From: Tarik Umar <umar@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Dec 27, 2007 10:51 AM
Subject: Congolop - African Development Competition
Happy Holidays,
I am a sophomore and social studies concentrator at Harvard College
and spent last semester working in the Harvard Idea Translation Lab on
Congolop - the 2008 African Development Competition.
What is/Why Congolop?
I am organizing Congolop with the objective of connecting Harvard and
MIT innovators with university students in Africa. This connection
between students in the West and Africa is missing presently and is a
significant drawback to innovation. Students who wish to create
change don't know the problems faced or understand the culture and
context well enough to offer feasible solutions. Congolop hopes to
create an archive of problems, current solutions, and contacts in
Africa through and after this year's competition. All information
will be available for free to the public.
Questions/Current Status
1) As of now, I have a few contacts in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Does anyone have contacts who would
like to assist or participate?
2) I have $500 in prize money, which is already a lot for students who
pay less than $200 tuition a year, but I am looking for additional
funding. Does anyone have fund raising advice for this competition?
I thought it would be nice to offer $500 minimum and then raise the
cash prize by $1 for every student that participates in Africa. This
strategy incentivizes my team at Harvard to advertise a lot and
students in Africa to spread the word. Many students at Harvard and
MIT wish to help Africa, but few understand the culture, problems, and
current solutions.
3) Judges will be any student at Harvard or MIT. They may register,
view all submissions, and rate them. Does anyone have comments on
this style of judging?
The website Congolop.com is under development, but you can login as a
contestant and as a judge using email: test and password: test
Inspiration
The inspiration for Congolop comes from the International Design and
Development Summit hosted Summer 2007 at which more than 30 students
from countries around the world were flown to MIT to collaborate with
students, entrepreneurs and engineers on solutions to native problems
(more info http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/summit-0807.html). I,
as a frequent attendee, became aware of such problems as the sore
hands of women in Uganda who shell 40Ibs of peanuts a day and
solutions such as the peanut sheller by Jock Brandis that enables
women in Africa to shell 40Ibs of peanuts per hour.
Happy Holidays,
Tarik Umar
Harvard College 2010
Social Studies
umar@fas.harvard.edu
301.875.5052