Projects through Partnerships, Virtual Solo Projects and Project Examples

There are several very exciting aspects of the courses.
One is that participants are using the course to design real on-the-ground projects with real communities.

Another is the cross-hemisphere partnerships between participants. We have people living in big cities (without access to communities) in Australia, Spain, Canada, the US, Brazil, and Panama, partnering on projects with on-the-ground field staff (with access to communities) in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya, Columbia, Peru, Cambodia, Nepal Mauritius and Venezuela.

Partners communicate with each other about assignments through email, photo exchanges, chat rooms, and Skype.

Course participants from 113 different countries include staff from large INGOs, staff from small in-country NGOs, people considering career changes, African business owners with a social conscience, and undergraduate and postgraduate students.

An example partnership: Maggie of Kenya and Erin of Canada

Dear Tim,
Greetings from Kenya. Thanks a million Tim for the great touch you gave to our week 2 homework and all the great comments and advice. We have been greatly helped and are happy to move with this as our final copy.

Thanks for your words of encouragement and for all the support you are giving us on this course. Frankly speaking iLearning is very interesting and am happy to be part of this class.

Erin and I have become great friends and am glad that you introduced us to each other. We are learning so much from each other and we feel that working in partnership is a great thing. By the end of the course, we will be very knowledgeable. Thank you. Erin, thanks a million for accepting to partner with me.

Margaret

Hi Tim,
I do the research and come up with a draft. Maggie is busy every day meeting with government officials and organizations working on projects in her district, so she has first-hand information from the community and organization leaders which she can incorporate into our assignments. She also has the knowledge that comes from being a community member, which of course is very helpful for me in understanding their specific situation. Then she sends the assignment back to me with all of her changes. I go over it one last time and send it to you. We are both quite committed to our assignments and this really helps.
 
She also sends me many photos and tells me interesting side stories about where she lives. I already feel connected to Lita and I think this makes my commitment stronger. I have to tell you that I have already found the partnership in this course so rewarding and am really enjoying working with Margaret.

It is a great program and I find that you are so helpful. Again, I'm really enjoying this experience.

Thanks!
Erin

Virtual Solo Projects:
A number of course participants have decided to do virtual projects. My recommendation has been to meet with someone at a local nonprofit in order to get a sound basis to your virtual project. They could provide you with a list of the needs of the community they serve to base your project around, and can provide a feedback as your project advances.

In other words, there is an organization in your town who could use help with developing a project, and you can provide them this assistance and accomplish the class goals at the same time. Please remember, that you will leave this pair of classes with a real project design - ready to take to a donor. This should be a useful exchange with someone who is willing to share their community's information with you.

Ideas for truly virtual projects could be:
• Forming a community health committee in a community
• School health and hygiene program
• Kitchen Hygiene and Health
• Nutrition, meal planning and cooking
• Improved cook stoves
• Community Water Development Planning Committee
• Total Sanitation Planning
• School Latrine Program
• Village Latrine Program
• Home Health & Hygiene
• Nutrition and Family Gardens

Real Participant Projects in Process:
From needs assessments sent to me by course members, we are able to see that there are many common problems worldwide including:

Income generation, clean water, access to education, poor sanitation, gender equality, migration, lack of vocational skills, chronic diarrhea and malnutrition in small children, lack of roads to villages, marginalization, shelter, food shortages, illiteracy, environmental degradation, drought, lack of irrigation for agriculture, community revitalization, connecting producers to markets, adapting to climate change and overpopulation.

It is with a community’s prioritized list of needs/problems that participants begin designing sustainable, impact-oriented projects. From these problems, 2010 course participants have developed real projects with real communities, that are impacting over 70,000 beneficiaries.

We look forward to working with you online.