From Creative Radio Listserv
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creative-radio/
On Wednesday 02 February 2005 21:04, George Lessard wrote:
Lifeline radios are the windup radios from http://www.freeplayfoundation.org/
Ed Girardet, just back from Aceh and once again in Kabul.
I am in the process of reporting a piece for the December 2005 edition of National Geographic on Frontline Aid workers: who are they and why do they do it? This will also explore key issues of humanitarian aid in the 21st century plus how aid has changed over the past 25-30 years.
Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist <http://www.ryze.com/go/Cherlin> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One major way it has changed is represented by National Geographic's partnership with Novica to sell art and craft items from developing countries through their eBay store and their own Web site, http://www.novica.org. eBay, Overstock.com, and other sites are major outlets for tens of thousands of individual producers
in dozens of countries. Overstock.com was certified last year as
the largest employer in Afghanistan.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63932,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
Instead of the five cents an hour that you hear about for child labor in rug factories in Asia, these sellers get about 70% of the final selling price.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's IT Challenge to Silicon Valley
http://news.com.com/2010-1069-964507.html?tag=lh
points out that low-cost computers and wireless can let developing economies leapfrog the conventional development process. This idea is gaining wider acceptance in the response to the tsunami.
The other leg of the new approach is microbanking and village banking, which raise large numbers of people out of poverty (as locally defined) every year, enabling many to escape crippling lifelong debt for as little as $20.
When you put e-commerce, computers and wireless, and microbanking together, you have the platform for delivering health care information, educational materials, economic opportunities of many kinds, and much more to villages that can now afford them.
The whole enterprise can be carried out at a profit to the villagers, the suppliers, and the microbanks, so once we get properly started we won't have to wait for funding from governments, foundations, and individual donors. We still need to improve some of the software and the training programs for villagers, and create a lot of content for health care, education and so on in local languages, but we are ready to put all of the basic components together and start rolling out the program. I just wish we could have done it sooner.
Here are some other links for you. They, the Free Software movement, and e-commerce for developing countries represent the Best Practices I know of for aid in the 21st century.
Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka Five-stage program of village development, on Gandhian principles http://www.sarvodaya.org/
Partners in Health & Zanmi Lasanté, Haiti Free health care for 700,000 of the poorest people in the world, including HIV/AIDS and TB treatment http://www.pih.org/ See also Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder
Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria Computers, health, education, economic opportunity, and more http://www.fantsuam.org/
Global Catalyst Foundation, US and Tanzania Computers and communications in a refugee camp, connecting victims with family, friends, government services, and job opportunities http://www.global-catalyst.org/kasulu.htm
ITC e-choupal program One computer per village raises farm income significantly http://www.echoupal.com
Grameen Communications Village Computer and Internet Program http://www.cityshelter.org/08_itc/ex/10_itc_ex.htm
One particular question I am exploring is whether any serious efforts (within the first week or so) were made in Aceh, Sri Lanka etc. following the Tsunami to help inform affected populations. As far as I can gather, no wind-up radios etc were distributed in Aceh and apart from certain efforts by Internews to train local journalists, there was - and still is - no appropriate lifeline media/public awareness outreach aimed at informing the affected communities.
I have it on *my* list of appropriate technologies, along with Simputers and such, but the oneVillage Foundation, which I work with, is not in on the councils of the big NGOs. We are talking about such things with the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, which has one of the biggest reconstruction plans in the region, since it operates in about half of the villages in Sri Lanka.
The project would involve sending several volunteer wireless network engineers/designers/builders, and training villagers to do construction, installation, operation, and maintenance. Sarvodaya has been working for some time on Simputers and wireless for its village banking system.
We also have plans for satellite radio in local languages in Africa and elsewhere, using various receiving devices, in partnership with an organization currently doing much the same thing in Afghanistan. We and they would love to work on this.
Does anyone have any information on this? Ed Girardet Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I don't have information about lifeline radios, but I was at a
recent meeting of the Wireless Communication Association
International <http://www.wcai.com> about donations of emergency wireless communications equipment and planning for a wireless infrastructure that would both prevent such human tragedies in the future and serve as the infrastructure for economic development throughout the affected countries. Contact Olga Ranaweera <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for information on what has been donated to whom, and to get lifeline radios onto their agenda.
I have heard that many NGOs involved in the rescue and reconstruction have decided that restoring the villages to their former abject poverty will not do, and they, too, are thinking about putting some of the money they have received (more than US$1 billion) into such infrastructure, along with the programs
that could be delivered over the system.
An upcoming event where you should raise these issues is 1st Phuket International ICT Conference ICT Solutions for Disaster Recovery Management and Global Warning learning from tsunami 17-19 February, 2005, Phuket, Thailand http://www.reedtradex.co.th/phuketict/
Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist Encore Technologies (S) Pte. Ltd. The Village Information Society http://www.ryze.com/go/Cherlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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