Congratulations to Ushahidi as this excellent African project has won first prize at the Net Squared Challenge competition. This is one huge prize and just shows what can be done with little resources - where there is a will there is a way. They project now has $25,000 so there is no telling where this project will end.

Read more about the project and the prize at White African………..

Tags:
Ushahidi
Web 2.0 + Africa
Kenya

The Ushahidi engine is being used to map xenophobic attacks in South Africa at the “United For Africa” website

Tags:

Xenophobia + South Africa
Ushahidi

W.TEC launched the Networking For Success Project in Lagos, Nigeria……….Future projects need online volunteers to act as mentors, and cash, books, software, computers. Contact W.TEC via their website.

The Networking for Success project will teach women how to use Web 2.0 tools and other ICTs to effectively develop and advance their work. Participants will learn how to use these tools to initiate and manage projects; as well as identify networking opportunities with other organisations.

Blogger, Rosemary Ekosso’s novel “House of Fallen Women” is published by Langaa RPCIG in Cameroon. Also the African Books Collective now has a RSS feed or you can subscribe to email updates.

House of Falling Women is a powerful story about the oppressive weight and irrationality of tradition, gender and class inequality, a desperate yearning for freedom and dignity, and a journey of self discovery, empowerment, and redemption.”

The Struggle for the City on mass evictions in India resulting in thousands of “conservation refugees”.

While many governments now involve indigenous groups in environmental conservation, India is on the verge of creating what might become the largest mass eviction for conservation ever. Groups like India’s Adivasis have come to be called “conservation refugees.” But many conservationists now say conservation initiatives are doomed to fail without them.

This reminds me of the eviction of thousands of Basarwa people from the Kalahari Game Reserve by the Botswana government to make way for diamond mines and more recently to make way for tourists… More here.

Two new Palestinian initiatives - Palestine Think Tank and Yalla Palestine both started by Haitham Sabbah and friends.

The Palestine Think Tank is a

site containing news, analysis, art and more to further the cause of justice for Palestinians. It concentrates on many aspects of the resistance, but also focuses on the issues affecting the entire Middle East. ………. Contributors include Khalid Amayreh, Ramzy Baroud, Adib Kawar, Ernesto Paramo, Wael Al Saad, Nadia Hasan, Iqbal Tamimi, Richard Jones, Nahida Izzat, Razan Al Ghazzawi, Khaled Islaih, Steve Amsel, Ben Heine

Yalla Palestine is a social bookmarking site for Palestinian news. I liked this short piece on the Nakba from Desert Peace “Palestine Remembered - 60 Years Later”

“We came and turned the native Arabs into tragic refugees. And still we dare to slander and malign them, to besmirch their name. Instead of being deeply ashamed of what we did and trying to undo some of the evil we committed … we justify our terrible acts and even attempt to glorify them.”

Tags:

Web 2.0 + Nigeria
Conservation Refugees
Botswana
India
Palestine

At the beginning of a project like this the technology portion can seem to be the hardest to get off the ground. In the end, it’s just the tool, and the hard work will come from people in the field who are working with NGO’s to keep this information accurate and to chronicle as much of it as they can. If you want to help, get in touch with Daudi or Ory to get started.

When all the dust settles from this in Kenya, don’t be one of the ones saying, “I should have done something”.

Tags:
Kenya
Ushahidi

Cross Posted from Kabissa Blog

Two weeks into the Kenyan post election crisis has seen a range of technological initiatives being applied by advocacy groups, Kenyan bloggers and human rights organisations.

In an environment of fear and violence with many businesses closed and little or very expensive transport how do you communicate with friends and family? How do you send and receive money when banks and other financial businesses such as Western Union offices are closed? The simple answer is the ubiquitous mobile phone. One activist (for purposes of his personal safety we cannot mention his name) wrote how he was able to distribute a donation of money by purchasing phone credits and dispersing them to colleagues in need. One person in Eldoret needed money for transport, others could not get to a Western Union paypoint to receive funds and so on. He was then able to phone all of his colleagues and ensure they had cashed in their credits and were safe.

One innovative way of using technology was suggested by Kenyan blogger, Ory of Kenyan Pundit and taken up by White African in his post “Using Technology to Chronicle incidents of Violence.” The idea is to use Google maps to create a mashup which would be used to indicate the locations were violence is taking place. The location would be marked, with in this case, a red flame which would reveal the details of the violence in text form.

With this in mind White African and others have put together a dedicated site called USHAHIDI. The site will be having an SMS feature as soon as possible PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD……

[Ushahidi] is a tool for people who witness acts of violence in Kenya in these post-election times. You can report the incident that you have seen, and it will appear on a map-based view for others to see. Ory and Daudi are working with local Kenyan NGO’s to get information and to verify each incident.

One excellent resource has been created by Worknets a global community Wiki site. They have a series of dedicated spaces which provide a resource of new sites and bloggers, action alerts, commentary and chat rooms by and for Kenyans.

Pambazuka News which last week published a special issue on Kenya has created an Action Alert blog to provide up to date alerts and news on the Kenyan crisis. In addition a number of Facebook groups have been created such as Peace for Kenya and Kenya’s Post Election Humanitarian Crisis.

Tags:

Kenya + Elections
Technology Africa
Kenya Bloggers
Mobile Phones
Google Maps
Work Nets