I am no newbie to the EYA. Four years ago Paul, me and two friends of us won the Award in the category “Go Green” with our App/Game Woody. So i already knew the organising team and over the years we kept contact. I was a juror in 2016 for the first time and it was so much fun that i was looking forward to do it again this year…

In my last post i talked about our network as a small and stable yet dynamic family. I can find many of these qualities in the community of the EYA. Although in a different way. It is large and shrill and posh and everyone seems to be busy being the next big Start-Up CEO. In an interesting workshop, conducted by two wonderful friends from Syria, my group amongst others noticed that we all lack a significant resource: Time. For ourselves.
I want to compare the well organised and tight festival program with a river steadily and strongly flowing. Sometimes you can find people floating next to you at the same velocity. I had many such encounters throughout the last two days. And although it sounds stressful, in fact it has always been energetic and pleasurable. As well interesting and demanding. Personal background stories mixed up with social business models. Example: My dear friend Attila and i just met again after one year and had to catch up in a 10 minute coffee break which ended up having a conversation about how the factor “efficiency” can affect design in a very negative way. When the bell rang we were still standing in line for coffee but almost forgot the river running towards the next workshop.

In the afternoon the winning teams presented their projects to the jury and the festival audience. After last year’s experience i knew in advance that our mission to choose the overall winner would not be easy. The rules for each contestant: exactly 3 minutes of presentation time and 3 minutes of Q&A by the jury. 17 projects and about 2 hours later we were all pretty much filled up with inspiring ideas … and we were exhausted. The contestants were free to spend a nice evening in Graz. For the jury the work just started at that point. At around 11pm and after a we discussed the presentations and projects we finally elected the overall winner.

The winning teams and the moderators of the EYA 2017

“Erase All Kittens” confused with it’s name but also won the hearts of many people in the jury and the audience immediately. As they state on their website: “E.A.K. is a revolutionary, online game that provides kids aged 8-14 with knowledge of both computational thinking and professional coding languages, to effectively prepare them for 21st Century degrees and careers.” Not only it was clearly the most innovative project but it was also the best presentation: I had no struggle at all to understand the concept and their goals within the 3 minutes (almost no questions needed). It amazes me how the team combines the logic process of coding with the ease of playing a fun game about kittens.

Here are the winning teams of the 9 different categories.

Erase All Kittens is the EYA overall winner 2017

In a big evening ceremony on the next day the winning teams were honored by officials and celebrated themselves afterwards. We all know how important partying and dancing is. Sometimes it feels like shaking of the weights of hard work. Especially after so many hours of conceptualizing, creating, designing, coding, calculating, marketing etc. I congratulate and thank the teams and the organisers for making it once more a special experience!

The European Youth Award is a wonderful source of inspiration and gives insights into the young social entrepreneur and start-up scene. At ICT4D.at it is nice and helpful to be part of this international network. I talked to several people about our work as an NGO and there might emerge collaborations in the future. What i definitely know though is that i will be happy to spend some quality time at the EYA again next year.

Notes from Africa Camp Graz 2011, 26.11.2011 in Graz. List of topics here. As there were parallel sessions I could only attend half of them.

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Teeth for Africa – http://www.zaehnefuerafrika.com/en/

“Dentist family project”, started in 2006

1 hour from Arusha, in the Kilimanjaro region (Tanzania) there was a lack of dental health care

They took all dental care and other medical equipment they could get in Austria, put it in a container and shipped it to the local dispensary in Uchira

Worked together with local people to build up dentist surgery

Taught local technician to build tooth-protheses

Surgeries initially done by specialists from Austria – 3 family members are dentists – but since October 2011 there’s a local dentist

Several sponsors – university clinic, other dentists, dental companies

Cooperation with Med-Uni Graz

• students can have an internship in Uchira

Local dentist & technician are working together in the mean time and everyday dental care is working ok

Treatment is not for free because people have to get a salary, rent for rooms, …

• depending on salary of patients

Supporting the project – on the homepage

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ICT4D – (what to do with) IT and mobile phones in “developing countries”

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Laafi – rural hospitals in Burkina Faso – http://www.laafi.at/

Since 1994, 14 members, financing health projects in Burkina Faso

Costs are covered by donations and

Usually 1 hospital for an area with 10.000-20.000 people

Many duties

• medical care in the hospital
• awareness about hygiene in the villages
• family planning
• pharmacy

Burkina Faso has a national initiative to supply all areas in the country with hospitals – but there is no state budget for it; but the personnel is sent to hospitals which are built by other initiatives

Laafi

• looking for projects
• working with village community and medical personnel
• co-financing by the village community (20-30%)
• local companies, local resources
• control and evaluation on the spot
• sticking to reliable project partners

Several projects in Burkina Faso

General medical situation very basic

Budget

• 1/3 Laafi calendar
• 1/3 private supporters
• 1/3 institutional donations

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Social Media for NGOs

Prezi-presentation at http://prezi.com/npk3rwlixuks/social-media-fur-ngos/

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Further material online

Resources at the Afrika-Camp site: http://www.barcamp.at/Speakers_AfrikaCamp_Graz_2011

Arabian Spring – a social media revolution – Prezi: http://prezi.com/hsdnvfkq_k7g/arabischer-fruhling-eine-social-media-revolution/

Social Media in Africa – Prezi: http://prezi.com/wumvtu_gvmdx/social-media-in-afrika/

Notes from Africa Camp Graz 2011, 26.11.2011 in Graz. List of topics here. As there were parallel sessions I could only attend half of them.

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Micro Credits as a measure to extend capitalist production

In the mean time more than 100 million people received micro-credits; counting all members of the family there are soon 1 billion people affected by microcredits

More and more institutions are entering the market (becuase they see the possibility for profit) which results into competition and more focus on profit than on information and assistance

Interest rates become higher and more and more people are not able to pay back the microcredits

• many cases for this (India, suicide of farmers)
• social pressure to pay back loans
• sometimes physical force is used to pay back loans

People receiving microcredits often don’t make the step to become independent entrepreneurs and therefore become workers who have no option, only to sell their work force

–> Extension of the capitalist production circumstances

–> People become dependent on private companies/NGOs/institutions and not the state anymore (social system)

–> Makes situation of the people worse, not better

–> The assumption that “social capitalism” works is wrong, as soon as there is competition, the companies who don’t care about social standards win – in general and in our current system

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Mojoproject – www.mojoproject.org

Started as building project TU Graz – connected with ITHUBA
– Mojo fullscale stodio – not for profit
– Mojo architectural studio – for profit

Trying to improve the situation by providing education

Active in South Africa & Tanzania – 2 schools each

Building schools in townships & rural areas

• Also important who runs the school
• Focusing on educating women
• Integrating young local men in the building of the schools – teaching them crafting skills on the job

Planning, building and also raising money themselves

• student project as initial kickstart – half year of a lot of work
• need project partners – universities, NGOs, companies, many sponsors

Open for additional projects from other organisations

Final aim – local people learn building skills and can act independently

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Learning from the slum Kibera – from a land use planning perspective

Taking lessons from Kibera to architectural planning projects in the West

• slum in Nairobi
• ~1 million inhabitants

Hierarchy of space

• 1. public spaces for all
• 2. public spaces for private activities
• 3. spaces for reaching other places
• core elements – living space and courtyard

System that emerged without architects

• Partition between public and private spaces much more logical & natural than in the west
• clear borders between private and public – also athmospherical
• small clusters of private spaces gathering around public spaces
• spaces spiraling from public to private spaces

Systemic approach – inside vs. outside

• clear “rules” that distinguish places inside and outside these different spaces structures
• addition of structures from North to South
• Kibera as an “island”

Public space as more flexible entity – created and changed based on community input

No strict partitions as in the West – no more fighting fore public space

Learning from “slum cultures”

Just a small pointer to an interesting event in Graz, Austria on November 26:

AfrikaCamp Graz will bring together people interested in Africa and IT to talk about projects, ideas and generally to network. We’ll definitely be there and maybe present lessons learned from our Zanzicode project or our upcoming project in Ghana.

It’s the second AfrikaCamp in Austria, the first took place in Vienna in 2009 and we did some coverage here on our blog – AfrikaCamp Vienna Aftermath.

So, if you’re in Austria at that time, make sure to join the AfrikaCamp.

What: AfrikaCamp Graz 2011

When: 26. November 2011

Where: Graz, exact location will be announced at the AfrikaCamp page