Archive for the 'Fun Stuff' Category

Project Education Update!

Published on December 19, 2011 in Fun Stuff. Closed

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ascovime’s newest initiative, Project Education is an effort to provide children in Cameroon with birth certificates so that they can go to school.

Professor Boukar handing out birth certificates

ASCOVIME recently traveled to Cameroon’s most destitute region, l’Extreme-Nord, or Far North. The poverty in this area is astounding; most families live on less than $0.50 a day and survive the driest months on nothing more than a few handfuls of corn each evening. One of the region’s greatest problems is access to education. Roughly 30% of children there have no birth certificate, and according to Cameroonian law, this means they cannot take the entry exam for high school.

Instead, they are typically limited to the 6th grade and a life of hard labor.

ASCOVIME has been able to make a small step to change that. Each boy or girl needs $19 to cover the four steps that produce a birth certificate. These steps are:

  1. A doctor determines the child’s age and parents
  2. A judge makes those findings official
  3. 2 passport photos are provided
  4. The mayor prints the actual document

Dr. Bwelle handing a birth certificate to a young boy.

Just this past November, ASCOVIME, led by Dr. Georges Bwelle was able to provide 274 children with birth certificates thanks to your generosity.  However, the work is not done.  There are still over 4000 children that need certificates, and even small donations will get them there.

For just $5, you can make the difference in a boy or girl’s life. That’s the price of a coffee or a meal. For $19, you can cover the entire cost of one child and singlehandedly give them a new future.

Will you help us? Click here to donate.

Every ASCOVIME member works as a volunteer, so every dollar you give goes directly to a child. ASCOVIME is a registered charity in Vermont, making your donations tax-deductible.

Ascovime Volunteer Publishes Children’s Book

Published on October 23, 2011 in Fun Stuff. Closed

Anselme Djeukam, who is a daily volunteer with Ascovime on the ground in Cameroon, has just published another delightful children’s book.  Anselme writes and illustrates children’s books in French in the back room of his small house in Yaounde, Cameroon which are then sold by Harmattan books all over the world!   The books are beautifully written and illustrated and would make a fantastic addition to any personal collection.

In keeping with full disclosure, Harmattan books (and I’m sure other publishers as well) essentially rip off African authors when offering book contracts.  Typically, the authors receive a small flat fee, often a couple hundred dollars, for the full rights to their books and see no royalties whatsoever.  The publishers then go off and make huge profits as a result.

Despite the financials, Mr. Djeukam’s books are terrific and perhaps someone will one day offer him a reasonable contract as they would for European or North American authors.

It’s the start of a new school year!

Published on September 29, 2011 in Fun Stuff, Medical and Schooling. Closed Tags: , , , .

And the perfect time to be thinking about our newest program, Project Education. As many of us gear up for another year of High School, College, Grad School or prepare our children for a new year of learning, most of us think of school as a necessary evil. Few consider it a luxury, but to a child in Africa, getting a proper education is often too much to hope for. This is something we are working to change and you can help! Along with better education comes better opportunities for these kids and not just in the form of a higher paying job, it means better opportunities for their whole village and ultimately, their whole country. Statistics show that investing in education is the key to economic development and a stable economy leads to a higher quality of life. So next time you are out shopping for books, pencils and calculators, please consider sponsoring a child so that they too can have the education that they deserve.

Introduction!

Published on September 26, 2011 in Fun Stuff. Closed Tags: , , .

For those of you who don’t know me (I’m guessing everyone!) my name is Chantal Mendes and I wanted to introduce myself as I am just starting to get involved with this project on the multimedia end. A little bit about me: I graduated in 2010 with a B.S. in Print Journalism from Boston University and have had experience working for newspapers, blogs, and grant projects with USAID. I’m currently taking classes at Harvard to satisfy my pre-med requirements so that I can apply to medical school next year. In between studying and trying to have a life outside of Chemistry, I am hoping to use my experience with social media to reach out and get more people involved with this amazing project so definitely expect to be hearing a lot more from me over the next few weeks!

-Chantal

PS I’m hoping to make a blog post every week to keep you all updated on what’s going on as well as let you know what you can do to help/get involved yourselves. Even something as simple as visiting our Facebook page (coming soon!) is greatly appreciated. A little bit of effort really does go a long way in making a difference.

Making a Difference in Cool Way

Published on May 26, 2011 in Fun Stuff, Medical, Medical Mission to Africa and Schooling. Closed Tags: , , , , .

The mission of Ascovime is to provide rural populations in Cameroon with healthcare and educational supplies, all free of charge.  Ascovime functions to achieve this goal in a rather unique way compared to other humanitarian organizations – all members contribute on a volunteer basis, so all the money raised goes directly to those who really need it.  With this model comes the need for great grassroots efforts from all over the world.

Cool Students in Yaounde

One such project has been that of Dawn Hansen, a first grade teacher at the American School of Yaounde who is originally from Wisconsin.  In just a few weeks, she has crafted over a hundred “Cameroonian Coolers,” bandanas filled with crystals that can absorb and retain cool water, thus keeping one cool in the hot African sun.  Dawn’s has lasted for over 10 years! At the moment, this great effort has raised almost $500 and counting!

Here’s where you can support Ascovime through a donation.

I Graduated! Now what?

Published on May 13, 2011 in Fun Stuff and Miscellaneous. Closed Tags: , , , .

Right about now, there is a plethora of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed graduating seniors on college campuses everywhere.  However, as they all slowly return from the four-year stupor in  which they became experts of herbal experimentation and yeast-based inebriation, the realization will come that the $100,000 in debt needs to be paid off somehow, and soon.  Perhaps it wasn’t the best decision, see alternatives.

New York Times Bestseller

What this means for most is finding an arrangement where you exchange your services for money, most typically a job.  At this time last year, I was in this boat for the most-part, and I had little idea how bad the job market was outside of my collegiate bubble.  So after about 4-months of grueling job hunting, basically that was my full-time job, I eventually got an offer that I was happy with.  Yet, I would say I was pretty lucky, many of my classmates weren’t as fortunate.

While I was on the hunt, I documented the process: successful and unsuccessful techniques, interviewing, cold-calling, and using LinkedIn.  I’m constantly skeptical of any of these so-called “social media” sites, but much to my surprise, LinkedIn was what ended up getting me a job.  So, naturally I decided to share my methods so that more graduates can get some straight advice from someone who’s gone through the process of finding a first job.  The book is called LinkedIn Distilled: A Recent Graduate’s Guide to Landing an Entry-Level Job and can be found on Amazon.  It’s short, uses simple language, has lots of diagrams, and is available for Kindle, PC, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and iPad.  Check out the reviews, enjoy and be sure to write a quick review too!

Welcome!

Published on March 20, 2011 in Fun Stuff. Closed

Dick Gordon in The Story on Dr. Georges BwelleDr. Bwelle on NPR!

Dick Gordon of North Carolina Public Radio hosts a show called The Story and has done a piece on Dr. Georges Bwelle!!!

Click for more, the story, download mp3 …

Where HBO Got Their Idea for 24/7 Hockey Series

Published on January 6, 2011 in Fun Stuff. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I recently caught one of the episodes of HBO’s series “24/7″ which follows around the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins preceding the Winter Classic at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.  A Canadian co-worker from Toronto told me about a similar movie, not a series, that was done on the 1986-1987 Edmonton Oilers called “The Boys on the Bus.”

That particular Edmonton Oilers team was basically an all-star team: Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe, Grant Fuhr, Craig Simpson, Esa Tikkanen, and Glenn Anderson.  “The Boys on the Bus” is truly a hockey fan’s classic film – I’d say better than 24/7 solely because of the 1980s music.  If you can get your hands on it, definitely watch it – until then, here is a little musical trailer someone posted.

Managing Your Upcoming Hangover

Published on December 31, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Medical and Self Medical Education. Closed

New Year’s Eve might be one of the best nights of the year and for good reason as it is the last opportunity to rock out on behalf of the past 364 days.  While New Year’s Eve is euphoric, it comes into stark contrast with New Year’s Day – the most pounding, irritable, unpleasant day of the new year.  Of course it’s the only day of the new year at that point, but it’s also international hangover day.

The question I sought out to answer was how to minimize, cure, or eliminate the effects of the hangover.  Let me first explain generally how hangover symptoms happen.

Hangovers are relatively poorly understood compared to other disease states primarily because researchers are more interested in alcohol abuse and addiction.  What they do know is that alcohol affects your body in a few ways:

1)      Dehydration/Fluid loss

Alcohol inhibits the production of a hormone that helps you retain water and keep you hydrated called anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) sometimes called Vasopressin.  Blocking the secretion of this hormone causes you to urinate more often, thus losing water. Continue reading ‘Managing Your Upcoming Hangover’

Cambridge U – Jolly Good!

Published on December 28, 2010 in Fun Stuff and Schooling. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Big banking in the UK received a lump of coal from jolly old Cambridge University this Christmas.  The banking trade association in the UK wrote to Cambridge U asking them to censor an academic thesis of one of their students because it exposed one of their security flaws.  Instead of jumping at fixing the flaw they simply try to cover it up.  Click on the crest to check out the article: