Life-saving app

Big business, with its pursuit of profit at all costs, creates some huge problems in society. Such as poisoned environments, factories run with slave labour… and the process of globalisation is spreading them everywhere. So what can the little person do? Just this: make a conscious choice not to participate – and actively search out better alternatives. Because while the world is awash with stuff we don’t need, we definitely do need more ethical entrepreneurs. And, at the same time, conscious consumers. A nice example is Sanchi Bags, recently started up in India with the vision to promote the use of eco-friendly products and empower women. The idea is that the fashionable bags – including ones for laptops and tablets – will attract youth into the “go green” movement and become trendsetters across generations. The bags are made from locally-sourced biodegradable material and, most importantly, manufactured in their own households by suburban and rural woman homemakers. You can connect with Sanchi via their facebook page www.facebook.com/sanchibags

Networklearning’s newest manual aims to give carers – and their supervisors – greater insight into the work that they do for their older clients. Caring for The Elderly : Best Practice in Person-centred Care includes examples from colleagues in the field and exercises for learning skills.

NGO-in-a-box offers a set of peer reviewed and selected Free and Open Source software, tailored to the needs of NGOs. It provides them not only with software, but also with implementation scenarios and relevant materials to support this. > http://base.ngoinabox.org/

Networklearning invites all its friends and colleagues to take a little time to think about their country and its children under the age of five. Why? Because these little kids are the future of the nation. If they are not reaching their full potential, the whole country loses out. » Read Maeve Moynihan’s article: Early Childhood Development: the critical factors What is Advocacy and why is it important for such issues? » Find out the 10 steps to success – in just 3 handy pages. Download Nicolien Wassenaar’s new K ey I nformation S heet, KIS 4: Advocacy » Also new in the Library : Finding Mental Health after Conflict: This useful manual for anyone planning to help people who have been displaced or repressed is now available in Arabic , thanks to Elmubarak Eldaw (47 pages). » Plus two new guest publications: We have the newest edition for job-seekers of A Guide to Voluntary and Humanitarian Work (164 pages), generously donated by Bryan Walker. And Bryan has also made available the 271-page heavyweight Structures for the Displaced: Service and Identity in Refugee Settlements by James Kennedy.

We recently offered some printed materials to our registered users (the OXFAM Gender Training manual, Stepping Stones training package on HIV/AIDS, and a set of French flannelgraphs for health education). The three NGOs who received them were: CISS in Kisumu, Kenya, an NGO that works with communities, increasing their participation in the democratic process, in community-managed development etc. People in Need , An NGO in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka funded by the Czech Republic, working to rebuild physical and social structures after the Tsunami. The Pemba Island Relief Organisation (PIRO) Tanzania which has a small resource centre for local NGOs and supports CBOs working to strengthen Sexual Reproductive Health Information & Services. Does your own NGO have materials that you really do not use? You could circulate a list to the members of NGO groups to which you belong, offering a loan or a swop. Unused Manuals and other materials are wasted resources.