Blog
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Does aid to Africa really work?
My dad recently pointed me in the direction of Addicted to Aid, a Panorama programme featuring award-winning Sierra Leonean reporter Sorious Samura.
The basic question he asked was has the West got it’s aid model wrong? Billions of pounds have been pumped into Africa yet the number of poor people remains unchanged over the last 20 years. Has too little attention been paid to where the aid ends up?
Corruption, waste and inefficiency
Through a number of case studies he highlighted corruption, aid money being spent on the wrong things (e.g. building new schools in Uganda when what was really needed was to pay teachers to man them) and shops selling stolen aid supplies such as mosquito nets which were intended to be given to the local community for free, while the authorities turned a blind eye.
Hope
The final project however offered hope. A clinic set up to help amputees as a result of the bloody civil war in Sierra Leone. It was founded and is run by Dr. Mohammed Barrie who grew up in Kroo Bay, one of the poorest parts of the capital city Freetown. And it has proved to be amazingly successful with patients travelling from as far away as the neighbouring country Guinea.
Why has this project been such a success?
Well in the words of Dr. Barrie:
“We went straight to the community, we interacted with them, we tried to understand their basic needs and as a result they were very supportive in developing this project.”
One other thing really stuck out. Whenever Dr. Barrie got a cheque to support the clinic he photocopied it and make it easily accessible to his patients. They knew what money was coming in, so they could judge if he was spending it wisely.
What can we learn from this?
2 main things:
1) Listening to the local community is vital
They, and only they, know what challenges they face and where their needs lie.So if you want to improve the standard of education in a community do you just build more classrooms? Or do sit down with the community and discuss their most pressing needs? Maybe the teachers in rural schools are leaving because the living conditions are really poor compared to the city. Or the children are failing to turn up to class because they need to work all day to buy food.
Both problems can be addressed, by building basic living quarters and through a school feeding program respectively. But these needs can only be successfully tackled by working alongside the community to identify these needs in the first place. And it goes without saying, that every community will be different.
2) Transparency is a must
Both between us and you as potential or current supporters. And the community, ourselves and our partners in Africa who manage the project on a day-to-day basis. It’s your money and you deserve to see how it is spent.That’s why we are blogging and twittering about the behind the scenes stuff rather than just sticking a school in front of you and asking for money. When we get to Africa we’ll shoot videos, photos and interviews with the community and try to answer the questions you ask. And we’ll ensure there is a way for the updates to keep coming once we’re back home.
So does aid to Africa really work? We’ll let you be the judge of that.
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Second meeting with the Zambian High Commissioner
Just before Christmas I had a second meeting with the Zambian High Commissioner, Mr. Anderson Chibwa. He introduced me to a former colleague of his, called Njekwa, who works for a large multi-national NGO in Zambia and has specialist knowledge of the education sector.Establishing an NGO partner
After showing Njekwa a prototype of the new website (about 90% complete) we had a brief discussion about our aims and initial plans. A key aspect of this was our wish to find an established NGO partner in Zambia who has the capacity to build not one, but numerous schools. The thinking being that we can use our learning from the first school to build many other schools in the region. At least, that’s the theory!
Njekwa kindly offered to support us by using her local knowledge to research and shortlist a number of potentially suitable NGO partners, who we can then contact and visit on our initial trip. And from this we can select a partner to work with.
Numerous other things were discussed including how the relationship with the NGO and local community may work, through to issues we may face on the ground and very rough costings. Njekwa also suggested that we visit at least one well run community based school whilst on our trip to use both as a benchmark and to help establish best practice. A great idea! And one we defiantly hope to follow up if at all possible.
So the next steps are for Njekwa to carry out her exploratory research and then discuss and follow up what she comes back with.
Your ideas
Should you have any suggestion for a potential NGO partners, or anything else you thing may be useful, then we’d love to here it. Please add a comment or send an email to hello at learnasone dot org.
The initial requirements are:
- A local NGO specialising in education and located in Zambia
- Capacity to build numerous schools in one region
Thanks. More to follow as soon as we have it.
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A long overdue update (including notes from a meeting with the Zambian High Commissioner)
Hello all,
Firstly, sorry for the ridiculous length of time since the last update. You’ll be glad to know that all is still going well at LearnAsOne and that updates will be considerably more frequent from now on!
So what’s been happening?
Well three main things:
1) Developing the website (which is about 85% complete).
2) Gearing up for the first visit to Africa to select the first school.
3) Some small scale fundraising.I’ll briefly bring you up to speed.
Developing the website
The website is being developed so that you can donate to a specific community in need of a school.
Every school will get their own web page featuring a fundraising target, a shopping list of what they need and a way for you to donate. Plus a blog to provide regular feedback (video, written, photos etc.) so you can see exactly how your money is being spent. You will also be able to leave questions for the kids, teachers and community members to answer. Think of it as a cross between Facebook and JustGiving.
The new site is still in development but is now about 85% complete. Key screenshots can be found here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/7370765@N05/sets/72157603655096088. All the web development is being done on a voluntary basis by two amazing individuals, Ian Pearce and Bill Glover. This has resulted in a significant cost saving, which means that more of your money can go towards the first school. But on the flip side it means it’s taking longer than we initially hoped to get the new site live.
I can however tell you that the new site is shaping up really well and will be worth the wait! It’s currently restricted to the developers and a few testers. But as the development gets closer to completion we will be looking for more testers to provide feedback before the full launch. Look out for more details on how to become a tester appearing on this blog in the near future.
Selecting the first school
The most interesting and important part of this update of course surrounds the first school, which will be in Zambia.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending just over an hour in the company of the Zambian High Commissioner, Mr. Anderson Chibwa. I was able to introduce LearnAsOne, show him the current prototype for the new site and discuss the opportunities to work in Zambia. He offered to make a number of calls on our behalf, put us directly in touch with potential partners (local NGOs who specialise in education) and make introductions to other individuals in the media and at the Ministry of Education.
The next step will be to follow up on these contacts, and set up an exploratory trip to meet these people and identify our first NGO partner. And from there select the first community to work, establish their educational needs, set up their web page on the new site and get into full scale fundraising for the first school.
The one word of caution was the upcoming rainy season (Dec-April) which can make travel difficult. We are still looking into options for visiting during this period as it looks like this is when the initial funding will be sufficient to justify the trip and the new website will be up and running.
Again, you will be kept posted as to how things develop.
And a brief fundraising update
Despite a period of inactivity on the site, small scale fundraising has been continuing.
Dugald Wilson decided run the Edinburgh marathon in aid of LearnAsOne and raised £344 in the process. The New Bucks University Student Union continued their fine work from early in the year and sent through a cheque for £528. And our trustee Iain Gray raised £595 in sponsorship by completing l’Etape - the hardest stage of the Tour de France. There have been a number general donations too.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and money over the past few months. It’s fantastic to see money coming in even before the first school project is up on the site.
Thanks everyone!
P.S. If you would like to take part in an event to raise money for LearnAsOne it’s simple to set-up a fundraising page. Just use this link and follow the simple instructions.
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LearnAsOne: Bucks Students’ Union International Rag Charity 2007/8
As many good things do, this blog post started off in a pub.
Back in October last year I was introduced to Steve Marsh, a friend of a friend, and a music industry management student at Bucks New University. Over a beer Steve expressed an interest in carrying out some fundraising for LearnAsOne and told me about a few gigs he had previously organised with his friend Leigh Gorman. Numbers were exchanged and Steve got to work.
About a week later I received an email from Michael Paxman at the Bucks Students’ Union asking if I was interested in submitting a proposal for LearnAsOne to become their International Rag Charity for 2007/8. Steve moves fast! Well, I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say I said yes, wrote the proposal and I’m sure you will be pleased to know that it was accepted.
A number of meetings followed and the initial plans made in the pub were fleshed out. They are still fairly fluid but it looks like there will be a number of fundraisers carried out over early 2008, ranging in scale from a cakes sale up to a proposed hypnotist night. Watch this space.
The first fundraiser actually took place just over a week ago. The University Ladies Hockey Team raising over £125 selling lollies (while dressed as lollies) at the ever popular Flirt! night on campus. Good work girls!
In addition, Michael informed me that the University runs both Web Development and Graphic Design courses. This could fit perfectly with phase II of the website, so a number of volunteering opportunities are in the process of being shared with the students. I am hopeful there will be some developments over the coming months.
So thanks to Steve and Leigh, the team at the Student’s Union and the Hockey girls for getting the show on the road. Here’s to a very successful 2008 RAG!
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New year. New screenshots.
Firstly, I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year from everybody at LearnAsOne. And also to apologise for the lack of posting over November and December.In our absence we’ve been busy planning the next stage of the website, which will allow you to ‘Fund your own school‘.
Adam Koehli has kindly volunteered his time to turn the wireframes for the site into fully fledged designs. They have been uploaded to the LearnAsOne Flickr page if you wish to take a look. All comments and suggestions for improvements are much appreciated. (Please note that only the design has been worked on at this stage and copy still needs to be written or corrected).
The basic structure is as follows:
- A new homepage, a MySchool search page and an example individual school page.
- 6 admin pages. These will let you manage your account and the schools you support. For example, checking up on your donation history or setting email notifications whenever your favourite school(s) post an update.
All feedback, both positive and negative, is welcomed.
P.S. The next stage is to make any improvements to these designs and then turn them into web code. If you are skilled in HTML, CSS, PHP or MYSQL and you want to help out please email me through the this link. Thanks.
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In the news: Our first coverage in the Blogosphere
Earlier this week I was interviewed by Dave Fleet, writer of the Fleet Street blog that specialises in PR, Marketing and New Media about social media and how I hope it’ll help LearnAsOne to develop and grow. You can read the interview here.
Thanks for the coverage Dave.
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RunAsOne: Thanks to all the runners and sponsors!
On very little sleep - due to a Rugby World Cup semi-final and 21st birthday celebrations - 5 pairs of runners took part in the inaugural RunAsOne last Sunday morning.
Chris and Wendy (pictured) led the way home closely followed by Nick, Russ, Marion, Chris, Rebecca, myself, Eileen and Geoff. A massive thank you to everyone who ran and to all the sponsors - you can see all the photos from the day on Flickr. To date over £500 has been raised towards the first school in Ethiopia!
The support around the course and from the Innovation Sports announcer was amazing. Thanks everybody.
We are currently looking into options for a bigger and improved RunAsOne next year. Please feel free to add ideas for themes, venues, timings etc in the comments and we will keep you posted on the plans via this blog.
Thanks again!
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How cool would it be if you could fund your own school?
Well thanks to LearnAsOne you will soon be able to.
LearnAsOne is a new digital charity set up to fund schools and support their running cost throughout the developing world. Phase I of the website is already live: it’s based around this blog which lets you follow the fundraising progress towards the first school in Ethiopia, keep on top of all the latest news and interact with other members of the LearnAsOne community.
Phase II - MySchool
But the big idea behind LearnAsOne is to further develop the website to provide an extremely cost-effective way for you to give directly to an overseas community in need of a school. The way it works is very simple: every school will have its own webpage - or blog - that will look a bit like the line drawing below, right (click on the image to see it full size).
The page features the following:
- Two fundraising targets: One for the initial build costs and the other for ongoing support costs (such as books and teachers’ salaries). You will be able to donate to either of these or set up your own fundraising page for an event you are taking part in - more about that later.
- Regular feedback (including videos) direct from the school, so that you can see exactly what your money is helping to achieve.
- The opportunity to leave comments and questions for teachers and pupils to answer.
MyFundraising page
If you do decide to set up a fundraising page you will be able to link it directly to the school you are supporting. (Click on the image to see it full size)
Promote the school with a badge
You will also be able to add a badge or widget to your own website, blog or MySpace page to encourage others to give to your chosen school. (Again, click for the full image)Facebook application
A Facebook application is also in development so that you can add your favourite school or fundraising event to your profile and promote it through your feed.
The beauty of this idea
Once phase II is developed, it will provide everyone with internet access a new, interactive and fun way to support education in the developing world. And what’s really great is that it will cost us virtually the same amount to fundraise for one school as it will for 100! So it will be a highly scalable and a very cost effective way to donate to education in the developing world.
How can I help?
As you can see from the drawings a lot of the thinking has been done. But these drawings still need turning into a web application. To minimise costs we are looking for graphic designers and web developers (xhtml, css, php, MySql) who are interested in volunteering their skills to help develop this functionality. It doesn’t matter if you want to help out for the whole project or just help for a few hours, if you are interested, please get in touch with Steve by emailing [email protected].
Spread the word
If you like the idea of being able to partially fund your very own school then please, please let other people know about the idea too. Please take the time to digg this post, submit it to StumbleUpon, tag it on delicious, tell your friends, forward it to the press, email bloggers who you think may be interested or post this on Facebook.
And if you have any suggestions for improving the wireframes or turning them into reality, please add your ideas in the comments below. Thank you.
While this functionality is being built fundraising for the first school in Ethiopia will continue, and updates will be provided on this blog. You can subscribe to the rss feed if you want to stay up-to-date.
Thank you.
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RunAsOne - tie yourself to your mate (or a random) and run 10k so kids in Ethiopia have the opportunity to go to school
This Sunday, the 14 October 2007, sees the first bit of collective fundraising for LearnAsOne.
5 pairs of runners will haul themselves out of bed, just hours after then end of the Rugby World Cup semi-final and make their way to Clapham Common for a 10k run, with a twist. Each pair will be attached together. Yes, that’s right. Attached together. How? No-one is quite sure. But all will be revealed on Sunday and the evidence will be posted onto this blog and Facebook early next week.
Everyone at LearnAsOne would like to say a massive thank you to the runners and everyone who has been kind enough to dip their hands into their pockets to sponsor them.
If you want to take part, there is still time to sign up. And I’ve even promised that I’ll buy ever runner a thank you drink!
I myself will be running with the rather lovely Rebecca Aspin - and I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t plug our online sponsorship page - www.bmycharity.com/steveandrebecca.
If anyone still has a voice left after the rugby on Saturday night I’m sure the runners would appreciate your support - the start is at an almost civilised 10am and the finish is slap bang in the middle of Clapham Common.
See you all on Sunday!
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You guys are awesome!
As you have probably noticed the website has now been live for a few weeks. We wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped get it up and running. The feedback has been really positive and the donations are now starting to come in!Special mentions must go to Paul and Adam for volunteering their graphic designing skills - the site looks awesome! To Charles at Gum Interactive and Jason at Vividual for the web development. Amy, Liz and Wendy for their editorial eyes and copy suggestions. Stephen for dealing with all the IT and server stuff. Simon for emailing his address book to let everyone know when the site went live. All of you who are taking part in RunAsOne in October. The whole team at Burnett Works for our first ever donation and everyone else who has made a gift too. Plus to all of you who have listened and shared your ideas for the site. Without you LearnAsOne would still be an idea.
From the whole LearnAsOne team, thank you!
What do you think?
It would be really appreciated if you could spare 10 minutes to make yourself a nice cup of tea and take a look around the site. We would love to hear what you think and if you have any ideas for improving the site - you can leave your comments below. And if you want to receive regular updates about how the LearnAsOne story evolves please subscribe to the blog by clicking on subscribe button in the purple box to your right. Thank you.
Now we just need to raise £25,000 to build school number one!
