Together We Are Better!

2010

As I head to New York City from Africa, my home for 18 years, I keep reflecting on how my connection with the Mother May I initiative has given new energy to my life-long dreams and passions. Those involved recognize and utilize each person’s talents to design a future that might otherwise be impossible. What we don’t try will never happen, what we do alone is great, but together we are better.

I treasure this picture of building a teacher’s house together because it shouts acceptance, appreciation, and belief in one another. The spirit of the work is thriving.

Connecting with the team at Adjacent to One brings me critical tools and interactions such as communication, brainstorming, and technological expertise, which I’m looking forward to bringing into the ideation stage of design thinking. The four goals of Villages Innovate for the year became clearer as we communicated these past few weeks.

As mobile technology becomes more prevalent, bringing critical connections to remote places, villagers prioritized becoming creators and not just consumers of technology. Learning to code and create apps that might help the community became a goal.

The Resource Center as a technology center to meet some of the educational needs of a village population became a big focus during the first quarter of this special year. To complete this, creating the Villages Innovate non-profit website is an essential first milestone.

A Computer Coding Club, in which students of diverse backgrounds learn programming skills, is the second milestone. These clubs will be designed by youth and led by local young people who can adapt the model for varying circumstances. ATO and our Kenyan students will work together. Students will document the process, so watch this site!

Our third milestone is learning how to design simple apps, and sharing the process. The fourth milestone is demonstrating how partnerships between village communities and global students/professionals, can build platforms that bring innovative ideas to light and encourage the voices and talents of all.

What we don’t try will never happen, what we do alone is great, but together we are better.