Kelele - African bloggers conference

What is Kelele?

Kelele is an annual African bloggers’ conference held in a different African city each year and run by an organising committee in that city. Kelele will be held for the first time in October 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Why Kelele?
Kelele is the Kiswahili word for noise.

We are organising a gathering of African bloggers in the tradition of historical African societies where everyone has a voice. With too many voices marginalised or simply ignored in African society today for a variety of reasons, we believe that the internet in general and grassroots media tools such as blogs in particular represent the most powerful way in which to give Africans back their voice. We are gathering to make a powerful, positive, inspirational noise that will be heard across the continent and beyond. KELELE!

The specific theme of Kelele ’09 Nairobi is Beat Your Drum – which connects the traditional African method of getting your message across vast distances – the talking drums – to the 21st century and the tools we use today, blogs and the Internet. We anticipate that this conference will continue to be called Kelele wherever it is held. For example Kelele Nairobi ’09, Kelele Accra ’10, Kelele Cairo ’11 and so on.

We Care Solar - Dr. Laura Stachel

From site:

Our Mission

WE CARE SOLAR promotes safe motherhood and reduces maternal mortality in developing regions by providing health workers with reliable lighting, blood bank refrigeration and mobile communication using solar electricity.

Solutions

We originally designed a photovoltaic system to power lighting, medical equipment, a blood bank refrigerator, and communication equipment in a major municipal hospital in Northern Nigeria. We installed this system in early 2009.

Our emergency obstetric PV system powers the following:

• Overhead surgical lighting in areas of critical need such as the operating room and labor and delivery
• Mobile telecommunications between hospital staff and on-call physicians
• Existing on-site surgical equipment that is currently underutilized
• A blood bank refrigerator that utilizes DC electricity
• Battery chargers that power LED headlamps for night duty workers

Spaceloon - Africa consortium for near space communication

From site:

Spaceloon was created as the common face of a consortium of companies operating in Africa that seeks a cheaper than satellite approach to communication. Our target is to provide ubiquitous wireless coverage to Africa at the cheapest price possible. We believe the time is now to deploy such spacial technology to enable the continent to leap frog into the 21st century.

Mecene investment - socially responsible investments in Africa

Mecene Investment is a Private Equity Advisory Firm that specializes in socially responsible investments in Africa.

The company draws on its successful private equity experience in African microfinance industry to promote equity and debt investments in industries that provide high social, environmental and developmental impact.

Advans - acccess to finance in emerging markets

Advans SA's mission is to build a network of financial institutions in developing and emerging countries offering loans, deposits and other standard financial services to MSMEs which have limited or no access to formal banking services. These institutions are commonly known as microfinance institutions (MFIs) or microbanks when they are licensed as banks.

Building Zambikes in Zambia - Video

Zambikes

Mission: To provide high quality bicycles and educational training to underprivileged and service based Zambians.