So I left off my last post talking about my adventure into the heart of Africa. Well it has been a real adventure and I have collected lots of wonderful memories that I want to share. I have now arrived back home but let’s take a step back….

I am beginning my journey at the Toronto airport about to get on the biggest jet I have ever seen. It is a city in the sky with more than 600 passengers and crew. The only problem is that I have four flights in the next 48 hours to reach my destination of Juba, South Sudan.

After 12 hours of sleep and movies I first arrive in Dubai. I was excited to get to my hotel so that I could have a quick shower and a nap before I had to get back on a plane and head for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The hotel was very nice and from the -13 degree Celsius temperature I left in Canada, the 23 degree Celsius temperature in Dubai was like a dream. A short lived one though. I had about 5 hours to rest my head before I jumped aboard my next flight. I had a short layover in Addis before catching the next flight to Nairobi.

I can’t say much about Addis as I never even touched soil but what I saw was nice ?!?. I got a small glimpse out the airport window – and I have heard nice things… I guess I won’t count it as a country I have visited  On to Nairobi.

I was excited to reach Nairobi because I would be spending almost a full day there on my way through. I was staying at the Gracias Gardens, a lovely but small hotel complex not to far from the Plan office. The reason I was stopping in Nairobi was to pick up my permit for Sudan along with the equipment we would be using for the training I would be doing in Juba. I got a great night sleep and was able to charge all my electronics – a big plus.

I got up bright and early – about 5:00 AM – to catch my next flight to Juba. My boss was a little weary of the airline I was taking as she had never heard of it – but I am just crazy enough not to care. Turns out the flight is quite nice. Jetlink, look it up. I looked out the window as we got closer to the ground. I could see fairly clearly how endless the terrain looked and how sparse the human activity seemed. As we approached the runway I looked out over Juba which is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. The airport…not so much.

It is a rather old building in which the baggage is put on carts, normally attached to a truck or large golf cart, that are instead pushed and pulled by two young men. Everyone crowds around a whole in the wall where these men toss your bags through in order for you to claim them. After I get my bag I have to throw it up on the counter in order for the customs agent to inspect things. At this point the person who has been tasked with picking me up is in the ear of the customs agent telling him not to bother. He picked up the sweater on top of my bag and then moves on to the next bag. I think I could get used to traveling with Plan! We walk outside and the heat finally hits me. We are a long way from winter. We’re talking 43 degree, melt rubber, roast me, heat. I wipe my brow – multiple times and make my way for the respite of the vehicle. We jump in the Toyota LandCruiser and jack up the A.C. The driver tells me to expect this to be the coolest weather I see for the 8 days I am here. Ouch.

On our way into Juba I start to notice how different things are. The buildings, the people, the roads, the dirt. Different. Oddly enough though I don’t feel out of place or uncomfortable. It just feels like I am coming back, like I have been here before. I have read about, watched, and dreamed of this day that it feels natural to be living it.

The Holiday Hotel is in the heart of Juba. I will call this place home for the better part of my trip. I am half expecting a tent with communal bathroom facilities and a lovely mess hall where I can get food and bottled water (by the barrel if I can). What I get is a fully functioning hotel with a king size bed, air conditioning, full bathroom with warm running water, and a t.v. There is even a full on restaurant within the compound that serves everything you can think of – including ice cold….coke. I throw down my bags, jack up the a.c. and fall fast asleep. I can sleep in tomorrow as it is Sunday. You best believe I sleep in…until 12. But today isn’t all play, I am getting in a truck to head to prepare the first training site for Mondays workshop. Excited to be here. Little time to rest. Lots of work ahead.

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So if you have been following my twitter feed you probably know I am not in Kansas anymore. On the 10th of February, I stuffed my things in a bag and headed off for the continent of Africa with wide eyes and a bushy tail – ok not a bushy tail but definitely wide eyes.

I came for two reasons: 1. Work; and 2. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to take this adventure.

As part of my work with Plan Canada I was asked to visit our office in South Sudan to assist them in a communications project to help train youth in media production. This might sound like an odd use of time and money at first glance, but the reality is that it is a significant step to both involve young people in improving their communities and to provide young people with a skill set they can continue to use beyond the life of the project.

Young people represent a very important part of the community, and a very important part of understanding the issues that exist within a community and the solutions that exist to alleviate them. During the issue identification stage with a community Plan pays particular attention to ensure that children and youth play a significant role. While adults may often dance around an issue, or try to direct the process where they want, rather than where they need, children, without fail, are brutally honest about the issues that exist in their communities. Unfortunately their participation is not always encouraged by the elders of a community or they may face barriers such as language or the ability to read that prevent them from sufficiently participating. What we have found is that when we target these youth and provide them with both a camera and the training on how to use it, they can tell us exactly what is going on around them that affects their community. It breaks down their boundaries of communication.

So when I was asked to visit our project in South Sudan and conduct this training, I leaped at the opportunity. While this would be my first time to travel with this kind of responsibility, I knew it was something I could do well and learn a lot from. Now Juba, South Sudan isn’t the easiest place to visit – in fact, some of my colleagues thought I was a little crazy – but I figured I was up for the challenge.

In 2005, South Sudan ended a decades long civil war with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. During the period from 1983 to 2005 much of the infrastructure was reduced to rubble and many of the people fled to neighbouring countries. Once peace was finally determined the result was a fast influx of people coming back to what used to be their homes and communities with the hope of starting anew. What they have been met with is as difficult as any situation could be.

Plan has taken a lead on rebuilding some of the technical and vocational schools that once existed as well as target education at both the school level and the policy level. We have found that in situations of conflict a generation of young people are likely to have grown up without an education. Now in their teenage or early adult years, they return to their communities without education or skills to earn a living. When they can’t earn a living we know the crime rates will go up, and the impacts of poverty will sky rocket. Technical and Vocational Schools provide an opportunity for this group of people to acquire real world skills to help them earn a living and in some cases support their families. It fills the gap until the infrastructure is in place to begin supporting young people with a full education.

But work isn’t the only reason I got on the plane. The second reason I came was my desire to visit the continent of Africa. I can’t remember when it first became my dream but I do know that I was willing to do just about anything to get here. There is something about the sense of adventure and exoticness – and maybe just a bit, ok maybe a lot, to do with my imagination of a world so different from the one I spend my time in, that I couldn’t wait to step outside my comforts and test myself. Now Africa is a big continent with many countries which are vastly different from each other, but when one imagines Africa, they rarely imagine it being anything but one big place. My colleagues will likely mock me for that comment, but the reality is that most people have very little knowledge of the continent of Africa other than the bad things they see on the news, and the environment they see in National Geographic Magazine. So while I have had the opportunity to be educated about the many nuances of Africa, and even find myself in a line of work where it is absolutely necessary to discern the difference between Senegal and Somalia, I still couldn’t help but imagine the place I dreamed of as a child – where the danger of Africa was a thing of adventure.

So while I have come here for work I have managed to: fulfill a dream or two; test myself and prevail (thus far); and face some fears. As the better part of my adventure is behind me I can’t help but feel the same feeling I did the moment I stepped off the plane: I feel at home and I feel at peace. I wish everyone could have – or take – this opportunity. It really is the adventure of a lifetime.

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Over at Philanthropy 2173, Lucy wrote about a new website called Social Actions. The site is designed to “make it easy for you to make a difference.”

This is how they do it:
We help you find and share opportunities to change the world.

- First, we collect ways to get involved in the causes you care about from these 30+ action sources, including Care2, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, DemocracyinAction, GlobalGiving, Idealist, Kiva, SixDegrees and VolunteerMatch.

- Then, we make it easy for you to find these opportunities by presenting them in a user-friendly search engine.

- We also encourage nonprofits, companies, and third-party developers to create online tools that help you share ways for others to take action on your website, blog, or mobile device.

The web is becoming a series of social networks connected by social networks. If you, like me, have a tough time keeping up with the many social networks you take part in, you will find things like this extremely handy. While you will still need to log on to the individual sites to update your profile (this I predict will change in the new year) you can at least see if there is anything you find interesting at a glance with less effort to look for it. As they say – you can make a difference, they will make it easy.

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When I was on the school tour a couple of weeks ago with George, Eternia, Masia One and the crew from 411 Initiative for Change, we had some deep conversations on the road trip. We would talk about the best place to get a shwarma, what our favorite apple was, and the room service menus. Half joking. We also had a few serious moments that I found really interesting.

George had some very intelligent and intriguing things he had studied to talk about. One particular conversation has had me thinking ever since. He has always been very interested in the stars, as have I, so when the topic came up my ears perked up. He explained to us that destiny is written in the stars. I will try to condense and sum up the conversation:

According to the theory of light years depending on how far away a star is, by the time you see one or it reaches your eyes it no longer exists. In essence it is happening in the future. If there was a telescope that far away that could relay information back to earth then it could see things happening many ‘light years’ ahead or before they happened. The future exists and can be seen, unfortunately we just don’t have the ability to see it yet.

Now whenever you look up in the stars you can know you are looking at your future. I have always believed in destiny and now this just grounds it in a theory.

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If you are an MTV fan you may have caught a glimpse, or even the entire half hour, of the documentary that my employer Plan Canada developed with MTV. The show follows Diane as she travels to Colombia and follows a young girl as she deals with peace and conflict resolution, AJ in Sudan as a young woman stands up against the issue of early marriage, and finally, Nicole as she travels to Haiti and looks at Juvenile Justice. It is a really great piece of television that is unusual for MTV to produce. Kudos to them for recognizing the value of educational programming! In all seriousness the program gives a great glimpse of what it is like for girls around the world.

When statistics are examined, quite often it is broken down into male-female, or adult-child, but rarely does it go further to pull out the disparity in girl-boy. What the statistics show when one does is that the world is a very different place for girls and if we have any hope of achieving the millennium development goals by 2015, we need to pay special attention to the rights of girls. At Plan, and I apologize if it seems a bit like a marketing ploy since I work there, we have an advocacy campaign called “Because I am a girl” which targets the girl demographic and follows it to make sure our work impacts them positively. I know many other organizations are also doing similar things.

Girls are at a distinct disadvantage in the world and we can all play a roll in improving the world if boys and men treat the girls and women in their lives with the respect and dignity they deserve, and if girls and women respect themselves and those of their fellow gender. Around the world 1 in 3 women are physically or sexually abused – including here in Canada – which is a truly staggering amount. That is on men almost exclusively and something needs to be changed. Women also need to take an active roll in making people aware of the problem.

I hope I can continue to raise some of the particular areas that need awareness and that with any luck one of you will take an interest in one that is raised and then do something about it. Part of the distinct problem in the world is that people just don’t know the extent to which these problems persist. Just a little more discussion can go a long way.

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I heard about this great new game called Akoha by my friend Kevin. The more I think about it the more I am just blown away by the possibilities for it. I signed up for the Beta launch but I will have to wait until they let the next round of invites goes out. This is what the website has to say about the game:

Once upon a time…

In just a decade the Internet’s advances have made the world a better place. At Akoha, we want to take that a step further. With six billion people covering seven continents and five oceans, our planet is the ultimate playground, a place for real people to engage in meaningful interactions. Akoha was founded by Austin Hill and Alex Eberts, long-time friends and entrepreneurs. After attending the TED Conference in Monterey where the theme was “Ideas Big Enough to Change the World”, and the Sundance Film Festival where some of their friends were discussing movies that could make a difference, the two began a series of conversations about the future of online entertainment. These discussions about the power of online communities and the changing nature of play were the spark that led to Akoha.

If you are already a member then let me know what you think so far. I think this has the chance to be really special and I can’t wait to start. I was really hoping I could get it going in time for the holiday season but who knows. I will keep you posted!

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So you may have been missing me lately. I know I have missed posting! Well I was on a school tour for work throughout Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto and area. In total we visited 20 schools and made 22 presentations in two weeks. It was an intense 10 workdays! I was working from 5am to midnight some nights as I tried to keep up with everything. However, even with all this whining, it was an incredible experience. The tour was a presentation entitled “Girls Rights are Human Rights too” and just like it sounds it was about girls rights. The interactive, multimedia presentation included live performances by Masia One and Eternia, two female MC’s, and George, Toronto’s own music sensation. It was a mind blowing educational experience. It also included interviews that were done with three of the female MTV VJ’s (Nicole, AJ, and Diane). Plan Canada, my employer, took them to Haiti, Sudan, and Colombia to raise awareness about different issues affecting girls and what is being done.

The combination of artists and television personalities managed to keep the interest of the students for nearly an hour and a half, and many lingered around well afterwards to speak with the performers about the issues raised. It really showed the disconnect between regular educational presentations and one designed with young people in mind. There is no doubt that young people are bubbling with enthusiasm and passion for making a difference in the world. I think the issue is that not enough is done to stoke their fires. What I witnessed from young people during this presentation was deep feelings about these issues and that they were really just waiting for a reason to let it show. I can’t wait to see what will come of this new and renewed enthusiasm.

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A friend sent me this link the other day and I am just now getting around to looking at it. The tag line for Pop!Tech Hub is “a digital home base, where people come together to make change.” Sounds like a very interesting site! On the Hub, you can:

- Establish a personal profile, including a bio and photo, with complete and detailed privacy controls, and browse for new friends
- Join or start a new social group, post messages and share your thoughts with other members of the group
- Create, find, vote on, or join a collaborative project, or track it by its RSS feed
- Participate in a Resource marketplace, where you can offer resources to projects, or browse resources being offered by other members

There is also this to say about it:

The Pop!Tech Hub is a social network and collaboration platform for people interested in vanguard-edge emerging ideas, trends, tools, and technologies, and their application to significant social challenges. It’s open to everyone: past Pop!Tech participants, members of the online Pop!Tech community or anyone with an interest in social innovation. Here you will find people of many different disciplines and perspectives meeting, creating, tracking and evaluating projects; exchanging ideas; and working together on change initiatives of every scale.

Another online world for people to link into. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have previously written a post about this or are currently a member link back here and let me know what you think about it. I have joined but don’t have much time currently to surf around and get any idea what it is like.

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A friend turned me on to this art exhibit currently showing here in Toronto. If you are in the city or plan on coming through check it out. Here is what is available on the website:

Design for the Other 90%
Professional Gallery
Saturday October 4, 2008 to Sunday January 25, 2009
Opening Reception: October 4, 2008, 6:52 pm (coinciding with Scotiabank Nuit Blanche)

A touring exhibition organized by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
The OCAD Professional Gallery will host Design for the Other 90%, a collection of design solutions addressing the basic needs of poor and marginalized populations not traditionally serviced by professional designers.

The exhibition, organized by the New York-based Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and curated by Cynthia E. Smith, explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for the “other 90%” — that is, the 5.8 billion people (out of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion people) who have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted. Design for the Other 90% looks at how individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress — for example, nearly half of the other 90% do not have regular access to food, clean water, or shelter.

“Unconventionally, this exhibition highlights products that are economically self-sustaining, yet affordable to people living on a dollar a day — inexpensive irrigation systems for farming, for instance,” says Charles Reeve, Curator of the Professional Gallery. “The new forms of ingenuity here focus on pressing issues like poverty relief and environmental sustainability, both of which are key themes in what we teach and research here at OCAD.”

Launching as part of OCAD’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche programming, Toronto is the only Canadian stop for the touring exhibition, which is currently showing at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. An extensive website, including a blog, discussion forum and additional resources is available at http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/.

In addition to the exhibition at the OCAD Professional Gallery, the Design Exchange will present a complementary program of exhibits and events as part of Design for the Other 90%.
Gallery hours: Wed. to Fri., 1 to 7 p.m; Sat. and Sun., 12 to 6 p.m.

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I was put on to this initiative called Why Water? By answering 3 questions correct CIGNA, a US insurance and health care provider, will donate the equivalent of one day of water to Water For People. Water for People “helps people in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs. Check out the game and let me know what you think. It is not dissimilar to the freerice.com game that provides rice for every question answered correctly. While I have not seen any statistics of how much money has been made by these games, or the impact those funds have made, at the very least a few minutes of your time, time probably spent not doing anything productive, could make a real difference. Again, let me know what you think about these sorts of games.

***UPDATE***
I emailed someone in the know on this game and they had this to say about where the money is going:

“CIGNA has provided $50,000 to Water for People to administer the clean water program through the end of 2008, and to ensure the funding reaches school children in India. CIGNA can provide up to one million days of clean water”

This is a little more information than I was able to easily dig up on my own, but I think if these games are the future of philanthropic activity there needs to be a movement towards openness and transparency. Put it in the FAQs or even create a page that exposes the relationship and the flow of funds. Is it making a difference? – then show how, do not just tell us it is! I am not picking on this game in particular, but I think this is an excellent opportunity to raise my concern. Changing the world has to be internalized. The world does not change by playing a video game, it changes when you understand why you are playing and are conscious and connected to the change that occurs from playing it. The impact has to be mutual for it to be absorbed. This game asks questions related to water, which is an opportunity to learn some important facts, but does it change the player? Ask yourself when you play the game – has anything for me changed? Lasting change and improvement happens when we manage to change our frame of reference, when we start to look at things in terms of the global benefit. Don’t just play the game, learn about why you are playing the game and what else you can do in your own life to change the underlying cause or reason for the games existence.

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Who am I? I am a Do-Good Engineer for gen-y.

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