Handicrafts and Appropriate Technology

Cameroon Blog

I am a Cameroonian African
Monday, May 28, 2012

Labels: Africa, Cameroon Impressions, People

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:37 AM, ,

Leading Thinker from Cameroon
Saturday, March 17, 2012

Matt Berg comes in at No. 19 on Time’s roster of leading thinkers. Matt Berg looks very calm for a man who will have 100,000 children to look after. That might be because of his humble cell phone.

Berg, 32, is leading the push to track disease in Africa with 160-character text messages, or SMS. As technology director for ChildCount+, he helps oversee a network of community-health workers who regularly examine local children, treat their ills and then text back the status of every sick child they find. This allows for improved health monitoring, faster interventions and better immunization and treatment campaigns.

ChildCount+ has been in existence for only nine months and has already reported more than 20,000 nutrition screenings, 500 cases of malnutrition and 2,000 of malaria. Berg and his colleagues are now scaling up to monitor more than 100,000 children under 5.

The use of technology in Africa has long been Berg's passion, and he's made it his mission to nurture homegrown talent too. He helped establish the Rural Technology Lab in Mali, so local students can take over the job of ensuring their communities' health. Remarkable as Berg's work is, its greatest achievement will come when he's no longer the one doing it. Verclas is a co-founder of MobileActive.org {Via}

Labels: Africa, Cameroon, Health, People

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:25 AM, ,

Woodabe Girl in Niger
Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Wodaabe (or Bororo) are a small subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. They are traditionally nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, and the western region of the Central African Republic. The number of Wodaabe was estimated in 1983 to be 45,000. They are known for their beauty (both men and women), elaborate attire and rich cultural ceremonies.

The Wodaabe speak the Fula language and don't use a written language. In the Fula language, woɗa means "taboo", and Woɗaaɓe means "people of the taboo". "Wodaabe" is an Anglicisation of Woɗaaɓe. (Wikipedia)

See Ferdinand Reus' photostream

Labels: Cameroon Impressions, Culture, People

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:06 AM, ,