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Archive of posts tagged Caïro

The Global Co-Creation: Who were involved?

You probably heard different names of labs and organizations participating in the Global Co-Creation at the 1%EVENT. But who are they?

NaiLab, Nairobi-Kenya
Of course our 1%EVENT would not be complete without NaiLab! NaiLab (nailab.co.ke) is an ICT Business Incubation Laboratory. The NaiLab offers an incubation platform that helps young entrepreneurs to concentrate on building a business structure around their innovations without the need of a high initial capital to secure office space and the accompanying services.

NaiLab did not only take part in our Global Co-Creation, but also organized their own 1%EVENT. And it was a huge success, also due to master organizers Evarita and Lynn. Sorry we couldn’t be there ourselves!

Nairobi

ActivSpaces, Beau-Cameroon
We had such a great time with ActivSpaces last year, that our global Co-Creation would not have been complete without them participating! ActivSpaces (activspaces.com) is a physical environment that combines the attributes of a shared office, business incubator, classroom, dynamic public space and a members club.

If you need a place to work, a place to meet, a place to call your own and interact with interesting and inspiring people in Cameroon, then ActivSpaces is for you. Also, if you need a perfectly organized event, ActivSpaces is the place to be! For the Global Co-Creation, they even had pink and green balloons. And they surely delivered the best quotes!

Buea

RLabs, Cape Town – South Africa
Marlon Parker was so enthusiastic about our 1%EVENT last year that he did not have to think along when I asked him if RLabs wanted to participate in our Co-Creation: Yes!

For those of you that don’t know RLabs yet: RLabs (rlabs.org) is a global movement that provides innovative solutions to address various complex problems. It creates an environment where people are empowered to make a difference in the lives of others. With Marlon in Amsterdam, Craig Ross was in charge of the organization and collected this whole bunch of people to join him! And they did not stop with the Co-Creation Friday. When I talked to Craig on Monday, he told me that they were still working on ideas. Talking about commitment!

Cape Town

The Hub Islington, London
The Hub Islington (islington.the-hub.net) facilitated the co-creation. This day was organised by Eline Kooijman, volunteer at 1%CLUB and studying in London. A small but enthusiastic group of experts were working together. Also check the blog written by Sarah Prag, about their experiences.

London (via @Jo108)

HMLC, Cairo-Egypt
In Cairo we worked together with HMLC, the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre. HLMC (hmlc-egy.org) is an Egyptian law firm based in Cairo and Aswan which “works in the field of human rights through litigation, campaigns and legal research”.

The Cairo office provides space for many activist groups including the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) and is a hub and meeting space for various human rights and civil society groups in Egypt. Maha Maamoun, program coordinator, assisted us greatly and put together a very interesting case.

Cairo case in Amsterdam (cc @JinHoV)

Bazinga!, Ramallah-Palestine
So I thought it would be nice to involve a lab in the middle east. Actually, I just googled the words “innovation lab” and “Palestine” and the site of Bazinga! popped up. Inspired by their website, I wrote them an e-mail, invited them to join and so it came to be!

Bazinga! (bazinga.ps) is a startup catalyst that facilitates the process of building a startup in Palestine by providing entrepreneurs with an innovative physical co-working space, an environment of like-minded entrepreneurs, network of mentors and tech gadgets for people to have the platform to develop for. Co-founder and Event Planner Rasha is just the best; she put the whole Co-Creation together in just a couple of days! And they did a terrific job. I’m still inspired by their enthusiasm!

Ramallah

Fruits of Thought, Kampala-Uganda
Bart, co-founder of 1%CLUB, already knew Reinier. When Bart told Reinier about the Global Co-Creation during the 1%EVENT, Reinier expressed his wish to participate. And Fruits of Thought was in! Fruits of Thought (fruitsofthought.org) enables communities gain access to and to exchange information and together grow that information into knowledge.

Reinier organized the Co-Creation together with Darlyne Komukama and put a big team together to work on a case. In case you haven’t seen the pictures yet, be sure to do so as they are really beautiful!

Kampala

Thank you everyone: YOU made it work!

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1%CLUB goes Cairo!

Now that the NaiLab is up and running  :),  it is time for the 1%CLUB to research new possible locations for future Labs. And giving our internationalization plans we are also looking for new partners to introduce the 1%CLUB to new regions.
The revolts that started last January in the Middle East drew the 1%CLUB’s attention to the Arab region. The turmoil brought a lot of uncertainties to these areas, but as well tons of opportunities. Assisted by our alliance partner Oxfam Novib and Arthur form the NOEN Network, I’m currently in Cairo to get a first taste of the entrepreneurial climate here.

Cairo is one of the megacities of the world. The estimates for the number of inhabitants vary from 16 to 20 million and the number of people is expected to double every 25 years. The negative climate effects, the struggle for water, energy and food…. all of this is going to take place right here.

On the other hand: the tough circumstances also make that everybody is already high in entrepreneurial skills. You have to make the best out of every opportunity, not knowing when the next is going to present itself. Not surprisingly, the 1%CLUB concept as such was received very enthusiastically; and the connection with the local SME network is in the making. The Social Entrepreneurs here are involved in a wide range of activities; from  recycling, reusing waste, designing new solar panels to organic farming.

So the 1%CLUB will most definitely present some Egyptian social entrepreneurs on our website in the near future!

And are we going to start a “CaiLab” here? Don’t know yet; but a place where one in two taxi drivers carries an iPhone, might be a good place to do so. ..
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Masterpeace: Creating Peace. Together!

Although Caïro has not exactly been the center of peace lately, within four years this city will be transformed into a village of peace!  The Egyptian people already showed what can be achieved when working together. Now imagine repeating this, trying to create a revolution  again, but then without the tragedy, and with people from all over the world. This way creating peace! Together!

Peace starts with us, and we just have to do it. That is the basic idea of ‘MasterPeace’, the latest project of  Ilco van der Linde. He was already responsible for establishing freedom festivals across Holland. Furthermore he was the founder of Dance4Life,  an international organization which tries to fight HIV and Aids together with young people. But inspired by the speech of Barack Obama (June 9th, Caïro) who stated that “any world order that elevates one nation over another will fail”, van der Linden is thinking even bigger, striving for global peace.

Together with managing director Mohamed Helmy he works in close connection with the board of the MasterPeace foundation and its founding circle. But they cannot achieve this on their own. Therefore MasterPeace (@masterpeace2014) is aimed at setting people in motion. Together it will be possible to inspire world leaders to fulfill two important goals: less armed conflicts and no nuclear arms, and to create a world in which possibilities are shared together.

Through music, art, sport and new media, MasterPeace will try to encourage dialogue, togetherness, creation and social sustainability from small local neighborhoods to large conflict areas through an intensive East-West cooperation. In order to do this, several peace-building projects will be developed.

The launch of MasterPeace, what needs to be the most heartwarming global peace project ever,  will be on the International Day of Peace. Now we all know which date this is… or not? Probably not! Which brings us to a measurable subgoal of MasterPeace: to raise awareness for this yearly and potentially unifying day on September 21th.

The first three years of campaigning will also end on this International Day of Peace with a massive concert in Cairo where artists from 14 of the world’s major conflict areas will perform to promote positivity, togetherness and international collaboration. At the same time promoting the reduction of (armed) conflicts and nuclear arms. Those people who are actively supporting peace-building activities will be rewarded with this concert.

Creating the MasterPeace concert is one of the five goals for 2014.

The second goal involves the recording of this artists making music resulting in beautiful documentaries to be broadcast worldwide. Making music can lead to friendships, the exchange of visions, values and judgments. “Music is a common language that can transcend political and social boundaries” (Jimmy Carter). By registering this process this message can be spread worldwide. Because additional media attention, mobilization of civil society and innovative peace-building initiatives could add value to the (current) peace processes in the broadest sense.

As said before, Cairo will be transformed into a MasterPeace Village, being the third goal of MasterPeace. All over the city hotels, clubs, universities, theatres and museums will host artists, marketers, NGOs and social entrepreneurs for debates, seminars, workshops to fuel peace-building innovation and information exchange.

The fourth goal of MasterPeace is creating 14 ‘Masterpeaces’ (yeah yeah you surely must have noticed this great pun before!). In 2013 and 2014 a traveling exhibition of pieces of art created together will be organized. Fashion, design, sculptures, paintings, poetry created by ‘opponents’ to reach out and work together and inspire the process of coming together with positive examples.

Last, but certainly not least, goal number five is to have mobilized at least 20 million Masterpeacers in 2014! Empowering the peace processes within 14 conflict areas of the world with new engagement, creative peace-building activities and supportive communication. All of the collaborative actions will be statements of positivity and connectedness by people in north, south, east and west together.

Masterpeace

Hopefull you got inspired by now to become part of this great peace project. You are able to participate in realizing peace in different ways. For example by becoming a peace blogger or being a social media campaigner. MasterPeace also gives you the opportunity to create your own MasterPeace club by giving you the chance to obtain a license to develop activities in your own environment. Furthermore you can start a peace project aimed at gathering 2014 euro for MasterPeace.  MasterPeace will be crowd funded, which means that half of the funds needed have to come from the people in the world. Not only financing is required, but the projects also have to help people to be aware of peace. More information about this possibilities to join can be found at http://www.masterpeace.org/en/jump-in/.

Become a masterpeacer at http://www.masterpeace.org/en/join-us/. Peace-building is a verb, so just do it!



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