April/May 2004
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1.
Africa Report: Getting Back to the Root
2 . Construction of Unity Center in Kenya
3 . OVF Youth Kenya Students
Take First Place in Contest
4. Africa Open Source Conference
Report
5 . Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima to and Ingrid
Kloet to Attend AIDS 2004 Conference in Bangkok
6 . AIDS 2004 Pre-Conference Workshop Serves
as a Test-case Demonstrating the Relevance
of ICT in the Fight Against AIDS
7 . One World Beat and Act Alive raising awareness
about AIDS
8 . Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness
Conference
9 . oneVillage Networked Meetings and Conferences
10 . About us
11. What you can do
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OVF Africa Updates
Africa Report: Getting Back
to the Root
OVF President and Founder Joy Tang has recently
completed a trip to Ghana and Burkina
Faso. On April 2, Joy Tang arrived in Accra
and met with the OVF Ghana team. They then went on
whirlwind tour meeting with leading officials in Kumasi
and Winneba including University
of Education and local government officials
as well as members of a local farmer’s cooperative.
This trip has moved us forward in expanding readiness
for the full implementation of the oneVillage
Initiatives in Ghana.
More on the Getting
back to the Root
Ground Broken on Construction of Unity Center
in Kenya
OVF Kenya is setting up a multi-purpose,
innovative and all-inclusive Information and
Resource Center on the shores of Lake-Victoria,
in Mbita in Nyanza Province. This site will
be the headquarters for the Grassroots Underpinnings
Poverty Nutrition Open and Distance Learning and Women
(GRASSUP NOW) program. This program provides a platform
for bringing together partners from all walks of life
to address outstanding problems at the community level.
Recently work has focused on completing the roof of
the first building.
More on
Kenya Unity Center
OVF Youth Kenya Students Take First Place
in Contest
Recently the OVF Kenya Youth completed their
open and distance learning program with the Global
Education Initiative. This involved the creation
of a power point presentation titled: H20
Purification Business Plan (download).
The culmination of this program involved the competition
of their presentation with 15 other GEI hubs around
the world in which the OVF Kenya team won first prize
in the competition. This program provided a wonderful
experience for the students to learn computer skills
in an environment where such tools are very scarce
and in high demand. We are inspired by the effort
of the students and the eloquence as well as that
of Francis Opiyo the instructor.
Francis’ dedication and commitment to the students
has helped make this program a success and is reflected
in his words: “Community building must become
the heart of any school improvement effort. 'To cope
with a changing world, an entity must develop the
capacity of shifting and changing - of developing
new skills and attitudes; in short, the capability
of learning. It is today that we create the world
of the future.” We are now working to expand
this program and create a new hub in Ghana.
Africa Free and Open Source Software Conference
Report
The meeting was a gathering of over 60 software
developers from across the whole world as well as Africa.
The event provided OVF with an opportunity to acquire
more knowledge and to identify social enterprise needs
for collaborative development in relation to the Free
and Open Source Software (FOSS). OVF Nigeria
Director Olaposi Abiola was able to discuss the challenges
of open source software development in Africa especially
in West Africa and shared practical tips and techniques
with open source development leaders in Africa. He had
a chance to meet with Ben Akoh who
is IT project Coordinator for the
Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA)
and introduced the Onevillage Foundation program to
him.
More on Open
Source Conference Report
Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima and Ingrid Kloet
to Attend AIDS 2004 Conference in Bangkok
Dabesaki
Mac-Ikemenjima, facilitator of the AIDS2004Youth
Group has been preparing for the Bangkok
2004
15th International Conference on AIDS. He recently
qualified for a full scholarship to go to the conference.
He has also worked with Fred Mednick
of Teachers
Without Borders to found Students
Without Borders inspiring young people through
hands-on-service/learning projects, helping them to
understand the importance of cooperation and building
relationships with each other and the larger communities
of which they are a part. Through this process, they
use their achievements at the local level to educate
other young people across the world.
Ingrid Kloet, a senior advisor of AIDS2004Youth will
also be attending. She will participate in a skills
building and leadership workshop with 3 other persons,
Andrew Doupe from UNAIDS-Geneva, and Julian V Hows from
the UK, Deloris Dockery from GNP-NA Newark. A major
goal of her organization Planet
Poz is to construct the Little Lambs and
ANFORD (African Nations Foundation
for Rural Development)
orphanage for AIDS children in Nakuru, Kenya.
She will also be presenting the "Hands Project"
panel made by the children at the Little Lambs program
in Nakuru, last fall when she and her husband, Steve
Garrett, went to visit. The "Hands Project"
originated in Thailand, and the creator (Jose
Luis Cano) is a good friend of theirs. It involves
making a picture (on cloth or paper) using the colorfully-painted
handprints of people affected by HIV/AIDS, who then
sign their names underneath their prints. Very simple
yet powerful, and creates a great feeling of connection
and community.
Collaboration and Alliance
Building
One World Beat and Act Alive raising awareness
about AIDS
Janet Feldman is an incredible networker who is dedicated
to figuring out how to use the arts to promote social
change through One World Beat, an international
music festival, and ActALIVE, a group
she founded. Janet looks forward to working with oneVillage
Foundation on projects related to arts and culture,
integrating these into our ICTs-oriented and human-development/eco-living
projects, plans, and visions. Through her work in these
groups, and her generous sharing of her work and dedication
with us, we are moving rapidly forward to develop the
culture and tradition part of our oneVillage program.
One
World Beat ("Music Making A Difference")
is an annual international music festival that seeks
to unite an all-volunteer force of musicians, nonprofits,
activists, and humanitarians from all walks of life
to raise awareness about and funds for causes such
as HIV/AIDS, children's literacy, and poverty-alleviation.
In March 2004, the festival featured 160 events in
45 countries.
ActALIVE,
or "Arts for Creative Transformation:
Activism, Lifeline, Inspiration, Vision, Education",
was founded in 2002 in response to coming across so
many people and organizations worldwide using the
arts as "edutainment".
ActALIVE is a networking device for individuals and
groups who use the arts to address HIV/AIDS and other
human-development challenges. ActALIVE
is gearing up to create individual and joint grant
and project opportunities for its members, and hopes
to make the arts as "edutainment" an invaluable
tool for sustainable social-change and the enhancement
of health and general well-being for all. To subscribe
send a blank email to [email protected].
Ecology and Sustainability
Socially Conscious Investing and the Redefinition
of Profit
In our first newsletter, we explored the
notion of profit in our interview
with Professor Akiwowo. Western societies
tend to define profit in terms of how much money one
makes without really looking into the quality of life
issues that make for a prosperous lifestyle. The assumption
is that if you have money you will have happiness.
More and more people are challenging this assumption.
Socially conscious investment expert Frank
Dixon spoke at the March
Green Century Salon in San Francisco about his
work with a fund management company called Innovest.
His company is developing advanced socially and ecologically
conscious screening criteria for mutual funds, looking
into how socially conscious investing strategies can
not only but extended out to developing countries
but how we can also learn from indigenous cultures
about what it means to live profitable and prosperous
lives. One example he noted of this blending of indigenous
and modern values was Bhutan’s Gross
National Happiness Index, which combines
spirituality with the secular science of technology.
More on Gross
National Happiness and Socially Conscious Investing
oneVillage Networked
Meetings and Conferences
OT22: Creating Community August 24 -
27, 2004 at Findhorn
Community in Scotland
The International OT (Organizational
Transformation) Creating Community Event
is a gathering of professionals who work towards changing
and transforming organizations through a process of
mutual learning, development and support. John
Adams of World
Cafe will be coordinating this event, incorporating
his World Café charette session methodology
as part of a process to explore and deepen our understanding
and experience of Community. Participants in this
workshop will co-create the flow
of events and topics within the overall theme asking
questions like:
1. What does ‘Community’ mean to you?
How does it inform and impact your work?
2. How can leaders build community within their organizations
and why would they want to?
3. What defines and builds a Community; Shared values
and principals? Geography? Common task?
4. What can technology contribute to ‘creating
community’?
More on this event
Permaculture Workshop in Tlholego Ecovillage
- South Africa - November 8-13
NextAid, an LA-based organization, is coordinating
a permaculture workshop at
Tlhelego Ecovillage for people who wish to learn
about sustainable solutions and to help children orphaned
by AIDS. Led by New Zealand born permaculture expert
Robina McCurdy, along with Paul Cohen, founder of
the Rural Educational Development Corporation, kids
from Youth With A Vision (YWAV), their caretakers,
and others, will explore the fundamentals of permaculture
design, specifically addressing issues of rural development.
The curriculum will include a combination of the following
workshop topics and tailored to our group: The Instant
Organic Garden, Sustainable Landuse Faciliation Techiuqes,
The Holistic Goal-Setting Process, and Sustainable
Social Organization. Cost for the 5 day workshop including
room and board for yourself, while subsidizing a teen
from YWAV is $750. For more information, go to www.nextaid.org
or contact Lauren Segal at [email protected].
About us:
The one Village Foundation seeks to assist people
in Africa in overcoming the AIDS pandemic by addressing
immediate needs such as in the construction of treatment
centers and orphanages, while also providing a proactive
and whole systems platform to promote sustainable
development in Africa…and beyond. We seek to
promote social enterprise solutions that integrate
ICT with sustainable development in both developing
and developed regions of the world. We are dedicated
to increasing collaboration and access to ICT in under-served
communities all over the world as part of a process
of building local problem-solving capabilities, and
increasing the level of economic opportunity for all
who share our commitment to socially conscious and
sustainable economic development.
What you can do:
1. Make a donation
to the oneVillage Foundation.
2. Send us comments, news or relevant events.
3 . Subscribe to this monthly newsletter by sending
an email to:
[email protected] and write subscribe in the
subject line.
Write, email or call us at the oneVillage Foundation:
102 Ballatore Court
San Jose CA 95134
Voice: 408.435.0775
Fax: 408-351-8887
[email protected]
http://www.onevillagefoundation.org
http://www.onevillage.biz
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