Post-project comments from our partners in Sahn. Do enjoy!

If you're new here, you may want to read about the project this blog is about. Thanks for visiting!

The Princeton Running Club and the Princeton Africa Development Initiative are organizing a 5K run in Princeton, New Jersey to raise money for Global Minimum. All the money raised will go directly to purchase long-lasting insecticide treated nets for GMin’s project in Pujehun, Sierra Leone.
Register for the race here: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1657172
Come out on December 6th and have fun and talk with GMin members about the malaria project in Sierra Leone!

UN Millennium Development Goal 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

UN Millennium Development Goal 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES

UN Millennium Development Goal 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

UN Millennium Development Goal 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

UN Millennium Development Goal 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

GMin - An entrepreneurial, dynamic, enthusiastic and action driven organization.

GMin is both actively and directly addressing at least 5 of the 8 UNMDGs through its projects this year. In the past, our primary focus was on MDG 6 (as we carried out full distribution of Mosquito nets in SL in addition to malaria prevention football tournaments, etc) and MDG 8 (because we know that the only way we can succeed is by working together with locals). However, with new dimensions added to GMin- new members, partnerships and projects, our work has encompassed more MDGs.

GMin is happy to state that we have established a relationship with the One Laptop Per Child http://laptop.org/en/  (OLPC) organization based in Massachusetts, USA to provide their XO Laptops to at least all children going to school in the Chiefdom in which we work in. Please support their give one|get one campaign to make a difference in the world. We’re currently designing new models that will ensure those children who are not currently in school can also start receiving education (in the bid to begin reducing the 70% illiteracy rate of the nation), possibly through the laptops. We should probably state clearly that this new project is an EDUCATION, not a laptop project. By providing children with tools to be connected with the rest of the world and to continue learning outside their regular classroom hours, we hope that these computers will generate value for UNIVERSAL quality PRIMARY EDUCATION in the Sahn Malen Chiefdom and beyond.

The concept is simple. My older brother had something called Malaria +++. He was sick of malaria every minute of his life for a very extended time  and was always on malaria drugs. He never went to school during those times when he was in the hospital. I had malaria many times as do most kids in the region. Malaria = no school. No school = bad grades + dropping out. Hence, we shall continue our distribution methodology (house-to-house, and bimonthly sensitization by community health workers) which has worked really well thus far, but add the new twist of education to it. MDG 3 and MDG 4 will happen as a direct consequence of out these combined projects.

GMin will never stop trying new things that will optimize our goal of reducing the world’s problems to a basic minimum on a regular basis. More importantly, we will never cease from growing and learning. If you have ideas, suggestions, comments, or want to join, please send us a line at info@gmin.org and while you’re at it take a minute or two to check out our project.

For a little while now, we’ve talked with various people about implementing the XO-1 laptop into our project.

One of them is Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). We’re working closely together with him to ensure the success of this project and will have more news for you on this partnership soon.

It is also worth mentioning Paul Commons, from One Here… One There, who have joined GMin and is now leading this exciting new part of our project.

More on all of this soon, so stay tuned!

-Morten

A short video briefly explaining the 2007 project. Enjoy!

After perhaps a bit too long, it’s time for an update.

We’ve already announced when the next Malaria Eradication will take place (2009, in case you missed it). Lot’s of new stuff will be coming in the following months and hopefully these initiatives should kick-start the project.

-Morten

PS. Due to problems with our hosting, this blog was down for a small period of time. All posts have been restored, but all the wonderful comments have - unfortunately - not. From now on everything will automatically be backed up (including your comments) so this won’t happen again. Our sincerest apologies.