World school task - Myrthe, Nelleke and Anouk
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At this moment, there are two groups from the Netherlands, working on a hiv/aids and malaria task for HAU and the world school. This task was created for them to introduce themselves and keep us updated. We felt it was possible to have two groups working on a task like this, as there are several schools in Kisozi and we can divide the materials the two groups come up with among the schools in Kisozi.
Project: Supporting Orphans in Kisozi
Good Idea Esther, however, the only problem that i have seen with Nabuur, is the inability of coming together to find a permanent solution among us who need this platform most. The world school idea is brilliant,and it applies to all Africa. So what happens when someone in Ghana has the same brain storm, they redo the whole idea again for another village. I think with major ideas, we ought to acknowledge the people who come up with them and then spread them for a greater good. For example the materials used by schools in Kisozi, since are in english, can be used by schools in Uganda as a whole, even for a small licence fee so that Kisozi reaps the benefits of the idea.
All projects on here will at one time run a poultry or pig keeping project and finances will be given for each project in varrying amounts. Given the different areas forexample in Uganda, nusery banks should be created at one time so that the matter is sorted for good and we can then all concetrate on other problems in the villages. Forexample, when my poultry project starts in january after six months for people in central Uganda or a village next to mine, can get something like 500 chicks to start that project and after that same period they can offer another village the same and incase of problems occur,then the contigency plans comes in place. By creating a solidarity and championing our cause we may actually market the produce together. I think we would all be left with monitoring the progress of the projects and would have ruled out some of the initial start up costs.
Another point is actually water appears to be a vital problem. How about we consider buying simple hand well drilling kits that can be used by different villages. We can actually buy them or get a person good at working with scrap metal to make them. I have been researching about this lately and realised that well as it may cost between £300 and £600 to dig a well on contracting a company in the vilage or a village contractor, a hand drilling kit may cost about the same amount and may dig 5 or more wells. The only costs left would be for pipes and etc which may be only £50. And these costs may actually be affordable by the village.
These are only my humble suggestions, let me know what you think.
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Yours in Service
JIS Birungi
Hi Joanne,
I have read your two posts in the world school task with great interest. I totally agree with you on everything you say!
I think the worldschool is great, as I believe that when we as the people that lead the projects, the people at the worldschool and the pupils' teachers at school guide the youngsters working on the tasks carefully, those young people can come up with really good things. And of course, it needs those youngsters to be motivated to do the tasks too.
I agree that sometimes it seems as if people try to invent the things that have already been invented before. I think too that the people on the ground, need to work together if possible. Giving money here and there to individual projects only helps that certain project for a short while. The key is to set something up through which that project can sustain. The nursery bank idea is a good one, but I wonder if those are things that need to be set up by the government or local council or other officials or who ever needs to be in charge of that in Uganda or among projects themselves. And sometimes people need to join their forces on the ground.
Water is a problem everywhere indeed. Do you know whether other projects in Uganda would be interested in the idea you talk about?
Esther
Thanks Esther
In Uganda, the govt is doing a poverty alleviation project but the problem with all these aid projects is that the help rarely reaches those who need it. Forexample in many areas its the officials who take the money that was meant to buy seeds, and the mosqito nets donated end up in shops being sold at a price unaffordable by the person who was meant to have it for free. so what Nabuur is doing is the right way to go only it needs abit of readjustment to avoid being exploited.
The people on this platform have varrying qualifications, qualitites and experience which can be used for a greater good when used right from the grassroots. By using councils or something will mean having costs of paying the council workers, nothing for free. However, i believe this can be done among projects on Nabuur and its the responsibility of villages to make sure that also their neighbours succeed. I think, neighbours in the same country should have introductory meetings on ground where they get trained.
Here you can actually approach some govt organisations to offer some training where possible like NAADS. Each village representative must be equipped with basic skills from water harvesting, house building, planting trees or importance, sanitation and hygiene, sustainable agriculture and value addition.eg, Banana peels, corn cobs being used as briquettes. I appreciate that most people know these things but we have to make sure, that they can teach the people of their village to use whatever is available to them. New technologies keep being invented in various developing countries and through these meetings, even onine, they can be brought to the representatives to pass on to the village.
I know this may be hard considering transportation costs and all but meeting here proves atleast we all once in a while have access to the internet so if the various modules are set up and a representative (or two members of a village) has to take a set of tests every once in a while and show how those technologies are being applied to the village.
This will not only ensure progress of all villages on a similar scale per group but enables monitoring of the establishment of skills and a set of minimum standards they expect a village to achieve in the first year of joining Nabuur. I find that atimes people keep asking the same things but is combines together as a small module, they may have all they need eg, Ken's DVD is doing the agriculture job very well.
No, havent yet really looked but will see if any project needs a borehole too which am sure most do.
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Yours in Service
JIS Birungi
Hi Joanne,
oh you're right, councils will always ask quite a bit of money... thats true... And yes, I know that goods or help or money often ends up in the wrong place like you said.
I encourage the ideas you are talking about here, I think that projects can work together training people according to the needs of a project. I think someone or some people from those projects would have to come forward, take the initiative and monitor it. It is all about networking of course. I think too that regular trainings are important and contribute to the project leaders' skills.
I am sure too that most projects will need a borehole somewhere in their communities :)
Esther
Joanne,
Thank you very much for your input. I agree very strongly with what you are saying.
Can I ask why the hand drill kit only digs 5 or more wells? Does the equipment become worn? Do you have a link to some such kit? In Kimilili and other villages in Kenya they are having great difficulties with the persisting drought. At least, in Kimilili it looks as though water is available not very deep down (water officer came to inspect) and so it could be that a hand drill set would work. If I understood your idea, one village or two villages could buy a kit together and another 3-4 LRs from other villages would come to see how the kit was installed and how the drilling process worked (and help in the process). Then these 3-4 villages could join together an purchase hand drill kits and some other villages would help them... Is that how you see it?
I am presently trying to set up a small-scale green industry for making cooking fuel out of bio-waste. The resulting briquettes burn almost smoke-free and are make of maize or sugar cane waste. I got the idea here (http://www.appropedia.org/Corn_Cob_Charcoal_Crusher). I am presently at a veryvery initial stage of discussions with two departments at Markerere University. If all goes well, the university students will try to come up with some appropriate technology (corn cob crusher and briquette making press). Would you be willing to help coordinate a group of villages in Nabuur who could participate in such a project as you describe above?
Making the technology, finding the funding, organising the villages, educating through business workshops... it would all take quite a while (I would think at least a year before the first small-scale buinesses could start). Could you give this a thought and let me know, cbsmkenya at gmail dot com.
Thank you.
best regards,
Lia
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lilalia
Hi Lia, you are welcome, was just suggesting how best i think this platform could work for all and am glad some people see where am coming from.
For Hand drill kits do check out the links below for 2 options the DIY or complete kit.
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm
http://www.hydromissions.com/products.htm#drills
The hydromissions kit would do u as good if water table not very deep. I said five or more as some people i spoke too said not all sources of these kits provided quality kits inthat some didnt survive 3 drills however most problems occured with DIY Kits.
Yes, your suggestion good too but what i meant was given the circumstances that the villages couldnt afford to buy the kit, it would realy do all of us alot of good if a kit was fundraised for once in a country and a team trained for the village so if another village has need for it, it collects it, they are trained on job and after they return it, again if another village needs it, the later village offers the training then. I think its the least that villages can give back and all to be worried about financially would be transport to that village and pocket money to cater for food whilst they train. This way we can know who to contact when the job comes up and we are assured of the timescale in which the job will be done.
Yes, i dont mind cordinating the villages for the training at all. And the technology is really brilliant. However, if you are in Uganda next time , given that you have the plans for the press or crusher, ask whoever you are with to drop you by "Musa Body University" in Katwe, Kampala. Those young men are innovative and can actually end up doing the trials using their own materials as long as they are the ones to sell the finished product if it works. I believe they may be less red tape with them and it may take less time to get the product out there. Contact Musa Wakabi-0772921825. its not literary a university but one of Ugandas best appropriate technology workshops. Keep the university project also going so that you can see the technology they will use too. You may find that one is cheaper than the other. Any benefit will be for the user.
All the best.
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Yours in Service
JIS Birungi
I clicked on the link you supplied - and find the corn/waste crushing a fascinating project. How is it going??? Is it something the Wakitaka Youth could help with? Emmanuel studies in Kampala - and perhaps this is a project he could bring back to the village?
Thank you and Regards,
-
Ginger :)
The power of Video DVDs. Ken H
The power of video to trigger innovation: rice processing in central Benin
Espérance Zossou, Paul Van Mele, Simplice D. Vodouhe and Jonas Wanvoeke
Understanding how to stimulate innovation among farmers and processors is crucial for attaining sustainable agriculture. To explore how farmer-to-farmer learning videos and training workshops changed women's rice processing practices, we interviewed 200 women and 17 women's groups in 20 villages in central Benin, including four villages which had received no intervention at all.
Video on improved rice parboiling (a process whereby paddy is pre-cooked by steam without touching the water) had reached three times more women (74%) than hands-on training workshops organized by local NGOs and contributed to more equitable knowledge sharing within communities. In the villages where the NGOs had shown the video, 24% of the women started to use the improved parboiler equipment individually and 56% collectively within their group, compared to none in the control villages. About 92% of the women who attended both video and workshops developed creative solutions based on the idea of pre-cooking paddy with steam, compared to 72% for those who learned only through video.
Fewer women innovated after learning through workshops only (19%) and after being informed by their peers (15%). Video watching also made women pay attention to reducing the loss of steam and to use local resources innovatively to conserve energy. More than 90% of the women who watched the video improved the quality of their parboiled rice, for example, by removing dirt, washing rice several times and drying rice on tarpaulins.
Workshops stimulated innovations less than video did. Farmer-to-farmer video has great potential to enhance sustainable agriculture by encouraging local innovations. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 7 (2009) 119–129
Video key to agricultural innovation in Africa
Two-thirds of rural women creatively applied ideas illustrated by videos demonstrating improved food processing techniques compared to less than 20%t who attended training workshops
Conventional media, radio and video, are powerful, accessible and relevant forces of agricultural innovation and transformation in Africa than usually considered, a study published in this week’s issue of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability reveals.
The study undertaken by the Africa Rice Center and Benin’s University of Abomey however finds that the power of video programming is not adequately recognized and accorded due attention by Africa’s policy-makers, stifling its potential to unleash farmer innovations.
“Farmers’ innovations are often shaped by capital limitations and mainly rely on locally available resources, of which knowledge is a key one,” says Paul Van Mele, a scientist at the Africa Rice Center. “Video proved a powerful, low-cost medium for farmer-to-farmer extension and to expose rural communities to new ideas and practices.”
Titled The power of video to trigger innovation: rice processing in central Benin, the study examined the impacts of educational videos featuring early-adopting farmers demonstrating the use of new technologies and techniques. The study found that when women watched videos featuring fellow farmers demonstrating new techniques, they showed better learning and understanding of the technology and creatively applied its central ideas.
Innovation levels of 72 percent were recorded in villages where women were introduced to improved rice processing techniques by videos compared to 19 percent among farmers who had attended training workshops. When women who had attended training workshops watched the videos, the innovations recorded shot up to 92%.
Indeed, the study found that watching videos spurred greater innovation than did conventional farmer training techniques. Notably high levels of creativity (67%) were recorded among women who did not have access to the rice processing technology featured in the video.
“The adaptations by Benin women to improve rice processing after having watched the video illustrate the power of video to quickly stimulate creativity among rural people, who are often seen as much more passive technology consumers,” says Van Mele. “Besides being more powerful, video was also able to reach more people than conventional training workshops.”
Drawing lessons from a similar rural learning initiative undertaken in Bangladesh, the Africa Rice Center with a wide range of partners is using local language videos to train farmers on various facets of rice production and processing in Benin, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, among other countries.
By last year, the rice videos had been translated into 20 African languages, and were being used by more than 400 community-based organizations across Africa to strengthen their own capacity in rice technologies.
The videos, which are disseminated through mobile cinema vans or local organizations, have been viewed by about 130,000 farmers across Africa unleashing their creativity, reaching thrice as many farmers as do face-to-face farmer training workshops.
In order to effectively capitalize on the potential of video technologies in Africa, the study recommends broadening the common outlook on innovations beyond the traditional research and extension systems to include localized farmer innovations too. “Local innovations better reflect the realities of rural people than do outside techniques,” say the study authors. www.AfricaRiceCenter.org
¡The 2 billion people in the world, millions in USA, who cannot read and write, can learn by watching and listening on a computer or a laptop or a DVD player! [KH]
greetings in the name of jesus christ
iam sam doing social work among tribal people in tamil nadu in india
the tribals have no transportation facility current no mode of communication is proper to get drinking water they have to walk for 5 to 7 kms no school in area so we have started a nursery school further education children have to walk for 48 kms sodo help for our social work and supports thank you
Hi Everybody,
We are Myrthe, Anouk and Nelleke; 3 stundents at Cals College Nieuwegein.
This is our senior year which means that we have to make a big final 'essay/report' on
any topic we are interested in.
We chose to join World School and start on one of the subjects.
This would enable us to make a report and at the same time to do
something good for children in other countries.
We know that AIDS is a big problem in Africa and that this is mainly because
of the lack of knowledge of this particular disease.
Our plan is to make little booklets for the children so that they can learn
something about AIDS and at the same time have something valuable of their own.
Do you have any tips concerning our idea? Is there anything you would like to know about us or the project?
Please answer us.
Kind regards,
Anouk, Myrthe and Nelleke
Hello Myrthe, Anouk and Nelleke,
Here are some simple tips for your idea:
- for printed communication in text, the target population must be literate
- the communication must be in the language which the target population understands
- the matter to be communicated must connect with the social values of the target population
Vijai
Thanks girls for introducing yourselves here.