TRENDING 🔥
The People’s Scientist: Dr. Esther Ngumbi makes science accessible
Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Illinois. She grew up in abject poverty in Mabafweni, a town of 20,000 people in Kenya, and was the first woman to obtain a Ph.D. She recalls how sad she felt at her graduation because her parents were too poor to attend:
“I remember crying because I decided I would do anything and everything that I could to ensure that I would pave the way for many, many more.”
Ngumbi and her parents founded the Dr. Ndumi Faulu Academy, a school for children in Kenya, in 2012. The school began with 14 and grew to 110 students eventually getting permanent classrooms, greenhouses, a science lab, and a library. Two years later, she created Oyeska Greens, a startup that teaches farmers how to use updated agricultural methods and technologies. Besides her two non-profit startups, the "people's scientist" believes science must be as publicly available as possible because when science wins, the public wins.
Trans streamers are creating the visibility Twitch won’t give them
The popular streaming platform, Twitch, does not allow identity-based tagging. This means that marginalized streamers who associate with certain communities and categories like “trans,” “Black,” or “lesbian,” cannot easily find themselves. On March 20th, Trans LIfeline launched Peer2Peer, a tool that allows content creators and viewers on Twitch to connect with each other through identity-based tags.
Harassment for marginalized groups is a problem on Twitch which is mitigated partly through visibility and community. Yana Calou, PR director of Trans Lifeline, adding identity-based tags improves peer support because:
You have the ability to find and connect with community, you actually have much more resilience and support in dealing with harassment. ... being able to find other trans people on Twitch to be able to watch and connect with as you’re questioning or coming out, having those kinds of contact can mean that that’s maybe the first time that people are really interacting with another trans person.
Peer2Peer is not only for trans users. It has tags relating to racial identity, Black, Asian, people of color, disability, religion, and so on.
On Conversation: How we need to reach into the heart of people to connect
Rick Wolfe is internationally known for his unique animated conversation approach. He is the co-author of Innovation at the Kitchen Table: Better Business Through Conversation. He facilitates better conversations that drive performance outcomes by helping people connect deeper with themselves and others.
Wolfe and his colleague, Jim Carfrae, recently hosted an online event where a group of professionals discussed how to better communicate and create a comfortable environment for information sharing that "helps people make the journey from ideas to action”. Noreena Hertz, author of The Lonely Century, says:
Conversation is hard, maybe harder than ever, in this isolating, "lonely century".
Wolfe believes facilitation improves conversation by allowing it to continue, to gently guide it, and pick up on a thread to see where it lands. A real conversation gets to the heart of people, who serve each other, where everyone rises.
TOOLS 🛠️ ⚙️
NOSEiD, the app that helps bring lost dogs home
1 in 3 pets will get lost at some point in their lifetime, while nearly 10 million pets in the U.S. are lost every year.
The petcare brand, IAMS, launched a beta version of an app called NOSEiD (Trailer here). Anyone who finds a dog can use the app to scan the dog's nose, search through missing dog alerts and find a match.
For registered users, when an owner reports their dog lost, a NOSEiD missing dog alert is sent to other users on the app in that community. This helps the community be on the lookout and hopefully end pet homelessness.
In an interview, Craig Neely and VP of marketing at Mars Petcare, said,
The app is designed to be a community resource, so whether someone has a dog or not, they'll be able to join the NOSEiD community to help reunite lost dogs with their families in their own neighborhood.
POP CULTURE 🎥🎵🎮
(FILM) Dax celebrates Mother's Day with 'Dear Mom' (Video)
Daniel Nwosu Jr., publicly known as Dax, is a Canadian hip-hop rapper and former janitor best known for his rap songs about him formerly being a janitor. He spent 5 years working on a poem and the perfect letter, called Dear Mom, to celebrate his mother on Mother's Day. The final passage is included below. You can watch him perform Dear Mom here.
Dear Mom by Dax (final passage)
Mom I hope that you take these words
And never ever have think about or question your worth
For all your pain and your hurt
For all your struggle and work
Mom for giving me birth
I want to say
Dear mom
This is a letter from ya son
Those three jobs you were working
Ya they probably wasn’t fun
All the weight that you were carrying
It probably weighed a ton
So I made this song today to finally tell you that you done
(FILM) Blessings: A moving short film called "Mother" (Video)
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of family and especially mothers. In his moving short film called Mother (Trailer here), Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Reza Kheradmandan believes:
"Mothers are the most important and the safest places of shelter for any human. No shelter in the world is as comforting as the embrace of a mother...Mothers are the greatest blessing and no one and nothing can replace the absence of a mother...Any person, no matter what age, even if they are old - longs for their mother."
The filmmaker made the film as a reflection of his own loss and pain without his mother's embrace or presence. He is not alone in feeling this. Many millions have shared a similar feeling during this period of lockdowns, social distancing, and isolation. Please give your mother extra attention whether in-person or remotely this Mother's Day.
NOTABLE PEOPLE📝 📖🖊️
(YOUTH) Fake beauty site helps Poland’s lockdown abuse victims (Video)
Since the pandemic began, domestic abuse cases in Europe increased by up to 60% from 2019. 17-year-old Krysia Pasko, based in Poland, wanted to do something and created a Facebook page (Rumianki i Bratki translates to Chamomiles and Pansies) in April 2020 based on a fictitious cosmetics company. A similar concept was successfully done in France.
This demo video shows customers or victims who use the site are in fact communicating with psychologists through coded messages. Paszko says,
What surprised me is that you can say nearly everything using the code, such as whether there is alcohol involved, or if violence is affecting the women’s children.
Thanks to the assistance from local legal advisors and volunteers, Pasko and her team have helped over 350 victims of domestic abuse.
LASTLY 🏠 ❓ ℹ️
CFP News profiles people who collaborate on cool stuff that make an impact in communities. Archive issues can be read here.
Flavian DeLima founded Collaborate for Purpose . Besides the newsletter 📧, we have a podcast 🎙️ and run kitchen table conversation events🔥.
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CFP News is a weekly roundup of the best links on how people collaborate, create social impact and build community. An online version is here.
Welcome to the 6th issue of our newsletter. The theme of this issue is mothers, which is captured in this short poem:
In a 2020 survey of how the pandemic is taking a toll on parents, 90% of mothers reported feeling more tired and having less energy than before the pandemic (it was 35% for fathers).
While the pandemic has been called a she-recession, it has been felt most by moms. Mothers have been more likely to leave the workforce. For same-sex couples, when they have children, the lower-earning parent likely does more in the house for the children. Mothers are considered historically the primary parent and the parent society blames when something goes wrong.
In honour of mothers everywhere, please watch the two short videos in the POP CULTURE section called, Dear Mom and Mother.
Even though it won't fix everything, consider giving mom a day off alone or a few hours alone once or twice a week.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.
Flavian
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