Technology Failures

Over the past few weeks, I've been working hard on the Meaningful Shop - an online store that allows Meaningful Volunteer to coordinate its child sponsorship, fair trade, community support, and building intiatives. It's an exciting project to say the least! Keep an eye out for the formal launch in a week or so.

In a previous life, I worked as an I.T. manager for ten years, so developing a website is nothing new to me. Developing a website in a developing country has many unique challenges.

Electricity

Electricity on the island of Tablas (where I am based) is a temperamental beast at best. On a "normal" day, the power goes out at least once. Sometimes for an hour, sometime for the rest of the day. One one auspicious day, the power came on and off five times! Tablas Island is also hit by an unfair share of tropical storms which play havoc with the electricity infrastructure. The island was without power for over a month after Typhoon Frank.

Some of these issues are just life in a developing country like the Philippines whose economies are crippled by foreign debt and internal corruption. What is really frustrating though is the incompetence of the local officials. Let me explain.

The island is powered by several power barges which are basically floating diesel generators. Every so often a tanker arrives and replenishes the diesel in the barges. Now it seems to me as if it would be easy to work out a) the rate of diesel consumption and b) the current amount of diesel, so as to work out c) when the diesel will run out and therefore when the diesel tanker needs to arrive. This simple math seems beyond the local officials as the island recently went without power for several days as the barges ran out of diesel.

(Ha! As I type this, yet another power cut kicks in!)

Internet

We tend to take the Internet for granted in developed countries. You click on the Internet icon and - bang! - there it is.

Things are no so easy here in on Tablas. The closest high speed Internet spot is on the island of Romblon - a thirty minute motorbike ride followed by an hour long boat trip. There is a cool little device called Smart Bro that connects to the USB port of your computer. This allows you to get Internet anywhere you can get a cell-phone signal. In ares with the 3G network, this provides for super-fast Internet. In areas like Tablas which lack the 3G network, the Internet comes through in a trickle. While this is no doubt better than nothing, it makes it very frustrating to get answers to technical questions.

Jeffry Sachs - the great economist and champion of the poor - was once asked if he could wish for one thing for impoverished villages, what would it be? He said cell-phones as these open you up to the greater world. Market prices, medical advice, traffic conditions, and countless other pieces of information are just a phone call away.

I'm sure that the Internet would be a close second on his list as this opens up the world in ways much greater than the cell phone.

Getting the Site Going

Developing the Meaningful Shop has been a challenge. Not from a technical point of view - I've done countless similar sites before, but from an infrastructure point of view. I have had to stop work many times as first the power would cut out, and then my laptop itself as the battery was whittled away. Throw in snail paced Internet and things get even more frustrating.

Things in Uganda will be - alas - no better. Uganda has a day-on day-off system for most ares. The on-days have power for between four and twenty four hours. What makes this extra frustrating, is that Uganda is actually a net power exporter...

Fun times ahead no doubt.

Fundraiser for Flavia Anying

Flava Anying was brutally attacked by her ex-husband on the evening of August 24th.

Late Monday evening, her ex-husband came to her home, forced himself inside, and attacked her in front of their two children. He chopped her five times across the back and right shoulder, breaking her shoulder bone in two places. She also has a large chop through her bicep, and small defensive wounds on her forearms and hands.

On his last chop he tried to decapitate her, but on its way down the blade somehow twisted, so that it came down on the blunt back side of the machete. She was still cut and has lots of bruising and muscle damage on her neck from the force of the blow, but she’s alive. She says that God’s hand came down and twisted the blade, saving her life.

The neck blow knocked her unconscious, and he then used Flavia’s cell phone to call Margaret Odong. When she answered he said “I’ve finished with her. You come clean up the mess.” Margaret rushed over, brought her to the hospital, and notified the police.

The Ugandan army hires young adult males to act as militias/vigilantes to guard the IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) camps in the North, against the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). Her husband started working with one of these militias as a teenager, and as a result has a lot of mental and emotional problems. When they were together, Flavia was a victim of domestic abuse, but never before to this extent. When it comes to the attack, he says that Satan made him do it. He’s been arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Flavia used to work in a crude Waragi distillery (basically making moonshine), which is a very unhealthy and dangerous job. Since working with Grassroots Uganda, she’s been able to quit the distillery and earns all her money from making the paper bead necklaces and handbags.

Unfortunately, due to the severity of her injuries, she can’t mover he arm or sit up, let alone roll beads or sew. Grassroots Uganda is currently assisting with her medical bills, but we are worried about her finances the next few months while she recovers. We are currently accepting donations to help cover her living expenses until she’s strong enough to resume Grassroots activities.

You can help raise money for Flavia via the following methods:

PayPal: contribute@meaningfulvolunteer.org

Direct credit to the following New Zealand account:

Name: MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER TRUST

Account Number: 12-3083-0483370-00

Bank: ASB

Country: New Zealand

You can also contact Lee Koelzer - our dedicated Grassroots Uganda volunteer based in Uganda at lee.koelzer@yahoo.com for direct credit into a U.S. based account. It might be easier for you to send her a check (made out to Lee Koelzer) to:

Linda Koelzer

3476 E. Shore Dr.

Helena, MT 59602

USA

Note: That Grassroots Uganda is not a registered charity in the United States, so the U.S. account must be personal account, but - rest assured - all the money will go directly to Flavia

You can also send a message of encouragement to Flavia via this address: flavia@meaningfulvolunteer.org

The above report of the incident was given to me by Lee Koelzer (who is doing fantastic work in Uganda by the way).

I don't know Flavia personally, but my heart goes out to her. No one should have to suffer this type of cruelty.

Uganda has many problems. Violence against women is but one of them. Ladies like Flavia suffer at the hands of their partners far too often. For the most part, their cries for help go unanswered - sometimes because they are unuttered.

The most messed up place I've ever been to is the north of Uganda. An 21 year civil war that still simmers, kidnapped children, child soldiers, grinding poverty, malaria riddled children dying on the street, and corrupt government officials all to add to the mess that is Northern Uganda. I don't pity Flavia's ex-husband working there as a militia. It would drive many a sane man over the edge.

There is - of course - no excuse for what he did. I am glad he is in prison and will not be able to harm Flavia again. Knowing the state of Uganda prisons though, he will not come out a better man. He plainly has mental health problems and he himself needs help that he won't get.

Northern Uganda messes with your head. The boundaries between villain and victim constantly blur. The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) raid villages, kidnap children, and mutilate and rape the women. The anger and rage at such behavior gets tempered by the fact that the people doing these raids were themselves kidnapped from villages when they were younger.

It's a messed up situation.

I'll be over in Uganda in mid-October to launch the Heart of Uganda program. I'm sure there'll great successes over there, but they will be tempered by the fact that people like Flavia are still suffering