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Ask Slashdot: Geeky Volunteer Work?
An anonymous reader writes "I plan to be in-between jobs for 1-2 months later this year and use part of this time to do some volunteer work in Africa. My naive question: what to do and where to go? Is it possible to make good use of the skill-set of a typical geek? Any interesting projects worth supporting on-site?"
What is a "typical" geek? Are you a programmer? Do you work with hardware? Can you do science? Are you an environmental engineer? A teacher? I don't know much about Africa, but someone who does is going to need to know more about you.
You ask for advice, but 'geek' encompasses everything from civil engineering to cloud computing IT.
Depending on your skill set Geek Corps might have something for you:
http://www.iesc.org/ict-and-applied-technologies.aspx
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/58011
Figure out if any open-source software is widely used in Africa, and contribute to it. A month should be easily enough time to implement a new feature or track down a few bugs.
Le français vous intéresse?
Hi,
A coworker of mine will be going to Ghana in September and help set up computer labs using donated equipment (no longer used) from his department and other departments. His hope is that equipping schools with more up-to-date hardware and helping to set up their network for them will help improve the students' access to technology enough to help them get up to speed with modern tech.
Others could possibly include investigating different uses of mobile technology to improve the connectivity of more out of reach places or something as simple as helping to liveblog the construction of new water wells ...
But don't take skills away from the community. If you're going to contribute, don't replace someone who is already doing the job, and don't remove the need for the community to engage someone locally to do the job.
Going in to train others to do some sort of techincal work is good, but you have to remember that their values and yours won't really mesh, and you can't force people to learn C++ when they really want to use Basic.
There are plenty of good projects wherever you happen to be right now. Schools (public and private), libraries, senior centers are all always looking for volunteers to help make their environments better places for those who use their services. Sure its not as impressive as going overseas to do some work, but it also has many headaches that the overseas visit will not.
Clinton made me a Republican. Bush made me a Libertarian. Trump is making me question reality.
Don't go into it so narrowly focused -- do whatever they need you to do. Who cares if they are running open source if they need fresh drinking water.
cleveland browns? that's not a spammer, that's a troll!
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Go ahead and volunteer outside of your comfort area. You might find that you like doing something "different". At a bare minimum you'll learn something new.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Check out the following site for volunteer work in Africa... I met the founder at Shmoocon this year, neat guy and great cause:
http://www.hackersforcharity.org/
A friend of mine in med school wanted to help out with the building/early staffing of a hospital in Ethiopia, but she wasn't selected for the program (so she went to Cambodia instead to do other humanitarian work). I know nothing whatsoever about the details, but I have to imagine any hospital built today, anywhere in the world, would have some sort of technical infrastructure. A network with WiFi or perhaps even some sort of program that manages and sorts patient data... all these sound within the skill set of the average geek and could make a major positive impact. Apologies for the lack of solid information and here-say nature of the post. Regardless of what you do, I wish you the best of luck and I hope you find a project where your talents are put to good use for the benefit many, many people.
This sig is false.
I spent three years in Africa (South Africa and Zambia) doing geek work. Here's the deal, you can't do something "important" in one or two months, so don't plan on being the knight in shining armor coming in to help. However, if you go in with an attitude of humility and a desire to learn, you can be helpful.
My suggestion, based on my experience: Most of the NGOs I worked with had crappy old donated computers running some pirated version of XP, full of viruses. You could be a great help by finding a local (i.e. Africa run, not international aid agency) NGO and helping to clean up their computers, install anti-virus, get their printers working etc etc. Good computer support is in short supply, so folks do what they can but it's not easy. If you are thinking about this, also bring along a box of CDs or DVDs with latest versions of software, because getting on the internet is either impossible or slow or really expensive, so doing on-line updates is a pain.
I tried teaching people to use Ubuntu with limited success, everyone wanted Windows with Word, because that was what everyone else was using, and that was what was "known". It's a good solution, but without support falls down like everything else.
Good luck, let us know how it all worked out.
I think an always-on, human-sized internet video connection between a refugee camp and one or more "Western" schools or public locations would be of dramatic help in humanizing the refugee crises of Africa. I'd love to see the Times Square jumbotron showing a refugee camp instead of an advertisement.
Maybe because it isn't purely philanthropic?
Heavan forbid one helps themself while hhelping others.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
You can teach the poor downtrodden deposed ex-kings how to get through spam filters.
Looking for a job?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
http://www.ewb-usa.org/
I have not had the time to join the local chapter, but I'd very much like to learn more.
A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
They apparently need more help with their spamming and scamming. I have seen a lot less of that lately and have missed it a great deal.
Why not try them? They had been focusing primarily on Mexico and Central America with a secondary focus on Africa. Couldn't hurt to drop them a line and see what activities they have going on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeks_Without_Borders
Good luck!
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
Of one's skills is finding an endeavor that people need done so much that they are willing to pay for it.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Africa is kind of a big place. There are something like 50 countries there, all with different kinds of people, politics, and needs. it might help if you indicted where in Africa you were planning on going. Once you pick a country, are you planning on going to a large metropolitan city, a medium city, a small town or village, or what? Does the place you are going to have an industrial or economic base or are the people there just subsistence living? Like other places in the world Africa has a mix of all of this.
Without further information I would give the same advice that I would give any geek looking for volunteer work anywhere in the world (or at home): Find activities that inspire others to be smart, inquisitive, and have a passion to figure out how stuff works. Focus on the young.
It sounds like you've decided that you want to help people today cause you are bored and Africa needs help so you are going to go hop on a plane and go 'help' them do things your way if they need help with interesting things because you are that awesome.
Shouldn't you already be involved with one of the many organizations that is already entrenched in the local culture and infrastructure before trying to plan a trip? Why not start there? Africa is a pretty big place with vast socio-economic differences between different places. If you want to help people, get involved with the other people who are helping and find out what they actually need and when.
Hackersforcharity.org
I highly recommend reading the blog, and maybe contacting Johnny. Reading their blog gives a good feel about what tech charity work in Africa can and cannot do, from someone who gave up their career to do it.
For those who want to volunteer closer to home, http://www.nten.org/ has national and local resources. Their local affiliated NCtech4good group seems to be doing good things in my area, I've only found them recently myself.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
One charity drive I got involved with thanks to a teacher in university was to take old, discarded hardware and form it into something useful for schools. We would get computers that were to be thrown away by the government delivered to the university instead. Then we would salvage as much as we possibly could to make working computers out of them, set up a network that shouldn't require much in the way of maintenance, and educate teachers about how to use it. We'd even appeal to ISPs to get them hooked up with free internet. This was in Belize, which is a third world country. Since I don't really know much about Africa, I'm not sure how helpful that will be, but it's a thought.
One of the local clubs may have a contingent going somewhere internationally to help set up fresh drinking water, or fighting polio, or building a bridge, or starting a library (my club is doing the last two). It's a good way to help without having to get exceptionally bogged down with the administrative and political details of international assistance.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
In this day and age of international business, going overseas looks much better on a resume than volunteering domestically. And speaking as someone who does a lot of local volunteering, it means nothing on a resume. In this economy, just about everyone is volunteering to get out of the house, network, and hopefully turn their volunteering job into a paying job.
Obviously, the parent is suggesting you could take a poor African's place in a sweatshop for 2 months, making jerseys.
Please talk to your doctor ASAP about starting your vaccination courses. Some can take up to 6 months to hit maximum effectiveness. I wish you good luck on your journey.
How about the VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas): http://www.vsointernational.org/ For a while I was thinking about apply to work in Nepal as a computing instructor / network guy
So if you want to help them out with geek stuff, here is what you do:
Its not much different from cold-calling for contract work... except you'll get a lot more positive responses.
I don' t know the specifics of this operation. Maybe it is the one exception that proves the rule and it is a great idea. However, I should point out (if not for your colleague's sake at least for that of others who might be contemplating to do the same thing) that the consensus among aid scholars/professionals is that gifts-in-kind shipped from abroad are generally a bad idea. Why? Many different reasons:
1) Shipping is expensive. Not so much the actual journey across the seas (although it is still a factor, especially with bulky equipment such as computers), but just the logistics involved. It takes time to ship things overseas and this has an opportunity cost. Overall, it is usually estimated to be much cheaper to just source everything locally. Including labor whenever possible, which is most of the time since a project that relies crucially on foreign expertise to continue is likely to be a bad idea in the first place. If you actually go there, you'll end up doing unqualified/semi-qualified work that locals could do just as well, if not actually better. Are there no IT people in Ghana who can set up a computer lab? I'm pretty sure there are.
2) It might not be what people need. Would you be happy if you had to maintain a computer lab made up of second-hand computers that might have been refurbished but are still more prone to hardware failures than new equipment and that additionally has two dozen different kinds of hardware and software because different donors all gave whatever they had at their disposal? This would be a nightmare for any organization (there is a reason why many universities/companies standardize on 1 brand/basic configuration and stick with it as much as possible). It's the same in the developing world.
3) It promotes false ideas about developing countries. In most cases, the problem is NOT that whatever people want or need is not available locally. The problem is that people are poor and don't have enough money to purchase these goods. Electronics, including PC and parts, are available in Africa. Especially in a country like Ghana. For the matter, there are Dell distributors in Ghana and virtually all African countries. There are also wholesalers that carry all the parts that you might want to buy, that will sell you computers that are suited to your needs, etc.
Overall, you're much better staying at home and donating the money that you'd have spent on a plane ticket to a reputable NGO or to your local partners (e.g. the school). It's even better since it allows *them* to prioritize their spending. Maybe they have a roof that needs fixing and that might be more important than setting up a computer lab.
By all means, do come to Africa. It's an experience that will change your life. It did change mine. Am stuck here for 6 years and enjoying every single day of it.
And drop me a line when you want to join us for hacking or a beer.
Well if Open Office really produced 100% Word compatible documents then the problem would be solved. 98% or so just isn't enough - or did they not understand that there was a 98% free solution?
I don't have anything to bring to this discussion that hasn't already been said, but I do want to say that I wish you well and I think it's admirable what you're doing.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
There's nothing wrong with that. But you have to be realistic. Giving $2000 to a food shelter buys that shelter $2000 worth of food, or 1 to 1 return. Buying a $2000 plane ticket to somewhere in africa, to show up and do the equivalent of $100 worth of labor at local rates gives a 1 to 20 return. That's ok if you're considering $1900 of it to be a vacation, with a $100 donation. The $100 will still help...
Depending on your skill set, some of the volunteer positions with Mercy Ships might fit the bill: http://www.mercyships.org/content/home
Positions available: http://www.mercyships.org/positions/P0/
You DO realize that technology volunteers at schools usually don't actually engage in teaching, don't you? Fear not hordes of those evil angry unionized lazy teachers chasing after you with torches and pitchforks.
The various solar power projects need technical people.
http://www.google.com/search?q=solar+power+volunteer+africa
You could teach people how to use computers, supposing you find people who have them. Android phones are picking up over there, depending on where you are.
With the USA rapidly transitioning from a 1st World to a 2nd World country you could volunteer to do a wide variety of Geeky activities in various locations there. And, you'd speak the language perfectly and understand the culture as well. Help rural people far from major population centers to connect to the Internet (which is no longer a luxury but a necessity), install or repair radios and TVs and their antennas, or repair mechanical or electrical devices. Ditto for bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles. Help poor families set up solar or wind generated electric power to run various low powered communication devices, lights and fans. Recycle old desktops and laptops by repairing them and installing a Linux distro on them, along with any business, education or entertainment applications they might need or want. For the $1K-1.5K cost of a round trip air flight to Africa you could buy a lot of laptop and desktop parts and 4GB USB sticks. Remember, charity begins at home.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
I sincerely hope people moderate you up.
Far too many people look out of country for philanthropic work when far too often it makes more sense to contribute locally.
Sometimes, even small schools and school districts have needs which their local funds can't accommodate. Education is an all too often overlooked subject.
...haaaa-a-a-ave a-a-ave, oohh ohh.
...are worried about the state of their LDAP servers.
Just kidding.
Become familiar with OLPC system administration and go help set up some school out in the bush.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
I do this in Cameroon 5 years ago for V.S.O aka Volunteer Service Overseas. I was there to install wireless internet access too no accessible village for school. And make formation of how to do it and how to maintain it. 1-2 month is a little bit short to really help because you have to acclimate to the population there...it's take me this time to be confortable with the people there so if you plan to make some volunteering consider a little bit more time. VSO is a great institution
Go to the tech college in Takoradi, Ghana and install a FabFi mesh network. The students have to go to an Internet cafe for network access. They were one of the Fab Academy labs this year but had trouble keeping up due to lack of access.
This might not be as basic as digging wells or whatever but is much more technical.
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
This is something I have done, and I think you will find that 2 months is not enough time to make an impact in any domain, much less a geeky one. One thing to remember is that volunteers are not tightly supervised; their labor is free and therefore a lot of managers just let them float. You will have to manage yourself, which means getting to know the organization, its needs and its weaknesses, and then initiating your own project to work towards these. This takes time, my best guess is a year or so. What is more, if you do find yourself actually contributing something, you might find that you are actually hurting the locals more than helping because your free labor makes it impossible for a local to get paid doing what you do.
To be entirely honest, a better use of your time (and money, since volunteering is going to cost you) is to go to a poor area and try to contribute to the economy. Take a month of classes in the local language. Hire local organizations to show you around. Stay with a host family. Try to use your money to encourage sustainable growth.
I have done both of these, and I walked away from the latter feeling like I did a lot more good and I enjoyed myself a lot more.
Just my $0.02
"Well if Open Office really produced 100% Word compatible documents then the problem would be solved. 98% or so just isn't enough"
The problem is that even if it was possible to have 100% Word compatible documents in OO (or LO) you have to specify
WHICH WORD YOU ARE REFERRING TO
1 Platform (Windows which version or Macintosh which version)
2 which fonts were used in the documents??
3 Which EXACT version of Word are we talking about?? (include patch levels)
4 what printer was default/active when the document was made??
5 what was the Phase of the Moon when the document was saved??
6 which way and at what speed was the wind blowing??
7 and so on and so forth
Word is not 100% compatible with its own previous/cross platform documents so how in the Ech Eee Double Hockeysticks does everybody expect a third party program to be any better (especially with the TOP SECRET BURN BEFORE READING bits in the specs for Office Native Formats)??
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Did that Nigerian prince ever resolve his problems?
Not trying to be negative here
Nice job, though.
The people in his own community and state haven't been oppressed by foreign powers, ravaged by pandemics, or enslaved by powerful corporations for hundreds of years. It seems to me people in the third world are first priority.
Mogadishu Comicon?
There's an oxymoron in there, but I'm not seeing it for the trees.
Upgrade Internet cafe infrastructure. This is a useful service to provide in any developing country.
Install transparent(1) Squid caches and bandwidth management systems (e.g. Dummynet) using spare hardware(2), install games on the client machines (e.g. Open Arena), etc.
On a side note, I recommend avoiding more developed countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, etc. They need you far less than other countries in the region (VSAT connected countries need the most help).
(1) Transparent configurations (e.g. bridged NICs, etc) makes it easy for cafe admins to bypass the system should things ever break.
(2) Most African Internet cafes have spare hardware laying around (A P3, 512 MB RAM, 20GB HD, a CD/DVD player, and 2 NICs are all that's required). Those that don't can often be convinced to buy a spare box.
There is no shortage of poor school districts. Believe it or not, there still exists many a school whos total population may be a couple dozen. That's just one example. Contrary to your ignorant assertion, many schools have tiny, tiny budgets and can barely afford to open their doors, let alone educate students.
Just because you're uninformed and jaded, doesn't make it so.
Not an answer to your question but here is a suggestion: if you are going south of the equator get yourself every shot you can and read up on all the different parasites and diseases you may encounter. Obviously there are exceptions but when it comes to such things the northern hemisphere is often an amazingly safer place to live than the southern hemisphere. More so if you have never been south of the equator before.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
Take a look at http://www.hatualikoni.org/hatua/volunteer/ In addition to the listed tasks, they may need some short-term help setting up the computers in their new library.
To err is human. To arr is pirate.
No reputable agency will let you sign up for just one or two months for service in a really foreign place. Preparation courses alone take already more time than that.
I suggest you find something useful to do locally.
I'm on the mailing list of this well known group and while I have yet to be able to make a meeting of the local chapter I have "almost gone" a few times. Here's a link to their eCorps page that shows upcoming trips. Not sure if it would fit into your timetable but it looks to be right up the alley of the OP. Also they take equipment donations through their local chapters so if you are looking to do a workstation refresh might want to reach out to them: http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/ecorps
... you might want to check the following links, regarding Libre Software ICT projects in Africa:
Kabissa: http://kabissa.org/
Lix' Malawi project site: http://lix.cc/malawi
Lix' Malawi blog: http://blog.lix.cc/malawi
Linux Magazine article: http://www.linux.com/articles/60357
Project presentation at hacker congress (german): http://chaosradio.ccc.de/23c3_m4v_1638.html
Interesting study by TAB (German parliament): http://www.tab-beim-bundestag.de/en/publications/books/cori-2009-118.html
rgrds, MC
Visit Somalia.
Life is sleep. Death is a dream. Wake up.
As someone who works in IT in Africa, i'd say a couple of things. Firstly, two months is a minimum! the biggest issues you are likely to face are cultural barriers and your own high expectations. It takes time, lots of time, to get past these. Hence three months is a good start, but try not to go for less than two months. Otherwise you'll be more of a hindrance than help. If there's an African country you've visited before, going back could be good as you will already have some understanding of the culture in that country. You were asking if geek skills can be used, and that's definitely the case. The state of IT in the content, with exceptions, is rubbish. How to use your skills is a lot harder and I don't know if I have an answer to that but perhaps some comments to make. As many other people have said above, capacity building should underlay any attempt at assistance, and working with someone to train them up is a good way of doing this. The other catch phrase is 'sustainability' and this can mean different things at different times. However, make sure that whatever you do can still live on after you leave. Building a PostgreSQL database isn't much use if you're the only person at the NGO/community that you're working with that knows how to use it. Please don't take this as discouragement: go for your life, but make sure what you end up doing is beneficial to the community as well as you: there's no doubt that you'll get something out of it. Just make sure they do too. Avoid voluntourism organisations. And avoid the idea of taking used PC equipment from the developed world over there: you're just screwing the local IT shop by doing that. So much more to say, but I think they're the big things.
Not vacation, but learning and growth.
I know many that do exchanges to first world for the same reason.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
If you're an engineer you might be interested in this:
http://www.ewb-international.org/
Some people that I know (Italy) helped providing a network infrastructure for a hospital in Angola.
This is excellent advice.
In many parts of Africa you will meet with resistance from both the authorities and local population unless you are introduced by and working in conjunction with an NGO. African governments and NGOs have a variety of plans to address local issues, and many African communities maintain social structures that can complicate offers of aid/assistance unless approached in the appropriate manner. Wandering in naively can be seen as meddlesome rather than helpful.
NGOs tend to be short on all resources, so most have no skills or money for infrastructure support. As the parent says, old virus-ridden PCs are common. Windows & Word are used because the staff know them, they know people who can support MS products in a pinch (Linux skills are substantially less common), and because the norm in business and government is to send and expect Word documents (this may be changing slowly).
For such NGOs, it's worth noting that Microsoft has a program for supporting certain non-profit organisations (including free software, hardware donations, and training) - see http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/community-tools/non-profits/ .
If you're going to contribute your time & effort, try to contribute in a way that plays to your most valuable skills - that maximises your contribution. Building a house may make you feel good, but it's just depriving some unfortunate member of the local community of a job.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
The problem is not document compatibility. The problem is operator compatibility. Users are most likely to have had prior contact with Word; if training is required then it is easiest to get training in Word; and Word has a lower learning curve than OO/LO for basic tasks.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
You might want to check out this company http://www.realgap.com/ they have loads of volunteer programs in Africa where you can do anything from general community work and sports to teaching in schools; some of the teaching projects so have scope for teaching IT so your geek skills might come in handy, plus you can go for a few weeks so that will fit in with your time scale.
I'm the IT Director for one of the international NGO's with offices all over Africa. There are a a ton of things you can do, depending on what your skills are. - Mobile technology is exploding - look at some of the mHealth and mPESA projects and systems - Systems administration is always useful - Teaching - Non-geeky work - may be the most useful for that short a period Are you interested in working with someone beyond the 1-2 month period? A couple of notes above that I would emphasize: - Most of our problems are power and skills and cost-related, not just technology - Africa is huge and diverse and often not safe once you are off the beaten tourist-track. I've had an AK pointed in my direction twice in the last year. Once with the safety off and fingers on triggers. - You won't be a shining knight - focus on one or two small things Get in touch if you'd like some more advice or contacts or you could help us....
We are geek NGO who do work in developing countries and often send staff and volunteers to do projects in Africa. When not in the field we develop open source software for social good from our UK offices. We do not currently have any in-country positions for volunteers but we are looking to for people to join our team full time (see http://aptivate.org/ for more details).
http://villagetelco.org/ have wireless mesh based phone networks called Village Telcos in Dili, East Timor, and several places in South Africa (and maybe elsewhere in Africa), using a custom device called the Mesh Potato, which has a wireless SoC, FXS port, and outdoor enclosure. It runs custom OpenWRT-derived firmware and Asterisk, and is set up so they're basically plug and play at deployment time. They don't have very up-to-date details on their website, but the mailing list is responsive, and you should check them out if this sort of thing interests you.
Hello, in Italy we are organized in Informatici Senza Frontiere (ISF, acronym for "computer scientists without borders") an NGO which has several volunteer projects active in Africa and not only. Focus is on FOSS solutions. Here you can find some info on ISF projects: English: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/en/ Spanish: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/es/ Italian: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/ In case you'd like either to send specific questions or suggest ways to participate, please, do it: contact us http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/en/contattaci/ escribe nos http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/es/contattaci/ contattaci http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/contattaci/ thanks++/gracias++/grazie++