Rwanda investing in transforming education through computers
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | 3 Comments
Rwanda is investing in bringing computers into the country’s classrooms through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. The goal is to give half of the country’s 2.5 million school children access to a laptop within two years from now, reports TIME Magazine.
The pilot program in Rwanda finished earlier this year, and the country is now planning on investing and distributing another 100 000 laptops, costing around 180 USD each, within a year. The OLPC project is the vision of MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte (read more about his ideas about transforming education through computer access here). The concept is to provide more kids with computer access through a specially developed, low-cost laptop.
OLPC has so far distributed more than 1,4 million laptops in 35 countries, and Rwanda is the poorest country yet to invest in the project. The results in Rwanda will most likely be of great importance for the future of OLPC. The investment in computers for Rwanda’s children is seen by many as part of President Paul Kagame’s vision of the country’s future as Africa’s technological hub. The landlocked country has few natural resources, and currently only 7% of the population has access to electricity.
Read more here.
Source: TIME Magazine.
Written by Fanny Johansson
Team from Pakistan Won My Mobile My Life Case Competition
Posted on | August 31, 2010 | 2 Comments
A team of MKFC students from Pakistan has won My Mobile My Life case competition in Tornio, Finland. My Mobile My life event took place in the peaceful surroundings of Tornio, northern part of Finland. MKFC and Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences Finland organized this event to support and encourage the new developments in mobile technologies. Many researchers and practitioners came together to find out new, simple, innovative mobile solution and authentic practices that have positive impacts on human life. More than 70 participants from 12 different nationalities joined this event. MKFC students Qaiser Maqbool Khan, Babar Maqbool Khan and Ayesha Babar has won My Mobile My Life case competition, their area of mobile solution development was health. They created a mHealth model to spread the awareness among people about basic health, cleanliness and hygiene issues through mobile phones together with web technologies. Their model has been considered to be best on the basis of efficiency, high accessibility, ease of use, sustainability, and cost effectiveness. The pilot study was implemented in the suburbs of Multan, Pakistan.
Tags: case competition > MHealth > mobile solutions > Tornio > welfare for all
We need to make the changes ourselves! Social enterprise is the solution!
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 5 Comments
Today we listened to and meet Peter Shrimpton during a breakfast meeting at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Peter Shrimpton is one of South Africa’s leading social entrepreneurs. He is the founder and CEO of Heart and has developed several business models based on profitability by great social enterprise.
Peter told his the story of how he saddled from the financial community to social enterprising and became one of the most successful in the field! It was very inspiring and we learned a lot to take back to our own organization!
Heart transform quality of life by creating, incubating and establishing social enterprises that work long term.
It is our vision and vocation to bring about social transformation by creating sustainable social enterprises i.e. market-based solutions to social problems. We are the nexus between social entrepreneurs needing capital and support to develop their social enterprises, and social investors seeking financial and social returns.
From Heart Homepage
Much was discussed about government’s role in social development. Much of government funding for social work is given to aid organizations, but in order to make sustainable social development enterprise and entrepreneurship needs to be involved. On the other hand, many big cooperate buisness dosen’t care that much about social development. Social entepraises dosen’t get fundings from goverments and risk capitalists and companies sees to many risks in investments in social entepraises. To get governments to understand how to work with social entrepreneurship is the challenge, because many still works with aid organisations and similar. But aid organizations are depended on fundings, this needs to be transformed to a buisness potential instead. Social enterprise is the solution to many development problems and can create a sustainable business for charities, Peter Shrimpton says.
We think that this session gave many perspectives about how different actors can reach more social entrepreneurship and enterprises. If all understand the aims, all things are possible. We know this from our courses and projects here in Stockholm College! Welcome to contact us for more information.
Later today he will speak at the World trade day in Stockholm. This video is an interview from World Forum 2009.
Mobile phones and news journalism in Africa
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 2 Comments
Four in 10 people in Africa own a mobile phone – and the use of mobiles, particularly for news journalism, is in many ways ahead of the West, reports The Guardian.
Since internet penetration is still rather limited in many parts of Africa (although rapidly growing), mobile phones play an even more important role and is being increasingly used as an important broadcast device for news. News can be sent out as text messages and serve as an important addition to radio news, especially in rural areas where newspapers are not commonly read.
Read the entire article here.
Source: The Guardian.
Written by Fanny Johansson
eCap Ghana at International Conference on African Culture and Development
Posted on | August 23, 2010 | No Comments
MKFC Stockholm College Ghanian partner eCap Ghana will present their work about “ Through educating the community of the importance of healthy living and the benefit of education” at ICACD 2010.
The conference would be organized in Kumasi Ghana from 14th to 17th of November 2010.
The conference celebrate the golden Jubilee of more than seventeen African countries this year the conference has chosen the theme dubbed Post Independence Africa -Cultural Imperatives for Development.
eCap Ghanas presentation has also been selected among the few to be published in the first Culture and Development Journal of Africa which will cover 23 African countries with Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Sierra Leone as the focal countries.
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