Podcasting to Reconstruct Communities

Today I met with Jayne Morgan from PodCart who is joining the project and planning to teach us how we could use podcasting as part of the reconstructed project. Jayne develops podcasts for many major corporates and it is such an honour to have her part of the Reconstructed project. We looked at a number of interesting opportunities and our first reconstructed podcast will be available in the next few weeks so watch this space for details. You can read more about Jayne Morgan here

Mom 2.0 Cafe Session 1

Today we had our first session with mothers and women from the Cape Flats. For many its a new experience to be engaging with technology but they are very excited about the possibilities. More than 20 women were present and we know that this is the beginning of greater things in our communities.

The topic that was discussed today was "What is a Blog?". It was interesting to hear the perceptions of the women what they thought a Blog is. In the end we realised it is a tool that can be used to express oneself and to empower others through sharing your stories, experiences, news and commentary.

It was also good to see some of the Reconstructed Team with their mothers and empowering them with technology. So much to look forward to. Watch out for the Mom 2.0 blog soon for exciting stories of the women in these communities.

Our next Cafe session will be 10 October and contact us if you are interested in supporting this initiative.

What I expect from Mom 2.0

New Counselling Record

Yesterday was another small milestone for the Mobile Chat counselling as for the first time since we started in July we've had more than 60 conversations in our session. This is another indication that there are more people who want to make use of this service. We are fast moving towards the 400 subscribers to this service and we foresee that we'll reach over a thousand before the end of the year. A special thanks to the Reconstructed team for availing themselves to drive this initiative. You are now reaching more people than what we initially thought would be possible.

Mom 2.0 launched

Today was the official launch of the Mom 2.0 project and what an incredible response. We expected to get a few (maybe 10 maximum) women to be present at the launch but instead we had more than 40 women from some of the local communities present who showed an interest in being part of Mom 2.0. This initiative coordinated by Impact Direct Ministries (IDM), a local NGO in the Athlone area, and Cape Peninsula Univesity of Technology (CPUT) is hoping to be the first of many such projects across Cape Town in order to engage more women/mothers to use technology for community empowerment.

The launch was opened by the Programme Director of IDM, Mrs. Jenny Petersen, who encouraged the women that this was the beginning of a new chapter in many of their lives. The chairperson of the Bridgetown Civic was also present to welcome this initiative into Bridgetown, Athlone and express their support of Mom 2.0. I then had the honour of giving a short presentation around Mom 2.0 and it was good to see the positive response from the ladies who were present.

We were also honoured to have the Cape Information Technology Initiative (CITI) represented at the launch with a keynote address by Viola Manuel, Executive Director. She emphasised that the giants the women are facing and going to face can be conquered. These obstacles of overcoming the giants of technologies will open the doors for many other opportunities.

At the end of the session we had 27 women who signed up for the Mom 2.0 initiative and there was a buzz of excitement around the room as women began to engage with the endless possibilities using technology. Although this arm of the Reconstruction project has no funding (as yet) we will continue with the initiative as a community united to empower one another with the technologies available to them. Well in closing we are all looking forward to see how this new venture will impact women not only in our communities but all across the world.
To get involved with this project please do not hesitate to contact (CPUT)/myself at +2721 469 1140 or the IDM office +2721 637 4037.

Micro-blogging and more

This morning we continued with our workshops and started with Micro-blogging and how we can use this to empower Communities in Tension. We also welcomed 4 new members to the program. A special welcome to Jason, Gary, Dayle and Ricardo (Picture on The Reconstructed). We looking forward to see how through the empowerment of Technology you will use it to help your communities. Today the guys were taught how they could use twitter as a means to keep others updated about what the are doing. It was exciting to see how the reconstructed team will use this technology as a means to encourage one another and as a means for counselling. We also getting ready for the Mom 2.0 project which we will launch Monday and the initiave where many of the reconstructed team will be assisting and facilitating. Definitely exciting times...