Read something (or heard) about micro-insurance that sounds like this some time ago: http://www.microinsurancecentre. org/

I'll poke around and see if I bookmarked the article.

Thanks Mark, I'll check that out. And I wanted to make sure people understand that examples don't need to be limited to programs that involve some form of insurance.

interesting link nmw pos disc 50

Hi Haney,

Is this what you're referring to?

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/ features/2002/may/uganda/

What an interesting model!

Yes, thanks. And it says nothing about the health care being available to those who aren't members. I guess that was just my imagination....

Anyway here are some excepts to encourage yall to check it out:

Global health experts say diseases that overwhelm Africa's poor must be treated, or else economic and political progress in those developing nations will remain stalled. But efforts to provide care have not succeeded. The African continent is littered with the wreckage of good intentions -- international projects that started with pomp and hope and then died as foreigners lost interest.

snip...

"The people who are being charitable give up, get tired, find a new charity, move on," says Halvorson. "When that happens, the programs die. There's a saying in one of the Ugandan languages... when the white faces leave, the care goes away. We think that's a bad model."

On the other hand, the co-op in Buhweju is growing; it now has more than 200 families -- about 900 people. For a family of four, a year's membership costs 48,000 Ugandan shillings, or about $29 a year. For that, they get basic health care, such as treatment for malaria, pregnancy, dysentery and accidents. But not for AIDS; the co-op members have decided that they can't pay for such expensive treatment and still keep the fees affordable.

Halvorson and others in the program are convinced the health co-op concept can only work if Ugandans themselves are in charge.

"It's local control, local decisions," he says. "That gives people a sense of empowerment and control, and we think that's important. We think that's one of the reasons why some of the people are working so hard to make the program a success."

The Uganda Health Cooperative now has 12 co-ops running in the country, with about 2,500 members. Health officials in the Ugandan government recognize that the country doesn't have enough money to support a strong, central health care system. They're watching how the co-ops work, looking to see if they could provide a model to build on.

Thank you for starting this thread and workspace. This sort of research is something which this community can provide. I'm probably not alone in my generational cohort of being slow to adopt the Internet, something I'm not good at is tagging. But tags seem quite useful in this sort of cooperative research. The tag I came up with is CoopPDC, but I'm sure someone can come up with something better. What I'm looking for is a good tag several of us can use at social bookmarking sites.

Burial societies perhaps are a good example of the sort of programs you're talking about. There's much I don't "get" for example the way people bury their dead is a very much a set of interlocking customs that make them hard for outsiders to understand. But from an outsider's perspective the advantages to burial societies of promoting health and preventing premature death seem obvious. So I can envision how innovations to existing financial schemes around burial could be applied.

Thank you for this thread, Haney. I am happy about the ongoing collaborations among the 3 StopWDI NGOs that the O-net water team selected in Uganda. I believe it goes back to interpersonal relationships among the leaders and staff of the NGOs and a dedication and commitment to the cause of uplifting their communities. It does also help to empower and uplift the local community leaders and encourage their creativity in finding solutions to their community problems.

The idea of interactive communities - communities helping other communities - teaching one another what they have learned - also can lead to more self-sustainable communities. For example, the Rural Health Care Foundation staff is now going to send some of their water technicians to Kabire to help out with a borehole that will be donated for that place. This sharing of educational, technical, and logistical resources between communities certainly puts a big smile on my face.;) And most of all - the interpersonal relationships cultivated among these communities.

Hey Haney, I'm curious: are you looking for models of where people identify a local problem, pool their resources, and build and sustain something - or these "mixed" models where executives and aid agencies "kick-start" something? the ugandan model in the npr report doesn't quite match the way you framed the discussion - so I just want to be sure that I understand.

Specifically, I want to make sure that I am able to accurately unpack economic "self-help" organizations that have existed for a long time from something new that you might be observing. Thanks!

Haney, in answer to your question regarding health clinic efforts -- FIMRC.org does a lot of that. Going to the most remote places, establishing clinics, and tapping into local leaders of health care in the community combining it with volunteer humanitarian efforts who immerse and merge with the community. Mutual education regarding the many project needs of the community happens and they find local doctors who help run the clinics and local staff who provide education and service. They encourage self-sustainability of the community.

Lars Hasselblad Torres said:

Hey Haney, I'm curious: are you looking for models of where people identify a local problem, pool their resources, and build and sustain something - or these "mixed" models where executives and aid agencies "kick-start" something? the ugandan model in the npr report doesn't quite match the way you framed the discussion - so I just want to be sure that I understand.

Specifically, I want to make sure that I am able to accurately unpack economic "self-help" organizations that have existed for a long time from something new that you might be observing. Thanks!

Great point. You're right that my memory of the NPR story left out the role of the aid agencies. That's rather interesting in itself.

I'm really interested in both models - with and without outside intervention. The self-contained models seem ideal - but what prevents them from replicating without outside aid?

John Powers said:

...But tags seem quite useful in this sort of cooperative research. The tag I came up with is CoopPDC, but I'm sure someone can come up with something better. What I'm looking for is a good tag several of us can use at social bookmarking sites.

Tagging, I've heard of that.

CoopPDC (cooperative programs developing countries) works for me. I'm really interested in how we can use collaborative tagging to illuminate some examples. Do you want to take the lead John?

Edited to add: Lars, can we lean on your expertise? Can you advise us on how to set up a tagging system for this?

LIZ ~ clean water for the world ~ said:

...The idea of interactive communities - communities helping other communities - teaching one another what they have learned - also can lead to more self-sustainable communities. ...

Right, if the idea of co-operative efforts makes sense in one place for one issue then logically they should be viral.

haney, i would be happy to talk this through, though please trust me when i say that i am no expert on this.

right now there doesn't seem to be a great way to both easily "share" and "create" group tag data. That said, we're pretty close if folks are willing to adjust work habits and play along.

My top pick for "research" oriented tagging is connotea which, like del.icio.us can snap right into your browser.

Have you visited tagcommons.org? Some great writing and insights on different approaches, tools.

For the purposes of experimenting and documenting this discussion, i would recommend that we a) agree on some commonly used tags at the "meta level" and b) agree on what would follow.

For example only, you asked:

Can you offer examples of people in developing countries pooling resources to create a social service with unique benefits for members of the program and value to the overall community?

I would extract from that the follow common "meta" tag:

resourcepooling socialservice

Then I would tag it with sub tags like a) geography followed by b) sector followed by c) unique attribute

So the end result might look like:

resourcepooling socialservice africa uganda health clinic

Connotea will enable users to then tag articles and then we can search specific users' tags as well as tag terms generally. I am lhtorres for demonstration purposes.

But I dunno - I suspect nmw could help us make this tastier!

Haney Armstrong said:

what prevents them from replicating without outside aid?

Independence

I have many ideas -- they keep flying around in my mind like an electrical storm. So whenever I share any one of them, then please don't treat it like it might be the right idea or the wrong idea or whatever. [1]

A new idea just occurred to me: Set up a "tag" directory. Let people "subscribe" to tags. Each tag costs 1 posie per day. This will not only force people to collaborate (which apparently they can't seem to figure out would be good anyways) and also limit the number of tags.

Now since I just blurted out what happened to occur to me, I now realize that the "one member one vote" crowd is gonna get on my case for this. OK: can the posie idea. Give each member the ability to set up say 8 [2] tags. People could choose from the omidyar-wide tag set, but each member could only "configure" 8 on their own. This kind of system would require alot more management/control than a system that uses market forces, but since everyone is so anti-marketplace, well, then that's the "price" you have to pay for having some kind of socialist/communist system.

If you want to use some open playground like del.icio.us, then all bets are off -- as there, "anything goes".

Hope this helps a little bit -- your milage may vary.

;D nmw

nmw said:

Haney Armstrong said:

what prevents them from replicating without outside aid?

Independence

Not clear to me what you mean. Can you explain?

I have found, for example, that pharmaceutical companies are very willing to offer aid/support [e.g. in healthcare settings] -- but such aid/support may be "dangled in front of people's noses" and at the same time they will "expect" something in return. The validity of information in a "community aid/support network" is compromised if that network receives funding from sources that might pose conflict-of-interest issues.

Great point N, - it suggests that some sort of aid/support is required.

Let's not try out tagging for this effort.

About tagging for the purposes of this discussion: Having slept on it I think we should just use the workspace for this round. I'm very excited about how group tagging of sites can build up knowledge and I hope to be part of efforts like that in the future (and perhaps my enthusiasm got the best of me).

But since we expect to have a prototype of tagging within omidyar.net on May 1, I fear that trying a tagging experiment now would cause too much confusion and we'd spend more time on the process than the results. Also, if we wait until members get used to tagging on omidyar.net, then we have a better chance of much wider participation. That's my perspective.....

Here are two interesting lines from the article linked to above

Halvorson and others in the program are convinced the health co-op concept can only work if Ugandans themselves are in charge.

"It's local control, local decisions," he says. "That gives people a sense of empowerment and control, and we think that's important. We think that's one of the reasons why some of the people are working so hard to make the program a success."

Does this model have an implementor already in Ghana?If so,how do i contact the person?

Haney, thanks for sending the link to this discussion.

With the understanding that my view is fairly narrow, focus being on the co-operative projects in Africa that we have the honour of being members of.

On my very recent trip to Lesotho I was struck quite profoundly by the strength of the community led organization at HaMakhata. Mamello is very much in charge but at the same time it is very much led by the committee members. Each committee member is the head of one of the departments that make up the HaMakhata cooperative. It amazed me how they all worked so well and efficiently together to make this organization what it is. I think it's worth noting that this project was begun in 2000 by Mamello when she saw the need to address the issues of the disabled and vulnerable youth and adults in her country. The organization was growing and expanding when SOLID was invited on board just two years ago. We are just there to support what was already happening.

One of the departments is the HIV/AIDS Outreach Team. Meet the Warrior Women.

These four (one was absent when I took this picture) women are all HIV+ and are responsible for carrying the message, daily, to the 14 outlining communities that surround HaMakhata. Rather than me recounting all of what these women do I'll let Mamello tell you in her own words.

View from 2:00 - 3:25 for the clip on the Warrior Women

One of the difficulties encountered by the women is that there are many different individuals and organizations in the area delivering different messages making it very difficult and confusing for the villagers. To counter this, while we were there, Mamello decided that she needed to hold a conference, inviting all the neighbouring chiefs, team members of NGO's operating in the area, representatives from local clinics and government and other HIV/AIDS support groups so they could all get on the same page and deliver the same message. All us 'whities', of course, were skeptical about how she could possibly pull this off and thought she'd taken on an impossible time line. We were wrong!

The Warrior Women (and Beth) writing their letters of invitation to the conference to be delivered to the 14 outlining communities.

I'll share with you the email we just received from Andrea regarding the conference.

Hi !!!

What an amazing day! We have a conference! There will be members of 39 support groups, including with BELLS ON Raphoka school teachers' group, who got a special visit to make sure they come.

There will be 2 plenaries about accessing care and ARV adherence, and supports available for caregivers. There will be round table discussion involving support group heads and local government, including chiefs and local health care providers, moderated by Mamello. there will be a discussion on testing children, and a compilation of dates and times for when Know Your Status comes out to test. And on and on.... more later.

We have budget of 3960R (approx $660.00cdn). 3900R is lunch for 400. 60R is hall rental for 2 days.

Plus each leader of support groups will get up and have 5 minutes to speak about what they have to offer. And the 4 warrior women will each present about the importance of supporting each other, accessing care, how to help in the community, and how to raise funds to support access to treatment. AIDS TAXI!!!! Where are you???? We have R 15oo allocated; Raphoka support group money. We need 2640R. How do I communicate this to your directors? It will be a pleasure to write about the benefits of this gathering. It is unprecedented and hugely important.

Also, we are making posters to go in the offices of the 20 local chiefs. They are going to be affirmations for people seeking advice and help. One poster is to be a personal statement from an HIV positive person. S/he will be represented in cartoon form, but will be saying affirmations, like "I am HIV positive, and I am beautiful." Can you think of statements for posters that affirm HIV+ people, that are culturally sensitive? I know you can!!!! The other posters will say things like: "This community supports HIV+ people" and "People with AIDS need friends like us" all of course in Sesotho. Mamello will translate tomorrow; please think fast and send your thoughts and affirmations. Please respond asap as this is all happening next Tuesday and we can no longer afford to front funds, so out of pocket we be.

LOVE

I wish you were here!!! It is powerful, beautiful, necessary and visionary.

Thank you ancestors,

Andrea & Gary & Mamello

Invitation

April 15, 2007

Dear______________________________

You are invited to participate in at a conference, "Supporting the Support Groups", at Pitseng, Leribe. Taking place Tuesday, April 24, this gathering is intended to present community HIV/AIDS support groups with crucial resources and information that they can disseminate in their home communities.

Two plenary sessions will address:

1. Treatment Options: available health care resources in the region, breaking down what health centres offer what services, and how patients can access these services, and training & social welfare resources available to caregivers and support groups. Presented by Tsepong Clinic Expert Patients, counsellors, and pharmacists.
2. Information and resources for caregivers who provide lay health services to those affected by HIV/AIDS, including treatment and testing advocacy, ARV adherence support, treatment and care of opportunistic infections. Presented by Know Your Status, New Start/PSI. The masters of ceremonies are youth motivational speakers from Youth Against AIDS.

Following the plenaries, lunch will be served, and an hour will be open for networking and informal discussions. The afternoon sessions are divided into workshops on the following topics:

• Business Planning for Rural Developmenet: income generation for HIV support groups (LHDA)
• Together we Stand and Care: community group organizational development (Phelisanong)
• What's in the Kit: ARV adherence and drug interactions (Tsepong Clinic)

This is a tremendous opportunity to reach under serviced rural communities, where there is a need for current, clear information to dispel myths and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. The conference is hosted by Phelisanong HIV/AIDS, Disabled, Orphan and Vulnerable Children project, a group who along with their own strong adult and youth HIV/AIDS support groups, has mentored 14 village support groups in outlying areas through their outreach programmes. Training for all of these emerging and established support groups will ensure that messages are consistent and that patients know their rights, and responsibilities, in accessing and adhering to ARV treatment and social supports.

Please respond to this invitation by sending a confirmation email to : lehlothamb@yahoo.com, or by calling 58071977.

Yours sincerely,

Yes, you read that right, 400 will be attending the conference next Tuesday. SOLID voted on Friday to support the conference. All we'll be doing is providing the lunch, the rent money for the space and bearing witness. Andrea and Gary will be there to video and document the conference, the rest is their own doing. Is it replical? I don't know. Guess we'll find out. One can only hope that such a conference will have positive results for the region. There is no insurance component ... yet. One of the biggest barriers once one has been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is access to treatment. Most cannot afford the necessary drugs nor the taxi (bus) fare to get to the clinics. Hopefully, with all these people and organizations working together, they will figure out a way to address this.

Meron,

Thank you so much for your incredible post! It does make a world of difference when the locals are the ones who take the lead in making good things happen for their communities. I am happy about the forthcoming conference. Are they able to engage their own doctors, nurses, medical and clinical staff from the urban areas?

I love the ideas of mobile clinics and consequently establishing permanent clinics in the out of reach areas. I was thinking about FIMRC.org whose mission is to establish clinics in the remote, hard to reach areas of developing countries. Also, the RHCF is thinking about having a conference in Mubende regarding the issue of "clean water". It will be great to work on connecting the dots as we can learn from what you are all doing in Lesotho. I love knowing about the strength of the HaMakhata cooperative. Imagine that replicated in various places.;) Thanks.

Meron - That's a wonderful video.

Meron says:

...The organization was growing and expanding when SOLID was invited on board just two years ago. We are just there to support what was already happening....

Can you describe how that initial connection was made and how you see SOLID's value in the relationship?

Can you describe how much of the HaMakhata cooperative's work is focus on improving the lives of the members vs. improving the lives of those in the wider community?

Here's a bit of info about "Self Help Groups" which could be seen as a kind of co-operative program - (scroll down on that page for a cool chart)

"Organizing groups to support collective and individual credit acquisition, as well as formal and informal skills training can assist peoples in accessing the capital necessary to initiate small businesses and ultimately help build livelihoods for families and communities."

"A very basic description of the Self-Help Group (SHG) has been summarized by the Rural Finance Learning Center. According to their definition: " Self-help groups are usually informal clubs or associations of people who choose to come together to find ways to improve their life situations. One of the most useful roles for a self-help group is to provide its members with opportunities to save and borrow and it can act as a conduit for formal banking services to reach their members. Such groups can provide a guarantee system for members who borrow or they may develop into small village banks in their own right. In rural areas self-help groups may be the only way for people to access financial services " (2006)."