Wednesday, June 02, 2004

I had a Great Day Today !!

Jeez I had such a great day today!!

I mean, people out there in the world are actually following this blog!?! Wow! Yvette Lopez of the Inside Somaliland weblog (see earlier postings) and I exchanged communications in the past few days, and she really likes the photos.

Caroline, a young high school graduate who lives in Jinja and her friends have been following the blog, and she thinks it's cool and is giving me all kinds of feedback. O.K., she did comment that the homepage background color is a bit Yucky! and hard for her to read, but I promised to fix that as soon as I can find the right line of code in this blog template with all of these new XHTML tags and CSS tags and RSS calls.

Caroline is getting prepared to continue her higher education as she is very interested in ICT (Information and Communications Technology). She is really an excellent young lady giving me deep insights into the minds of young people in Uganda. It is a precious communication experience, and I am working hard to get her the help she wants and needs to study further. I explained to Caroline that many concerned citizens around the world are focused on the problems of gender discrimination, particularly in the education of girls and women in certain countries. Finishing high school is great, and I am confident she would do well at university or a professional training institute.

She has a really cool role model in Uganda, but that is rather hush-hush between Caroline and me you know since the present government is still working on Democracy and Freedom of Speech for all of its citizens. Hey, I've got confidence they'll get it together, and quick.

Anyway, I am so floored by it all, I've decided to open up the comments area of all postings to anybody who would like to comment vs. the restricted method I've used up to now. If I don't like what you write, I'll just cut it out of the blog, just like the news media does all over the world. WYSINWIAG (What You See Is Not What I Always Get).

Oh, I think someone is writing a comment just now___"Dear BlackEagle, I think your Blog st___ks...". SECURITY! Someone get Security!!

Thanks Caroline and Yvette, you've just made my whole week!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I guess I should be the one to thank you. I agree with you that Blogger improved tremendously. I started with Blogger and the flexibility it provides in changing its templates made me comfortable in looking at those html codes until I was able to figure them out. Knowledge in ICT is one of the needs of local non-government organizations in post-conflict Somaliland. I have actually conducted trainings on how to use Blogger, based on my experience, those who are really interested in web-designing can start with Blogger.Play with the templates while inputting pertinent information about their work. Somalilanders that have tried creating their organization's site through Blogger end up with wide smiles on their faces, a whole group of satisfied users. --Yvette

BRE said...

Thanks for the input Yvette. Where can we find the weblogs or websites of some of your trainees? I would sure like to check them out.

I am also working on encouraging the youth down in Uganda to develop their own weblogs and websites, but we are still at the early stages of interacting and cooperating with them. So far so good. I have never touched foot on African soil, but I am definately headin' South as soon as I can escape the shackles of work and responsibilities here in Europe. A group of people from Jinja crossed my path in Germany last fall and asked for my help. I've been committed to them ever since that visit.

I've been working with and communicating with some professionals back in the States who are deeply involved with e-learning and professional training and education. I plan to connect them to the youth down in Uganda via my projects and initiatives real soon.

I can't wait to see what those young people down in Uganda come up with online, but I want to make sure that we stick with them step-by-step so that they are successful with what they create and with their goals.

Anonymous said...

You can visit the following sites:

Somaliland Voluntary Youth Organization (SOYVO) www.soyvo.blogspot.com works with juvenile prisoners in Togdheer region giving literacy classes to young prisoners and is active in awareness raising campaigns on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.

Somaliland National Youth Organization (SONYO) www.sonyo.blogspot.com is a nationwide umbrella organization that works with 32 organizations all over Somaliland.

I'm still trying to help them out with the templates, but they are now comfortable in posting entries and linking photos. They are also trying to write in English to reach a wider audience, this of course needs to be worked on so sometimes they write in Somali.

SOYDA works with refugees and returnees and also teaches youth in prisons. They were able to network with a fellow Somalilander who lives abroad, he worked on their website while the members here in Hargeisa provides the information. www.geocities.com/soydagroup

Somaliland Culture and Sports Association (SOCSA) http://www.geocities.com/socsacenter/ is the only organization that promotes women to play sports in this country. Women cannot play outside, they are ridiculed, sometimes people throw stones at them thus SOCSA provides a venue for girls to play basketball, volleyball and table tennis indoors. Literacy rate of women and girls is quite low and is pegged at 12%, SOCSA also provides literacy classes to returnees and refugees.

They still need a lot of assistance, one thing is for sure though these are committed group of youngsters whose craving for learning is unbelievable.

I hope this helps
--Yvette