Global Livingston Institute

Hello!
My name is Jonah and I am a senior at Colorado State University. Over the summer, Global Livingston Institute privileged me with the opportunity of being sent to Uganda in East Africa with the goal of helping subsistence farmers better feed themselves and take care of their families. Through months of outreach, research and listening/working with the local community, the idea of a model farm and what it should look like was developed. In my time there we were able to raise $3500 which was used to secure land, hire 25 Ugandans and begin the development of the model farm.

We currently have raised $8500 and are looking to raise at least $25,000 more to help bring the farm to fruition and be at a point of financial sustainability. We want to raise at least $5,000 within the next two weeks as the planting season in Uganda begins in September. The money will go to creating an irrigation system, bringing in proper equipment and soil testing, diversifying crop production and much more.

In Kabale, Uganda, a significant problem exists that the people acknowledge. Agricultural production is very minimal and it is extremely hard to feed their families, let alone have good nutrition. Currently, a very minimal crop variety is being produced in the region (primarily sorghum), because of a limited availability of seeds and lack of knowledge on other crops. Ugandans are searching for knowledge on how to produce more efficiently and find solutions to many problems they experience in the area.

​The model farm is an example of everything that we can grow in the region and exemplifies more efficient methods of farming that are lacking from the region. It will serve as an example for the region as to what resources they could use and how it could improve their efficiency and overall production. The primary purpose of the farm is education, while at the same time being financially independent. All ideas and concepts that will be implemented are based off of months of outreach, interviews and research from the local farming communities and with Ugandans.

I am so graetful you all took the time to read this and am super passionate about this project. 

For more detailed information on the farm and to see pictures of our progress, please visit FeedingUganda.org

Please help us build restroom facilities for students and teachers at Kifuka Primary School, Uganda! The lack of restrooms and other facilities has lead to low student enrollment and poor performance. In the last National exams, this school was one of the worst performers in the region. Bathrooms are crucial to providing a safe space for children to learn and develop. This need is especially great for girls and young women; a lack of sanitation facilities remains one of the main hurdles that bar girls from education!  In order to complete the project, we need to raise $5,000 to pay for materials to build the restrooms. All of the funds raised will go to purchasing supplies. We believe all children deserve access to toilets because they provide privacy, safety and are essential to education!

The launch of the Bulamu "Raise Your Voice" Community Foundation will be this Friday, September 15th!

In a partnership with the Global Livingston Instiute, Isabelle Fries has a vision of incubating sustainable community development initiatives in East Africa through music and education.

The concept behind the foundation grew out of Isabelle’s involvement with the GLI’s iKnow Concert Series. The concert series convenes people through the power of music and the arts to provide access to health services in hard-to-reach communities in rural Uganda.

The foundation will follow the GLI’s mantra of listening and thinking before acting as it pertains to finding solutions to complex social issues in developing countries. Working in conjunction with the GLI’s existing network of partners that cut across all sectors in East Africa and the United States, the foundation will take an innovative approach to supporting community projects.

The launch of this foundation will also be announced to the community in front of an estimated 10,000 person crowd in Kabale, Uganda at the final show of the 2017 iKnow Concert Series.

HAMP-Entusi 2015  - website

Our mission is to use music and the arts to improve people's health and well-being, and promote community-based development initiatives in Southwestern Uganda.  In order to do this, we must Listen, Think, Act
The Problem: HIV prevalence in Uganda has risen to 7.2% of the population, the 10th highest level on earth. This amounts to an estimated 1.4 million people, including 190,000 children. An estimated 62,000 people died from AIDS in 2011 and 1.1 million children have been orphaned by Uganda's devastating epidemic. 
The Solution: In January 2014, a group of American academics and activists who doubled as musicians came together at the Entusi Retreat Center on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi under the auspices of the Global Livingston Institute. Together they formulated a plan to produce a music festival in Southwest Uganda to promote HIV awareness, bridge cultural divides, and boost the local economy.  From October 20-24, the Americans met with traditional Ruchiga folk singers and musicians as well as headliner hip-hop stars from Rwanda and northern Uganda. In four days they put together an entire set list of musical collaborations, from folk to reggae to rap and back in five different languages. They even found time to record three tracks at a studio in Kabale! 
The concert was held on October 25. The producers and musicians hoped that 2,000 people would attend and perhaps as many as 200 would be willing to take a free HIV test at the on-site facility.  That did not happen.
More than 4,000 people came, making it the largest free concert in Uganda.  Equally as incredible, 826 people were tested for HIV. Referral services for treatment and further medical exams were eagerly received and the community now has a meaningful foundation upon which to launch future initiatives.
The people of SW Uganda expressed their extreme satisfaction with the festival and we are in the midst of planning another one, even bigger and more effective in 2015. The date is set for October 17, the artists are being selected, and people from around the world have already started purchasing their plane tickets.
Will YOU be part of this historic event ?
Your contribution goes directly to:
Purchasing hundreds of rapid oral HIV tests
Providing a women's health tent offering free exams to the destitute
Distributing thousands of condoms and information packets in the Kabale District
Employing dozens of musicians, construction workers, electricians, and vendors
Funding dozens of workshops by and for the local community in everything from women's self-defense classes to proper condom usage
Feeding and housing a small army of volunteers from around the world
Providing security for the concert

We can't do this without you;
Please lend your support; make a donation below.

                  Hello, our names our Max Alger-Meyer and Nathan Lepore. We have built a camera outfitted quadcopter to help prevent poaching of wildlife in the Akagera National Park in Rwanda. We have partnered with the Global Livingston Institute (GLI) and Akagera to help us achieve our goal of building this drone and going to Rwanda this summer. We are seniors at the Denver School of Science and Technology and are working on our senior capstone project that revolves around solving a problem. GLI's mission is to Listen, Think, and Act, and this past summer Max had the opportunity to visit the Akagera National Park in Rwanda. While there, he listened to the efforts the park was taking to prevent poaching of the protected animals. The park is increasing their anti-poaching efforts but there is still room to improve in order to maintain the safety of the animal populations. We have recieved some media coverage, including a 9News story on our project. http://www.9news.com/news/local/share-this/colorado-students-build-drone-to-help-africa/152844952



(Above: Snares, bikes, and motorcycles confiscated from poaching attempts inside the Akagera National Park)

                   We realized that this was a perfect opportunity to help solve a problem for our senior project. We analyzed the problem of poaching at Akagera and decided that a quadcopter with first-person view capabilities would be a great way to augment the surveillance of the park. With a limited number of rangers trying to cover over 1200 square kilometers, a camera drone would give the park a much easier and more efficient way to scan the park for poachers. The other half of our project is to deliver the drone to Akagera this summer. We realized that in order for the park to make the most use out of our drone, we would need to train the rangers on how to fly, tune, and maintain the quadcopter. We intend on creating training manuals for the park to have, as well as creating a short curriculum to train the rangers.





(This is our current design; we have made several updates to maximize efficiency)

A camera drone is also a great learning experience for us. As seniors, we share over six years of robotics experience as well as several other engineering projects. We wanted to challenge ourselves by creating a professional-quality camera drone that would be robust and effective. We have been doing our homework and have been studying the complexities of drone flight and the intricate relationship between all of the components that allow a quadcopter to maintain flight for extended periods of time. Our first step was to model the drone in two different CAD programs to visualize our design and verify all connections. We then spent months researching which parts would best suit our mission to create an effecient drone that can stay airbourne for up to 30 minutes. Finally, we undertook the task of constructing and wiring everything. Attached is a photo of the completed drone. 



                We have also had the unexpected learning experience of networking and combining our engineering skills to the real world. We have met with many people, including students from the Colorado School of Mines, executives from the Global Livingston Institute, and teachers at East High School. We were hoping that our supporters would partner with us, GLI, and Akagera to help their anti-poaching efforts.
We can't afford to fund this project ourselves, so any donations are greatly apreciated and will be used meaningfully. We have raised the funds to build the drone, and now we are pushing to raise the funds for the trip. Thank you all for your support!



(Max and Nathan working on our FIRST 2016 robot)

http://globallivingston.org/