Art + Technology + Participation in Development Workspace

World AIDS Day 2008

World AIDS Day 2008 - Keep the Promise, Make AIDS History

The Global Peace Tiles Project (www.peacetiles.net) seeks partners for its 2008 World AIDS Day mural project. Partners host workshops and mural exhibitions around the world.

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The Peace Tiles Project invites community-based organizations working in the areas of education, health, social services and the arts to host creativity workshops that provide a forum for youth expression and learning around HIV/AIDS, including:

Positive self-imagery

Healthy sexuality

Living with HIV/AIDS

Ending discrimination

and other themes that relate to local dimensions of the pandemic.

For more information write to peacetiles@gmail.com or visit us on the web at http://www.peacetiles.net

WWC could be adapted a little

This is the latest version of my proposed competition entry. I am hoping to hear soon whether Shawn Ahmed will be happy for me to attach his 'The poor aren't lazy' video. I'm overjoyed that Meron has agreed to my request to use her wonderful Computer Rainbow image!!

A Worldwide Connectory: THE IDEA IS THE DESIGN

You can‘t expect to save the whole world on your own, even with help from family, friends, work colleagues and neighbours

But working together, you could make a big difference to people on the other side of our global village by helping them achieve their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - see pictures

So, if tiny Salt Spring Island (Canada) can form SOLID, a community organisation, to bring a computer rainbow to Lesotho and Shawn Ahmed can almost single-handedly transform lives in Tangail (Bangladesh) …

Why couldn’t…

…Vermont help eradicate poverty in Kenyan slums

…Gothenburg ensure every child in Sud province, Haiti goes to school

…Iceland and the Faroe Islands empower women in Danja (Nigeria)

…Bristol reduce child mortality in N’djamena (Chad)

…Northern Turin collaborate with Benguela province (Angola) so fewer women die in childbirth

…Tasmania support HIV/AIDS projects in Louangphrabang (Laos)

…Fukuyama (Japan) provide wells in Ndola (Zambia)

…Santa Barbara widen internet access in districts of Kabul

The secret is to divide large problems into smaller, more manageable bits.

That’s what the World Connectory Project has already done. The world’s richest and poorest countries have been divided into 4,800 areas of roughly equal population size. Rich and poor will be paired in random partnerships (using a RNG) and invited to work together until 2015 to achieve all the MDGs in their own partnership area:

STEP ONE: spread the word

viral communication
boosted, ideally, by international reality TV shows

STEP TWO: research your own partnership’s MDG deficits and identify organisations working to reduce them

STEP THREE: mount public awareness campaigns to enlist active support

Recruit people into local Connection Groups (based on community organisation, locality or recreational, occupational, or faith group.)
Connection Groups organise public meetings, recruitment events and exhibitions highlighting the development needs of their own partnership area and showcasing effective solutions - including the Millennium Villages project - that have been successfully implemented elsewhere.

STEP FOUR: implement six-point plan:

hold governments to account re MDG promises (lobbying & letter-writing campaigns)
support organisations whose local projects are achieving MDGs
develop links between people and organisations to enhance skills & resources (twinnings, visits & exchanges)
help extend Millennium Villages cluster projects
invest in local organisations with potential to achieve MDGs
promote microfinance schemes

AN EFFICIENT MODEL:

Supports existing projects

Engages whole communities

Comprehensive, with no duplication

A partnership for every place

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3 125/2585913518_0c8f2738e5.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wiki pedia/commons/0/04/Nairobi_slums _area.svg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wiki pedia/commons/7/76/Kibera.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Image:Laos_AIDS_education_camp aign.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Image:Santa_barbara_from_court house_tower.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Image:Female_students_of_Afgha nistan_in_2005.jpg#file

http://www.youtube.com/v/a9IS-3Z 5EC4

MDG Project Development

Millennium Development Goals

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Improve maternal health

Achieve universal primary education

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Promote gender equality and empower women

Ensure environmental sustainability

Reduce child mortality

Develop a global partnership for development

Making them happen

Goal	Grassroots solutions	Grassroots Support
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBAPFbt2qgI
Improve maternal health
Achieve universal primary education
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases		Peace Tiles
Promote gender equality and empower women	TEN	TEN
Ensure environmental sustainability	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLIAnFNt5Pc
Reduce child mortality
Develop a global partnership for development	Brosseuks	SOLID

Ideas

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Meade

Even though mother's issues are not front page news, they touch us all personally, some more than others, and I believe passionately in the power of grassroots engagement. -Joan Blades

Great things are done by a series of smaller things brought together. - van Gogh

Clumps of Grass ~ van Gogh

It's much more about grassroots, just in terms of numbers. I think we have to look where the power is flowing from. - Gloria Steinem

In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts mind there are few - unknown

This movement is a grassroots effort where knowledge is power. Count me as an ally in the struggle, and I thank you for all that you do. - Bill Clinton