Why You Should Vote for Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panel

I decided to write this blog post as a way to help prospective voters and supporters to understand the thinking and passion behind our Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development SXSW panel submission.  We believe this panel will help to change the conversation on Africa, about whom most people have a limited negative perception; its women, who are often depicted as helpless, uneducated and unproductive; and dispel the myth that there isn’t much technological development taking place in Africa.

When TMS Ruge and I embarked upon this SXSW journey together, we decided we would create a panel building upon his successful SXSW 2009 presentation, Africa 3.0.  We knew that with the 2012 panel, we wanted to add a new dimension and feature multiple voices.  After a lot of research and brainstorming, we discovered that the African Union declared 2010-2020: The African Woman Decade and decided it would be a source of inspiration for us.  Additionally, we’re both very passionate about gender rights issues, publicizing the greatness of Africa and its Diaspora and are tech enthusiasts — and as such, we decided on the title: Africa, Tech & Women.

The subtitle: The New Faces of Development came about after lots of trial and error.  We finally agreed to it, given that it encompasses the areas we want to cover and from a new perspective: (1) Economic, (2) Technological, (3) Philanthropic, and (4) Community.

We then decided we should showcase the different ways in which a cross-section of African women based in the Diaspora and on the continent are impacting Africa’s development through technology.  We were able to identify three incredible African women who leverage use technology in very significant ways to affect change on the continent and beyond.  They also helped us to flesh out the panel topics, so that the description you read below is representative of what we all want to share, in the limited time available on a panel.  Additionally,

Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panelists

1. Isis Nyong’o – InMobi (Kenya)

Isis joined InMobi in February 2011 to lead business expansion in Africa. With over nine years of business development, marketing and sales experience, Isis is responsible for the overall growth on the continent.  Isis joins InMobi from Google where she led the company’s business development efforts in Africa. She specialized in mobile partnerships and developed Google’s content strategy to bring more African content online. She brings extensive media and tech experience to InMobi and drove the launch of MTV Networks in Africa where she was responsible for commercial relationships including distribution and sales. She developed the marketing strategy for Kenya’s first online recruitment service, MyJobsEye and holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Business School where she was president of the Africa Business Club. Isis has been named by Forbes as one of The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, is one of the ‘Top 40 Women under 40″ in Kenya, and is frequently featured by the Africa media including, Al Jazeera, BBC, Nation Newspaper, NTV, Standard Newspaper and UP Magazine, among others.

2. Ebele Okobi-Harris – Yahoo! (USA)

Ebele Okobi-Harris is Director of Yahoo!’s Business and Human Rights Program, leading Yahoo!’s efforts to promote privacy and free expression on the Internet. Before joining Yahoo!, Ebele was a corporate securities and mergers & acquisitions attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London, an attorney fellow at Consumers Union (a consumer rights advocacy non-profit) in San Francisco, a director of Advisory Services at Catalyst (a non-profit with the mission of advancing women in business) in San Jose and Amsterdam and at Nike’s EMEA headquarters as an MDP focused on marketing and business development in Africa.

Ms. Okobi-Harris earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a JD from Columbia Law School and an MBA Certificat des Études from Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris.

3. Milly Businge – Kikuube Village Council (Uganda)

Milly Businge is a respected village elder and mother of eight children in the small village of Kikuube. She serves as the Local Chairperson (LC1) of her village, representing a population of nearly 1000 residents. She has been unanimously re-elected to this position by the residents of Kikuube because her work representing them at the government level. She has often wanted to retire and refused to stand for the position during elections, but the villagers always rally and vote for her anyway. That’s the mark of a great leader.  Mrs. Businge was also recently officially ordained as a minister and serves as the pastor of the small but growing community church.

In November 2010, Mrs. Businge delivered the keynote speech during the “Villages in Action” conference that was hosted in Kikuube.  The conference was broadcast live over the internet and proved to be a very successful initiative — giving the poor an opportunity to be heard in the global conversation about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

When she is not managing domestic disputes, land wrangles, and community health awareness campaigns in her community, she spends her time reading. She is also an enthusiastic user of mobile technologies as they help her connect with her constituency and connect globally to her son (TMS Ruge) in America.

4. Liz Ngonzi – New York University Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising (USA)

Born in Uganda and “raised” at the United Nations, Liz Ngonzi is an international educator, speaker and consultant, who has since 2009, been on Adjunct Faculty at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising – for which she has developed and taught courses on online and mobile fundraising, and where she is one of four noted social media experts.

Liz is a recognized authority on ICT for development, the African Diaspora market, hospitality / service management, women in business, and social entrepreneurship.  She’s a frequent conference speaker, including as a panelist during the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration, in the spring of 2007; as a featured international speaker at the May 2011 Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising’s 10th Biennial Convention in South Africa; and as a panelist for New York University’s Philanthropy 3.0 Speaker Series: Mobile in Advocacy The Next Frontier.  In September, she will speak in the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 41^st Annual Legislative Conference and will chair the 2^nd Annual ICT Women Empowerment Africa Summit in South Africa.

A committed volunteer, Liz has held several board positions, including currently serving as a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (for which she is a Vice Chair of its Communications Committee); the Advisory Board to the Cornell University Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship; and the United Nations International School’s Council for Alumni Affairs.

Media outlets in which Liz has been featured, include: CBS’ The Early Show, Crain’s New York Business, New Jersey Jewish News, Successful Meetings Magazine, The New York Times, The Nonprofit Times and ZambiaBlogTalkRadio.

Liz founded and runs Amazing Taste, LLC., a values-led boutique consulting firm that connects NGOs with philanthropists and corporations, to achieve strategic objectives through fundraising events, marketing campaigns, along with educational activities.   Amazing Taste has worked with or advised domestic and international educational institutions, gender rights organizations, healthcare foundations, political campaigns, and youth development organizations.

Liz spent her 10-year corporate career in marketing, sales and business consulting at Digital Equipment Corporation, MICROS Systems, Inc. and Arthur Andersen, respectively.  She obtained her Master of Management in Hospitality degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems degree (with a concentration in Telecommunications Systems) from Syracuse University.  Additionally, she graduated from the United Nations International School.

5. TMS Ruge (moderator and “token male”) – Project Diaspora (USA)

TMS Ruge was born in Masindi, Uganda and grew up in Uganda, Kenya and the United States. Capitalizing on his understanding of different cultures and markets, Ruge has become a successful global social entrepreneur.

In 2007 he co-founded Project Diaspora — to motivate, engage and mobilize the African Diaspora to take an active role in Africa’s development. Following his passion to engage the continent, he has invested his time and money in a number of development initiatives including Uganda Medicinal Plants Grower’s ltd. – an indigenous farmers’ business specializing in the export of value-added medicinal plants, and Women of Kireka – a women’s jewelry making cooperative.

A technology enthusiast, Ruge writes and speaks extensively on Africa’s current renaissance driven by technology, youth and the Diaspora. He is a frequent contributor to several online publications including CNN, PopTech, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian, and the Project Diaspora blog. He is also the host of The Digital Continent Podcast, a weekly technology podcast for people who believe that Africa is full of innovation and opportunity. Ruge is also a founding board member of Hive Colab – an open, collaborative, community-owned, work environment for young Ugandan tech entrepreneurs to focus on projects..

Ruge also serves as an advisor for ?OpenAction.org – an online platform that allows development organizations to richly engage their online audience.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the University of North Texas.

Description of the Proposed SXSW Africa, Tech Women: The New Faces of Development Panel:

This panel provides a rare glimpse into the multitude of ways African women are applying technology to advance Africa’s development. The panel aims to dispel the myths about African women as breeders and victims — incapable of participating in their own continent’s development, by: (1) showcasing contributions they are making in the technology field – through entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and community leadership; and (2) providing insights into how they are using technology to raise awareness about, mobilize campaigns against and address human rights violations.

The panel will specifically explore how African women are using technology to make an impact through: – Digital advocacy to protect people’s rights – Social media to help grassroots organizations engage new supporters worldwide – Mobile advertising to enable small businesses to access new markets – Internet connectivity to integrate the often unheard community voices into the global conversation on development

Throughout the discussion, panelists will provide anecdotes on how the resulting increased access to information, is altering the role of women in African society.

Questions our panel aims to answer are:

1. What is the role of women in Africa’s fast emerging digital landscape and what types of contributions are they making?
2. How is technology improving the everyday lives of women on the continent?
3. What is the negative impact of increased access to information, on the role of the African woman in her society?
4. What are the opportunities and connections technology is facilitating between women in the Diaspora and on the continent?
5. Given the increased adoption of mobile phones in Africa and the rise of its middle class, what opportunities exist for marketers interested in targeting African women?

Please help us to amplify the voices of African women in the global discussion on development.

Vote for Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development and tell your friends to do the same.

Thank you

Follow us on Twitter: Liz Ngonzi @LizNgonzi | Isis  Nyongy’o @Inyongyo | TMS Ruge @TMSruge

My last couple of blog posts on Project Diaspora have focused on best practices to improve service delivery on the continent and mobile solutions to potentially improve visitors’ experiences when they travel to Africa.

San Bushman man from Botswana. Photo Credit: Ian Beatty from Amherst, MA, USA

As I contemplated this current blog post, I looked through my notes to find an inspiring idea. I wasn’t inspired by any of them. So I revisited a Wikipedia search for Africa, which I recently conducted.  What I found was seemingly pretty basic: history, geography, politics, etc.  What struck me, however, was that the overall entries about contemporary Africa were quite negative in general, supported by images of a San bushman from Botswana, Beja Bedouins from Northeast Africa, a rural woman from Benin and a street musician from South Africa.

Beja Bedouins from Northeast Africa. Photo Credit: I, Jpereira

While none of these photos are particularly derogatory, they fail to accurately reflect what the continent has to offer, in terms of its educated urban population and its market potential.

As a diasporan born in Uganda and raised in New York, this all stirred up negative emotions within.  I grew up in New York during a time when it wasn’t cool to be African and I struggled with my identity, despite having gone to the United Nations International School – a very inclusive and empowering academic institution — and living in a community of mostly multicultural families.  At the time, it was much easier for me to assimilate as an African American (a group with which I still very heavily identify having grown up in the US) trying to bury my “Africanness”.  It’s only when I got to Syracuse University as an undergrad and took a few Africana studies courses that I began to develop pride for my heritage and to seek out additional sources to reinforce that feeling. So while the title of this post is about the kid in Podunk, I believe that what I’m proposing below is important also for the African kid (a) living in the diaspora, (b) who is fortunate enough to access the internet in Africa and even (c) whose friend and can teach him/her about who he/she can become as a result of hearing about his/her fortunate friend’s discovery online.

I must stress that my issue in post isn’t actually with Wikipedia — “a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.” The question then is “who should bear the responsibility for the inaccurate portrayal of Africa?”  Is it an individual, an organization or African governments?  Who stands to benefits most from a more inclusive and therefore positive branding of Africa?  You may in turn ask “why this is important?”  Well here are my two cents:

Children, the future leaders of the world, are generally quite impressionable.  So what they’re taught as children influences the decisions they make as adults.  Exposure to correct information about Africa would therefore lead them to recognize Africa and Africans are valuable partners in the global economy rather than the current perception of Africa and its people as a lost cause.

Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer and actress who has appeared three times on the cover of US Vogue. Photo Credit: Ed Kavishe, Fashion Wire Press

It’s imperative therefore that Africa and Africans amend the Wikipedia pages on Africa and the African Diaspora, to reflect more inclusive images of Africa and the African Diaspora, given the intrinsic value of the latter both to the continent and the countries where they reside.

Below is a very SMALL sample of diasporans of note who could potentially be spotlighted.  I used the following methodology to find them:

1. I searched Wikipedia for diasporans with whom I am familiar and then used links from their profiles to identify others. I was mindful about the need to reflect talent from the whole continent.
2. I excluded people on the continent making their mark, purely as a means to remain focused on Project Diaspora’s mission: to promote African diaspora engagement in sustainable economic activities within Africa.
3. For simplicity sake, I narrowly defined Diasporans as those who currently reside outside of Africa and who were born in or have parents from Africa.
4. I linked to the Diasporans’ existing Wikipedia pages and grouped each sample according to primary industry.
5. Finally, I used photos from diasporans whose Wikipedia pages had rights-free photographs.

African Diasporans of Note

Arts / Entertainment	Akon || Johannes Anyuru || Michael Blackson || Chiwetel Ejiofor || Idris Elba || Safi Faye || Edi Gathegi || Haile Gerima || Namugenyi Kiwanuka || Boris Kodjoe || Sal Masekela || Peter Mensah || Tom Morello || Ntare Mwine || Thandi Newton       Photo: Thandi Newton, English actress born to Zimbabwean mother and British father. Photo Credit: gdcgraphics”
Education	Ilesanmi Adesida || Kwame Anthony Appiah || Patricia McFadden
Fashion	Amsale Aberra || Ozwald Boateng || Iman || Kiara Kabukuru || Liya Kebede
Financial Services	Mo Ibrahim || Dambisa Moyo || Adebayo Ogunlesi
Journalism	Sade Baderinwa || Ron Mwangaguhunga || Hoda Kotb || Dinaw Mengestu || Adaora Udoji
Politics	Peter Bossman || David Soares
Hospitality Management/Travel	Dorinda Hafner || Marcus Samuelsson         Photo: Marcus Samuelsson, Ethiopian-born Swedish chef and co-owner of Aquavit and Red Rooster restaurants in New York City and C-House Restaurant, located in the Affinia Hotel in Chicago. Photo Credit: Tduk Alex Lozupone”
Religion	Rev. Peter Gomes* || Archbishop John Sentamu
Science & Technology	Kwatsi Alubaruho || Cheick Modibo Diarra || Chinedu Echeruo || Gebisa Ejeta || Ave Kludze || Noah Samara || Window Snyder
Sports	John Amaechi || Kelenna Azubuike || Yinka Dare || Obinna Ekezie || James Ihedigbo || Ruth Kasirye || Mathias Kiwanuka || Dikembe Mutombo || Emeka Okafor || Hakeem Olajuwon || Betty Okino       Photo: Dikembe Mutombo, retired Congolese American professional basketball player, who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Photo Credit: Keith Allison”

In conclusion, while Wikipedia is a great tool for cataloguing a part of Africa’s reality through its Africa and African Diaspora pages, they need to project the other side of the story.  The basis for this is currently available as individual dots on the Wikipedia site.  What’s needed is for these dots to be connected and given a little bit of context to make it easy for a kid anywhere in the world to access a more inclusive picture about Africa.  I am pleased to note that individual Africans including: Mo Ibrahim, G. Kofi Annan, Sophie Bekele, Ida Horner, Mariéme Jamme, Sheila Ochugboju, Emeka Okafor, Alex Okosi and Joshua Wanyama , are some of the many already working towards the rebranding of the continent.

My hope is that this post will inspire others to join this vital effort.  I welcome any feedback or suggestions for other Diasporans or Diaspora-related items to feature.

Please feel free to connect with me:
Twitter || LinkedIn || Facebook || Email || Amazing Taste Website

*Rev. Peter Gomes passed away on February 28, 2011

Women of Kireka Documentary from Project Diaspora on Vimeo.

Cody Punter, our first male intern at Women of Kireka managed to put together this well-done short documentary as his last project with us. Thanks for your hard work Cody and we wish you success in your endeavors. The women will miss you!

So sometime towards the end of last month, the “devblosphere” (my coinage for international development web 2.0 crazies) was abuzz with reactions to the publication of this open letter to the British People by six African opinion leaders.

As expected, the reactions largely drifted towards the traditional aid vs trade battle lines. At AidWatchers, where the reaction centered around a somewhat pointless discussion of who speaks for Africa (or who should), the white elephant aid vs trade debate still remained with most people tailoring their ideas of what “Africa thinks” to whatever token African stamp of approval would generously mark their side of the debate. The free trade enthusiasts believe Mwenda and Co’s word is the gospel. The aid industry say this crew don’t speak for 44% of all Africans according to the “Afrobarometer survey”.

Now, I’m not necessarily going to tack off the stale aid vs trade debate. On both sides, many of the arguments are too easy; too simplistic; too annoying for me to engage. So, I won’t even bother.

However, I don’t agree with Mwenda and his colleagues on the issue of the CAP and what the “British people” should be doing to help us, Africans. And it is not because I believe aid is a potent vehicle for development.

No.

In fact, it is because I believe in the power of trade to create opportunities and fuel the kind of economic growth that makes development possible.

Here is my problem with Mwenda et al ; They are barking up the wrong tree.

There they are, telling the British to abandon the Common Agriculture Policy because they believe the policy is harmful to Africa’s “deserving poor”. Why? This is a policy that led the entire continent of Europe to food security.  But for political correctness, the British should really be saying to Mwenda and his friends, “who cares?”. The policy was never designed with the “deserving poor” of Africa in mind and there is no good argument for suggesting it should.

In truth, when one looks closely at the CAP, the objectives are very Euro-centric - and rightly so.  The entire point of the subsidies are to enable Europe be self sufficient in the production of its food. For food import loving Africans, this might seem like a strange idea, but in a world of genetic modification, bio terrorism and Monsanto, food is becoming a national security issue and there are several good reason for keeping its production domestic. In fact, a lot of the developed countries  we aspire to (including the United States) have subsidies in the spirit and style of the CAP. In a perfect world, much of Africa’s chronic food shortage problems could be solved by adopting a CAP style arrangement for Agricultural production. There is no sense is trying to open a European market for African agricultural products when even with huge volumes of food imports, we can barely satiate the starving people on our own continent.

But no.

Instead of looking for ways to grow to the level where we can imitate Europe’s common sense policy, there we are trying to be the beggars that choose.

I am also wondering,  why I haven’t seen a single open letter from Mwenda et al, to our own people talking about the high tariff barriers,  African countries are placing on trade especially in Agricultural produce between each other.

At present, Africa has the lowest rates of regional trade and investment. We have some of the highest tariff barriers in the world! Why haven’t these “CAP warriors” directly addressed this issue? Why are they pointing to the speck in Britain’s eye, when this huge plank in our eye still exists? Why are Africans so fond of pegging our problems to other nations and peoples when low hanging home grown solutions exist in our countries?

I find it even more interesting when you read the names and countries these men are representing in the letter to the British.  Two of the gentlemen listed as having signed the letter are from Ghana. Ghana? Really?  Ghana where protectionism is their “ecomini’s” watchword , from acting to prostitution? How about Nigeria, where in 2003, tariffs on agriculture were  as high as 41.4% and bans on a long list of Agricultural products are still in place? South Africa’s general reputation with xenophobia is enough to nail them farther along in the same corner so I won’t even bother.

So it begs the question, assuming this is even Africa’s opinion, are Africans even qualified to point fingers to anyone on free trade?

Heartless as it may sound, maybe Africa’s poor are not as “deserving” as Mwenda and his friends, want to believe.

I rest my case.

Description:

How to Apply:

Kim Bilmer (above) began working as a Program Assistant Intern with the Women of Kireka last week. Over the next few months, she will be writing about her experiences on the Project Diaspora blog.

When I finally touched down on African soil, the word “excitement” definitely understated how I was feeling. After years of waiting to come to Africa, and after weeks of anticipation, it was finally time for me to be a part of the continent I had been longing to be a part of for years. Uganda is a country that I have always been drawn to through listening to the experience of past visitors and through reading the stories of those native to the land.  These personal accounts truly strengthened my desire to one day visit this captivating place, and realizing that this would be the country for my first experience in this field of work, only deepened my feelings of excitement.  When I stepped off the plane and felt the blast of heat from the sun, I knew the next few months were going to be fulfilling. I knew this would be an experience I would never forget, and only the beginning of my lifetime journey through Africa.

My first impressions of Uganda were very encouraging. It is always a bit nerve racking to come to a new place that is completely different from what you are accustomed to, but I already seem to have taken to the lifestyle quite nicely here. Compared to other places I have traveled, for some reason I feel more comfortable here in Kampala. The people of Kampala have a very warm and welcoming nature about them. One that makes you feel as though you have been here forever (and could stay forever too)! Although I was initially very anxious to explore Kampala, I was even more anxious to meet my team members and the women at the quarry.

When I first arrived at the quarry it was much larger and even more intimidating than I was expecting. There were many people of all ages scattered throughout this dangerous setting. It was hardly a place for any child to be playing or anyone to have to work without proper safety equipment. Not only was I taken aback by the sight of the quarry itself, but from my first encounter with the women as well. After reading so much about the women and their devastating hardships prior to my arrival, I felt very nervous to meet them and I was unsure how my presence would be received. However, within seconds of my arrival at the top of the hill, they rushed to greet me with welcoming hugs and friendly smiles. The quarry may have appeared dark and dreary at first, but seeing the women instantly added many colours to the surrounding environment. From their vibrant clothing, to their elaborate beads and especially their spirited personalities, the quarry felt full of life and simply inspiring.

The first meeting with the women was designed purely as an introduction in order to explain exactly what I was doing there. Although my shyness was evident throughout my first address to them, I still had a feeling that we were all going to become at ease with each other very soon. All I wanted was for the women to know that I had come for the right reasons. I really wanted them to believe in me. After everything they have been through in their lives, I knew that trusting a stranger might not come easily for them and I hoped I would be able to cross this potential barrier. However, I think I was even more nervous after leaving the quarry the first night. Now that I had met the women, seen their faces and witnessed what they and their children undertake everyday in order to live, my desire for this project to succeed was now at its strongest and I hoped that my efforts here would be able to contribute to the success of this project.

After spending my first week searching for tools, marketing materials, and training options for the women, I knew the second meeting was going to be a busy one. I met a wonderfully resourceful and incredibly clever woman named Evelyn who works with similar women in the north. Although our conception of the jewelry was similar, the jewelry pieces she represented were much more refined and unique. Her business methods were also much more efficient and organized.  My team and I knew immediately that our women could stand to learn a lot from her and that she would be an essential asset to our project. With Evelyn on our side, my teammates and I had a lot to discuss with the women concerning the improvement in the quality of their work and also we needed to introduce the possibility of beginning workshops with Evelyn that would teach new ways of styling and making their work even more creative and polished.

At this second meeting, the women reacted very enthusiastically to these ideas; they realized that with a little help they were very capable of making their beautiful jewelry even better. With this positive burst of energy in the group, we began a photo shoot of each individual woman with their beads for some new marketing ideas. The women took control of the shoot, choosing their own location and poses for each shot. They really made me laugh, displaying their beads humorously all over their bodies and ensuring their poses were action packed.

Unfortunately, at one point the mood fell from light hearted and fun to slightly frustrating as everyone unsuccessfully tried to put together a jewelry order that was to be picked up that day. There was a lot of confusion with the jewelry requests and each woman was very determined and adamant about having their work represented in the order. We originally planned to hold a training session to be included in this meeting, but unfortunately due to time we had to save it for another meeting. We ended by giving the women notebooks and homework. After this second encounter with the women, my teammates and I really started to brainstorm what would be necessary to make certain business practices more efficient.

Presently, the women are mobilized and excited for the next phases of the project, and therefore we definitely want to make things as easy as possible for them in order to keep the momentum up. I loved leaving that second meeting with abundant feelings of optimism at the incredible potential that is all around. I now look forward to my meetings with the women; it is definitely the highlight of my week.  The women, along with my team have made me feel confident in this project. Hopefully as my time here continues, I will be able to see the growth and success of this mission, along with the personal victories of each of these women.

Women of Kireka, a program under Project Diaspora, welcomes two new team members: Hadijah Nankanja and Kim Bilmer. Hadijah was born in Uganda and is an active member in the business and development community both locally and abroad. She will be running a series of capacity-building workshops (English, accounting, business practices and more) with the Women of Kireka. Kim Bilmer is a Canadian working as a Program Assistant Intern. She will be assisting the Project Diaspora and Women of Kireka teams with day to day duties at the quarry, as well as long-term business development and implementation. Welcome!

I think I speak for a majority of Africa’s diaspora when I say that the mobile phone in Africa has made life away from our homes of origin much more bearable. The ability to instantly connect and have a conversation with family members allows us to maintain those family bonds that are so important to many of us. Unless your entire family migrated out of Africa, many of us still have loved ones on the ground that we are now able to connect to with ever increasing immediacy.

In a sense, the world has shrunk for us. It used to be that separation for the African diaspora meant vast distances marked by snail mail and connecting flights. Now that distance is reduced to the time it takes you to dial a number or send a text, or compose an email.

I am very close to my family in Uganda. So close in fact that i rarely make decisions without consulting them and vice versa. We operate like a well-oiled organization. We routinely check on each other’s progress with family meetings. As the older sibling, I am chided (in good fun of course) for still being single. We constantly fuss about the future of our younger siblings and their education, a unified effort to make sure that our family is well-equipped to survive in this world. We take a “no-sibling left behind” policy in our family. I Facebook chat with my sister Pam on a daily basis. It is the new, “after-tea conversation.”

This week, I had a Skype conference call with my brother Isaiah (an administrator at the local college, my sister Pam (general manager of UMPG), and my mother (a pastor and local councilwoman for her village). There wasn’t anything special about the call really, in fact, I had done it several times before. This time though, I had a huge smile on my face. Perhaps in retrospect, I was reliving my talk at SXSW. This is what I was talking about. I was living the future of a connected Africa, in real time. I was having the same out of body experience as one would have walking through a déja vu episode (I am always freaked out by those!).

At the SXSW presentation, I demonstrated the collaborative possibilities of a connected Africa with a live Skype interview with Appfrica Labs in Uganda, iHub in Kenya, and Limbe Labs in Cameroon (I am still saddened that I didn’t get to talk to Banta Labs in Senegal because of time constraints). I had also planned on making a call to my mom in the village so she could tell the audience what a difference having a mobile phone has made in her life. I failed to connect due to a bad network connection. Instead I did the next best thing. I called my mum a few days after the presentation and interviewed her for this post. You can listen to her interview below.

With 450 million mobile subscriptions on the continent, one can’t help but think of the possibilities, and what all this connectivity could mean for us. Milly lists some of the benefits (and challenges) of owning a mobile phone in the village. The greatest of which was the joy that she could talk to her son at any time (provided I called more often of course) without her having to take a 3 hour bus ride to Kampala so I can reach her on a land line. The accelerated penetration of mobiles predicted over the next three year is even more exciting. Stats point to nearly 50% of Africa’s population as under the age of 15; coming of age just as Africa gets ready to tap into over 18 terabytes of designed broadband capacity available to the continent by 2012.

The possibilities for the continent are endless, but to me, they are very real and personal.

If you have been following the on-going #Africa3d0 discussions on Twitter from my talk at SxSW in Austin, TX, then you have noticed that @OLPCnews challenged me to a debate. The challenge was stoked by my comment during the Q&A session that “…OLPC was dead in the water.” I have kept a skeptical eye on Nicholas Negroponte’s pet project since its initial announcement. This is not the first time that I have spoken out against OLPC. I had the same skeptical point of view last year at Ars Electronica’s Cloud Intelligence Symposium round table.

First things first. There are a couple things that I think the XO accomplishes and I applaud Negroponte for his efforts in these areas.

1. OLPC makes an effort to introduce technology to children.
   I can’t argue with this effort at all. Fundamentally, it is right up there with my views that Africa’s future will ride largely on a digital renaissance.
2. As @OLPCnews put it, “OLPC begat netbooks.”
   The form factor proved that you can make a portable, cheap laptop. This has had the effect of reducing the barrier to entry in many markets.

Now, let me admit that @OLPCnews has it right, I am no MARK WARSCHAUER, (who articulates the many structural failures of OLPC from a learned professional’s view point). Nor am I Jon Camfield, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting and discussing the many angles of OLPC. You can find his excellent posts on the subject here, here and here. I will address this from a Ugandan perspective, and as an ever-curious African futurist in terms of the connected learning and cultural experience in Africa.

With that in mind, let me address some of my points in greater detail (and hopefully greater clarity than offered in 140 characters). That being said, here are my reasons for declaring OLPC a failed strategy for Africa.

Failure to Address Failed Education Systems
I applaud OLPC’s attempt to have the governments pay for the laptops and distribute them to the children, but I do not see this going very far beyond a few progressive governments like Kagame’s Rwanda. If the government does not acknowledge and address its poor education system, and put massive weight behind making sure that the cornerstones of their country’s education system are overhauled to be inline with 21st century educational best practices, then OLPC is dead in the water.

Pointing out the successes of individual schools is analogous to putting a bandage on a patient with thousands of festering wounds and maladies and then proclaiming in the loudest voice capable, “see, see, it does work and you are an idiot for saying it doesn’t!!” What Africa’s education system needs is a massive injection of reform from within. In particular, Uganda’s education system stopped progressing at the end of British colonial rule over 40 years ago. It is the same “stuff and regurgitate” method of instruction that doesn’t inspire individual exploration. The teacher is the gate keeper of information. Don’t question authority. A system like this leaves very little room for outside-the-box education systems like OLPC. Injecting XO in just a chosen few schools does not address the problems inherently wrong with the system. XO’s are not a panacea for fundamentally flawed education systems.

Why not go the distance by making sure you have teachers that can leverage the power of such a platform so they can educate better and more effectively.

1. “Train the trainer” first, by empowering teachers to believe in the tool. Additionally, provide on-going, practical training for every teacher involved in the program.
2. Pay and certify the teachers to use this tool so they feel the inherent value instead of adding another thing they have to do for the same measly pay
3. Ensure a supportive political environment that values digital learning tools. Therefore, an ecosystem of governance that simply “gets it,” that the whole educational value chain has to be supported and sustained in order to gain maximum value.
4. Build the infrastructure that will continue to support e-learning initiatives beyond the involvement of one vendor.
5. More precisely, diversify the electronic teaching tools so that you have a hybrid electronic ecosystem that can respond to the particular needs of the environment. A hybrid learning system that resembles real-world atmosphere is better than limiting students to sugar OS. Add in mobile learning initiatives so they can also interact with the real world.

With nearly 50% of Africa’s population under the age of 15, we are at a critical cross roads in preparing for their future. We need forward-thinking governments that can take the helm and man up to their institutional responsibility of educating their country’s future leaders, innovators, and change makers. This is not Nick Negroponte’s responsibility. No matter how hard he tries to stuff the XO into children’s hands, the war will still be lost, save for a few anecdotal battle successes.

African governments are not equipped to purchase, distribute, maintain 450 million XOs in Africa while simultaneously overhauling failed infrastructures. Let  us also remember, that a majority of these African countries function on donor capital. How is this good for us again?

Wrong Platform

As of 2009, there were approximately 450 million phone subscriptions across Africa.  A few countries on the continent have an estimated 90% rate of penetration. To many, this is the first introduction to a piece of technology, the first introduction to a computing device, and if you count SMS and MMS services, the first introduction to electronic communication.

The mobile phone in Africa does something that the OLPC will never do, it integrates itself into the rhythm of life in Africa. Its use flows with the pace of life: it augments ones life experience when it needs to; it plays rescuer when the need arises, it creates incomes where none were possible previously; it makes the world smaller where previously distances were vast. Most importantly, it educates everyone. Try doing that with an XO. Anyone that comes across a mobile phone instantly experiences the benefits of a mobile simply by accomplishing a necessary task; call someone, text someone, calculate a price difference, set an alarm, tell time, research a particular crop disease. Even the dumbest of phones provide immeasurable exposure to technology to the greatest number of people in Africa. If this isn’t a prime example of educating a nation, I don’t know what is.

The rise of smart phones far outpaced the OLPC.  A majority of Africa’s half-billion children will come of age on smart phones more suited to their traditional lifestyles than OLPC and they will learn real-world experiences. Phones are not getting dumber with features being stripped away. They are getting smarter, ubiquitous and cheaper. @OLPCnews should educate itself on the potential to educate on a mobile by visiting my good friend Steve Vosloo’s Innovating Education project in South Africa. The project is proving success even without the use of smartphones. If they can the mobile phone as a viable pedagogical tool without the use of smart phones, how much more successful will they be with smart phones? OLPC is not the only way, nor is it the best way to introduce technology to children, nor is it the best. Defending OLPC’s relevance is analogous to defending either Blueray or HD-DVD when prevailing data shows digital downloads are the way to go. That whole race was lost the minute Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes Music Store.

Cultural Disruption

My third point addresses something that is dear to me. I am not sure how many people will agree with me so mileage may vary depending on your cultural experiences. As I said above, the mobile phone goes about educating and enriching lives in rhythm with Africa’s variety of cultural norms. Outside forces empowering children with their very own laptop (however well-meaning the altruistic gesture might be), puts a majority of children at odds with their place in the family structure. In some cultures, children have their place in the social order, with responsibilities to perform accordingly—be it washing dishes, collecting water and firewood, or cooking. In this structure, children learn social responsibilities to one another and how family functions. They learn things you can’t teach in a classroom.

Throwing something as complex as a laptop into the ownership of a child disrupts this social knowledge transfer mechanisms. Examples were given of successes in Kenya where parents learned from children because of the presence of the laptops. This is by no means a cultural norm. Exceptions are going to happen but the overall effect will be the loosening of the traditional family bond when the child knows more than the parent.

The crux of my argument here is the ability for children to take these laptops home. These laptops should be left at the schools, perhaps to serve as the community computer library. This accomplishes two things, it gives open access to the community, and preserves cultural family orders.

I will posit that mobile phones provide a parallel learning experience where both parent and child can interact with the technology without upsetting the social balance. Both can talk on it with fair ease, they can both text on it with equal aplomb and both are able to use it to enrich their respective worlds. Parents can use the technology to run the family, while the children can interact with the games, stay in touch with their friends, or complete simple tasks designed to introduce them to how their world functions.

Finally, I will address some of Wayan’s comments from his rebuttal to my remarks. I won’t address them all, lest this dialog fall into a disappointing discourse of “Does to! Does not!!”

Wayan: “…And with the low attendance already prevalent in Africa, it makes sense to give out XO’s there, as a rationale for sending children to school, rather than charging poor parents who cannot afford much.”

TMS: I am really tired of this argument that we are poor so incidentally everything should be given to us for free. Stop treating us like your indigent dependents. If there is a value proposition for us to own a cell phone, we will find a way to pay for it. Clam-shelled arguments that we “cannot afford much” is insulting. The West is not responsible for saving us. Please shelve the “white man’s burden” argument. It is not Africa’s responsibility to reinvent America’s declining public education systems, except for America.

Wayan: … “The mobile phone vs. computer argument is an old one, and the results are always the same: there is a place for both. You’ll not read (or write) a textbook on your mobile phone, but it is handy for short text, and for voice, its the killer app…”

TMS: See my point above on regarding Steve Volsoo’s mobile learning projects at Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa. Also, see my points on a hybrid system, (I think we agree).

To conclude, I am no Mark Warschauer, for sure. But then again, while he is accomplished, he is not me. I am an educated Ugandan with the ability to speak for myself and my continent. Many of my original points were concurred by the @OLPCNews crew. So, it was disappointed that they descended to a level of being catty and condescending. Call me what you may, but accepting yet another Western-driven top-down solution unchallenged, is not going to be my cup of tea. Threatening me with the OLPC fanboy army doesn’t exactly inspire respect either. Thanks for playing.

More information on the Women of Kireka, bead purchases, internship opportunities and quarry visits can be found on Siena Anstis’s website. We’re thinking proxy websites spreading like Western Union across Kampala’s downtown core. Ah, if only we were the Starbucks of East Africa.

The original here:

As someone with many un-paid internships under her belt, the word “volunteer” often makes me shudder. But, the facts are, we need your support!

• Programme Assistant Intern (Full-time): This position with the Women of Kireka would involve guiding the women in their current business practices (accounting, savings, establishing micro-loans, etc.), doing marketing & design, escorting visitors to the quarry, and organizing sample shipments/partnerships with local and international organizations.

• Advocacy and Awareness Intern (Full-time): Not long ago, a reader commented that we were not doing enough for the overall Kireka community. Granted, when the women leave the quarry, their jobs will be taken by equally desperate individuals. In order to mitigate this, we would like to run an awareness campaign on the working conditions of the Kireka community among media, community and government. There’s been a trickle of information on the quarry over the years, but we really want to ramp this up and make an impact.

The lovely Hannah Gray will help you organize your internship placements. She has a boat-load of experience in this field and is an expert in all things Kampala (and fun!). If you are interested, please send your CV, cover letter and a short 500-word statement on what you would like to achieve to myself or Project Disapora. Of course, information on the site is limited, but we want to know how creative are!

Note: We’re certainly not as widely known or CV-boosting as UN-name any branch, but we can promise a very engaging experience with the Women of Kireka and Uganda as a whole. We are also expert reference-letter writers. Most importantly, we’ll help you build contacts in the field of international development in East Africa.

This is my quick response to Jimmy Kainja’s thought-provoking post and comments discussion about gay rights in Africa and the role of donor organizations.

The brouhaha over African gay litigation is simply overreaction to the very same events that happened in the US and EU countries. Being gay didn’t all of a sudden become a lifestyle de jour in the West.

Homosexuals there went through the the very same types of persecution and human rights violations as those in Uganda and Malawi. The same fear, uncertainty, and doubt, is behind these “laws of the land” as it was in the US, Canada, and the UK.

It’s a journey. The difference is that the West didn’t have the noose of donor countries launching threats (wether justified or not). As Sally points out, it is their right to cancel their funds if they don’t like the policy. Likewise, if the infringing recipient governments have a problem with donor strings attached to the funds, they have a right to refuse the funds. But we all know that’ll never happen. The politicians are happy to dance to whatever brought them and keeps them in power.

Without donor funds, governments will have to be forced to be accountable to the people and their majority wishes. Issues like this would be debated into law or quashed by the wishes/lobbying of it’s own citizenry. But since the citizenry is used in this stupid aid game we all play as pawns… we get to suffer because govs have no laws to stand on.

Sally, good pointing out intent -vs- neglect. Aid orgs exist to fund ‘neglect’ – pure and simple, driven by the guilt of privilege and the superficial need to be seen as a do-gooder (there’s a certain cache attached to that in international diplomacy).** They cringe, however, when Malawi & Uganda start going through the same cultural growing pains they’ve already learned how to manage and atone for.

Africa won’t have the luxury of figuring out these issues for itself and by itself. We will be scrutinized and discussed, vilified & judged openly. Why? Because no one wants to remember that we are 53 VERY young nations that have to grow up at light speed and accomplish in a miniscule-amount of time–what took the west three-plus centuries! You’ve heard it: why can’t Africa figure out democracy? Why are there blood-thirsty dictators in Africa? Why is there famine? Is “Brangelina” and Madonna and Oprah going to adopt all of Africa’s children? Ok, maybe not that last question. The point is, “democracy” and all it entails is less than 60 years old as a concept in Africa post-colonialism. Yet we are expected to be on par with the West in less than a lifetime. The same goes for the intricacies of legislating in a modern world. We don’t have the luxury of time or the cone of true sovereignty to deal with our issues.

The gay issue isn’t going away anytime soon. Just like the tide of FUD over gay marriages in the States, it’s just going to evolves and become as divisive as it was everywhere else in the world. It is the normal course of attempting to litigate morality. Who hear dares to remember that interracial marriages could get you lynched in the United States. Hell, marriage is going a tad far, just being accused of looking at a white girl wantonly meant the end of your days as a black man.

Uganda will go through the steps and missteps of trying to figure out how homosexuality fits into its moral fabric as a nation. So too will Malawi determine its fate within its sovereignty to do do. Maybe Kenya will follow, or Mozambique and Angola. But as every country proceeds with its growing pains, we will have to do so under the global microscope of myopic and unrealistic expectations.

So what’s the solution then? Allow aid orgs to dictate how we litigate because they provide for budgetary shortfalls? Or simply risk the “perceived” shortfall that would ensue and enact whatever laws of the land” we feel necessary to protect our “moral fabric?”

** This is totally my opinion. I am well aware of the different types of aid, and such a blanket statement erroneously blankets them all into one pile.

My “Mother” calls to me every waking moment of my life. Living without her is silently killing me. I die a little bit each day that passes by without me in her tender loving arms. Not feeling her, her every scent, the gentle soothing sound she makes on a cold and rainy morning. The beautiful sound of rain drops on courrogated iron sheets is a sound my ears yearn to hear.

My “Mother” feels ‘ALIVE’. The surrogate mother that attempts to do what my “Mother” does so natrually, without much effort feels stiff. I feel no warmth from her cold rigid embrace. My feet do not feel right. This soil is foreign. The air smells wrong. Where are the smooth, gentle rolling clouds that my “Mother” faithfully put out to great me when I woke up each morning? Where are the blades of grass that she gently kissed early each morning and left with a drop of diamond that dangled and gleamed on each blade of grass in the morning sunlight? They said this surrogate mother would make me strong. They said that she would bless me as her breasts were said to flow with milk and honey. Her milk is sour to my taste. O how I long for my “Mothers” milk. It tasted good. It tasted right. The fruit of her land was juicy, succulent and tasted real. Out here, the fruit of this land is dry, tasteless and bland. It’s like it’s essence has been sucked out. I look around me with wonder, sadness and pity. The children of this mother do not know what good fruit really tastes like. So they excitedly eat what their mother feeds them and use words to express how good her food is oblivious of the goodness of the food that my “Mother” feeds her children.

O how I long for you Mama Africa. I can gently heat you cry out to me, come home my son.

Yes, Mama, I say to her. I am coming.

I’m coming home. I’m coming home soon.

Ok guys, we are heading headlong into phase 2 of this little experiment of ours. So this is a fantastic time for us to get ideas from you. We have been traveling a bit no matter where we have gone we have fantastic conversations and we want to hear more!

What topics do you find interesting?
What do you wish we were talking about but are not?
What kind of information do you wish you had?
What kinds of tools and resources make sense to you?

This is your chance to influence the shape of things to come, so talk to us! Let us know what you want to see more of… and for that matter what you want to see less of. Come on everyone, what are you thinking?

Submitted by: Gannon Gillespie of Tostan.org

October 5, 2009

In Puntland, Somalia where an estimated 98% of the population practices FGC, this declaration provides new way forward. 14 villages in this Northeast Zone of Somalia, made history on Monday as they became the first group of communities in the region to collectively pledge to abandon the practice of female genital cutting (FGC).

These communities participated in an empowering three-year education program implemented by the NGO Tostan in collaboration with UNICEF and the Government of Puntland. The Minister of the Interior of Puntland and the country representative from UNICEF Somalia presided over the ceremony. Also present were the Director General of the Ministry of Women (Puntland), the Director General of Justice (Puntland), the Governor of Puntland, the Mayor of Garowe, representatives of the religious leaders of Puntland, and representatives from women’s organizations in the region.

Approximately 2,000 people attended the declaration held in a soccer stadium in the city of Garowe. FGC is estimated to be practiced in 28 countries in Africa and can result in serious health complications, including pain, hemorrhage, increased difficulties at child birth, infertility, incontinence, infections, and even death.

Participants read poems and performed a play on the harmful effects of FGC depicting a father who was against practicing FGC on his daughter. Two former cutters from Sunijiif also addressed the large audience and shared why they had decided to stop the practice. The declaration to announce the decision to abandon FGC, signed by participating communities, was read aloud by a woman leader from the village of Burtinle.

Following the declaration, the Puntland Director General for Women spoke in support of this historic decision and a respected religious leader from Garowe cited verses from the Koran and explained that FGC is not an obligation in Islam.

Since January 2007, over 700 participants in 14 communities have been directly involved in the Tostan Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in the Nugaal region of Puntland. The program, which is implemented over a period of 30-months by local facilitators and managed by village-elected Community Management Committees (CMCs), includes modules on democracy, human rights, problem-solving, hygiene, health, literacy, small business management, and microfinance. Teaching methods are participatory and learner-centered, based on positive Somali oral traditions such as poetry, story-telling, theater, and song.

Tostan believes that the reason for the success of the CEP in catalyzing communities to end FGC is its respectful, non-directive, and holistic approach. During the program, communities are empowered to make informed decisions on a range of critical issues, including FGC. Tostan’s program is inclusive – it recognizes that social norms, such as FGC, involve all members of society, including men, women, adolescents, and elders, as well as religious and traditional leaders. In Somalia the involvement and assistance of respected religious, government, and community leaders was critical to the program’s success.

Over the course of the program, program participants in Puntland organized a comprehensive social mobilization campaign. They traveled to surrounding rural villages where they dialogued with relatives and respected local religious leaders. In collaboration with the Puntland Government’s Ministry of Women and Ministry of Health, they facilitated information sessions at which community members engaged with health agents and religious leaders. On August 5th, 2009, community representatives met in Sunijiif and organized a peaceful march calling for a unified decision to abandon FGC.

Since its founding in 1991, Tostan has implemented the Community Empowerment Program in 10 countries in West and East Africa. In addition to improvements in community health, respect of human rights, understanding of democratic principles, economic growth, literacy, and environmental protection, the program has led to communities pledging to abandon FGC and child/forced marriage in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, and now Somalia.

The particular circumstances in Somalia – namely, the near universal practice of FGC – makes this declaration of abandonment particularly significant. The villagers from Puntland join a growing movement in which over 4,000 communities have followed a similar process of education and community outreach, followed by a public declaration for the abandonment of this harmful traditional practice. It is anticipated that similar public declarations will be made by neighboring communities in Somaliland in the coming months.

“The Garowe Declaration represents an important step forward for women and girls in Somalia,” said Molly Melching, Executive Director of Tostan. “This is a critical new development in the movement for the abandonment of harmful social practices in Africa, led by community members themselves.”

Tostan is a US 501(c)(3) nongovernmental organization based in the West African country of Senegal. Tostan works primarily in rural regions to promote basic education and increase community engagement in projects related to health and hygiene, child welfare, human rights and democracy, the environment, literacy, and economic development. Tostan is currently implementing its program in Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and Somalia. For more information about Tostan, please visit www.tostan.org.

A couple of weeks ago, I was I had an email correspondence with Francis O. Oghuma, one enterprising Nigerian, and co-founder of Naijaborn, a social network dedicated to the vibrant Nigerian diaspora community. He recently emailed us that NaijaBorn has surpassed 1,500 members in it’s public beta. No word yet on when the site will be out of public beta, but if you are Nigerian or a friend of Nigeria and culture, “show ya sef” at Naijaborn and get an account!

How was Naijaborn started? What motivated you to start the service?
NAIJABORN started cause we cudnt find a uniform voice or a particular platform that connects nigerians and spread d naija good news. Mainly because Nigerians are everywhere and we believe creating a virtual online place for them to connect with motherland in a professiional way

Who is your target market?
Our primary target is Nigerians world wide and secondary market is friends of Nigeria and business men who wish to do business in Nigeria with Nigerians.

How many members do you have so far registered?
Our public beta already has 1,500+ members and we are increasing daily.

What’s Naijaborn’s mission?
Mission of Naijaborn is to connect Nigerians globally and expose their works to the rest of the world.

What kinds of services are you planning on offering through Naijaborn?
We plan to offer music and other works of arts distribution on naijaborn, branding and marketing solutions, business solutions in forms of Business to Business and Business to Consumer solutions.

What goals are you trying to accomplish with this service?
We wish to create an easy to use platform for Nigerians and people interested in Nigeria and its people. We are working hard to create a database of 100 million+ nigerians and friends, that will host talents, businesses, brands and all sort of applications; to mine the data and get usefull information about the Nigerian people.

And finally, how do you hope this will impact Nigeria?
The platform will help to rebrand the image of Nigeria and let the world get to know more about Nigeria other than what they currently know about the great nation.

Well, we have returned from Africa and a wonderful visit with the Women of Kireka. There is much exciting news with regard to the women and their transition to sustainable work that will get them out of the Kireka quarry. We have a firm order for 100 bracelets, both leather beaded ones and ones made out of paper. That is hopefully the first of many orders for hand-crafted items from the women. They have also brainstormed several really unique ideas and we are really looking forward to the prototypes. However in with the good news and the forward momentum there is still some gritty reality that must be addressed.
Before we get into that I thought I would share a bit of the celebration we had with you. They really did make us feel welcome!

A Performance by the Women of Kireka from Project Diaspora on Vimeo.

The Children of Kireka from Project Diaspora on Vimeo.

The children are due to start school and we just discovered that there are no monies at all to send them to school. Actually like Mother’s every where their very first order of business was to talk to us about the children’s schooling. For these ladies keeping their kids in school tops out any interest they had in their own training program! The costs to send a child to school in Uganda are nominal, but when you don’t have it… well you don’t have it. School starts on September 7th and it is our hope that we can raise enough funds to make that happen for all the Kids of Kireka. If you are interested in helping these children get to school this term please donate via the Women if Kireka donation button to the right.

If you are interested in sponsoring a particular child or family please let us know and we will keep you up to date on the child’s progress in school and other details. I know the mother’s and children would love to thank you for your support.

Here is a break down of the families and the needed fees (US Dollars):

Mother:
Alice Ajok
Children:
1. Patrick Ochora, 14 yrs
Sponsored in full by David Sisaki 9/6/09 THANK YOU DAVID!
$27.00/55,000 ug sh

2. Nancy Adongo, (Dreams of being a Nurse) 8 yrs
Sponsored in full by Sandy Wickberg. 9/6/09. THANK YOU SANDY!
$27.00/55,000 ug sh

3. Patricia Achiro
Sponsored in full by Tammy Theis. THANK YOU TAMMY!
$27.00/55,000 ug sh

4. Innocent Odutuka
Sponsored in full by Tammy Theis. THANK YOU TAMMY!
$27.00/55,000 ug sh

Mother:
Sabina Layet
Children:
5. Susan Aceng, 15 yrs
Sponsored in full by Melanie Spiegel. THANK YOU MELANIE!
$103.93/210,000 ug sh

6. Daniel Okema
Sponsored in full by Vickie Barcomb 9/5/09 THANK YOU VICKIE!
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

Mother:
Angella Alwoch
Children:
7. Ocuc Alwoch, 13 yrs
Sponsored in full by Jeff Stephens. THANK YOU JEFF!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

8. Ayaa Alwoch, 8 yrs
Sponsored in full by Jeff Stephens. THANK YOU JEFF!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

9. Aber Alwoch, 16 yrs
Sponsored in fill by Jill Humphries. THANK YOU JILL!
$153.43/310,000 ug sh/font>

10. Ayon Alwoch, 14 yrs
Sponsored in full by Doug Dawson. THANK YOU DOUG!
$44.54/90,000 ug sh

Mother:
Agnes Aneno
Children:
11. Juliana Laker, 4 yrs
Sponsored in full by Judith Cannon. Thank you JUDY!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

12. Samuel Bitek, 8 yrs
Sponsored in full by Judith Cannon. Thank you JUDY!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

13. Amone Aneno, 12 yrs
Sponsored in full by Judith and Lisa Cannon. Thank you JUDY and LISA!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

Mother:
Christina Aloyo
Children:
14. Thomas Aloyo, 12 yrs
Sponsored in full by Robert Jones. THANK YOU ROBERT!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

15. Stella Aloyo, 13 yrs
Sponsored in full by Robert Jones. THANK YOU ROBERT!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

16. Achan Aloyo, 8 yrs
Sponsored in full by Heidi Pickering. THANK YOU HEIDI!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

Mother:
Gloria Achan
Children:
17. Stuart Nsingwire, 16 yrs, S.4
$222.72/450,000 ug sh

18. Stefan Alinda, 11 yrs, P.6
Sponsored in full by Mike Martin. THANK YOU MIKE!
$98.98/200,000

19. Vicky Aol, 12 yrs
Sponsored in full by Mark Fleitman. THANK YOU MARK!
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

20. Prisca Acayo, 5 yrs
$79.19/160,000

21. Michael Ochira, 3yrs
$79.19/160,000

Mother:
Scovia Arach
Children:
22. Junior Okello, 11yrs
$42.07/85,000 ug sh

23. Godfrey Odongo, 9 yrs
Sponsored in full!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

24. Cosmos Otim, 7 yrs
$42.07/85,000

25. Bonny Opinyo, 3 yrs
Sponsored in full!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

26. New Lady Acen, 3yrs
Sponsered in full by Barney and Barbara Boeder. THANK YOU BARNEY AND BARBARA!
$27.70/60,000 ug sh

Mother:
Gertrude Abo
Children:
27. Geoffrey Obo
$44.54/90,000 ug sh

28. Sarah Akot
Sponsored in full by Sarah Meaders 9/6/09. THANK YOU SARAH!
$39.59/80,000

Mother:
Sarah Abonyo
Children:
Awaiting information

Mother:
Santa Akech
Children:
29. Nancy Aneno, (Dreams of being a Nurse) 19 yrs, P6
Sponsored in full by Vickie Barcomb. THANK YOU VICKIE!
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

30. Edward Ojara, (Dreams of being a Doctor) 16 yrs, S1
$227.67/460,000

31. Gerald Pekorom, (Dreams of being a Business Man) 13 yrs, P6
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

32. Barbra Lanyero, (Dreams of being a Teacher) 10 yrs, P4
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

33. Mercy Achiro, (Dreams of being a Police Woman) 8 yrs, P2
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

Mother:
Grace Lamunu
Children:
34. Innocent Alimochan, 17 yrs, S1
$183.12/370,000

35. Denis Lubangakene, (Dreams of being a Driver) 14 yrs, P5
$79.19/160,000

36. Brenda Anena, (Dreams of being a Teacher) 10 yrs, P5
$79.19/160,000

37. Gloria Abalo, (Dreams of being a Police Woman) 7 yrs, P2
$44.54/90,000 ug sh

Mother:
Hellen Anyek
Children:
38. Denis Okwera, 17 yrs, S1
$242.51/490,000

39. Isaac OKello, (Dreams of being an Engineer) 14 yrs P7
$54.44/110,000

40. Nelson Onenchan, (Dreams of being a Lawyer) 10 yrs, P5
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

41. Carlo Langoya, (Dreams of being a Doctor) 7 yrs, P2
$49.40/100,000 ug sh

42. Geoffrey Opwonya
Nursery next year

Mother:
Christine Auma
Children:
43. Beatrice Lanyero, (Dreams of being a Teacher) 17 yrs, P5
$44.54/90,000 ug sh

44. Nancy Akello, (Dreams of being a Teacher) 14 yrs, P2
Sponsored in full by Dinah DeLuca. THANK YOU DINAH!
$39.59/80,000

45. Fiona Apio, 10 yrs
Sponsored in full!
$39.59/80,000

46. Bob Nyeko, 7 yrs
Sponsored in full!
$39.59/80,000

Mother:
Milly Auma
Children:
Awaiting information

Mother:
Jennifer Achiro
Children:
47. Daniel Akemkwene, 9 yrs, P3 Sponsored in full by Lisa Cannon, Thank you LISA!
$48.01/97,000

48. Ronnie Okot, (Dreams of being a Doctor) 8 yrs, P3 Sponsored in full by Lisa Cannon, Thank you LISA!
$48.01/97,000

Racheal Apio, 1 yrs

Gabriel Ochen, 1 yrs

Recently was contacted by their event manager and was impressed by what I saw on their site. This looks like a fun event, totally worth checking out! So all you folks in London, stop on by and then let us know what you think!

Afrika Art is a family event that celebrates the diversity of the African
Caribbean culture through its Arts, its Crafts and its Flavours. While
listening to live bands with warm African vibes, scheduled or open mic,
you can browse through the vibrant market to find a rich selection of
creative objects ranging from fashion to crafts.

Afrika Art is every first Saturday of the month from 12pm till 7pm in the Africa Centre, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E.

For more info you can visit the afrodiva site or call 07949 652 757. The next Afrika Art will be
on Saturday 01st August.
Free Entry

Australia is a country that has experienced a significant influx of African migrants over the last 10 years. Between 2007 and 2008, close to 11,000 people from sub-Saharan Africa arrived on the continent to settle permanently, with an additional 8,300 coming from North Africa/the Middle East (undistinguished in the immigration data). Between 2003 and 2007, approximately 30,000 Africans received humanitarian visas, arriving primarily from Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Sierra Leone. It is estimated that there are close to 9,000 African migrants currently studying in the country. The diaspora here is largely comprised of asylum seekers, in addition to a growing number of independent students and skilled migrants.

Australia’s relationship with Africa is a weak one though it is becoming increasingly strong due to a number of factors. With the exception of countries such as South Africa, whose relationship with Australia stretches back to the anti-apartheid movement, Australia’s political and economic involvement with Africa has been limited. The country maintains more meaningful diplomatic ties with its neighboring Asian countries, who have historically represented the bulk of migrants settling in Australia. Deliberate attempts at strengthening ties with Africa have recently been made. Bilateral friendships with countries such as Uganda have been in place for a number of years, allowing several students to study in Australian universities each year through the development scholarships program under Australia Aid (AusAID) for example. However, more recently, Tanzania has made appeals for agricultural as well as medical expertise from Australia. Diplomatic meetings held in seven African countries earlier this year also sought to make the Australian-African relationships more “constructive and pro-active,”  though the move was criticized as a lobby tactic in the country’s UN Security Council bid. In addition, this financial year, the country is giving AU$115 million towards the continent’s development. Though it is delivering the same type of ‘problem-solving’ aid that is receiving sharp criticism today, it also has its own economic interests, the primary one being mining. In 2007, there were around 124 Australian mining companies operating in Africa. Australia’s trade and investments in Africa have revolved around mining and natural resources, particularly over the last 5 years.

The state of the African diaspora in Australia relies partly on Australia’s growing engagement with Africa, as well as the nation’s response to African immigrants in the country. There are some well-established national organizations such as the Australia’s Federation of African Communities Council and the Australia Africa Business Council, and many Africans continue to settle permanently under an attractive skilled migration program. Though the major Australian cities are designed around a ’multicultural’ model, the issue of discrimination and racial profiling against specific groups of Africans is one which has troubled the community in the recent past. However, more and more students and asylum seekers are crossing over into the Pacific, and the diaspora down under is establishing a strong and vibrant presence where it is actively involved in bridging the social and cultural gap between the continents.

As part of our mission here at Project Diaspora, we are collecting data on the African Diaspora and its activities with regard to development and support. This survey will take less than 10 minutes and will help us get a better picture of the African Diaspora. Thank you very much for your time!

We just got wind that The Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank is conducting a study on the role of Africans in the Diaspora. For those that would like to participate in the survey please click the link below to contribute. There is a groundswell of activity by the African Diaspora, in Africa. I think this information is a stepping stone to understanding where we go from here. It’s also nice to see the World Bank making a concerted effort to court the Diaspora for what we hope to be Diaspora-led development initiatives. So from all of us here at PD, please take a few minutes to participate in the survey. Here’s additional information on the survey.

The study aims to gather accurate data on the African Diaspora in the United States, focusing on career and location choices; social and cultural factors that influence these choices and networks and interaction with Africans at home and abroad. The
ultimate goal of the project is to identify additional mechanisms through which “brain circulation” would benefit Africans – both at home and abroad.

We will be very grateful if you could complete the survey. Please be assured that your response is anonymous, and all individual information will be held in the strictest confidence. Analysis and publication of results will be at the aggregate level only. We would appreciate if it you could complete the entire survey.

You may access the survey by clicking on this link: Diaspora Survey

We will also be grateful if you could send this link to your friends and colleagues who live abroad. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate your help in making this study useful.

Please pass it around to all members of the Diaspora.

WE HEART SOCIAL MEDIA
Thanks to the generosity and enthusiastic support of all our Twitter supporters, family and friends, Women of Kireka quickly tipped their $1,000 fund-raising campaign at The Point in less than 18 days. As Siena stated, after a lengthy conference call, Project Diaspora decided to lower the fund-raising goal to $1000 due to the stressful economic situation in hopes of raising the $1000 by March 1st. What we didn’t count on was the generous willingness of everyone who donated to pass on the message for others to donate as well. The result was a deluge of good-hearted giving and social media putting its best foot forward.

For the first time, we saw the power of social media pushing this campaign to the “tipping point”. To some, this might not be a massive accomplishment, but to us, it is a massive first HOOOrah! into the many projects that we have on tap here at PD. As noted in our list of things one should know about development projects, this is very much a manageable budget, with manageable goals for our first project.

Our next step is a strategic review of our planned use of the funds that you have generously awarded the women. We will have a budget and timelines in the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone who donated. We hope to have some training activity on the ground in the first weeks of March ’09 with continued escalation of updates.

OH BUT THERE’S MORE…
On my visit to see the women for the first time last December, I had shot some video at the quarry. The footage went missing and I had a sinking feeling that I had left it in Uganda. This week, while cleaning off my desktop (I love a clean desktop), something told me to double-check an untitled folder before I deleted it.

Boom! Gold!

So it is my pleasure to share the videos with you. They have been uploaded to our newly-minted Youtube channel. Here’s one of those videos. You will have to excuse the goofy-haired, blabbering host. He’s new at this.

As with my encounter Amos, meeting Grace Lamono at the Kireka stone quarry was an uplifting experience. She’s warm and out-spoken, and in a way she’s the de facto spokeswoman for the the other 14 Acholi refugee women and their children. It’s not because conversational English skills, but also her upbeat, expressive and effervescent personality. On my visit to the quarry last December, I was able to sit down with her for a few minutes to talk about her goals, aspirations and the group’s challenges trying to survive as domestic refugees in Kampala’s fast-paced, and expensive environment. I wish I’d had an opportunity to talk to all the women the day I visited but most of them were not working that day as it was a holiday weekend.

You can find out more about grace by visiting the official Women of Kireka informational blog, maintained by Siena Anstis.

 

FUND RAISING UPDATE:

As you can see in the sidebar, the fund-raising is going better than expected given the uncertain economic times. We are creeping down slowly towards our first $1000-goal mark. If you haven’t already pitched in, please help us hit that tipping point so we can kickstart some positive change in these women. A majority of these funds will be used to buy supplies and train the ladies to kick off their own skills-building fund raising efforts by making leather and beaded bracelets. We’ll have more information on how you can get one of these custom-made bracelets in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more information. Again, if you haven’t joined the cause, please don’t hesitate, donate today.

My encounter with Amos last December offered me an opportunity to take a critical look at how development projects affect communities. I discovered that there’s always going to be someone left out in the cold, sitting outside the fringes of your project’s target audience. It’s not done on purpose, and it’s most certainly not done out of malice. Siena Anstis—who originally introduced PD to the Women of Kireka back in September of last year—simplified it for me when I told her how frustrating this realization was for me, “you can’t help everybody, but if you can, help someone.”

As much as I’d like it not to be true, it is. Amos fell outside the scope of our project with the women. If PD is going to be successful and get our project(s) off the ground, we have to be content with those limitations, however cruel they may seem. I took a look at the projects currently under PD’s portfolio, and lo if there are not lessons to be learned. Below, I have listed some things you’ll need to consider while starting your own development project. Keep in mind, all project needs vary and may indeed require adherence to these, none, or additional considerations; this is what we here at PD have learned so far.

1. Ask
   There’s nothing worse than starting a project that doesn’t need to be started at all. What you think is missing, might not be of material concern to the development of the community. It is important to have a dialog with the intended recipients of your good will. The simple act of asking—”what is it that you need, what is it that will make this community and your lives better?”—can go a long way to building good will and community buy-in for your project.  If you build something that benefits everyone, there’s a chance it will succeed and become self-sustaining. Make sure that those you mean to help understand the way to use what you are providing them. Do they know what a given tool does and what need it addresses. Is it a need that they want solved? Does it create value for them rather than cost them? Is it more valuable for them to keep or more valuable to sell? A simple conversation can help you determine if the project is sustainable. Furthermore, before you build a development project make sure there is not another group on the ground working successfully to do the same thing. Leverage their success for the good of those you are trying to help rather than starting from scratch.
2. Choose a narrow area of focus
   Choose a focused, specific area, or sector where you think you can make the most impact. The smaller, the better. Think of it as giving yourself a chance to get things right. The small size also allows you to work out the operational kinks. The bigger the project; the bigger the budget, constraints and responsibilities. If you are just starting out, don’t bite off more than you can chew, even if your heart is screaming for you to help everybody and their mother.
3. Kind-hearted development noob? Know thyself
   If you don’t speak Mandarin or know anything about Chinese culture and customs, your water project—however well-intended—will be headed for EPIC FAIL. If you are still determined to forge ahead, then spend a little extra time on step one above. If you to feel that you have walked in their shoes, and have no reservations about your project, then you are ready. Knowing thyself also requires knowing your limitations. Take it from our very own Siena Anstis, “DON’T START A DEVELOPMENT PROJECT ALONE IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING!”
4. Have a specific goal you want to accomplish with your project
   Make sure it’s something measurable and can be accomplished in a specific amount of time. For example: dig a well, in XYZ village, within three months. That way, at the end of three months, anyone with vested interest in your project can easily verify if the goal was accomplished or not.
5. Give yourself a realistic timeline
   You are probably going to spend more time fund-raising, than you are building the water project. Consider the logistics of your projects and how that affects its completion. How long will it take you to finish appropriate paperwork, if any? Are you going to need a team of people for this project, and how long will it take for you to recruit them, train them and bring them up to speed? What other priorities do you have in your life? Does the project timeline coincide with your travel schedule?
6. Have a manageable budget
   If your water project costs, say, a million dollars, chances are slim that you’ll be able to raise that amount in three months (unless of course, you already had the funds in your sofa, or you are related to the Gates family). It’s one thing to have step 1-5 planned out, but without a budget, your project most likely isn’t going to flow. Also, make sure it’s a budget that’s easily attainable — either through traditional fund-raising, investments, personal funds, or a combination of the above. If steps 1-5 are planned appropriately, by the time you get to step six, you will find that the budget required for the project is well within reach.
7. Use local capacity
   The use of local capacity means making every effort to utilize all available local resources (i.e., materials, labor, management, etc.). Unless you are a member of that community’s Diaspora, chances are you won’t be spending your whole life on this project, nor are you living in the same community. Consider what will happen when you leave. Who will take ownership of the project? Who is going to fix the well when it breaks down? Better yet, who knows how to fix it when it’s broken. Make sure the parts and supplies can be created or sourced locally; that includes local fix-it people. Don’t pull a Chinese and import your crew of consultants, technicians, and day laborers whose only task is pounding nails. Do make an effort to train willing individuals in areas where they may be lacking. Knowledge transfer is not only huge, but critical if your project is going to be sustainable over a long period of time.
8. Manage Expectations
   There’s nothing worse than promising Evian water, but delivering puddle water. Consider that the people you are helping are already in a desperate situation. If things were great, you wouldn’t be thinking of doing a project for them. All things considered, it’s better to be realistic with what it is that you can deliver. Do this in step one, and at every encounter with your recipients. Do be honest with them not only about the benefits, but the challenges you will face in bringing your project to fruition. If the project fails to come to fruition, at least they know you didn’t just abandon them. They will have information on the trials and tribulation of bringing that particular project, in that community, to fruition. This way, if someone else more capable comes along at a later point, they’ll hear all about it if they start at step one.
9. It’s OK to say no
   It’s inevitable that in the middle of your project you are going to identify cracks in the cement within your target community. And you are going to want to help. Here’s a hint. Don’t. Yes, it’s cruel. The reality being that if you help them too, what about everybody else? If you are already there doing a project, chances are, there are a lot more problems in that community, many beyond your reach or expertise and certainly outside the scope of your project. If it doesn’t conform to steps 1-5 on this list, let someone else do it. You have your hands full already. As in step eight, be honest with yourself and those you are helping. You are there to do a specific project within a specified amount of time, with a specific budget. There’s always going to be a subset of people that are beyond the scope and reach of any particular project. And that’s not your responsibility.
10. Don’t be afraid to bend the above rules
    Okay this sounds hypocritical, I know, but think about it. When has any recipe for success ever been followed to the letter? Every sauce requires adjustments, likewise, every project is a different monster with it’s own complexities and exceptions. If our Women of Kireka project can make an exception by considering the merits of helping Amos, perhaps there’s someone on the fringe that can benefit from you bending your rules a little. Just remember to consult step three carefully before you embark on any rule-bending.

So there you have it. A short guide to getting your very-own International Development project under way. It’s not the ultimate guide, but we hope with your input, it’ll grow up to be the über-guide to ID projects. And if it all seems too daunting and discouraging; take a deep breath, relax, and approach it one step at a time.