SOS Aids Orphans Project
PLAN - GIRLS FIRST IN HAITI
Partnering with a local organization, Voluntariat pour le Developpement des Jeunes (VDH) Plan is working with adolescent girls and young mothers in Haiti to make sure they are equipped with all the information and knowledge necessary to face adult life's challenges. The organization has a four point approach that addresses
- Responsible sexuality
- Leadership and life skills
- Rights of the child and gender equity
- Business skills
The full article: Plan - Girls First In Haiti
SOS STREET CHILDREN
SOS Street Children has programs in several countries, but I only focused on projects in Zambia and Kenya. In these countries they offer children Medical Centers, Social Centers and a variety of other assistance.
The full article: SOS Street Children
KIDS LEAGUE UGANDA
Kids League Uganda says that it "uses sport and sports related activities to bring diverse communities together to promote health, education and life skills with individuals and organisations in the UK, Africa and elsewhere and through the creation of youth leaders and ambassadors, we work to educate and inform the global citizens of tomorrow." This organization uses football to foster community building among the youth of civil war ravaged Uganda.
The full article: Kids League Uganda
SOS CHILD SOLDIERS
One specific goal of SOS Child Soldiers is to re-unite former child soldiers with their families and to help them come to terms with what they have been through. This involves helping communities to understand that the children themselves are not really to blame, even when they have committed atrocities. They also work to assist abandoned children born to mothers in captivity, abducted and sexually abused girls with their babies, AIDS orphans and children whose parents have been killed in the conflict.
The full article: SOS Child Soldiers
STUDENTS IN FREE ENTERPRISES
SIFE was founded as a global, not-for-profit education organization whose aim it is to do teach the principles and values of free market economics to students around the globe in order to improve the quality of life and standard of living around the world. SIFE organizes, trains and motivates these university students who, operating in teams, teach others an understanding of the principles and values of free enterprise.
The full article: Students In Free Enterprises
UKIMWI ORPHANS ASSISTANCE
UKIMWI Orphans Assistance (UOA) was founded in 1989 to provide assostamce to AIDS orphans in Tanzania. UOA has served orphans located in six wards in the three districts of Kagera region by helping the assisted villages to create about 65% of resources needed to raise the orphans.
The full article: UKIMWI Orphans Assistance
THE "Q" FUND
Founded by Chellie Kew in 2000 this organization seeks to improve the lives of the AIDS orphans through education and providing clean water and food. The funding for the projects is entirely by outside corporate sponsorship, foundations, and on-going fund raising initiatives. Ms. Kew has also donated profits from her photographic book "African Journal: A Child's Continent," which is a collection of 71 photos of the AIDS orphans she encountered while in Africa.
The "Q" Fund provided most of the $30,000 for the construction of The Chimoza Community School in Zambia, which attracts about 100 children a day in 2004. In addition to the school Kew helped the school secure a garden that grows food for consumption and commerce. Also, local widows produced school uniforms for the school children that were then purchased by Kew and supplied to the children.
The full article: The "Q" Fund
CHRISTMAS IN KAMPALA
Christmas in Kampala was the brainchild of one individual, George Srour, who at the time was a 21 year old college student. Srour who went to Kampala, Uganda with the United Nations World Food Programme for an internship in the summer of 2004. While he was in Kampala, he discovered Meeting Point Kampala in the slums of the city - an orphanage that accommodates almost one thousand children, many of whom are "Double Orphans" (those who have lost both their parents to AIDS) and are infected themselves.
When he found that the education building of Meeting Point Kampala was in deplorable condition, he vowed to raise U.S.$8,000 to build a new facility. By December of that same year, he was on his way back to Kampala with almost $40,000 that he had raised. The education building is being built and Srour was able to surprise the children of Meeting Point Kampala with a wonderful Christmas feast.
The full article: Christmas in Kampala
RAINBO
"Rainbo" is an acronym for Research, Action and Information Network for Bodily Integrity of Women. This organization defines itself as "African led international non-governmental organisation working on issues of women's empowerment, gender, reproductive health, sexual autonomy and freedom from violence as central components of the African development agenda." And while it has a specific focus on working to eliminate the practice of Female Circumcision / Female Genital Mutilation (FC/FGM, it has worked in many other areas as well.
The full article: RAINBO
YOUTH FOR TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION
The organization's aims are to strengthen communities, focus on education empower rural women and girls and to build human and social capacity.
One of YTF's major programs is the TechKids program. TechKids is offered to children between the ages of 8 and 12 years and allows them to explore their own ideas, develop skills and build confidence by using technology. It is a three-month program designed to generate an interest in technology at a young age through projects based on children's own interests and to teach young people basic computer techniques and basic computer applications.
The full article: Youth For Technology Foundation
WAR CHILD CANADA
War Child Canada was founded in 1999 and works around the world to assist children affected by war and to raise awareness for children's rights everywhere. This organization is a part of the War Child International Network that includes War Child UK, War Child Netherlands, War Child Australia and War Child France.
While War Child Canada has projects in many nations one project is its Girls Education Initiative Project in Kitgum, Gulu and Pader Districts of Northern Uganda. Their local partner in this project is The Acholi Education Initiative (AEI).
The full article: War Child Canada
BOONA-BAANA CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
The Boona-Baana Center For Children's Rights is a Hong Kong Limited Corporation registered as A Charitable Institution in Hong Kong Charity (No. 91/6600) and is A Foreign non-profit limited company in Tanzania: Compliance (No: 45004). The Founders of Boona-Baana, Marco Barra-Castro and Brooke Montgomery left their jobs in Hong Kong in July 2002 to move to Dar es Salaam Tanzania and with the help of Dr. Bart Rwezaura; who had been one of Brooke's law professors - and is a Tanzanian; began the Boona-Baana Center for Children's Rights.
The Boona-Baana Center is a small, grass-roots organization located in Dar es Salaam Tanzania whose aim is to create a series of local, sustainable projects that will assist vulnerable children in accessing their rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The full article: Boona-Baana Center For Children's Rights
So, now you have a list of the organizations that I have found that have operational programs to help children and women in Africa (and one in Haiti). Hopefully it will be of assistance to those who wish to initiate projects to see what is being done and how it is being done. You can go to the links provided for each of these excerpts and read the full articles. In these articles, you will also find the links to their individual web sites. I am sure that if you contact them, they will be happy to tell you more about what they do and how they do it.
To begin, I have to say that I have only written about organizations that have (or have had) existing programs. Many organizations say that they "plan" to do a particular thing, or that they "are going to" provide a particular benefit. But until it has a project that goes operational, an organization will have to wait to be the subject of an article.
STAND UP FOR AFRICA
The first organization that I wrote about that helps children is Stand Up For Africa (SUFA). Led by Elsie Nemlin, this London based organization, among other things, has worked to tackle the problem of child poverty and to foster "Youth Empowerment." SUFA also sponsors 10 children in Benin, and in 2004 Stand Up For Africa published a report on Child slavery. Our choice of SUFA shows that you don't have to be a large organization to be featured on the Blog, just as long as you are doing something.
The full article: Stand Up For Africa
OPRAH WINFREY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOR GIRLS
While the Oprah Winfrey Academy has not yet opened, the money for the project has been committed, there has been a ground breaking and the academy is scheduled to open in 2006.
The full article: Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls
FAWE
Forum For African Women Educationalists, a registered charity in Kenya seeks to ensure that girls have access to school, complete their studies and perform well at all levels. FAWE has instituted a Girls' School in Kajiado, Kenya as one of it's "Centres of Excellence." It serves rescued girls and has boarding facilities to accommodate 50 girls.
The full article: FAWE
STREET CHILD AFRICA
Street Child Africa's goal is to support African Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and Charities working with and for street children in Africa. They intend to do this by
- Fundraising on behalf of African agencies working with street children
- Raising awareness about the plight of street children in Africa's towns and cities
- Generating fresh approaches to working with and for street children in Africa
- Shareing information with all agencies working with and for street children in Africa.
- Offering advocacy to any agency working with and for street children in Africa, and to any individual street child in Africa.
The full article: Street Child Africa
THE WORLD THROUGH MY EYES
In the first phase of The World Through My Eyes, children were provided photographic equipment and taught basic photography to see if they had the aptitude to excel. At the end of that program, after these children had produced their own photography portfolios, they received a program certificate, ten of their photos in an album and a photo CD.
The long-term goal of The World Through My Eyes is to create a permanent photography school for young Mozambicans.
The full article: The World Through My Eyes
ACTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT
One project in this program works with child-mothers, the most vulnerable victims of the civil war that raged for ten years in Sierra Leone. Helping girls that were captured, sometimes as young as 12, and abused in every manner (physically, sexually, psychologically) by rebel troops, this project seeks to enable this group of girls to recover from the damage inflicted on them during the war. Counseling is provided, along with basic education and skills training to help them rebuild their lives.
Another of this organization's projects deals with that part of the horror of the civil war in Sierra Leone, which made use of amputation as a weapon of terror by both factions. This practice targeted many young men who, although they were not involved in the conflict, were targeted in order to prevent them fighting for the other side. A group of young men and boys who suffered amputations banded together to form the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club (SLASC), which has over 30 team members and is recognized by the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) as the unofficial Amputee Football Team of Sierra Leone.
The full article: Action For Children In Conflict
SOS - CHILDREN'S VILLAGE LIBERIA
SOS is a large international NGO operating in many countries. It is said to be the world's largest "orphan and abandoned children" charity. They have two children's communities in Liberia, one in Matadi District in Monrovia and the other in Juah Town in Bassah County located in northern Liberia. A short term emergency relief program was also established in Monrovia in June of 2003 for over 7000 refugees who had fled the violence of the civil war.
The full article: SOS - Children's Village Liberia
THE UGANDA CHILDREN'S CHARITY FOUNDATION
The Uganda Children's Charity Foundation (UCCF) works to provide orphaned and other disadvantaged children in Uganda education and care that will enable them to become self-sufficient, assume leadership roles, and have a positive impact on Ugandan society. The organization was founded in 995 by Alexis Hefley after she had lived and worked with AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in the capital city of Kampala for 18 months. UCCF has goals in addition to that stated above. Among other things they seek to increase global awareness of HIV/AIDS and its impact on children
UCCF conducts successful fundraising tours of the "Children of Uganda" dance troupe, which bring the organization notoriety and help to deliver its message.
The full article: The Uganda Children's Charity Foundation
THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN
Through The Eyes Of Children operates a photographic workshop in Rwanda where children using disposable cameras photographe the world around them. This project was begun by David Jiranek and inspired by Rosamond Carr, an American woman who had lived in Rwanda for over 50 years and who had founded the Imbabazi Orphanage there.
UNICEF, in its publication "The State of The World's Children" recognized THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN in their 2003 publication and said: "Through the process of learning photography, young people can develop and broaden their confidence and self-esteem as they acquire vocational skills and a new perspective on their lives."
The full article: Through The Eyes Of Children
SOS AIDS ORPHANS PROJECT
SOS has projects helping more than 48,000 African Children orphaned by AIDS in more than twenty African countries, and is growing as rapidly as its resources allow it. This help consists of practical help, food, medicine and love.
There are several aspects to this program, but initially the focus of these programs is on medical assistance, payment of school fees, donations of clothes and foods, regular visits to the patients, as well as activities of information, education and communication. They also have Family Carer Programs, Social and Medical Clinics and many other programs.
The full article: SOS Aids Orphans Project
PLAN - GIRLS FIRST IN HAITI
Partnering with a local organization, Voluntariat pour le Developpement des Jeunes (VDH) Plan is working with adolescent girls and young mothers in Haiti to make sure they are equipped with all the information and knowledge necessary to face adult life's challenges. The organization has a four point approach that addresses
- Responsible sexuality
- Leadership and life skills
- Rights of the child and gender equity
- Business skills
The full article: Plan - Girls First In Haiti
SOS STREET CHILDREN
SOS Street Children has programs in several countries, but I only focused on projects in Zambia and Kenya. In these countries they offer children Medical Centers, Social Centers and a variety of other assistance.
The full article: SOS Street Children
KIDS LEAGUE UGANDA
Kids League Uganda says that it "uses sport and sports related activities to bring diverse communities together to promote health, education and life skills with individuals and organisations in the UK, Africa and elsewhere and through the creation of youth leaders and ambassadors, we work to educate and inform the global citizens of tomorrow." This organization uses football to foster community building among the youth of civil war ravaged Uganda.
The full article: Kids League Uganda
SOS CHILD SOLDIERS
One specific goal of SOS Child Soldiers is to re-unite former child soldiers with their families and to help them come to terms with what they have been through. This involves helping communities to understand that the children themselves are not really to blame, even when they have committed atrocities. They also work to assist abandoned children born to mothers in captivity, abducted and sexually abused girls with their babies, AIDS orphans and children whose parents have been killed in the conflict.
The full article: SOS Child Soldiers
STUDENTS IN FREE ENTERPRISES
SIFE was founded as a global, not-for-profit education organization whose aim it is to do teach the principles and values of free market economics to students around the globe in order to improve the quality of life and standard of living around the world. SIFE organizes, trains and motivates these university students who, operating in teams, teach others an understanding of the principles and values of free enterprise.
The full article: Students In Free Enterprises
UKIMWI ORPHANS ASSISTANCE
UKIMWI Orphans Assistance (UOA) was founded in 1989 to provide assostamce to AIDS orphans in Tanzania. UOA has served orphans located in six wards in the three districts of Kagera region by helping the assisted villages to create about 65% of resources needed to raise the orphans.
The full article: UKIMWI Orphans Assistance
THE "Q" FUND
Founded by Chellie Kew in 2000 this organization seeks to improve the lives of the AIDS orphans through education and providing clean water and food. The funding for the projects is entirely by outside corporate sponsorship, foundations, and on-going fund raising initiatives. Ms. Kew has also donated profits from her photographic book "African Journal: A Child's Continent," which is a collection of 71 photos of the AIDS orphans she encountered while in Africa.
The "Q" Fund provided most of the $30,000 for the construction of The Chimoza Community School in Zambia, which attracts about 100 children a day in 2004. In addition to the school Kew helped the school secure a garden that grows food for consumption and commerce. Also, local widows produced school uniforms for the school children that were then purchased by Kew and supplied to the children.
The full article: The "Q" Fund
CHRISTMAS IN KAMPALA
Christmas in Kampala was the brainchild of one individual, George Srour, who at the time was a 21 year old college student. Srour who went to Kampala, Uganda with the United Nations World Food Programme for an internship in the summer of 2004. While he was in Kampala, he discovered Meeting Point Kampala in the slums of the city - an orphanage that accommodates almost one thousand children, many of whom are "Double Orphans" (those who have lost both their parents to AIDS) and are infected themselves.
When he found that the education building of Meeting Point Kampala was in deplorable condition, he vowed to raise U.S.$8,000 to build a new facility. By December of that same year, he was on his way back to Kampala with almost $40,000 that he had raised. The education building is being built and Srour was able to surprise the children of Meeting Point Kampala with a wonderful Christmas feast.
The full article: Christmas in Kampala
RAINBO
"Rainbo" is an acronym for Research, Action and Information Network for Bodily Integrity of Women. This organization defines itself as "African led international non-governmental organisation working on issues of women's empowerment, gender, reproductive health, sexual autonomy and freedom from violence as central components of the African development agenda." And while it has a specific focus on working to eliminate the practice of Female Circumcision / Female Genital Mutilation (FC/FGM, it has worked in many other areas as well.
The full article: RAINBO
YOUTH FOR TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION
The organization's aims are to strengthen communities, focus on education empower rural women and girls and to build human and social capacity.
One of YTF's major programs is the TechKids program. TechKids is offered to children between the ages of 8 and 12 years and allows them to explore their own ideas, develop skills and build confidence by using technology. It is a three-month program designed to generate an interest in technology at a young age through projects based on children's own interests and to teach young people basic computer techniques and basic computer applications.
The full article: Youth For Technology Foundation
WAR CHILD CANADA
War Child Canada was founded in 1999 and works around the world to assist children affected by war and to raise awareness for children's rights everywhere. This organization is a part of the War Child International Network that includes War Child UK, War Child Netherlands, War Child Australia and War Child France.
While War Child Canada has projects in many nations one project is its Girls Education Initiative Project in Kitgum, Gulu and Pader Districts of Northern Uganda. Their local partner in this project is The Acholi Education Initiative (AEI).
The full article: War Child Canada
BOONA-BAANA CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
The Boona-Baana Center For Children's Rights is a Hong Kong Limited Corporation registered as A Charitable Institution in Hong Kong Charity (No. 91/6600) and is A Foreign non-profit limited company in Tanzania: Compliance (No: 45004). The Founders of Boona-Baana, Marco Barra-Castro and Brooke Montgomery left their jobs in Hong Kong in July 2002 to move to Dar es Salaam Tanzania and with the help of Dr. Bart Rwezaura; who had been one of Brooke's law professors - and is a Tanzanian; began the Boona-Baana Center for Children's Rights.
The Boona-Baana Center is a small, grass-roots organization located in Dar es Salaam Tanzania whose aim is to create a series of local, sustainable projects that will assist vulnerable children in accessing their rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The full article: Boona-Baana Center For Children's Rights
So, now you have a list of the organizations that I have found that have operational programs to help children and women in Africa (and one in Haiti). Hopefully it will be of assistance to those who wish to initiate projects to see what is being done and how it is being done. You can go to the links provided for each of these excerpts and read the full articles. In these articles, you will also find the links to their individual web sites. I am sure that if you contact them, they will be happy to tell you more about what they do and how they do it.
Monday, October 03, 2005
ENDEAVOR SOUTH AFRICA : A Positive Message of Opportunity And Optimism
E ndeavor South Africa was officially launched at an event hosted by the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 25th of May 2005. The theme of the affair was: "Accelerating Economic Growth through Entrepreneurship." As the theme of the affair would suggest, Endeavor and the Gordon Institute of Business Science held a presentation and discussion on accelerating entrepreneurial activity and economic growth.
The event in South Africa took place eight years after Peter Kellner and Linda Rottenberg founded Endeavor in 1997 by as a U.S. based non-profit organization. Endeavor was established to spur economic growth in emerging markets and bridge the gap between micro-credit organizations and large-scale public-works projects. In 1998 Endeavor had launched operations in Argentina and Chile with $500,000 in seed money from one donor and a $200,000 matching grant from another. In the year 2000 Endeavor launched Endeavor Brazil and Uruguay, one year after it had organized its first venture forums, linking international investors with emerging-market entrepreneurs. One year after launching Endeavor Brazil and Uruguay, Endeavor Mexico was launched. In 2003, the International Finance Corporation (which is the private sector arm of the World Bank) funded Endeavor's "scoping trips to Africa and in 2004 Endeavor began its initial Search and Selections operations in South Africa.
Endeavor was begun when its founders realized that the traditional means of promoting international development have not catalyzed high-growth entrepreneurship. Many of the finance programs in developing nations focused on micro-finance programs projects that provided subsistence-level loans to the poorest of the poor. The governments and private equity investment groups in developing nations focused mainly on large, established companies. Under this scenario the high-growth, innovative entrepreneurs in emerging market were not being targeted for financing. Without this financing, entrepreneurship will not develop, as entrepreneurship in developing countries will not happen naturally, due to a series of barriers that impede new business creation. Those barriers include:
1. Closed networks for people without family connections
2. Limited access to capital, training and mentoring
3. Lack of trust among entrepreneurs, the private sector & government institutions
4. Inadequate education on new venture creation and
5. Few local entrepreneurial role models
Endeavor not only helps to make financing for these businesses available, but it also has developed a business model that systematically eliminates those barriers. This model has five components.
1. Identify high-growth emerging market entrepreneurs
2. Support selected endeavor entrepreneurs
3. Build a venture friendly environment
4. Foster broad scale entrepreneurship education
5. Promote local role models to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs models
And all the time that Endeavor is carrying out these five functions, it is also Selecting Country Benefactors and launching affiliates for Endeavor Global.
Endeavor says that it decided to launch an operation in South Africa because of the challenges that remained in that nation even after decades of Apartheid ended in 1994 with an inspiring political power shift.
While South Africa works on achieving racial equality, a globally competitive economy, and educational opportunity for all, unemployment hovers around 40% of the economically active population. And while government empowerment initiatives aimed at creating a boarder racial representation at all levels of the economy, this has redistributed the wealth to some small degree rather than create new sources of wealth and empower the boarder community.
Endeavor South Africa announced its first class of Endeavor Entrepreneurs on December 6, 2004 after a six-month search and selection process. One hundred and sixty on companies had been nominated as candidates for the program, but only 6 were chosen after a very rigorous screening and selection process by a panel of leading local and international businesspeople. (However, 8 individuals were chosen - all within these 6 companies.) Those 8 individuals work in industries dealing with: mobile phone software, dairy products, mining safety equipment, radio syndication, training and learning through IT delivery and electrical supplies distribution.
Part of the criteria for selection was that the nominees' companies were expected to have generated revenue of "R3m to R60m and must have truly innovative products, services or processes and a strong potential for growth." However, start-up companies could be considered if they are considered to be innovative enough.
The selected entrepreneurs undergo an 18-month program that is designed to prepare them to become "models of entrepreneurship and innovation in South Africa. It is expected that a second group of applicants will be selected in October of 2005.
Unfortunately, South Africa is the only country in Africa where Endeavor operates, but for those of you entrepreneurs in South Africa who have an innovative business and need a "leg up" consider going to Endeavor's web site and looking it over. Maybe their program is for you.
Endeavor South Africa
Endeavor Global
The event in South Africa took place eight years after Peter Kellner and Linda Rottenberg founded Endeavor in 1997 by as a U.S. based non-profit organization. Endeavor was established to spur economic growth in emerging markets and bridge the gap between micro-credit organizations and large-scale public-works projects. In 1998 Endeavor had launched operations in Argentina and Chile with $500,000 in seed money from one donor and a $200,000 matching grant from another. In the year 2000 Endeavor launched Endeavor Brazil and Uruguay, one year after it had organized its first venture forums, linking international investors with emerging-market entrepreneurs. One year after launching Endeavor Brazil and Uruguay, Endeavor Mexico was launched. In 2003, the International Finance Corporation (which is the private sector arm of the World Bank) funded Endeavor's "scoping trips to Africa and in 2004 Endeavor began its initial Search and Selections operations in South Africa.
Endeavor was begun when its founders realized that the traditional means of promoting international development have not catalyzed high-growth entrepreneurship. Many of the finance programs in developing nations focused on micro-finance programs projects that provided subsistence-level loans to the poorest of the poor. The governments and private equity investment groups in developing nations focused mainly on large, established companies. Under this scenario the high-growth, innovative entrepreneurs in emerging market were not being targeted for financing. Without this financing, entrepreneurship will not develop, as entrepreneurship in developing countries will not happen naturally, due to a series of barriers that impede new business creation. Those barriers include:
1. Closed networks for people without family connections
2. Limited access to capital, training and mentoring
3. Lack of trust among entrepreneurs, the private sector & government institutions
4. Inadequate education on new venture creation and
5. Few local entrepreneurial role models
Endeavor not only helps to make financing for these businesses available, but it also has developed a business model that systematically eliminates those barriers. This model has five components.
1. Identify high-growth emerging market entrepreneurs
2. Support selected endeavor entrepreneurs
3. Build a venture friendly environment
4. Foster broad scale entrepreneurship education
5. Promote local role models to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs models
And all the time that Endeavor is carrying out these five functions, it is also Selecting Country Benefactors and launching affiliates for Endeavor Global.
Endeavor says that it decided to launch an operation in South Africa because of the challenges that remained in that nation even after decades of Apartheid ended in 1994 with an inspiring political power shift.
While South Africa works on achieving racial equality, a globally competitive economy, and educational opportunity for all, unemployment hovers around 40% of the economically active population. And while government empowerment initiatives aimed at creating a boarder racial representation at all levels of the economy, this has redistributed the wealth to some small degree rather than create new sources of wealth and empower the boarder community.
Endeavor South Africa announced its first class of Endeavor Entrepreneurs on December 6, 2004 after a six-month search and selection process. One hundred and sixty on companies had been nominated as candidates for the program, but only 6 were chosen after a very rigorous screening and selection process by a panel of leading local and international businesspeople. (However, 8 individuals were chosen - all within these 6 companies.) Those 8 individuals work in industries dealing with: mobile phone software, dairy products, mining safety equipment, radio syndication, training and learning through IT delivery and electrical supplies distribution.
Part of the criteria for selection was that the nominees' companies were expected to have generated revenue of "R3m to R60m and must have truly innovative products, services or processes and a strong potential for growth." However, start-up companies could be considered if they are considered to be innovative enough.
The selected entrepreneurs undergo an 18-month program that is designed to prepare them to become "models of entrepreneurship and innovation in South Africa. It is expected that a second group of applicants will be selected in October of 2005.
Unfortunately, South Africa is the only country in Africa where Endeavor operates, but for those of you entrepreneurs in South Africa who have an innovative business and need a "leg up" consider going to Endeavor's web site and looking it over. Maybe their program is for you.
Endeavor South Africa
Endeavor Global
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)