Climate Laboratory in Baixada Santista

Climate Laboratory in Baixada Santista

By Theresa FendNo Comments
The LABxS promoted on the Global Climate Strike week a laboratory of ideas and technologies to address climate change in the Baixada Santista region in the bay area of São Paulo. Thirty participants were selected through an open call, who will work collectively to develop three prototypes aimed at building more sustainable cities. The action is a collaboration with the United Nations Museum, UN Live and the MY MARK: MY CITY initiative, and the British Council. You can follow the project through the hashtag #mymarkmycity on Procomum Institute channels on facebook and twitter. ...
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Contemplating the Climate Crisis in a Global Network

Contemplating the Climate Crisis in a Global Network

By Theresa FendNo Comments
In the past weeks we have been bombarded with reports about melting arctic ice or forests burning in Brazil - climate change is felt around the world. This week, September 20-27, the global climate strike organized by Fridays for Future and multiple other organizations like WWF, Amnesty, Change.org, Greenpeace, Avaaz and Extinction Rebellion is taking place, followed by Extinction Rebellion’s Worldwide Rebellion from October 7th  and onwards. Through their actions, these movements seek to bring about global, systemic change and many of our members from Brazil to India are joining.  As a global community we are especially aware how climate change is affecting the so called Global South. Reports show that countries that are least responsible for causing climate change are the ones suffering most from its effects, especially regarding food insecurity and nutrient deficiencies as is highlighted in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.  Realities in countries vary greatly - there can be no “single” climate strategy for...
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i4Policy Task Force Meeting

i4Policy Task Force Meeting

By Theresa FendNo Comments
After the convention of hubs organized last year by i4Policy, during which innovation community leaders from across Africa co-created the Africa Innovation Policy Manifesto, the first meeting of the Africa Innovation Policy Task Force took place at Impact Hub Kigali in Rwanda.  i4Policy is a pan-African movement gathering over 140 Innovation Hubs from 43 African countries. The 21 members of the Task Force include several GIG members: Sheila Birgen of iHub, Kenya; Markos Lemma of iceaddis, Ethiopia; and, Jaiksana Soro of Platform Africa, South Sudan & Uganda. Jon Stever of The Office & Impact Hub Kigali in Rwanda hosted the meeting and convened the task force as lead of the i4Policy secretariat. I was invited to take part in both the 2018 and 2019 events as an observer - and I did observe history in the making! https://twitter.com/i4policy/status/1127263908551692290 After three intense and long days of co-creation to update the Manifesto (one evening ended after 3am!), the Task Force presented a new outline of...
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Meeting your neighborhood friends, activists and makers – open:fora at r0g Agency

Meeting your neighborhood friends, activists and makers – open:fora at r0g Agency

By Theresa FendNo Comments
Together with Open Source Ecology Germany e.V., and with the support of the Guerrilla Foundation and GIGgers in Berlin we from r0g Agency held our first open:fora 'street meet' … a rather spontaneous artistic and cultural action intended to complement the week of re:publica. At a time where we felt that cultural activism and open culture is being subverted by a growing political rejection of societal freedoms we ran a series of thematic events and cocktails bringing our friends and colleagues from the open tech and culture communities, artists and social activists together to zoom in on specific projects and stories we are working on. It was a great opportunity to meet new and old friends and get their feedback on new initiatives, such as the Migrant Media Network (MMN). Based on our #defyhatenow initiative in South Sudan, MMN, conceived by our colleague Thomas G. Kalunga, focuses on social media as a peacebuilding and migrant information system. Piloting with Ghanaian...
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Field Ready launches a new makerspace in Iraq!

Field Ready launches a new makerspace in Iraq!

By Theresa FendNo Comments
This month GIG member Field Ready announced the launch of a brand-new makerspace in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq! Field Ready: Erbil Makerspace will form part of a growing network of innovation and co-working spaces across Iraq. Supported by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, it will give Field Ready’s existing Iraq program a well-equipped, permanent base to support work across the country. Based in Re:Coded House, a vibrant co-working space run by Re:Coded, a long-time associate of Field Ready, the makerspace will: - Run courses and events in ‘making’ related topics, - Offer an open space where members of Re:Coded House’s community can access physical resources and the support of staff to realize their own projects, or - Provide services to the public, business and NGOs who wish to develop and make products or host tailored training courses. The makerspace is equipped with 3D printers (plastic and rubber),...
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Calculative Making: The Fear of Failure in Kenya’s Makerspaces

Calculative Making: The Fear of Failure in Kenya’s Makerspaces

By Theresa FendNo Comments
When I first entered a makerspace in Nairobi in 2016, I was surprised that most people were sitting in front of their computers. My imagination of a messy makerspace where everyone tinkers with 3D printers and materials to build clumsy prototypes was disenchanted. A makerspace is a collaborative workshop equipped with tools and machines to process various materials. Contrary to the origins of makerspaces in hacker and do-it-yourself cultures that are aimed at an anti-capitalist appropriation of mass-produced goods (Maxigas 2012), the contemporary global phenomenon of emerging makerspaces focuses predominantly on entrepreneurial workplaces providing access to digital fabrication machinery like laser cutters, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, and 3D printers. Nairobi’s first makerspace – the epicenter of my three-year ethnographic research - joins the chorus of celebrating digital machinery for the development of cutting-edge prototypes to attract investment. On a state level, developing and innovating technology is seen as a path-breaking driver of national development in Kenya and as a historic moment for...
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A Colaboradora: Fostering creativity and collaboration through the principles of self-management, care and social currency

A Colaboradora: Fostering creativity and collaboration through the principles of self-management, care and social currency

By Theresa FendNo Comments
Last April Procomum Institute launched the new edition of the A Colaboradora (The Collaborator) programme. The Collaborator is a collaborative platform that brings together a collective work environment and a free school. Created by the Procomum Institute, it is inspired by the project "La Colaboradora", a program of the social innovation ecosystem Zaragoza Activa, in Spain. During the process, 25 young social entrepreneurs who carry out projects in the creative sectors, such as visual arts, music, theater, dance, circus, opera, publishing, literature, audiovisual, design, fashion, gastronomy, architecture, software, games, handicrafts, festivals, museums , libraries and the integrated arts, were selected, focusing especially on women, lgbtqi, indigenous people and Afro-Brazilians. The group will be with Procomum for one year, working through a mixed methodology of education, incubation and exchange programs. In 2019 the project is being realized in partnership with three British organizations: Haarlem Artspace, Junction Arts and Advantage Creative and has support from the British Council. Now the...
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Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

By Theresa FendNo Comments
‘Education is the most powerful tool that can be used to change the world’ — Nelson Mandela The Bridge the Gap training program is an ongoing initiative that was started by Kumasi Hive in partnership with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Innovation Factory and e- skills for Girls. The Bridge the Gap program addresses the issue of the gender gap in the technology space. The program trained 60 girls in web development and 3D printing in the first phase, which lasted for one month. We are currently implementing the second phase of the program: the business incubation and internship phase. In this cycle, 10 selected teams are being introduced to global perspectives on leadership and entrepreneurship, the world of business and design, issues that may arise in terms of user experience and how to resolve such problems. They have been provided with the tools and a makerspace where these teams are designing and building prototypes of their products. This week, we are focusing on one of the teams, Edukits,...
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Visiting the Cricket World Cup with 13 young cricketers from Khayelitsha,Cape Town

Visiting the Cricket World Cup with 13 young cricketers from Khayelitsha,Cape Town

By Theresa FendNo Comments
Part of my work is with the Gary Kirsten Foundation, a non-profit Sports Foundation which works in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town and one of its poorest areas. We build Cricket ecosystems with infrastructure and coaching for young players who have no other sport programmes to take part in. Starting in 2014, and without any starting capital, the Foundation committed to building one cricket facility and appointed a full-time coach. Five years later, and with sponsors and investors taking more notice all the time, the Foundation now operates from five schools in Khayelitsha and employs seven full-time coaches from the area. This year, we decided to take a team of young players to the sports’ biggest global tournament, ‘The Cricket World Cup’. At first, it seemed like an impossible dream, but after months of passport and birth certificate and Visa applications, fundraising, kit sourcing and branding and logistical planning, the GK Foundation World Cup Tour...
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Digital, transparent and self-determined: development cooperation can do more

Digital, transparent and self-determined: development cooperation can do more

By Theresa FendNo Comments
An outdated self-understanding prevents Europe from working with developing countries towards a common digital future. Europe, the fortress that everyone wants to storm. A Europe whose values and economy must be protected against immigrants from Africa and other parts of the world. This is the rhetoric that the leading development politicians are applying in Germany today: "Europe's fate and future is decided on the African continent," said Development Minister Gerd Müller in the Presse Release about the Marshall Plan with Africa of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Unfortunately, this does not mean that Africa is becoming increasingly important as a business partner and engine for digital innovation. Instead, their concern is about ensuring that jobs are created in Africa and that we limit the effects of climate change to prevent millions of people from migrating to Europe. As response to the provocative question: "Are hundreds of thousands sitting on packed suitcases in Africa?" posed by the BZ-Journalist, Günter...
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