[sign up] Critical Making Mentoring Programme 2022

We are excited to launch the Critical Making Mentoring Programme coming up this spring. Here is a sneak peak of what is to be expected!
The Mentoring Programme will take place during 2022, requiring only a few hours of active participation per month. Further details will be announced soon! 
In the Critical Making Mentoring Programme, we encourage innovation which at its core is open, local and connected, socially responsible, reflexive, impactful, meaningful, aesthetic - above all, fun! 
Register your email now to get a special notification when the programme opens for application in April!

Read more about Critical Making and the mentoring programme here

Critical Making: Gender-inclusive making - case studies from around the world

We have put  together 11 activities from all around the world that foster gender-inclusivity in making and technology.

"GoGirls thought that is important ... for the girls to become content producers in the online space and contribute to the feminist internet in South Sudan.
These girls are young and creative and they should also become contributors to these social media platforms. It is about more women-content being online.“ ~ Interviewee at GoGirls ICT, South Sudan

“I don’t think that you have to attract women by colours and womanly things, that is not the issue here. The issue is that you have to convince them that they can also be equally good.” ~ Interviewee at eMERGE, India 

Find all the case studies here.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement and surrounding communities in northern Uganda face many problems, two of which GIG and Platform Africa proposed a project that seeks to address: Youth unemployment and lack of media literacy.
With the #Labmobile, Platform Africa is running (literally!) a mobile space to deliver their popular and practical training in remote areas of Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement and neighbouring communities. Five workshops on (critical) media skills, podcast production and trauma recovery are conducted in different locations using the Big Blue vehicle converted into a mobile training room.

Read more about this exciting project here

Last December, Saad Chinoy, one of our most active members and part of GIG’s supervisory board, presented Careables during the remote Chaos Experience 2021 – a 96 hours event organized online by The Chaos Computer Club e. V. (CCC), Europe’s largest association of hackers. During this presentation, visitors could tour our Online Careables Exhibition in gather.town, followed by a Talk and Q&A session on how Careables evolved during this last year in different countries from the Global South and how the opensource making experience can change the future of health and care.

Click here to watch the online tour and the conversation with Saad

Africa Maker Network (AMN) launches Magazine!

AMN launched its magazine first edition, The African Maker. The publication sheds light on the activities of makerspaces that are part of AMN. Get to know what’s happening in many makerspaces across Africa, stories about innovators, news on STEM giants and much more.

Among the content, you will find out more about initiatives flourishing in Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana, amongst others. In addition, the magazine presents the most significant maker projects and processes in the African continent today, from Solar Taxis to affordable microscopes to science and technology for children.

Read more about the AMN magazine and network here

[join] CoAct: Citizen Social Science “CoAct for Mental Health” chatbot!
 

he chatbot is part of the CoAct for Mental Health project, one of the Research and Innovation Action pilots inside CoAct. There are not many chabots (we may dare to say that the current one is the first one) in the citizen science world. We believe that it is a very interesting tool that shall be further explored to run a research project in the context of citizen science.  

The aim of the “CoAct for Mental Health” Telegram chatbot is to investigate the social support networks, made of our emotional and social environment and especially important to our mental health. The chatbot gives anyone aged +18 the opportunity to participate in a citizen social science research on mental health social support networks. Its main contents are micro stories written by co-researchers with self-experience in mental health or family members and is available in English, German, Spanish and Catalan. 


Read more and find instructions to join here

r0g #mmn app

The Migrant Media Network, a r0g_agency project, will be launching an app this month on google pay that allows users to access vital information about migration. Topics covered include the dangers of irregular migration, visa information, and options on how to find opportunities to study, work, or live abroad. Included is a section on fact-checking to help potential migrations verify the truth of information circulating online. A dedicated section has also been created that addresses the additional challenges women in migration face. 
The app was designed for users in Ghana and The Gambia, who often have limited access to accurate and fact-based migration resources. 

The app works offline, so it can be used in regions that have no or only intermittent internet connection. 

Visit the #MMN website to find out more