Announcing “GIG supports project Tolocar” to connect with Ukrainian makers.

Announcing “GIG supports project Tolocar” to connect with Ukrainian makers.

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
The HIWW Truck English version [Ukrainian Version below] When faced with challenges or adversity way beyond what a person can handle - one of the cultural responses in Ukraine is “Toloka”. Turning to the crowd for support. Providing solutions at the needed scale, and with ingenuity and insight beyond what an individual can muster. tolocar.org The Tolocar project was created to support makers in Ukraine in an extremely difficult situation. It provides Ukrainian makers with access to international maker communities and creates a sustainable exchange network between Ukrainian and international producers.  To support and strengthen Ukraine's industries, partners from around the world have come together to implement various projects on reconstruction and rehabilitation, open production, knowledge transfer and innovation. In the spring of 2022, the Tolocar project began sending converted workshop vans to Ukraine, which have the capabilities of a mobile makerspace or fablab on wheels. These open mobile production facilities are designed to support humanitarian activities in the country. the Cadus Supporter They provide high-tech manufacturing or...
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Learning with Head, Heart and Hand – A Plea for Maker Education

Learning with Head, Heart and Hand – A Plea for Maker Education

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Global Innovation Gathering is proud to have Junge Tüfler*innen among our members. During workshops, they observe how children are fascinated by plants that make music, plasticine that glows because it can conduct electricity, or a talking poster. When they understand how these things are made, they quickly arrive at the point: "Maybe I can do that, too. I'll try that myself!" Doing things yourself to develop and experience your effectiveness is an essential part of maker education and, accordingly, at the heart of all learning formats. Through project- and problem-based learning, maker education strengthens key future competencies such as communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. A diagram shows the overlap of the 4K model (Communication Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking) with Digital Competencies (Reception, Reflection, Production). Maker spaces offer a near-limitless number of possibilities for exploration: also, digital skills can be taught here. Fascinating: the area for production, i.e. being able to design digital content and systems yourself. Illustration: Carlotta Klee. "Maker Spaces in der Schule: So...
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H-Fablab – Fuelling sustainable innovative solutions in Côte d’Ivoire;  starting with young makers

H-Fablab – Fuelling sustainable innovative solutions in Côte d’Ivoire;  starting with young makers

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Dodji Honou conducting a practical training for kids at H-Fablab (all photos courtesy of H-Fablab) In the neighborhood of Bingerville about 45 minutes -1 hour from Abidjan, in the district of Angré,  stands H-FABLAB.  A digital manufacturing laboratory whose primary objective is to promote learning by doing among young people, whether or not in school, literate or not in French. The space was opened formally  in Sep 2021, but had been running informally for 2 years before that. They enjoy good internet access via a fiber connection, though electricity can be sometimes unstable Dodji Honou is  the founder of H-Fablab. His story begins in Togo, where he was born. And where his story with makerspaces  and innovation hubs began. He was a member of  Woelab now expanded into Hubcity in Togo, and in 2013 while there, his story with GIG also began. He met GIGers, Geraldine and Max , who introduced him to GIG.  He later moved on to Senegal to work with a...
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Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
photo courtesy of Impact Hub Kathmandu Impact Hub Kathmandu is an open, inclusive and collaborative space designed to give social innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers somewhere to meet, work, network and learn. They provide a friendly open space that welcomes people from all across Kathmandu, and beyond! They are part of a global network of 105+ Impact Hubs in over 60 countries, working across disciplines, acting across sectors, with amazing people putting ideas into action.  Impact Hub KTM provides business support to Nepali entrepreneurs and businesses with a social purpose. They connect, inspire and support impact entrepreneurs to scale up their projects and enterprises to address some of Nepal’s challenges,  convening changemakers to convert their passion and commitments into meaningful projects. They also have FabLab Nepal, a digital fabrication laboratory to learn, play, create, mentor, invent, and innovate. They provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials, and the advanced technology to allow anyone to make (almost) anything. Since establishment, they have worked...
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A full week of mAkE encounters in Berlin

A full week of mAkE encounters in Berlin

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
by Kirstin Wiedow In early June Berlin was packed with activities related to the mAkE project. Partners gathered over a week to engage in the Berlin - Africa Network Day, attend re:publica, spend a weekend networking during the GIG community weekend and finally co-designing mAkE project activities during a two-days consortium meeting. Gertrude Goh fro Africa MakerSpace Network making a presentation at the mAkE consortium meeting in Berlin What is mAkE actually and who runs it? mAkE is an EC-funded project that promotes cooperation and strategic partnerships between digital innovation hubs (DIHs) in Africa and Europe. (Click here to visit the project website) We understand makerspaces as digital innovation hubs that drive digital, local manufacturing and innovation in product design and development, learning, skills building and collaboration beyond software. They are important actors in the local digital innovation ecosystems in both Europe and Africa. A core aim of the mAkE project is to strengthen an innovation and start-up ecosystem by creating the necessary infrastructure for...
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Join the HerMeNow Accelerator program

Join the HerMeNow Accelerator program

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Are you a women led social enterprise in MENA or Africa? Join the HerMeNow Accelerator program to grow your social enterprise and increase your impact.  Designed for women-led social enterprises focusing on building impactful solutions in culture, mindset, and education, this 5 month program is almost entirely remote and online and so accessible to companies across MENA + Africa (including Armenia). The Accelerator will support 10 women-led social enterprises. The accelerator is hosted by Bloom, an organization co-founded by 2 of our members, Bilal Ghalib and David Munir Nabti, that helps entrepreneurs grow and build skills for thriving people, communities and planet, in collaboration with the Stardust Concept ESG and Impact Division. Eligibility Social Enterprises that are past the product/market fit stage and that: Already generate revenues or have considerable user and/or product tractionAre planning to expand their teamsAre economically viable in the long termAre responsible, inclusive, and social enterprisesAre based in MENA + Africa (including Armenia) Selected Teams Get: Funding to support an essential aspect of...
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Makerspaces for sustainable development

Makerspaces for sustainable development

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Mboa Lab's Critical Making efforts in Cameroon Cameroon's MboaLab is teaching useful critical making skills with the aim of promoting women's self worth, their ability to determine their own choices and the right to influence social change for themselves and others as well as to remove gender bias through critical making . MboaLab is an open and collaborative space located in mefou-Assi village in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The aim of MboaLab is to catalyse sustainable local development and improve people’s living conditions through open science. Their approach focuses on the integration of local knowledge by centering the local community especially women. On 5th - 7th March 2022, MboaLab brought together secondary school girls, women in academia, and women in rural areas for 3 days of discovery and learning. Discovery and fabrication On Day 1, was a day of discovery where the participants were introduced to MboaLab, and had a tour where they visited the different sections of the lab with explanations about...
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Gig @ re:publica’22 is here!

Gig @ re:publica’22 is here!

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
GIG @ re:publica ‘22 is finally happening in-person (after 2 years of not being able to) and we couldn't be more excited! This year’s festival with the “Any way the wind blows” happens on 8-10 June, at Arena Berlin & Festsaal Kreuzberg Yay for the Makerspace! The Makerspace is happening at re:publica 2022 and as usual is bringing together some of the most brilliant makers and innovators from around the world. Curated by the GIG and with support from our membership in the Distributed Design Platform, we host full-on three days of Workshops, Meetups and Exhibitions, all happening in the Makerspace at the heart of re:publica. Whether developing robots, learning how to replace plastic bags with biodegradable materials, making your own eco-prints on DIY bio leather, or recording crawling insects by adapting programming code, our workshops program will ensure you leave with some real Hands-on knowledge. Learn more about the Workshops program here.At the comfort of the HomeBase, our Meetups will bring speakers...
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The mAkE website is live!

The mAkE website is live!

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Scaling and strengthening existing networks mAkE builds on active networks of makerspaces, it strengthens existing pan-African connections between FabLabs, open science and hardware spaces. mAkE brings together the best of both continents to benefit the people who use makerspaces, to learn from each other, to collaborate on vital enabling infrastructures. Makerspaces as Digital Innovation Hubs for local smart production in Africa mAkE is a project which takes a transdiciplinary approach to connect European and African Digital Innovation Hubs to maximise their potential as spaces for digital innovation, skill building, job creation and contact points for global collaboration networks. About the project: mAkE is an EU-funded project, which promotes cooperation and strategic partnership with countries in Africa to support the strengthening of existing digital innovation hubs (DIHs) in Africa and Europe. Its overall aim is to facilitate the collaboration between EU and African DIHs to strengthen a common EU-Africa innovation and start-up ecosystem. Coordinated by the Global Innovation Gathering, mAkE is governed by a consortium of...
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Gosanitize! Go Girls ICT (South Sudan)’s response to Covid 19

Gosanitize! Go Girls ICT (South Sudan)’s response to Covid 19

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
South Sudan is a country that depends entirely on imports from its neighboring countries and during the pandemic, products such as hand sanitizers became more expensive as their demand was high and not affordable to the common person in the community. GoGirls inspiration to research and come up with a hand sanitizer called Gosanitize from locally sourced resources within South Sudan was because of the above challenges. Ten female local brewers were trained to make highly concentrated alcohol (Ethanol) for use in the hand sanitizer. To achieve this, GoGirls ICT Initiative team together with chemistry experts, had a peer-to-peer virtual mentorship exchange with Bibliothèque-MboaLab, Cameroon. But alas! A hurdle. To enable this project to succeed, they needed to overcome a major hurdle: religious beliefs and the extent to which women who make alcohol are viewed as contributors to the prevalence of hooliganism in the society. Not to be associated with a bad name in their society that taints their religious beliefs, some...
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