Running the Mumbai Marathon to raise funds for a school in India

Creativity and resourcefulness are two qualities that can aptly describe NABUUR volunteers - Jegan, local representative for the community of Koliyonkulam in India, is a perfect example of these attributes being used to the max when it comes to finding solutions for the projects.

To address the lack of education for children in the village, an evening school has been set up where children are taught English and other subjects, helping them prepare for a better future.

The HELP (Human Education and Liberation for the Poor) school runs on minimum resources and seeks donations or partners that will allow it to improve its services.

When registration for the Mumbai marathon came up, Jegan immediately saw an opportunity and signed up...

"Jegan is showing his commitment to the evening school and his genuine intent to help the children through HELP evening school! He is running in the Mumbai marathon (on January 18, 2009), Asia's biggest charity event for NGOs. He is participating in the Half-Marathon. He is pledging funds and he has created a website to promote his effort. Here is a great opportunity to sponsor the evening school."
Tanja (online volunteer in Koliyonkulam)

We invite you to check out the website for more information and to make a pledge to help the school. (All pledges will be overseen by the United Way Mumbai.)

Best of luck Jegan - We know you'll make everyone proud!


Students at the HELP School in Koliyonkulam

A Shout-out to the Yoshinkel Project Team

The artisan women of Yoshinkel (Nepal) needed a catalogue to showcase their beautiful knitted wear, and to present to Third World Craft to be included in that organization's order plan for this fiscal year.

The Neighbours in the Village, led by facilitator Angelika, and supported on site by the local community representative Sabina, have stepped up to the plate and made everyone's head spin with the speed and progress the task has made in mere weeks.

We'd like to give the team at Yoshinkel a NABUUR shout-out and say Thank You for the fantastic teamwork. The team exemplifies what NABUUR is truly about; the Global Neighbour Network.

Kudos to all - We can't wait to see the final product!

[Check out the discussion - and see samples of the catalogue - here. And don't forget you too can join the project and help out. For more opportunities within the Yoshinkel project, visit their project room.]

The catalogue-making team

Who can really change the world?

Look at this extremely funny video about the President elections and see the connection between Obama, McCain and Neighbours @ NABUUR!

Here you go:

http://www.aarpvote08.org/?d=TkFCVVVSIE5laWdoYm91cnM=

(or click the title of this posting for a direct link)

Many roads lead to Rome/different styles of development cooperation

(An update from Gerdie Schreuders on the exciting happenings at the Dutch Innovation Seminar last week)

During the Dutch Innovation Seminar, organised by de Baak last week, we had a chance to present NABUUR.com. The audience: 150 innovation managers from companies and NGO's from the Netherlands, eager to learn about open innovation.
I would like to share what happened during the presentation of Siegfried Woldhek. (founder and CEO of NABUUR.com).

Paul Bulenzi (Local Representative for Jinja-Central in Uganda)and Siegfried Woldhek brought NABUUR ''live''.


Paul Bulenzi, Local Representative of Jinja-Central

Through Skype, Paul Bulenzi raised a question about the shipment of two large boxes with mosquito nets, donated by Mosquito Curtains from the US to Uganda. The audience came up with a number of possible solutions by sharing their ideas live and real time.

The solutions they came up with were so much representing the expression: many roads lead to Rome that I would like to share them with you... this is not about what's best, but what's possible!

1. My wife is a flight attendant for an airline, I can ask her to bring them
2. I know an airline who has a program for transporting goods for non-profits
3. You should tell and teach Paul to help himself
4. Use social networks to raise this question
5. I can post a message in a community for people travelling a lot
6. I have a friend and his girlfriend works for a US company in Uganda, maybe they can arrange shipment
7. Why don't we all raise a little bit of money and just pay for shipment by T&T?

For me the solutions mentioned represent different ways of thinking about development collaboration. Funny to see!

As a tip I would like to share with you another .com organisation who was on stage at the Dutch Innovation Seminar: www.sellaband.com: SellaBand has been regarded as a driving force behind the Music Revolution. It challenges the traditional music industry and encourages aspiring artists and music lovers to go into business together. SellaBand aims to level the playing field of the global music industry

Volunteer(s) Wanted: Can You Write Content for a Website?

As we’ve been telling you over the past few weeks, volunteers have a bit of everything to choose from at NABUUR. Some of the projects need just an extra little push to achieve wonderful results, so we thought that in the next few weeks we’ll highlight some urgent tasks that require TLC from committed volunteers out there.

The project of Kabondo in Kenya is looking for some assistance in writing content for its website: www.kabondopoverty.org

The ideal volunteer would have excellent writing and editing skills, and would also be asked to assist with the website layout. If this is you, please click here to join the discussion and offer your help.

And if you’re a brand new volunteer, fear not – a little guidance is within your fingertips. Browse NABUUR 101 – A place for answers to your questions and a chance to meet other neighbours like you.

Check back soon for more volunteering opportunities or meet us online at Nabuur.com!

It’s Blog Action Day 2008 – Why not lend a Neighbourly Hand?

Where do you start in the fight against poverty? How does a single person make a dent in such a seemingly uphill battle?

We’ve all talked the talk. But now more than ever in history, the global conversation is radically shifting into action, and people are walking the walk.

Today, thousands of socially-conscious bloggers will take part in Blog Action Day 2008, and make their mark on this year’s topic: Poverty. You might ask yourself what’s the point of an estimated 10 million people spending their time online browsing blog posts? Will such an online mass movement precipitate any change?

Well, we at NABUUR are strong believers that a massive online movement can definitely mean a good thing...

Nowadays, volunteering opportunities are popping up everywhere. There are limitless chances to try and stamp out the issue of poverty: You can donate money to a cause; volunteer abroad with international development organizations; raise a ruckus with your government officials or local media, and on, and on…

The bottom line: People are moving and shaking all over the place, including on the Internet. This digital age of ours affords many new ways to get involved, and NABUUR is happy to offer the passionate activists out there a place to shake and roll to their (big) volunteering hearts’ content.

Since its inception in 2001, NABUUR has recognized the importance of a focused mass movement to provide assistance to those in need. By providing an easy way to get involved and lend a helping hand to developing communities around the globe – and all via online discussions, brainstorms and collaboration with others around the globe. Now that is global action brought to your very own living room.

Every volunteer that comes through the NABUUR gates has the ability to impact, whether they realize it at first or not. By joining an online project and picking a team and a task to work on, they are contributing their resources, knowledge, time, contacts, to a community in need of assistance. From income generation for impoverished communities, to children being educated, to job training, to health clinics being built, to raising awareness on a number of social issues, etc., NABUUR garners the energy of online volunteers to provide concrete answers to the questions brought forward by local communities.

NABUUR combines the best of the old (neighbourly help) with the best of the new (the Internet), always leaving the initiative in the hands of members of local communities, and offering these communities the tools for empowerement – Which they in turn use to sustain the change in their communities and beyond - a start to making a lasting dent in the cycle of poverty.

Poverty can be fought on the ground, in the mud, or with the 21st century approach of the power of the Internet. With inspiring results achieved by the hundreds of committed NABUUR online volunteers in communities located in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it’s an easy bet to say that a mass movement can, and does, translate a global conversation into concrete, global action.

Make a difference today, as part of Blog Action Day, to start contributing to a lasting difference in the lives of others. NABUUR may be just the right place for you to start!

NABUUR is taking part in Blog Action Day 2008

Tomorrow, October 15, is Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day.

The aim of this global movement is to raise awareness and shake the web into action. The topic for this year’s Blog Action Day – Poverty.

NABUUR is proud to participate in this year's Blog Action Day, so join us tomorrow to read our contribution.

And if you're a blogger and haven't signed up yet, there's still time! Visit the Blog Action Day website to register.

Transport for mosquito nets arranged during Dutch Innovation Seminar

In a live demonstration of 'how NABUUR works' Siegfried Woldhek (Founder of NABUUR) and Paul Bulenzi (Local Representative of Jinja-Central) asked the audience if they could assist in arranging transport for mosquito nets from the US to Uganda.

A while ago, Facilitator Barb Briggs organised a donation of 2 boxes of nusquito nets from a company called Mosquito Curtains. The only thing left to arrange was transport to Kampala.

In today's audience there was a person who knew someone, who knew someone, which friend etc etc, owns a company in Uganda and gets transports in regularly from the US. She was called and the transport was arranged right away!

More details will follow for sure, but for now this was a great result and De Baak offered a good stage for NABUUR to show to companies what NABUUR is and how their emplyees can participate.

Here are some pics of the event!

The Dutch Innovation Seminar is underway!

As I type this the Dutch Innovation Seminar will be entering the afternoon workshop phase, and the NABUUR team will be - I'm positively sure of this - rocking the house!

But what excites me most is that one of NABUUR's local representatives, Paul Bulenzi from Jinja-Central in Uganda, will be taking part in the gathering via MSN chat. Paul, joined by Siegfried Woldhek (founder of NABUUR) will demonstrate to the audience how NABUUR works - right from his home in Uganda.

In an email exchange Paul confessed he was nervous about today. Understandable, though based on all that Paul has accomplished (with and without NABUUR) and his super cool personality (have a chat with him and you'll know what I'm talking about), I am betting he's holding the audience in the palm of his hand!

So, I anxiously wait for updates from the seminar - and of course, we'll make these available to you as soon as they come in.

Until soon,
Romina

Putting Ideas into Action in Kabwe, Zambia

Josephat Mwale, local representative of Kabwe, a small town in Zambia, is thinking and dreaming big. As youth worker in Kabwe, Josephat knows too well the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS on his hometown, particularly the damage inflicted on the youth of the community who are at highest risk of infection. This grim reality is what is driving Josephat to put ideas into action, focusing on education and awareness as key components in the fight against HIV/AIDS.


Community members in Kabwe

The YMCA in Kabwe is planning to build a Counseling, Testing and Care Centre (CTC), focused on youth and their needs, which will aim to prevent HIV infections, and provide educational resources and treatment for those already infected. Even the local government is getting in on the act by supporting the building of the CTC and saying they will allocate land for the centre to be built. That sounds like a deal that can't be passed up!


Members of Kabwe YMCA

As with any ambitious project, a well-thought out project plan is lurking not far behind. The village of Kabwe has a project plan on the go, thanks to the extensive research and work done by the online neighbours – but they need a few more expert eyes to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.


Lynley MacKay, volunteer online project manager for Kabwe, explains the needs of the project:

"Kabwe needs an excellent project proposal, and some creative ideas and actions! Ideas are needed for possible seed funding, self generating funding ideas and other options to secure funding and support for the centre.

Once a project proposal has been produced, it can be utilized to apply to potential funding bodies for funding, and information from the project proposal can be used for funding submissions, media releases and marketing ideas."

Sounds doable, right? What better way to help Josephat and members of the community achieve their dreams than by spending a couple of hours helping out - online, from the comfort of your own home?! If we've peaked your interest, please join the project proposal task discussion here.

And if project proposals aren't your cup of tea, there's many other ways to get involved. Just pick a task and go for it!

Just a few more sleeps until the Dutch Innovation Seminar!

(This post also appears on the Social Actions blog)

The coming days we'll be busy preparing for the Dutch Innovation Seminar. Siegfried Woldhek (founder of NABUUR) will be keynote speaker on October 9, together with Paul Bulenzi, local representative for the Village of Jinja-Central in Uganda on NABUUR.com.

Siegfried will demonstrate in a live presentation the principle of NABUUR: neighbourly help. How people from all over the world. not knowing one another, can come up with new solutions by sharing their ideas, knowledge and contacts. The question to solve will be raised by Paul Bulenzi who is coordinating a project for orphans and desabled people. The audience will try to find an answer in 20 minutes, quite exciting!

The seminar is an initiative of De Baak. De Baak is the place for leaders, business people and professionals to come in search of inspiration, motivation, knowledge and insight. Dutch Innovation Seminar is a yearly event, with Heineken and Apple playing host roles in previous years.

If you speak or read Dutch and you want to participate or join the discussions about Innovation online please take a look here.

Stay tuned after Thursday as we'll share with you what the audience came up with!

That's all for now. Enjoy your day, everyone!

The Floor is Yours

Here's hoping you're all starting off Monday on the right foot.

So far this blog has been about presenting you with amazing projects and volunteers, as well as updates from the NABUUR organization. Meaning we have been doing all the talking. Experience has taught us everyone always has something to contribute, so we'd like to switch things up a bit, and invite you to join the conversation as well in a couple of ways.

Many of you are existing NABUUR users, others are brand new to the organization. NABUUR can be a challenging concept to understand from the get-go, so I'm inviting you to ask questions, make comments, debate, discuss. The idea is to get a dialogue going, and get you involved in more than just reading these blog posts.

If you feel your question hasn't been answered by the FAQ or About NABUUR pages on our website, please post them as replies to this post - Or if you prefer, send them to info@nabuur.com with the subject title 'blog.'

Once we've gathered a few questions we'll post the replies here and hopefully get more of you commenting - other than just yours truly. :)

Alternatively, you can join the Social Actions blog where Gerdie is currently hosting a question on how best to engage volunteers. And the replies are starting to come in already...

Hope to chat with you soon!

Romina

Online to Offline: Introducing the NYC Volunteer Meetup Group

NABUUR is mainly about online volunteers working together towards solutions for local communities in developing countries. But some of our online volunteers have taken this a step further, starting physical meetups in their own cities, and taking the NABUUR concept of the global neighbourhood quite literally!

New York City residents Manuel Perez and Frederica Clare are veterans on the NABUUR stage, having worked on various online projects in project management roles or as team members. They put their heads together and organized a meetup in NYC for people interested in online volunteering, specifically those participating in NABUUR.com projects. The group meets monthly to discuss and brainstorm community service projects, and evaluate how best to use the tools available to volunteers on the internet.

If you're planning on being in the NYC area, drop in on their next meeting taking place on Monday, October 6. For more information and location, please visit their Meetup page.

Also make sure to check out the NYC Group discussion on the NABUUR.com platform, where you can pipe in with ideas and comments - and this without the cost of a plane ticket to NYC!

[If you're a member of NABUUR and wish to set up a similar Meetup in your city, let us know. We'll be happy to get you started. Contact info@nabuur.com for more information.]

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Romina

The Nairobi Eastlands Support Centre earns NGO status!

Nairobi Eastlands is one of the largest slums in Nairobi, Kenya, and is notorious for its youth culture and urban youth music scene. However, the area is also well known for its many health related problems, including high rates of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.

Nairobi Eastlands


To combat the health problems affecting the community, the Nairobi Eastlands Support Centre (NESC) was set up with the aim of providing affordable primary health care services, including health education and rehabilitation programs for substance abuse. In the hopes of finding ways to improve the centre's services, the community registered their project on NABUUR.

HIV/AIDS workshop


The online project is supported by Australian project manager Lynley MacKay, with Daniel Macharia, a health counsellor based in Nairobi, acting as local representative for the community.

With help from online volunteers from all corners of the world, a website for NESC was built, outlining the mandate and project goals of the organization. The website also includes a gallery of traditional crafts the community is selling in order to raise funds for self-sustainability.

Lack of legal status is often an obstacle for many local organizations, but last week NESC was granted formal non-profit status, a major achievement for the health centre. Daniel shares with us the exciting news here, and includes a copy of the certificate given to NESC by the Non-Governmental Organizations Board in Kenya.

Now that NESC is officially recognized as a legal non-profit organization, the community has many plans it wishes to tackle, including raising funds for the centre to become self-sustainable, and registering NESC with the United Nations (UN).

If you feel you can help with this project (and you can because no specific experience is needed - just your knowledge, contacts, resources, and lots of good ideas!) please click here to visit the Nairobi Eastlands project pages and join the online discussion.

We hope to see you as part of the team soon!