Impacting the World via the Internet

New Kabissa Team Member Chioma Oruh on "Impacting the World via the Internet"

When
I first heard of Kabissa and the unique approach towards assisting
positive social change to occur in Africa through the promotion of
using information communication technologies (ICT), I had to pinch
myself at the actuality of this ingenious and seldom explored avenue of
advancement. Chioma Oruh started working at Kabissa this July and is the new Member Relations Manager/Project Assistant.

To read the complete article, click here

Keeping Connected: Updates from Betsy Malcolm's Travel

I had
two half days in Nairobi (on either end of an East Africa safari) with
nothing to do. Kabissa to the rescue! Kim Lowery contacted two
of Kabissa's member organizations, the Kibera Community Youth Program
and the Kenya Women's Political Caucus, and arranged for me to speak
with them...

To read more about Betsy's Travel, click here

Recently,
the Association of Human Rights and Torture Defenders (AHURTOD) began
using Kabissa's free hosting services to launch their Web site.. Since
then, with the medium to better communicate and reach larger audiences,
AHURTOD has been able to more successfully achieve its mission of
speaking out against the many social injustices in Cameroon. From the
feedback they have received so far, they found that a wider community
of actors in relevant sectors is getting to know them better. Working
on the idea that ‘development work is not a one man thing’, they hope
use the Internet to strengthen collaboration other NGOs around the
world.

To learn more about AHURTOD and Kabissa's partnership, click here

Kabissa In Action

• We held two great events
  to build the network of Kabissa supporters - our "Wine Tasting for
  Change" event in New York in April and our Berkeley Garden Party in
  early June. Read more and see the photos!

• Former intern Vicrum Puri led a Kabissa Member Meetup in Nairobi, Kenya

• Kabissa was selected to be part of the 2007-2008 Catalogue for Philanthropy!

• We received a grant from the Lonely Planet Foundation to expand our member services.

• Kabissa was selected as one of 21 Finalists for the NetSquared competition. Though our "Kabissa 2.0: Strengthening the Social Web in Africa" proposal didn't win, we had a great experience at the NetSquared conference at the end of May. Check out the Kabissa blog for more!

• Kabissa's Web2.0 research
  is going strong - Tobias has written an article that will appear in the
  ICT Update journal, he will be presenting in September at the
  Web2fordev conference in Rome, and publishing his paper on Web2.0 for
  African Civil Society, in conjunction with the University of
  Washington. Stay tuned for more on these exciting developments!

• Keep an eye out for the Kabissa 2006 Annual Report, which includes our full financial statements for last year.

• Coming
  soon - the new and improved Kabissa Web site! As a few of our ongoing
  projects come to a close, watch for our new Web site with new profiles
  of our 1,000+ members.

What do you think of our new newsletter format? Let us know!

In This Issue

• Impacting the World via the Internet

• Keeping Connected: Updates from Betsy Malcolm's Travel

• Association of Human Rights and Torture Defenders (AHURTOD)

• Kabissa in Action

Kabissa at a Glance

Since April:

95new member organizations (doubled from the last quarter!)

32 new hosting accounts

13,000 site visits per month (up 30% from last quarter)

The Kabissa Team

Tobias Eigen, Co-Executive Director

Kim Lowery, Co-Executive Director

Chioma Oruh, Member Relations Manager

The Summer Intern Team:

Alisa Oba, Development Intern

Austin Duncan, Online Community Coordinator