5th Vlog - Information Sharing Groups in Lyantonde, Uganda

Grant introduces the first video blog created by Ahabwe Michael, Director of ICOD, which highlights 2 leaders of the Agriculture Information Sharing Groups in Lyantonde, Uganda. Flavia and Dan, both farmers and ICT Trainees discuss the benefits of having access to the Internet and their hopes of using this information to improve agriculture in their communities.

All Vlogs related to the progress of the Lyantonde Internet Center from this point on will be created by ICOD staff. We look forward to watching!

Termination of Our Relationship with Prince Primary School

Dear Project Focus Family,

We are writing to fill you in on a very disheartening yet critical decision that Project FOCUS has had to make in the past couple of months. As supporters of Project FOCUS, you have trusted us to make responsible decisions with the money, time, and ideas that have been invested into our work. We had been operating according to the plan that when the Lyantonde Internet Center begins to make a profit those proceeds will be given to Prince Primary School to assist with both teacher salaries and the school lunch program. However, due to the dishonest and deceptive actions of the school’s Headmaster that we have slowly become aware of over the past several months, we’ve decided to terminate our relationship with Prince Primary School and use the projected profits from the Internet Center in a way that will benefit more than one community in the surrounding area. This blog post seeks to summarize the details that have unfolded so that our supporters can understand the reasons for and the weight of this decision.

Reasons for the Termination

Our relationship with Prince Primary School began in 2007 during our series of Art and Art Therapy Projects that were conducted in Lyantonde. Some of the artwork that many of you have seen at our past exhibits was created by the students at Prince. Our ties to the Prince Primary School go way beyond them being the beneficiary of profits made from the Internet Café thus making it difficult to believe and to admit that we’ve been deceived by their leader. Our suspicions began to arise when Grant returned to Lyantonde in February of this year to begin implementation of the Internet Center. Despite many attempts, Grant was unable to locate the Headmaster for months. The staff of ICOD, our local community-based based partner, hadn’t heard from him either. His wife informed Grant that he was visiting a friend; others told him that he was caring for his sick mother, and he was even notified that the Headmaster was dealing with some business matters in neighboring Tanzania. This went on, and on, and on. The teachers at Prince also claimed ignorance to his whereabouts. Although this seemed strange, at this point we had no reason to assume that we would be unable to continue our relationship with Prince Primary.

We were perplexed. In order to move forward we needed the participation of the Headmaster to continue with the Lyantonde Internet Center as planned. So eventually ICOD decided to investigate further and went into the community to put their ear to the gossip wire. They asked shop owners, taxi drivers, youth, and older folks what they had heard about the missing Headmaster. The inquiry produced a unanimous reply – that he was in prison. Initially nobody seemed to know (or wanted to say) why he had been detained. However we soon came to learn that he had been put in jail for defaulting on loan payments to a micro finance agency. We then discovered that this was only 1 of 5 lending organizations who wanted to bring him to court for defaulting on loans reaching back to 2007. It took a while for Project FOCUS to digest this news and to face the fact that we now had a very difficult decision to make.

What Does This Mean for Project FOCUS and ICOD?

ICOD and Grant sat down and hammered out these key points and questions:

1) These loans had been taken out in the name of the school but it was clear that they weren’t being invested there. Teachers were not being paid and the existing lunch program was in shambles. Although being told repeatedly that Project FOCUS would not donate money to Prince Primary School directly, the Headmaster often requested money from Project FOCUS insisting that they were in a very desperate situation. So where is the money that was borrowed in the name of Prince Primary School?

2) In retrospect this was not the first red flag regarding the Headmaster’s questionable behavior when handling money. In 2007 and 2009, he resisted accounting for money spent on events at Prince Primary, and when he finally did there were several figures that didn’t seem to add up. In 2008, there was a large community rift when the Headmaster’s failure to provide students with identity cards (that their parents already paid for) for a national exam resulted in their nullification. The 12 students were forced to retake the 7^th grade exam. In retrospect, Grant recalls the community’s accusations of foul play, but at the time Project FOCUS trusted the Headmaster’s intentions. Now we regret not having investigating further.

3) Over the years that we have been cultivating a relationship with Prince Primary School we celebrated the fact that it was a community owned and operated establishment. The Headmaster reassured us many times that this was the case. However, after some investigation, we are now aware that it is located on the Headmaster’s private property – not a plot of community owned land that was donated to the school.

4) The Headmaster, his staff, and his wife directly lied to ICOD and Project FOCUS about his whereabouts during the time that he was detained.

5) Given all of this information, is it responsible of ICOD and Project FOCUS to channel money into an institution that has a dishonest leader? Our commitment was to the Prince Primary community as a whole, not the Headmaster, so it is deeply disheartening to think that the students and families will not be able to benefit from the Internet Center project. But, it is equally disheartening to think that we could be contributing to the Headmaster’s personal gains while the students and teachers of the school receive little to no benefits from the proceeds.

After a careful review of the facts and several discussions weighing the possible consequences of our choices, the decision was made to terminate Project FOCUS’ relationship with Prince Primary School.

Soon after we made this decision we were informed that the Headmaster had been released from prison and we scheduled a community meeting at Prince Primary to inform everyone of our decision. The Headmaster was made aware of the meeting but chose not to attend. It was difficult enough to make our decision, but planning to explain it to the students, parents, and teachers who hadn’t done anything wrong was grueling. Michael, the Director of ICOD, explained our stance in local languages, which was met by several community members expressing similar sentiments of mistrust. Although disappointed, for the most part everyone seemed very understanding of our decision to terminate the relationship.

Upon hearing our decision, the Headmaster immediately contacted Grant (the first time in the three months that he had been there), sounding shocked and requesting to meet. Grant met with the Headmaster twice, once with ICOD (which resulted in physical threats to Michael) and once alone (which resulted in mud-slinging). After these meetings, and events since, Grant along with Project FOCUS became even more convinced that we had made the right decision.

Moving Forward

Since 2007, Prince Primary has been just one of several local communities Project FOCUS has been involved with. Others include the network of People Living with Aids from the Lyantonde Hospital, and farmers groups from Kyewanula, Lwensinga, Kitazigolowa, and Luwama villages. The aim of our organization, and partnership with ICOD, has always been to support locally driven initiatives that are making positive changes within the community. While we were re-evaluating our relationship with Prince Primary we were naturally building upon the relationships with these other groups through their participation in the educational programming of the Internet Center. It has been decided that the eventual proceeds from the Internet Café will be directed toward these groups. We will do our best to rely on our past experiences, especially those with Prince Primary, and the advice of our Ugandan Board of Advisors to ensure that this is done in a responsible and transparent way.

Difficult Lessons for a Young Organization

Project FOCUS does acknowledge the efforts that the Prince Primary students and staff put forth throughout our relationship, and agree that it is very disheartening not to see those efforts bear fruit. However, any blame assigned to why we cannot move forward should be clearly stated as a lack of trust in the Headmaster, and not any fault of the students or community at large. Unfortunately, the scope of the problem is beyond anything Project FOCUS has the capacity (or the right) to address.

That being said, we have learned countless lessons regarding the unintended consequences that can arise while developing relationships with institutions in real need, and the lengths that individuals may go to in order to capitalize on the possible benefits. We also agree that there are contributing factors to this situation that could easily be credited to Project FOCUS’s lack of foresight and experience. For this we sincerely apologize and promise to continue to learn and adjust from our mistakes to refine our approach.

We apologize if this seems like an over-simplification of the situation. The complexities that arise in this work, especially the slow and cumbersome approach of community building, could never be revealed in a single blog post. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding this information. info@projectfocus.org

Creation and Launch of the Internet Cafe!

Its finally here! On June 5th, 2010 the Lyantonde Internet Center was launched. This project is a collaborative effort between ICOD and Project FOCUS several years in the making. We are very grateful to those who have supported us in this endeavor and are excited about the information the center will bring to the community of Lyantonde. The cafe is connected through a satellite internet access and powered by solar panels. This video blog shows the creation and opening of the cafe. There was a bicycle race to commence opening day festivities along with a lot of excitement and good spirit.

Bwera Information Center

In this third video blog we get a look at the Bwera Information Center. The center was founded in 2003 as a community based organization and is run and owned by a consortium of about 40 local civil society organizations. Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the predominantly rural farming communities, with a special focus on women and marginalized groups.

On a demand driven basis, BIC provides information on agriculture, marketing, soil and water conservation, human rights, good governance, basic health care, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection, education, gender and peaceful conflict resolution and coexistence. BIC has grown into a centre where local people meet and freely share information and meet Martin a member of ICOD.

Five farmers within the Lyantonde community will learn about effective IT communication and information dissemination through the center. We also meet Martin, a community development officer within ICOD who talks about the importance of the information Bwera had to offer.

PF Featured as a Model for Fundraising

This week, Project FOCUS was featured on Inveneo's ICTworks site as a model for fundraising in their story, 'How to Fundraise Money for Computer Labs and Internet Cafes in 3 Easy Steps.' While I can't think of anyone in Project FOCUS who would put the words "fundraising" and "easy" in the same sentence, Inveneo does a great job of highlighting the key components of our fundraising strategy.

Inveneo is a partner with Project FOCUS in establishing the internet cafe in Lyantonde. They are a non-profit social enterprise that gets the tools of information communications technology to people and organizations in rural and highly underserved communities of the developing world. Click here to visit Inveneo's website.

A Space for Learning, Sharing, Creating, and Income Generation: Vlog #2!

In his second video blog Grant welcomes the Project FOCUS community to the empty space that will soon be transformed into the community Internet Cafe. He also introduces Michael, the founder of our partnering organization, ICOD, and takes us on a brief trip to the Lyantonde market where we can see and hear some local flavors of the community.

Enjoy!

Our First Video Blog from Uganda!

Welcome to the first of my video blogs from Uganda.

I hope this can help you to feel a little more connected to the lives you've touched in Lyantonde through your support of Project Focus and our work here. This is an introduction, and with each posting I'll try to go a little deeper into life in Lyantonde.

Since I'm flying solo out here your comments and feedback would help me frame the postings in ways you'll enjoy and learn from.

All my gratitude,

Grant Buhr

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day, a day to celebrate the strengths and accomplishments of women around the world. For me, the first person who came to mind was my grandmother, someone who decided after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 to fight for compensation of her Jewish grandfather's textile business that was taken away by the Nazi government. She did all this from Argentina, where she grew up and lives today, and though it took her nearly eight years to fight the case she and her cousins were finally compensated.

It is women like my grandmother who have paved the way for me to do the work I do now, and be involved in organizations like Project FOCUS.

Recently I spoke with my grandmother over skype. She called me from Buenos Aires to congratulate us on our worldview spot that she listened to after seeing it posted as my skype status. She shared how inspired she was by our project to bring Internet to a community in rural Uganda. We began to talk about the complexities of development work and activism, and I found myself connecting with her in a way I had not before.

So Happy International Women's Day, in honor of all our grandmothers and these beautiful moments that connect us.

Here is a video from the World Food Programme made especially for today:

PF's Internet Cafe Featured in Global Giving's Technology for Good Initiative

PF is getting noticed as more and more people are recognizing that connecting people is fundamental to the global economy, to societies, to infrastructure, and to life.

One of Global Giving's corporate partners, Ericsson, has selected Project FOCUS' internet cafe in Lyantonde, Uganda as one of six projects that they are promoting as part of their Technology for Good giving campaign!

To view our project on Global Giving, click here.

To make an investment, visit our microsite and click 'Invest Now'

When Good Intentions Meet the Law.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti this January - with an estimated 200,000 dead, 300,000 injured, millions made homeless, and a country's infrastructure in rubbles - one particular story has gripped the international media's attention.

Recently, a group of 10 U.S. missionaries were jailed in Haiti on child abduction charges after the group was caught attempting to remove 33 children from the country without government authorization or papers. The missionaries have denied any wrongdoing and insist they were acting with noble intentions trying to rescue children from the devastating earthquake. They believed that the children were orphans and came from a reputable orphanage. However, it's been since reported that nearly half of the Haitian children are believed to have at least one living parent.

When I first came across the story I had a visceral reaction that told me something was fundamentally wrong. It's not the just the actions of the 10 missionaries that were troubling to me, but the underlying assumptions that motivated this group of well-intentioned Americans to jump on a plane, swoop into a country in chaos, and attempt to rescue children in desperate need. These assumptions are not unique to this group from Idaho; they are shared to varying degrees by most of the development community.

Here are 5 assumptions to be wary of - most times they manifest themselves in subtle and complex ways:

1) Good intentions are good enough.

2) Tragedies like the earthquake in Haiti can be addressed with quick-fixes.

3) Children in desperate conditions need rescuing from the West.

4) A warm bed, food and a decent education are preferable to one's family, community, and cultural heritage

5) Local customs and local laws can be easily ignored.

This story is a sobering reminder for those of working in international community development that good intentions are not enough, that naive idealism can be dangerous, and that the real victims in this story are not the well-intentioned missionaries and volunteers that have been imprisoned, but the 33 Haitian children (and hundreds of thousands more) who still remain homeless and parentless.

Project FOCUS interviewed on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview

Project FOCUS is being featured on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview today, Thursday, February 18th at 12:00pm and again at 9:00pm (CST).

Grant Buhr, will speak with host Jerome McDonnell on the weekly Global Activism series about the history of Project FOCUS, our philosophies, and our current development project - a solar-powered Internet cafe in Southwestern Uganda.

If you're in chicago, tune into WBEZ 91.5 FM.
or Click Here to listen live via WBEZ online.

A nod from Change.org

Nathaniel Whittemore -editor of the Social Entrepreneurship blog on Change.org- pens some accolades to the PF process, while reminding us and all social entrepreneurs of the importance of balance when considering scale and relationships.

Nathaniel writes:

"To me, the lesson here isn't that social entrepreneurs should abruptly abandon their ambitions to scale up. Complex global problems require massive solutions, and when it comes to changing systems, scale is essential. What's more, the dichotomy of "breadth" vs. "depth" is a false one. The best social entrepreneurs have to understand how to balance both.

At the same time, I do think PF's story is a reminder of the value of going deep to connect with, learn from, and be an ambassador for a community. It also demonstrates that there's strength to be found in different kinds of social entrepreneurs, all working in their own way to make an incredible difference."

Read the full PF blog at socialentrepreneurship.change.org here

Haiti: Development wake-up call

(Photo: Mark Ovaska/ovaska.com)

In the wake of Haiti’s mammoth earthquake we’re seeing the harsh repercussions of neglecting the development of locally controlled infrastructure in and around Port-au-Prince. Social media platforms in the west have done a tremendous job of rallying a compelling and urgent response, but without the basic IT and power grid operations on the ground, Twitter and Facebook haven’t managed to make relief efforts any easier to carry out, nor have they told the complete story of Haiti’s abject poverty. Slavery, war, deforestation, and political instability (US intervention) have long been laying the groundwork for a disaster of this scale.

NY Times op-ed columnist David Brooks reminds us that the 1989 7.0 earthquake in Northern California killed 63 people, compared to approx 45,000 in and around Port-au-Prince. It’s also been reported that Haiti has more NGO’s per capita that anywhere on the planet (more than Northern Uganda?). The influx of donations right now is imperative to saving lives, but if the US’s aid and development strategy isn’t one that builds local capacity, and continues long after the Retweets and text messages die down, it may leave Haiti with less control over its future than ever.

If you’re in Chicago on Monday, January 25 check out the Café Society discussion at Intelligentsia Coffee: Haiti’s hard times: Are we helping or hurting even more?

Whether you can make it out not, consider these questions:

What has been your reaction to the crisis in Haiti? Do you think the way aid is being dispensed will truly help Haitians? What role should the U.S. play in Haiti now? What are your ideas for helping Haiti become a truly democratic and stable country? What sources of information are you relying on to understand Haiti? Is there hope for Haiti? Why or why not? What does the rest of the world owe Haiti now?

And these resources:

From Tweets to YouTube, world gets a clearer view of Haiti's suffering

The Disaster of the Century: How to Help Haiti

Local efforts to help Haiti

Our role in Haiti's plight

U.S. Marines Land in Villages on the Edge

Rich Nations Call for Haiti Debt Relief

Haiti: The Pearl of the Antilles

U.S. Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit from Haiti's Crisis

Lyantonde Connected Video - Spread the Love!!!

Have you ever wondered how a video gets viral? How in just a few days it becomes a cultural phenomenon that everyone seems to knows about?

We wonder about that too.

We think it has something to do with friends blasting a link to other friends through e-mail, facebook, gchat messages, twitter, and blogs.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectFOCUSorg

Help us prove that an online community can gather enough support to provide the internet to a rural community in Uganda without it.

Spread the internet love. Make an investment. Repeat.

Read more and INVEST here - http://www.projectfocus.org/current