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An AAE volunteering team has been selected as one of the winners of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Online Volunteering Award 2012! Kirthi Jayakumar, Natacha Borri, Pavithra Rajan, Petroc Wilton, Rita Sheryl, and Sowmyan Jegatheesan are among volunteers who participated in AAE’s Publication Project during the period December 2010 to March 2012
The jury agreed that they set an outstanding example of the impact citizens can have on peace and sustainable development through volunteering their skills and time over the Internet.
UNV recognises their dedication and commitment to volunteering for peace and development. ‘Your experience will be a source of inspiration and motivation to others who are interested in volunteering online or thinking about collaborating with online volunteers in the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Read the news on the Online Volunteering website.
The Project
The project produced articles and E-Books relating to Entrepreneurship in Africa. The team of global volunteers spent time on undertaking research on the entrepreneurial environment in each country in Africa, and studied all the relevant economic indicators for each country. The material was then put together and studied by one volunteer, into an E-book form, projecting all aspects of each country that best befit the needs of any endeavour of commencing business in each African country. The final products were proof-read and streamlined, and eventually published.
The teams collaborated with AAE and one another through email, and research was left to the volunteers to embark upon. AAE remained in active collaboration and correspondence with every volunteer, and offered support in every way they best required.
The ebook and articles are a ready reckoner, a perfect manual that tells any aspirant entrepreneur everything he needs to know if he were to take to an entrepreneurial venture in Africa. The book has been received very warmly by global audiences, and has successfully coveted a wide spectrum of readership. The collaboration with the volunteers and the product therefrom has benefited AAE abundantly in projecting its role as a forum that serves the interests of business in Africa, and has also encouraged more access to AAE among the members of the entrepreneurial sector.
The collaboration of these volunteers is a unique venture, and was finished in record time to perfection. Each volunteer’s contribution has been immense and significant in making this venture successful. To have worked tirelessly in recording and verifying information, and then putting it across to readers in a way that would be both interesting and utility-oriented, and to have also added the aesthetic values to the same is not a mean task. The collaboration falls under the ambit of MDG 1, MDG 2 and MDG 8. Through awareness, this volunteer team has offered promise through entrepreneurship to combat poverty, through information to create universal education, and through business and entrepreneurship to create a global partnership. The level of commitment each volunteer exuded in the project is incomparable, and despite being a volunteering endeavour, each of them treated the project with professional zeal.
The volunteers’ names are as follows:
Persons who provided the country specific articles:
Melvin Marzan
Budiono Budiono
Rita Mogaka
Natacha Borri
Charles Emezi
Quentin Frank
Anu Osta
Jane Lutwama
Lydia Adude
Evanson Njoroge
Iana Roginska
Lahiri Sirirathne
Rael Ombuor
Catriona McCallion
Lahiri Sirirathne
Ruth Kabuitu
Rita Mogaka
Sowmyan Jegatheesan
Matteo Bartolini
Lahiri Sirirathne
Sean Ton-That
Mansi Gupta
Heba Hashem
Petroc Wilton
Nicole S D’Auteuil
Steven Isaacs
Kirthi Jayakumar
Pavithra Rajan
Sara Rona
