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Advanced methods for analysis of multi-temporal sensor data to support precision agriculture
African Mobile Games for Change Guru to Speak at PICNIC 2012
Anne Shongwe is the founder and CEO of Afroes. This social enterprise is based in South Africa and in Kenya and develops interactive media solutions such as mobile games that are designed to inspire Africa’s youth to solve social challenges in their communities. Shongwe’s projets have won many awards. In 2011, Afroes won the appcircus competition with a gender violence awareness game that was developed for UN women. In 2012 Afroes won a Netexplo award.
At PICNIC 2012, Shongwe will be speaking about how mobile gaming helps to reach and activate youth and has brought about social change in South Africa. IICD hosts this session.
News station Al Jazeera recently broadcasted a story about the gender violence awareness game that was one of Shongwe’s initiatives and also interviewed her:
IICD is no stranger to PICNIC. In 2011, IICD IICD co-organised the one-day COMM 2011 programme at the festival about what innovation and creativity can do for the development Africa and Latin America.
Picnic 2012 is held on September 17 and 18 2012 in the Eye Film Institute, Amsterdam. Shongwe will speak on 1the first day of the festival at 2.50 PM.
Reducing the agriculture extension knowledge gap in Uganda: the Community Knowledge Workers
Nearly Extinct Indigenous Bolivian Group Passes on Culture With Educational DVD
The DVD is called ‘The World of the Baure” and will be included in schools in a greater program to emphasise Bolivian indigenous cultures and preserve them. It is an interactive DVD that will feature encyclopedia type of information, but also many video and sound clips. The advantage of these educational DVDs over a website is that even schools without an internet connection can use this material. Additionally, the DVDs can also be used by the Baure themselves to educate people about their history and customs.
The Baure are an an indigenous group of the Bolivian Amazon, inhabiting Baures village and the nearby small communities. Their numbers have slowly dwindled and currently, there are only 50 people left who still speak the Baure language. Several Baure have already been interviewed about their local customs and their language for the DVD and videos, audio clips and images are already collected.
The DVD is part of a bigger programme to preserve indigenous cultures by using multimedia. This is supported by IICD and Edukans through the Connect4Change consortium and Bolivian indigenous group supporter APCOB. For the Baure project, the Indigenous Center of Baures is also closely involved.
A detailed project description is available on the international transparency ‘Really Simple Reporting’ platform, created by software developer Akvo. Donations to the project can be made on this page.
Young Peruvians Use Social Media to Promote Agro-Ecological Production
The young Peruvians are participating in various radio spots, television and online social networks, disseminating and raising awareness about the benefits of consuming organic products that are healthy, chemical free and nutritious and focusing on the ecological impact of agricultural practices. They also invite people to buy products at ‘Fruits of the Earth’ Ecological Fairs (EcoFairs) in the areas of Cusco, Áncash and Cajamarca. These fairs function as a point of sale where local organic farmers can sell their products.
The young Peruvian organic ambassadors are also present at the fairs to provide the public with even more information about organic farming and ecologically sound agricultural practices. They are equipped with laptops, digital cameras and recorders, as well as printers, mobile phones and routers for wireless internet to make sure that they collect and disseminate information wherever they go.
Maylie Carrasco is one of the young people who participates in the project. In a Peruvian news show, she explains about agro-ecological products and invites consumers to visit the EcoFair Fruits of the Earth (in Spanish):
Increasing market access to over 500 ecological producers
The ambassadors all come from organic farmers families that are associated with the National Association of Ecological Producers in Peru. The underlying goal of this initiative is to improve the income and increase the access to the market for over 500 families of ecological producers by informing the public on the advantages of organic and ecologically sound agricultural products so that they buy products from the EcoFair. This project is supported by IICD and ICCO through the Connect4Change alliance.
Developing capacities through workshops
Before starting their campaign to draw the attention of the public to the benefits of organic farming and viewing agricultural areas as ecosystems, the young organic ambassadors participated in workshops that trained them on how to create blogs and use social media for promotional activities. These workshops also trained them in various speaking techniques, to optimise their presentations and be able to communicate to the public the advantages of organic production. They also learned to use the Internet as a tool for research in databases specialised in organic production.
