AfricanCommunities.org

Grameen brings 'phone ladies' business to Uganda

Grameen, the organization that runs a mobile-phone business for people in villages in Bangladesh, has moved into Uganda.

The deal is that a local person in a village gets a phone and a subsidized phone card with the help of a microcredit loan from Grameen, and then starts a business reselling phone calls to local people.

Great idea, huh?

http://www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/fl_sept04/pillars.html
http://www.gfusa.org/technology_center/village_phone/

Possible risks in cybercafe idea

A document on African Internet status from 2002 published by W3C says:

...the case for large multi-branch cybercafe chains is not yet proven, as regional ISP AfricaOnline learned when it rolled out hundreds of public access kiosks as part of its e-Touch franchise programme in which local stores were provided with a PC to provide email and Internet access. AfricaOnline had approximately 100 000 users spread across 740 outlets in Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe before it discovered these were generating insufficient income to maintain them. The company has subsequently closed most of them and is testing new strategy with fewer, larger branded I-cafes.

Checklist for Internet cafe idea

For the whole project

-register company/trust
-get software
-get computer donation relationship
-get vending machines and have them localised
-get branding stuff, signage and PoS materials

requirements to go in a single location
-identify local social entrepreneur or cbo
-get local dignitary to ease red tape
-help find location
-help with publicity
-local government business registration

ongoing maintenance requirement
-help with publicity, tech spport, accounting, bizdev
-encourage staffers to open new stores
-have model

More details on Internet cafe idea

OK. We franchise from EasyGroup. Or we get software from an independent provider like http://www.nettimesoftware.com/index.html

We set up as a socially responsible business. Maybe owned from outside with trust.
Get local dignitary/president to open, deal with red tape.
Staff with OVCs.

Get free computers from donating organizations like www.computer-aid.org

Organize through local CBOs.

Provide free access on limited time basis plus training for CBOs.

Get tech assistance from overseas providers like EWB http://www.ewb-international.org/

Have differential pricing for wireless access. This allows foreigners to pay much more.

Hey! An even better idea. Access for foreigners is paid by CC and billed not by local company but by parent overseas. Settlement is after netting off franchise fees etc.

http://cbdd.wsu.edu/index.html

Existing directory of Internet cafes in southern Africa
http://www.backpacking.co.za/index.html

Internet cafes for CBOs

EasyInternetCafes is a franchise business.
Why don't we franchise for Africa and then give limited free availability to CBOs?

http://www.easyinternetcafe.com/franchise/index.html

Go and talk to Stelios.
Rotunda
1 Gloucester Crescent
London NW1

Flying engineers for TA

OK, these are some thoughts on how to make a success of people jetting in for TA.

The problem is they don't know the context, problems, situation of CBOs.
The good news is they have useful skills.
The challenge is to do an effective transfer quickly.

Skills to focus on Email, spreadsheets, word processing
Other things engineers could do with their time: run capacity-building workshop?
Good things: get BA to pay for air tix.
Find local expats with servants who can put them up and feed them for free.

Related Projects Ideas List

• Create a prize for CBOs doing OVC work.
• Open up Internet cafes in underserved cities where CBOs get a free-time allowance and get free tech training.
• Get technology free from Stelios to allow smooth running and avoid corruption.
• Do deals with existing Internet cafes to provide the same.
• Use people from Engineers Without Frontiers to do tech assistance

Online toolkit for CBOs helping OVCs

The Aids Alliance has produced an online toolkit with sections on how to run a program, handle health and nutrition, education, psychosocial support, economic strengthening, living environments and chidren's rights.

It refers to some longer documents too:

• a Handbook on Care for Orphans in the Community from Zimbabwe (86pp, PDF, with some focus on Christianity)
• a full-length Training Manual for volunteers written by people from a project in Malawi
• a document for Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations telling them how to help local communities do OVC care
• and lots more.

The organiation is based in England --  Queensberry House, 104-106 Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XF, United Kingdom. T: +44 (0)1273 718900. Fax: +44 (0)1273 718901. Email: mail@aidsalliance.org

Building Blocks - a how-to guide on OVCs for CBOs

From the AIDS Alliance

This publication was designed to help communities assess the situations and needs of their children and the available resources, and to identify what action they can take, using the “participatory learning in action” process. The tools were developed and tested through a five-day meeting in Kenya of NGOs/CBOs from Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Kenya and Alliance staff, hosted by KANCO.

There are seven sets of tools, corresponding to the seven topics in the Building Blocks briefing notes: overview, education, health and nutrition, economic strengthening, psychosocial support, social inclusion, and older people as carers.

Full PDF document in English, Portuguese and French.

Code of Good Practice

This Code sets out a number of Guiding Principles which apply a human rights approach to the range of HIV/AIDS-specific health, development and humanitarian work undertaken by NGOs responding to HIV/AIDS. These principles provide a common framework applicable to all NGOs engaged in responding to HIV/AIDS, and are embodied within good practice principles, which guide both how we work as NGOs and what we do. It also includes information about the process of ‘signing on’ to the Code and about implementation of the Code.

-- from web site of Aids Alliance in UK

The full document is available in PDF. A quick summary follows...