BloggerCorps - Help Needed

developingwords.org

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:22:45 -0500

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know about my website, developingwords.org.

The idea is simple. Writers living in developing countries send us a few letters every week
in the form of a journal entry. Each entry is then digitized and posted to an online blog hosted at
developingwords.org. There are ads on each blog and 100% of the revenue generated by
the ads is sent back to the writers. The beauty of the idea is there is no limit to how much revenue our
writers can earn.

In addition to this we will also be accepting writers working abroad for Ngos such as the Peace Corps.
In this case the money they earn goes towards the cause they are working on.

I think if you visit the site you'll understand the project a little clearer. As of today it's about 90% complete but we
still need some good and interesting writers to contribute content. Please contact me if you are interested in participating!

best, Mason

Looking for a volunteer for a website and blog

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:11:09 -0400

I work at CompuMentor and manage our volunteer matching program, Mentor Matching.http://www.compumentor.org/consult/mentor/default.html We match mentors (what we call our volunteers) to nonprofits to work on non critical short term technical projects. I'm looking for a volunteer to work on a project with an organization called "Interplast".

Interplast is the first international humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive surgery in developing countries, makes a direct and profound difference in the lives of 3,000 children each year who suffer physically or emotionally from a congenital deformity or injury.

Interplast would like a mentor to help assess how they can further grow their website and blog.
http://www.interplast.org

Some features that they are considering are:
-live chat
-RSS
-downloadable video
-podcasting interviews with doctors

They currently have a blog:
http://interplast.blogs.com/

They'd like advice on how to streamline the process of their staff uploading content and images from the worksite. (which is often in developing countries)

Flexible availability to meet with the mentor.Flexible availability to meet with the mentor. Client will be at a worksite in China and will communicate with the mentor through email and through Skype: http://www.skype.com/

Please email mentor@compumentor.org if you're interested in working on this. Thanks!

Go on take the money and run

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:26:40 -0400

You previously posted a story and request for help on a past project that ultimately led to Wakapoa.com being created for a returned Peace Corps volunteer. Very awesome! Thanks!

I have a new request. In the past I worked with mentally impaired adults in Minnesota. My aunt now heads a non-profit that seeks to help challenged adults train for jobs and finds them work so that they may be a bit more self reliant. Their organization paid a webdesigner to recreate their website for them and he did...but crappily. He took their money and ran and now they have this half assed site and no more money to finish it up. Can we find a volunteer to help out with this site? This is the site: http://www.midwaytraining.org

Help in SW Michigan

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 00:24:28 -0400

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

I am both a blogger and an activist, I have been blogging for a couple of years. Many groups and individuals have I tried to get to use weblogs and wiki. The recent attempt to get a project some web media is doing ok, but needs help in the fundraising sphere.

Basically, voter rights in Benton Harbor Michigan are being challenged and the brunt of the attack is falling on the communities most outspoken activist, Rev. Pinkney. He faces many charges of voter fraud and such. I have met the man and feel he speaks truth and is innocent of the charges.

Please help me figure out how to raise the profile of this situation and how to help pay for the lawyer services needed to keep him out of jail.

Many thanks and I look forward to watching this community develope.

Best, Mark

> see BANCO

Help Get PBS to Show our Documentary on Oct. 27!

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:25:29 -0400

We need you to contact PBS to ask them to show "Small Fortunes" on October 27, 2005.

I am on the board of a non-profit organization called Unitus and Unitus helped produce a documentary, called "Small Fortunes" about Microcredit. PBS has agreed to show this beautiful and powerful film about this effective poverty-fighting tool on October 27, 2005 at 10:00pm EST.

However, local PBS stations have the choice to show it or not.

We need help to have as many people as possible contact their local PBS station and ask them to include this show in their programming. It is important to do this now, because programming schedules are getting set between now and the end of August for most stations.

Could you help us by contacting your local PBS station today to tell them about your interest in microfinance and ask them to broadcast Small Fortunes on October 27. Positive and personalized emails and phone calls are most effective; mass produced mailings are not.

To locate the PBS station in your area, please visit:

www.pbs.org/stationfinder

Microcredit is where small loans, usually between $50 and $200, are given to the very poor in the developing world. The poor use these loans to start a very small business that allows them to earn more money than they could through day-labor. The borrowers pay this money back and then qualify to receive a bigger loan. What is amazing is that over 95% of the poor pay these loans back. Then that money is available to loan out again to more borrowers.

To read more about microcredit, you can read my personal blog at:

http://unitus-microcredit.blogspot.com/

Youth civic engagement through community mapping

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 00:10:01 -0400

Hi again,

I am keen to hear from bloggers with an interest in civic activism through youth community mapping activities. We are starting 4 teams of youth up in the fall (funding is close to being finalized) with one team handling the leadership and decision making along with adult and mentor support. I see blogs as a natural fit for supporting and pushing forward our agenda. Your help and advice would be most appreciated.

Brent

Youth Community Mapping

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:00:59 -0400

Hi everyone,

My Program is called Community Resource & Learning Room. As a community based organization running within a local (large high school) we are providing support, volunteer opportunities and citizenship roles for young people as a way to build skills and give youth a stronger voice in the community.

In the fall we are launching a youth community mapping program in partnership with an international youth organization. Our focus will be on youth discovering and mapping their local environment with a particular interest in understanding and taking action on youth poverty and homelessness. We want to connect the teams who will be doing the mapping to each other and to the facilitators/mentors who will work with the teams. We also want to use blogs as a means to dessiminate our findings effectively. I would appreciate help from a blogger who can see the options available and advise me on how to organize a blog effectively and or an cluster of blogs (each volunteer member create a blog?).

I am learning on the fly and am a quick study so if you can help, I would be most appreciative. I have plenty of background on the Program rational, goals, activities and work plan if you would like to go over that.

Thanks,

Brent MacKinnon

Program Manager, Community Resource & Learning Room

an international NGO venturing into the world of blogging

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 10:51:13 -0400

Hello everyone,

I am writing to request advice/assistance in starting a blog for the Trickle Up Program, a non-profit that gives small grants and business training to the poorest of the poor around the world.

Our hope is that our program staff will be able to share both the successes and the failures of our programs in over 14 countries in an open, transparent way, with members of our community - connecting the daily struggles of poor isolated people with the rest of the world in the living, breathing way that unassuming blogs support.

To this end, we are looking more for assistance is setting up our blog, than in maintaining it. We are considering CivicSpace, but also leaning towards Typepad as an easier vehicle for beginners. We are also looking for advice regarding the development of institutional guides and training for our staff. We would very much like to hear about and learn from other NGOs experiences.

Thank you all and best wishes.

Lori S. SchompTrickle Up Program104 W. 27th Street, 12th FloorNew York, NY 10001-6210

Wakapau, Guyana

Fri, 13 May 2005 14:01:50 -0400

From Peace Corps volunteer, Scott Stadum:

There is a tiny village up the Essequibo here in Guyana, located in the rainforest. The village, Wakapau, is quite bustling due to the work of a few volunteers in the region. There is a health center, a new library, soon they will be getting computers and are already working with solar panels for sustainable energy. Wakapau also produces various wood products that are quite nice, and may possibly need a section to their web site that will allow for the sale of these products. If you know anyone that might be interested in this project, could you give me a holler. It could be a lot of fun and a good opportunity to bridge cultures.

If you are interested in helping, you can contact Scott via his blog.

A Parent's Direct Social Justice Action

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 02:16:25 -0400

A Direct Social Justice Action in response to a school district's GROSS gang violence toleration within a Little Rock, Arkansas USA Middle School. They have been caught "red-handed", covering up crime within the school. They are currently illegally resisting a grievance hearing that will ultimately uncover their felonious malfeaseance of discipline report suppression and victim tampering among MANY other violations that are all documented in print AND audio.It is my personal attempt at being individually fair, persistent, precedent setting but effective. Any help, linking, emails to myself, the district in inquiry of moral support against violence, especially among our offspring or mass reproductions of my informative articles would be of GREAT assistance to my maternal unilateral action. Many of the documents can be used as basic templates on how to deal with similar issues of violence within our schools. All articles come with a "Copyleft Unconditional" license. If you look up the term on wikipedia, you will see that this means that you can basically do what you wish with them IN GOOD CONSCIOUS. My site is quite new but recieves a large number of hits already. I am more than willing to add links for like minds, just email me.Thanks,Stacey Goodwin End School Violence NOW...before it's too late <div align="center"><div align="center">http://thewarningsigns.blogspot.com

Crisis in Nepal

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 12:19:55 -0400

Hello, this is my first post. I wonder if any of you are from or have an interest in Nepal? A close friend has been living there for some months and called me yesterday evening with some interesting news. There is armed strike being conducted by the Maoist rebels who have been fighting the monarchy and various coalition governments in Kathmandu since 1995. In February, the monarchy dissolved parliament and abrogated to itself emergency powers, ostensibly to deal directly with the growing insurgency but probably to forestall legislative action by the opposition to curtail most of its powers. My friend does not know if Washington pre-approved this move (much as it pre-approved Alberto Fujimori's self-coup in Peru in 1992 also designed to defeat a Maoist rebellion that was threatening to seize power nationwide), but if Washington thought it would strengthen the hand of the Nepalese monarchy it was a horrible miscalculation. Urban sentiment, which had been lukewarm at best toward the rebels, has now swung decisively in their favor, at the same time precipitating a crisis within the loyal but now dispersed parliamentary opposition.

If the monarchy can defeat the rebels militarily (a dicey prospect), it could emerge stronger than ever; while the Maoists control 80% of the countryside, their hold on the major cities like Kathmandu is very tenuous. If on the other hand Washington or London see the country further descending into chaos and the prospect of a Communist victory looms large, look for a sudden departure of the King and his entourage probably to India or to the US and a government of national reconciliation quickly taking its place.

The strike itself has begun to pinch in terms of basic foodstuff and electricity, thus adversely affecting the very people the revolution is ostensibly designed to help. This too could have a deleterious effect on popular support for the insurgency within the cities, a consequence the rebels are at great pains to avoid. The Maoists must broaden their support to include the small but significant urban working class if they are to enjoy the type of legitimacy necessary to secure a place in Nepal's future.

Help Promote Blogging in Zimbabwe

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 15:08:03 -0500

The Zimbabwean web portal, inZIM.com is currently looking for a blogger volunteer to help assist with some of the administrative tasks in keeping the site fresh and updated.

This project requires nothing more than spending a few minutes each day classifying the news items which come in via allAfrica.com. But for those interested in and passionate about the spread of decentralized new media where government otherwise censors mainstream media and restricts free speech, inZIM.com presents the perfect opportunity to create positive change.

In addition to classifying incoming news feeds, the web portal could also use a face lift to ease and speed up navigation. The current administrator, Babak Fakhamzadeh, says he would not be opposed to switching the portal over to a new platform like CivicSpace if the right volunteer steps up.

inZIM.com generates 20,000 page feeds per month and comes up second after searching Google for "Zimbabwe blogs." With the right volunteer, the web portal could become an even greater resource for Zimbabweans to express themselves as well as communicate their experiences directly with the international community.

If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions, please leave a comment below. And please help spread the word on your own blogs. BloggerCorps succeeds in its mission when it is widely linked to throughout the blogosphere.

A Sample Post

Sun, 06 Mar 2005 16:15:57 -0500

This is a sample post in the new "Help Needed" category, where activists and non-profits can post requests for help for their projects.