Life in Africa - USA Discussions

ourwwworld game: player discussion

For some time now, I've been playing with an idea for teaching basic blogging and traffic generating skills to my Ugandan friends through playing a game.

The ourwwworld game has been developed with a lot of background research. My hope is that in addition to learning basic blogging and social bookmarking skills, the players will be able to earn something meaningful through their participation, and we'll also be able to raise some money for Life in Africa. Those amounts are directly related to how many advertiser links people like you click on at the players' blogs (note: we're not officially allowed to ask you to click, so use your best judgement on how many sponsors you find interesting in a day!)

The players who've agreed to pilot this game are well known around ned. You can see what they are each up to so far at their player blogs below:

Norbert: http://nobsoswwworld.blogspot.co m/

Peter: http://ndeloswwworld.blogspot.co m/

Linda: http://lindernswwworld.blogspot. com/

Shawn: http://kellyswwworld.blogspot.co m/

Evvy: http://grandmaswwworld.blogspot. com/

Grace: http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /

Player questions, ideas and comments from the peanut gallery are welcome in this thread.

happy happy!

Last comment added: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:26:44 PDT

What's Up with Life in Africa?

Many of you may have noticed that LiA has been very quiet lately. At least I hope you noticed or maybe I am just assuming something that isn't so. Well, I just want to tell you that even though we have been quiet, we are still here, still working, still trying to accomplish out goals. We have simply had a few stumbles.....well maybe a lot of stumbles on our path forward.

We had a great plan. The communities would become CBOs, LiA USA would help to support them. Christina gave them both a loan and we gave them all the tools we thought they would need to become independent. Best laid plans, you know how that goes.

None of us could have predicted the terrible string of events that would occur to put huge boulders in our path. The tragedy of the car crash in Uganda devastated us. It forced Christina to change all her plans and stay in Uganda but be isolated. I don't think any of us realized what an impact this would have on all of us. I know I certainly didn't. She was the driving force behind all of us and without her, we all fell down, got up, fell down again and so it goes on and on. LiA USA was just starting and seemed to get crushed before it began. But we are survivors if nothing else.

We have moved forward. I put money into the organization and we have crept on, struggling from month to month to keep things going. The communities struggled as well. They really needed guidance and we didn't do a good job of giving it. But somehow we made it through six months of operations and did the best we could. WE have just finished our year end (fiscal year ended June 30) and the report can be seen here if you are interested. We made a few accomplishments come true and we have plans for the future. We may be down but we are not out by any means!

http://www.ned.com/group/lia-usa /ws/year_end_report/

Our communities in Uganda have not been on line but we hope to rectify that soon with the help of Mark Grimes/ned. Be patient. They have had no internet connection, constant power outages, no water part of the time, and still they go on. WE go on. This is Life in Africa. Thats a catch phrase we all use when things go wrong. WE smile, we shrug and shake our heads. Life in Africa is never easy, it is just what it is.....Life in Africa. Stay tuned for more to come.

Last comment added: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:35:35 PDT

Karibu- (Kamongo) Africa Night Portland Oregon

Another Ndombolo/REGGAE Night in Portland.

Please support us "EVERY LAST FRIDAY OF A MONTH", Your support crucual. We will be able to keep the African/Reggae Night in Portland forever. Remember, we are creating a culture so please raise with us. We trust that there is NO place for African/Reggae music in Portland so swing & sway in the African way.... all de way.

The theme of this night is "CONNECTION" people from various parts of the world come together to listen and dance to the sound of African/Reggae music.

WHEN: Friday, April 25th WHERE: The City (424 SW 4th street, downtown PDX) WHY: African Night- Together As One (TAO) COVER: $5.00 ONLY. ("Only Cultivation Can End Starvation And Heal The Nations!") TIME: 10 PM

Brought to you by:

Sir CK(Tanzania), Dj Madness ( Zambia ) BIG RIDDIM… PURE FIRE…. a mixture of Ndombolo, Bongo Flava, Zambian, Roots Reggae, Kenyan Flava & (Katitu style), Soukous, Dancehall, Ugandan, South African, Ragga Muffin.

This is a twice-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to meet those OTHER people from all over the world, particularly, the great continent of AFRICA. Kick back and relax to the sounds of Reggae & African Muziki.

KARIBU (Welcome....)

See you on Friday!

Peace & Guidance

There are no comments.

Agriculture in Uganda

Hi people, there's a large demand for large scale agriculture in Uganda, the challenge though remains on the way of improving the level of production, which I think is a challenge in Africa at large.so any body with the interest of Agriculture may join me and we discuss the challeges?

Last comment added: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:03:05 PST

AUTO SPARE PARTS BUSINESS

Hullo. any body could helpp me with information about auto spare parts business? How could i use it to help my community?

Last comment added: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:14:15 PDT

BOOK PROJECT FOR POOR STUDENTS IN UGANDA

About the BOOK PROJECT FOR POOR SUTENTS IN UGANDA, it is a charity project aimed at helping poor students in Uganda who can not buy expensive text books and reading materials. We are also working around to reduce illetracy and poverty levels in Uganda through educating and training the future generation. Currently we are located with in Makerere University, faculty of Agriculture but this year we are to graduate and hope to rent some place in Kampala. The project was founded by me and 6 other friends from makerere university i.e Wangi Godfrey, Nalubega Teddy, Ayaa Filda, Matovu David, Lukyamuzi Mohammed and Kagwa Shaphan in March 2007 We started with the science subjects like biology, physics and mathematics because the reading materials are scarce. We would like to produce all educational books from primary , secondary up to university level taking into consideration reading materials for Udults.When we write the manuscripts, we hand them to the publishing company to be published at low prices. This has helped many poor students but we are limited with the computers, printers, and related stationery. We also go to schools which lack science teachers and we volunteer to help these students to learn. We not yet registered with the country registrar. We would love to expand the project to cover the whole country and to start publishing by our selves with time but funds will give us what to do.We also have an idea of starting to build schools for poor children in the future. So that is where we are now, and we invite any one out there to be part of us by giving us advice, donation of any materials necessary and any information to make this project a sucessful one as it will reduce to the illiteracy level and poverty in the country. --

Last comment added: Fri, 23 May 2008 21:27:39 PDT

Help me and i go back to school

AM KALANDA FRED , i live in uganda, Busega kampala with my grand mother. I and my 3 sisters dropped out of school because of fees but we need education. Any body out there who can help us please do. God bless you.

There are no comments.

What is the hardest thing I have to overcome to participate on

When I first joined Onet, I didn't make a comment for a long time. I thought I wasn't smart enough to participate with these really fantastic people in their discussions. I thought no one would be interested in what I had to say. But then one day I just jumped in and I was so surprised. Everyone welcomed me with open arms. They were so glad to hear from me and made me feel welcome and appreciated. They really listened to what I had to say and that encouraged me to say more. Now these people are my friends and I feel so comfortable talking to them.

I know that a lot of our team members in Uganda are feeling shy about participating and making comments. I think it will be a good idea to talk about our feelings of shyness or the problems we are having or have had in participating and we can help each other to see that we all have a voice here and we can encourage the team members to overcome their shyness and to feel more comfortable participating.

I invite all the members of the click4africa teams and everyone else on <ned> to share your experiences here, share your challenges in participating and what you have done to overcome them, and to ask questions so the many members of <ned> can offer possible solutions or suggestions.

Last comment added: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:49:25 PST

Click4Africa 2008 - Round One (1 Feb - 15 June 2008)

From 1 Feb through 15 June 2008, Life in Africa USA is challenging teams at two community owned telecenters in Uganda to a click4africa CONTEST to earn financial help with the ongoing costs of keeping their community connected to the Internet.

In addition to monthly connectivity awards the two teams can earn each month, and an investment in computers and connectivity quality upgrades that one team will win in mid June, any Click4Africa participants who are Ugandan citizens can also win monthly prizes and cash awards for leading in the race to earn click4africa points for their team.

Whoever you are, you are invited to click4africa too! When you qualify to have your online activity at Ned.com, facebook.com and iGive.com counted toward your favorite team's total, you are helping that team EARN their internet time and WIN investments in connectivity infrastructure at their community center.

Non Ugandan participants can also earn bonus donations to their team's internet budget each month, win prizes donated by LiA supporters, and qualify for the opportunity to win a really tremendous prize in the second round of click4africa 2008, during the second half of the year (how about free trip to Uganda?)

How can I join a click4africa team?

Introducing the Click4Gulu and Click4Kireka teams!

To qualify to participate and to have your points counted toward keeping your favorite Click4Africa team connected, you must complete ALL of the simple steps below:

Join ned.com

fill out your profile using your real names

add the team name you wish to support as a TAG on your profile (click4kireka or click4gulu)

Join these 3 groups: NedUganda, Life in Africa Global, and Life in Africa USA

Join Facebook.com

Become a LiA Fan

Join the Life in Africa Group

Join the Life in Africa Cause (TIP: join from a team members page so that your team gets the point for recruiting you)

Join iGive.com to support Life in Africa (TIP: ask a team member for their iGive referral link so that your team gets the point for recruiting you)

How do I earn points for my chosen team?

Your profile must be tagged by you with a team name to be counted. The first thing we'll check is whether you've completed all of the qualification steps listed above.

Once you are qualified, the following activities will be counted on the 15th of each month and included in the tally of your team's cumulative points:

At ned.com

your number of points given away
the number of friends who have given you feedback
the number of personal feeback points you have received
your comment feedback score

At Facebook

Your number of friends
The number of people you've recruited to the Life in Africa cause
The number of dollars you've raised for the Life in Africa cause (x 2)
the number of links from the Life in Africa group page that you've shared on your facebook profile

At iGive.com

the number of shops you've visited (/2)
the number of people you've recruited to join iGive in support of Life in Africa
the number of people you've recruited who have shopped
the number of $US raised through your own shopping
the number of dollars you've earned in bonuses (x 2)

Please Note You can change the team you choose to support at any time by simply changing the team tag on your profile.

Got questions about Click4Africa?

Watch this thread for further details on prizes and cash awards, tips on how to earn more points, and strategy ideas for click4africa teams to consider. This is also the place to post questions, offer suggestions to the teams, and keep up with how the contest is going.

Click, click, click!! Let's have some fun!

Last comment added: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:23:27 PST

Pitch LiA at BlogHer

Beth Kanter asks for some help in identifying 10 (or more) non profits to "give" as a holiday gift. I always read Beth's Blog and so do a lot of people, given how well her posts Google. Lots more read BlogHer. I think this is a great opportunity to pitch LiA but I would love some input--deadline is Sunday. Here's Beth's criteria:

Recommend a charity and/or cause.
Describe what you think a contribution to this charity in someone's honor as a holiday gift would be an awesome gift. In LESS than three sentences.
Include a link to the charity's web site
Extra bonus: point me to a fantastic image (cc licensed) in flickr that can be used to illustrate the post.

As far as the last item goes, you might consider giving one picture some form of CC license. "Gulu mamas" already has a link to the Web site. My point is that I don't think too much would come from making one or two pictures CC and having a picture posted at BlogHer would be a bonus in my estimation.

Last comment added: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:36:38 PST