To you it may be shit, to us it’s money
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
So says Isaac Durojayie, of DMT Mobile Toilet, Nigeria. He’s featured in Ashoka’s film on social entrepreneurship called Who Cares.
Other than being an utterly captivating film, it’s chock-a-block full of people with unusual perspectives. People who see the world a little differently. Like Issac who’s started a thriving social entrepreneurship business, based on a pressing problem for people in slums. Where do you poop with privacy & safety?
Check out the film trailer above, which also features the answer to the question ‘What do you get when you combine Buddhism, rats & social entrepreneurship?’
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: ashoka, social entrepreneurship
Hilarious Golden Retriever Really Wants To Race But.. First Things First
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Creativity & innovation
Failure is in.
Check out this exuberant, embraceable, enthusiastic fail (especially next time you fall on your face & are looking for the ‘fest in failing).
Tags: amani, failfest, failure, humour, ihub
What do you get when you combine Buddhism, rats & social entrepreneurship?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Photo Credit: La Tarte au Citron via Compfight cc
A mighty interesting combination & a very cool perspective. I heard about Bart’s work when I watched an Ashoka film on social entrepreneurship.
Bart Weetjens, is a Belgian zen Buddhist monk, a social entrepreneur who works in Tanzania. He trains rats (yes rats) to detect land mines & TB.
My attention was caught by combining unusual elements (rats & landmines anyone?) to come up with an unusually innovative solution to a wretched problem. It takes a new look, a fresh perspective.
APOPO is a social enterprise that researches, develops and implements detection rats technology for humanitarian purposes such as Mine Action and Tuberculosis detection. APOPO is a Belgian NGO, with headquarters in Tanzania and operations in Mozambique, Thailand, Angola and Cambodia.
The need for faster TB diagnosis in overpopulated high burden cities is paramount. APOPO is working towards eradicating TB in Sub-Saharan Africa by training locally available rats to evaluate sputum samples more swiftly and efficiently.
APOPO has stepped up its war on landmines and continues to develop combined approaches using existing demining technology as well as its innovative Mine Detection Rats (MDRs), leading to more efficient mine action work.
Sound too freaky to possibly be true? Check out the rats here.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: ashoka, buddhism, land mines, social entrepreneurship
Registration is now open- learn how to enrich your teaching & learning using ICTs for free
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
- Interested in exploring ICTs (Information Communication Technologies)?
- Overwhelmed at the number of tools available & not sure where to start?
- Think ICTs consist only of people watching cat videos on Facebook?
Check out this brand new, free, online course ~Using ICTs to enrich teaching and learning~ offered by the African Virtual University and the Commonwealth of Learning. Click on the link for more information &/or to register.
Yours truly will be supporting your learning in the first of 4 modules. Hope to see you there.
‘Using ICTs to enrich teaching and learning’ will guide your learning in an interactive, applied manner to answer 3 questions: what are ICT’s (module 1), why use ICTs in teaching and learning (module 2) and how to use ICTs to support teaching and learning (module 3 and 4). Based on your unique learning expectations and needs, you’ll choose from a wide variety of learning expectations and needs, you’ll chose from a wide variety of learning activities designed to help you extend, apply and use your learning from this MOOC.
Yep, that’s me
Tags: avu, COL, ict, mooc, training & development
Perspectives on being a TCK (third culture kid)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Diversity & culture
If you’re a regular reader you know I’m absolutely fascinated by perspective. And there’s nothing quite like the perspective of a TCK (third culture kid).
Haven’t heard that term before? A third culture kid ‘is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture’ according to sociologist David C. Pollock.
Here are some signs of being a TCK from Buzzfeed’s 31 Signs You’re A Third Culture Kid :
1. You can curse convincingly in at least 5 different languages.
2. To everyone’s confusion, your accent changes depending on who you’re talking to.
3. And you often slip foreign slang into your English by mistake, which makes you unintelligible to most people.
6. You start getting birthday wishes several hours before your birthday, from your friends farther east than you.
13. And your circle of best friends is as politically, racially, and religiously diverse as the United Nations.
16. You’ve had the most rigorous sensitivity training of all: real life.
8. You know that McDonald’s tastes drastically different from country to country.
30. You know better than anyone else that “home” isn’t a place, it’s the people in it.
31. And you can’t wait to see where your life adventure takes you next.
And my favourite …
8. You have a love-hate relationship with the question “Where are you from?”
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
You’re very own 6 step, interactive, planning tool
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Image source:. ffaalumni
In the vein of both casting back & looking forward I always spend some time at the beginning of a new year reflecting back & visioning forward. Several years ago I created a simple tool to do just that.
This year I used the tool as a learning lab for the monthly Learning & Development roundtable I facilitate in Nairobi. Want to get a taste? See below for the discussion guide we used.
And the coolest thing? Click below to access your own interactive portal- add your own ideas & see what others are doing.
Tags: learning lab, planning, time management, to do
Lists of note- bring ’em on say the Carrot Life Lenses™
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication
Making lists (a.k.a. bringing systems & order to a chaotic world) is a sublime activity for a Carrot Life Lens™.
Check out ‘Lists of note’ a website that does nothing but list lists. To the lists of Albert Einstein (whoah! his list is some piece of work- would not have wanted to be his ex-wife) and Nora Ephron (so poignant after her passing) to Julia Child (what a plethora) and Noel Coward (rules of ‘palship’), they’re a peek at inner lives.
Detailed. Organized. Precise. Music to the ears & eyes of a Carrot Life Lens™.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: albert einstein, lists, nora ephron, order
Hey, get with the program. Learn how to use ICTs to teach & learn.
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
Yep, that’s me
I’m working with a great team to design a free MOOC (massive open online course) called ‘Using ICTs to enrich teaching and learning.’
It’s designed to guide your learning in an interactive, applied manner to answer 3 questions:
- What are ICTs (module 1),
- Why use ICTs in teaching and learning (module 2) and
- How to use ICTs to support teaching and learning (modules 3 and 4).
Based on your unique learning expectations and needs, you’ll choose from a wide variety of learning activities designed to help you extend, apply and use your learning from this MOOC.
Registration opens this week & the class starts Feb 16th. It’s free. It’s fun. Won’t you join me?
Powerful perspective thanks to Keira Knightley
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Watch. Breathe. Think about perspective. Repeat. ‘nuf said
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: keira knightley, perspective
I wish you a return to yourself (with a little help from a Beagle)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Photo Credit: Jacopo Marcovaldi via Compfight cc
Tonight marks the departure of family from Vancouver who’ve been visiting us in Nairobi for almost 5 weeks. We’ve seen a huge male lion defending his recent kill against howling hyenas & the all elusive leopard. We almost hooked an aged, injured hippo while fishing & we’ve shared more great meals than I have fingers to count.
When they start their 24+ hour journey home I know I’ll feel a little lost. That coupled with the new year & its immense number of blank pages to fill, made me think of this sweet video.
If you’re wandering, may you return to yourself this year.
If you’re focused on the strife of this barely begun year, may this bring a smile to your face.
If you’re needing some innovation inspiration for planning the year ahead, may this serve that purpose too.
From me to you, dear reader, enjoy.
Tags: creativity, klm, new year