Category: DtM Partner Org
July 03, 2003
Design that Matters, a Massachusetts non-profit corporation, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in underserved communities. We do this by fostering the development of products and services that meet immediate community needs in areas such as clean water, health care, renewable energy and education. We also do this by developing curriculum materials that engage university engineering, science, policy and business in the design process, thereby strengthening their commitment to serve these communities throughout their careers. Since its launch at MIT in 2000, DtM has worked with over 300 engineering and business students to develop dozens of prototypes that promise to improve thousands of lives.
To learn more about our work in communities and universities around the world, see the DtM homepage.
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 12:00 AM
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July 13, 2003
Mali Folkecenter
"Mali-Folkecenter's mission is to promote the sustainable management of natural resources and the use of these resources to catalyse local economic growth & sustainable development by working in partnership with rural populations and local entrepreneurs.
Activities include: environmental protection, provision of energy services to meet the needs of rural and un-served areas using renewable energy technologies, drinking water supply, technology transfer and the training of local technicians, and delivery of enterprise development services for rural companies in the clean energy sector. MFC also participates in energy & environment policy work with the Malian government." [from their website ]
MEETING OBJECTIVES:
Based on their work in solar- and wind-powered power systems, MFC will help us to understand the constraints of providing a renewable energy source for the Kinkajou projector and other DtM products in a rural village. They have also volunteered to help us with logistics in Mali. For DtM, MFC offers the opportunity to partner with an established, respected NGO with lots of creative ideas in appropriate technology (for example their south-south tech transfer of a Nepali grain press to Mali). Many of their projects are good candidates for design challenges.
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 03:01 PM
| Comments (0)
July 16, 2003
Association Jeunesse Action
The Association Jeunesse Action (AJA), or Youth Action Agency, in Bamako is a sort of school that trains young people between the ages of 9-35 in the skills of trade, business, and craftmanship. We got a tour of their facilities and gave a demonstration of the Kinkajou to 11 employees and students.
ABOUT THE AJA
The AJA employs 35 teachers and craftspeople who have worked with over 1500 students in the last three years. Since its beginning in 1993, the school has seen students all the way through its programs and into the professional world. The school holds pride in over 50 inventions. Their products have gone on to create sustainable business for the students who complete the program in business venture.
Some of their most notable inventions include a condom vending machine to encourage people to protect themselves against AIDS, a medical waste incinerator, a waterpump, peanut sheller, solar powered water heater, and a washing machine. The most remarkable product was the educational reader tool that we had learned about in Siby. Not only did we get to see several of them, but we met the inventors and the artists. Its facilities include a wood shop, metal working shop, and an art center. There is a selection process for its students and the expenses are covered by NGOs such as OXFAM and private sponsors.
There is a school for children between 9-15 with no prior school training, that teaches them developmental skills like reading and math and helps them to develop professional language to train them for apprenticeship.
The school for young adults, ages 18-25, is a trade school specializing in metalwork, woodwork and tailoring. It is for students with some prior schooling up to high school, who are looking for an education in trade.
For students ages 18-35 who have had economic training, the program in micro-enterprize teaches students how to manage a business in the market.
For women ages 18-40 they teach classes in health training, maternal health, fighting poverty, and disease prevention
KINKAJOU A HIT**
Kinkajou was a hit with the group. When we showed the director, he immediately saw it as a potential enterprize for one of his students. We tested the Kinkajou in a classroom of 17 people, including everyone in our team. The walls were blue and there was some ambiant light from outside, the images were clear. No one there had ever heard of LEDs but they understood how everything worked. They said they could build most of the components, if we could provide the LED, lense, circuit and microfilm. As before, it seems that the microfilm is the big road block. But they were very excited to see the product and are eager to get the part drawings so that they can build it. One student wants to start a business and is already thinking of ways to redesign and build the device.
Posted by Kateri Garcia at 01:42 PM
| Comments (2)
Kinkajou in Kati
Keita Maria Diarra, a coordinator and Ashoka Fellow from the Institut pour L'Education Populaire in Kati found out about Kinkajou through Tim's NPR radio interview. While we were in Bamako, we set up a meeting which happened yesterday at her school. We met with Maria and her colleagues, Kady and Yobi. They are a group of highly educated individuals who have received degrees, masters and PhDs in the States. Their feedback on the Kinkajou was extremely valuable. We also got to conduct the meeting entirely in English for the first time.
ABOUT Le INSTITUTE
Since 1990, Mali has been going through an educational reform. Marias organization works with the community to implement new strategies for education. They experiment with the curriculum and find alternative solutions. Because the government is slow at implementing any educational changes, Maria works through the Ashoka program to get the parents involved, like a PTA. The NGO strategy seems to be the most effective at promoting growth and change.
At the Institute, they run a mentoring program in the mornings, an adult training program, and a school curriculum for K-7th grades. Each year the school adds a new grade. In Mali, students must pass an exam after the 6th grade to continue their education. If they don't pass, they get kicked out of school. 20 kids, 100%, from the school recently passed so they got to go to Dogon Country for a field trip.
THOUGHTS ON KINKAJOU
Maria's main concern about the Kinkajou is that if books stay the same, if they are not able to change the content on the microfilm, then the minds of people stay the same. We need to come up with a way to be able to make microfilm or some alternative in Mali. Overall, Maria and her colleagues like the projector and want to implement it into their program. They understand the concept of intermediate technology in that the projector is neither a book nor a computer. In her office that is complete with two PCs a fax machine and a photocopier, they are used to modern technology. Maria wants to be able to provide new educational strategies that keep the students interested. She thinks that the Kinkajou can help her do that.
After our meeting, Maria invited us to her home for dinner. It was very generous of her and her family to welcome us. At dinner we discussed the prospect of developing a pilot study of the Kinkajou in Maria’s school. The teachers will start gathering their curricula and we will implement changes and look for alternatives to microfilm.
Posted by Kateri Garcia at 03:40 PM
| Comments (0)
July 24, 2003
Point Sud
Centre de Recherche sur le Savoir Local (Center for Research on Local Knowledge)
"Point Sud is an autonomous research institution that focused on developing a new mode of interaction amongth Southern countries and the North. It was founded as the result of a local initiative comprised of both native and non-native Malians in cooperations with the University of Bayreuth, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and other scientific institutions including l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris and the Center of International and Area Studies of Yale University. Point Sud mobilizes resources in order to carry out research projects and educate graduate students from around the world working towards this objective."
At our meeting this morning with Point Sud codirector Moussa Sissoko and Violet Diallo from Ashoka, we discussed the possibility of a partnership between Point Sud and Design that Matters, which would help to connect university students in Mali and other Francophone West African countries with DtM design challenges.
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 09:19 AM
| Comments (0)
July 28, 2003
APAF Muso Danbe
Earlier this evening, we participated in THE meeting we've been looking for. APAF Muso Danbe is a Malian NGO that runs night-time courses for young women in Bamako. The nine-month program ordinarily runs from October through June and is intended for girls who haven't had any previous schooling. The first-year curriculum, conducted entirely in Bambara, covers literacy and numeracy, maternal and infant health. and domestic skills like cooking and clothesmaking. Madame Dembele, the energetic and charismatic director of APAF, organized a special class session for our benefit, which brought four instructors and almost seventy young women (plus twenty of their babies) to the Mairie of Quartier Mali for an evening literacy course. It was exciting to finally get to see a real literacy course in action, and we received mountains of useful feedback on the Kinakjou design.
The teachers jumped right into using the Kinkajou. They said that the projector design worked well with the reading exercises they give to girls who have completed the basic literacy module of the curriculum. Adama Traore, an instructor at APAF, and his colleagues used the World Education reading curriculum to lead an hour-long reading session with the students.
After the class, we held a question and answer session with the students. They enjoyed the novel presentation of their course material, and at least one student said it was like going to the movies. Once the students left, we held a review session with the teachers and Madame Dembele.
The classroom was orderly and everyone--including the twenty babies--seemed happy to be there. We are very grateful to the indomitable Madame Dembele for organizing this fantastic event! We would also like to thank her colleagues and their students for being so generous with their time, patience and interest.
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 11:09 PM
| Comments (0)
August 06, 2003
Mieux Vivre aux Village
Mieux Vivre au Village (MVV, translates as Better Living in the Village) works to improve the standard of living for rural communities in Benin. Gabriel Agbede, one of the officers of MVV, has put his technical veterinary and agricultural knowledge to good use to create, organize, and secure loans for animal husbandry cooperatives. Since 2000, MVV has launched honey production, women’s gardening, pig husbandry, and fishing projects. MVV also works with AIDS education, children's nutrition and exploring microbusiness opportunities like sunflower seed cultivation and processing.
The founders of MVV work closely with an elected local board of officers. The local officers receive business trainings and capacity-strengthening workshops and support. Gabriel and the rest of MVV’s founders spend much of their time lobbying, negotiating with government ministries, and searching for grants on behalf of their community.
Here's a picture of the MVV directors and friends, taking a break on the flanks of Ota, the huge hill overlooking Kemon. From left to right, that's Gabriel Agbede, an unidentified little girl, Arcadius Oyeniran Chabi, Peace Corps volunteer Elizabeth Eckel, Salomon Chabi, Elizabeth Bruce and Michel Ognin.
I met Gabriel Agbede through the Bridgebuilders Workshop at Harvard in February. I talked him into speaking at the first meeting of the Spring 2003 DtM course at the MIT Media Lab, and end-of-semester student feedback was that his heartfelt summary of Kemon's community needs was the best seminar of the course.
Meeting MVV was an opportunity for us to learn about the needs of a small, local NGO, and explore opportunities for a working relationship. For example, Gabriel has been working on sunflower cultivation, and he needs help building an oil press for the seeds. There is a precedent for this kind of technology (at ApproTEC and other places); figuring out how to adapt it to conditions in Benin will be an excellent DtM design challenge.
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 03:43 PM
| Comments (0)
August 13, 2003
Centre Songhai
"The Centre Songhai is principally involved in agricultural training, research, and production for sustainable livelihood in Africa. Founded by Father Godfrey Nzamujo, a Dominican priest, in 1985, the Center has been managed by Africans since then. The Center's aim is to create the conditions for improving the lives of Africans, the great majority of whom live in rural areas." [from the Songhai website]
Centre Songhai is a world leader in innovative development programs, including integrated farming, biomass gasification, microenterprise and IT for rural communities. Nzamujo, the 1993 Africa Prize Laureate, is a visionary and an inspiring educator. Songhai has established partnerships and student exchange programs with a number of US universities (Wake Forest, SUNY-Oswego, Colorado State) and has close ties with universities and technical schools across Africa. Songhai is an excellent partner for sourcing and implementing DtM design challenges. In the photo, you can see Songai director Fr. Nzamujo at the far right.
"Songhai's headquarters are at Porto-Novo in the Republic of Benin. Songhaï's partnership now extends to organizations in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Songhai promotes agricultural entrepreneurship among the youth in Africa. This is done within an environment where appropriate and positive human values are regarded as essential elements. These young africans are trained to become responsible citizens in their communities; socio-economic entrepreneurs, men and women with initiative and creativity, ready and able to meet the social and economic challenges of the future. This means that, in addition to the knowledge and skills our students acquire at the Center, we also train them to develop a strong desire for change and for a better life. Songhai's training model for human development can be adopted and applied in any part of the world." [from the Songhai website]
The following are pictures from our tour of the facility:
Posted by Timothy Prestero at 07:33 AM
| Comments (0)
July 03, 2003
Design that Matters, a Massachusetts non-profit corporation, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in underserved communities. We do this by fostering the development of products and services that meet immediate community needs in areas such as clean water, health care, renewable energy and education. We also do this by developing curriculum materials that engage university engineering, science, policy and business in the design process, thereby strengthening their commitment to serve these communities throughout their careers. Since its launch at MIT in 2000, DtM has worked with over 300 engineering and business students to develop dozens of prototypes that promise to improve thousands of lives.
To learn more about our work in communities and universities around the world, see the DtM homepage.
July 13, 2003
Mali Folkecenter
"Mali-Folkecenter's mission is to promote the sustainable management of natural resources and the use of these resources to catalyse local economic growth & sustainable development by working in partnership with rural populations and local entrepreneurs.
Activities include: environmental protection, provision of energy services to meet the needs of rural and un-served areas using renewable energy technologies, drinking water supply, technology transfer and the training of local technicians, and delivery of enterprise development services for rural companies in the clean energy sector. MFC also participates in energy & environment policy work with the Malian government." [
MEETING OBJECTIVES:
Based on their work in solar- and wind-powered power systems, MFC will help us to understand the constraints of providing a renewable energy source for the Kinkajou projector and other DtM products in a rural village. They have also volunteered to help us with logistics in Mali. For DtM, MFC offers the opportunity to partner with an established, respected NGO with lots of creative ideas in appropriate technology (for example their south-south tech transfer of a Nepali grain press to Mali). Many of their projects are good candidates for design challenges.
July 16, 2003
Association Jeunesse Action
The Association Jeunesse Action (AJA), or Youth Action Agency, in Bamako is a sort of school that trains young people between the ages of 9-35 in the skills of trade, business, and craftmanship. We got a tour of their facilities and gave a demonstration of the Kinkajou to 11 employees and students.
ABOUT THE AJA
The AJA employs 35 teachers and craftspeople who have worked with over 1500 students in the last three years. Since its beginning in 1993, the school has seen students all the way through its programs and into the professional world. The school holds pride in over 50 inventions. Their products have gone on to create sustainable business for the students who complete the program in business venture.
Some of their most notable inventions include a condom vending machine to encourage people to protect themselves against AIDS, a medical waste incinerator, a waterpump, peanut sheller, solar powered water heater, and a washing machine. The most remarkable product was the educational reader tool that we had learned about in Siby. Not only did we get to see several of them, but we met the inventors and the artists. Its facilities include a wood shop, metal working shop, and an art center. There is a selection process for its students and the expenses are covered by NGOs such as OXFAM and private sponsors.
There is a school for children between 9-15 with no prior school training, that teaches them developmental skills like reading and math and helps them to develop professional language to train them for apprenticeship.
The school for young adults, ages 18-25, is a trade school specializing in metalwork, woodwork and tailoring. It is for students with some prior schooling up to high school, who are looking for an education in trade.
For students ages 18-35 who have had economic training, the program in micro-enterprize teaches students how to manage a business in the market.
For women ages 18-40 they teach classes in health training, maternal health, fighting poverty, and disease prevention
KINKAJOU A HIT**
Kinkajou was a hit with the group. When we showed the director, he immediately saw it as a potential enterprize for one of his students. We tested the Kinkajou in a classroom of 17 people, including everyone in our team. The walls were blue and there was some ambiant light from outside, the images were clear. No one there had ever heard of LEDs but they understood how everything worked. They said they could build most of the components, if we could provide the LED, lense, circuit and microfilm. As before, it seems that the microfilm is the big road block. But they were very excited to see the product and are eager to get the part drawings so that they can build it. One student wants to start a business and is already thinking of ways to redesign and build the device.
Kinkajou in Kati
Keita Maria Diarra, a coordinator and Ashoka Fellow from the Institut pour L'Education Populaire in Kati found out about Kinkajou through Tim's NPR radio interview. While we were in Bamako, we set up a meeting which happened yesterday at her school. We met with Maria and her colleagues, Kady and Yobi. They are a group of highly educated individuals who have received degrees, masters and PhDs in the States. Their feedback on the Kinkajou was extremely valuable. We also got to conduct the meeting entirely in English for the first time.
ABOUT Le INSTITUTE
Since 1990, Mali has been going through an educational reform. Marias organization works with the community to implement new strategies for education. They experiment with the curriculum and find alternative solutions. Because the government is slow at implementing any educational changes, Maria works through the Ashoka program to get the parents involved, like a PTA. The NGO strategy seems to be the most effective at promoting growth and change.
At the Institute, they run a mentoring program in the mornings, an adult training program, and a school curriculum for K-7th grades. Each year the school adds a new grade. In Mali, students must pass an exam after the 6th grade to continue their education. If they don't pass, they get kicked out of school. 20 kids, 100%, from the school recently passed so they got to go to Dogon Country for a field trip.
THOUGHTS ON KINKAJOU
Maria's main concern about the Kinkajou is that if books stay the same, if they are not able to change the content on the microfilm, then the minds of people stay the same. We need to come up with a way to be able to make microfilm or some alternative in Mali. Overall, Maria and her colleagues like the projector and want to implement it into their program. They understand the concept of intermediate technology in that the projector is neither a book nor a computer. In her office that is complete with two PCs a fax machine and a photocopier, they are used to modern technology. Maria wants to be able to provide new educational strategies that keep the students interested. She thinks that the Kinkajou can help her do that.
After our meeting, Maria invited us to her home for dinner. It was very generous of her and her family to welcome us. At dinner we discussed the prospect of developing a pilot study of the Kinkajou in Maria’s school. The teachers will start gathering their curricula and we will implement changes and look for alternatives to microfilm.
July 24, 2003
Point Sud
Centre de Recherche sur le Savoir Local (Center for Research on Local Knowledge)
"Point Sud is an autonomous research institution that focused on developing a new mode of interaction amongth Southern countries and the North. It was founded as the result of a local initiative comprised of both native and non-native Malians in cooperations with the University of Bayreuth, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and other scientific institutions including l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris and the Center of International and Area Studies of Yale University. Point Sud mobilizes resources in order to carry out research projects and educate graduate students from around the world working towards this objective."
At our meeting this morning with Point Sud codirector Moussa Sissoko and Violet Diallo from Ashoka, we discussed the possibility of a partnership between Point Sud and Design that Matters, which would help to connect university students in Mali and other Francophone West African countries with DtM design challenges.
July 28, 2003
APAF Muso Danbe
Earlier this evening, we participated in THE meeting we've been looking for. APAF Muso Danbe is a Malian NGO that runs night-time courses for young women in Bamako. The nine-month program ordinarily runs from October through June and is intended for girls who haven't had any previous schooling. The first-year curriculum, conducted entirely in Bambara, covers literacy and numeracy, maternal and infant health. and domestic skills like cooking and clothesmaking. Madame Dembele, the energetic and charismatic director of APAF, organized a special class session for our benefit, which brought four instructors and almost seventy young women (plus twenty of their babies) to the Mairie of Quartier Mali for an evening literacy course. It was exciting to finally get to see a real literacy course in action, and we received mountains of useful feedback on the Kinakjou design.
The teachers jumped right into using the Kinkajou. They said that the projector design worked well with the reading exercises they give to girls who have completed the basic literacy module of the curriculum. Adama Traore, an instructor at APAF, and his colleagues used the World Education reading curriculum to lead an hour-long reading session with the students.
After the class, we held a question and answer session with the students. They enjoyed the novel presentation of their course material, and at least one student said it was like going to the movies. Once the students left, we held a review session with the teachers and Madame Dembele.
The classroom was orderly and everyone--including the twenty babies--seemed happy to be there. We are very grateful to the indomitable Madame Dembele for organizing this fantastic event! We would also like to thank her colleagues and their students for being so generous with their time, patience and interest.
August 06, 2003
Mieux Vivre aux Village
Mieux Vivre au Village (MVV, translates as Better Living in the Village) works to improve the standard of living for rural communities in Benin. Gabriel Agbede, one of the officers of MVV, has put his technical veterinary and agricultural knowledge to good use to create, organize, and secure loans for animal husbandry cooperatives. Since 2000, MVV has launched honey production, women’s gardening, pig husbandry, and fishing projects. MVV also works with AIDS education, children's nutrition and exploring microbusiness opportunities like sunflower seed cultivation and processing.
The founders of MVV work closely with an elected local board of officers. The local officers receive business trainings and capacity-strengthening workshops and support. Gabriel and the rest of MVV’s founders spend much of their time lobbying, negotiating with government ministries, and searching for grants on behalf of their community.
Here's a picture of the MVV directors and friends, taking a break on the flanks of Ota, the huge hill overlooking Kemon. From left to right, that's Gabriel Agbede, an unidentified little girl, Arcadius Oyeniran Chabi, Peace Corps volunteer Elizabeth Eckel, Salomon Chabi, Elizabeth Bruce and Michel Ognin.
I met Gabriel Agbede through the Bridgebuilders Workshop at Harvard in February. I talked him into speaking at the first meeting of the Spring 2003 DtM course at the MIT Media Lab, and end-of-semester student feedback was that his heartfelt summary of Kemon's community needs was the best seminar of the course.
Meeting MVV was an opportunity for us to learn about the needs of a small, local NGO, and explore opportunities for a working relationship. For example, Gabriel has been working on sunflower cultivation, and he needs help building an oil press for the seeds. There is a precedent for this kind of technology (at ApproTEC and other places); figuring out how to adapt it to conditions in Benin will be an excellent DtM design challenge.
August 13, 2003
Centre Songhai
"The Centre Songhai is principally involved in agricultural training, research, and production for sustainable livelihood in Africa. Founded by Father Godfrey Nzamujo, a Dominican priest, in 1985, the Center has been managed by Africans since then. The Center's aim is to create the conditions for improving the lives of Africans, the great majority of whom live in rural areas." [from the Songhai website]
Centre Songhai is a world leader in innovative development programs, including integrated farming, biomass gasification, microenterprise and IT for rural communities. Nzamujo, the 1993 Africa Prize Laureate, is a visionary and an inspiring educator. Songhai has established partnerships and student exchange programs with a number of US universities (Wake Forest, SUNY-Oswego, Colorado State) and has close ties with universities and technical schools across Africa. Songhai is an excellent partner for sourcing and implementing DtM design challenges. In the photo, you can see Songai director Fr. Nzamujo at the far right.
"Songhai's headquarters are at Porto-Novo in the Republic of Benin. Songhaï's partnership now extends to organizations in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Songhai promotes agricultural entrepreneurship among the youth in Africa. This is done within an environment where appropriate and positive human values are regarded as essential elements. These young africans are trained to become responsible citizens in their communities; socio-economic entrepreneurs, men and women with initiative and creativity, ready and able to meet the social and economic challenges of the future. This means that, in addition to the knowledge and skills our students acquire at the Center, we also train them to develop a strong desire for change and for a better life. Songhai's training model for human development can be adopted and applied in any part of the world." [from the Songhai website]
The following are pictures from our tour of the facility:
