Who was here?

In 2005, Ashoka Fellow Christina Jordan joined Omidyar.net in the search for a comfortable place to bring Life in Africa community members in Uganda actively online in a global space that would welcome, nurture, and support the the development of a community owned and operated social-purpose enterprise.

By September 2007, as Onet was coming to a close, Life in Africa's members in Kampala and Gulu had developed a unique track record for engaging Onet community input on shaping their ideas and options for the future. For Life in Africa's 40+ members who participated here, the Onet community was a virtual office space, a village hearth, a perpetual training class and a global group of really great friends - many of whom we met in person when they attended the Feb 2007 international Onet gathering at our community center in Gulu, Northern Uganda.

What happened?

Life in Africa was the recipient of an Onet Community Favorite award in both 2006 and 2007, and received considerable technical and financial support from Onet community members, on any number of LiA community initiatives.

Through exposure to some of the dynamic decision-making and consensus building processes that the LiA communities learned about here, one collective wish that became clear over 2.5 years of community social enterprise bulding, was that LiA should do more to empower the community's children in Uganda. In order to more flexibly facilitate this and other kinds of non-business oriented community empowerment activities, Life in Africa is re-incorporating as 2 distinctly separate entities during the last quarter of 2007.

Where have we gone?

Life in Africa USA will reincorporate as a USA based non-profit organization, and will continue to support African communities to organize themselves - online and offline - in a globally networked fashion. Life in Africa's communities of members in Kampala and Gulu are taking their relationships with some of the social entrepreneurs we've met here to another level. By Dec 2007, the communities are re-incorporating as ned-Uganda, and embracing their role as pioneers in developing a global better world building community brand.

To avoid future confusion between the old Life in Africa and the new entities that have spawned from the incredibly rich time spent learning at Onet, Life in Africa group content will NOT be viewable following the closure of Onet on 7 September 2007.

http://LifeInAfrica.org will launch in the fall of 2007, and will continue to offer global supporters unique ways to make a direct impact on communities and individual lives in Africa. LiA community members in Uganda and our good friends from Onet are invited to join in mapping the community's way forward as ned-Uganda over at http://www.ned.com/group/nedugan da/. We look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks for the good times everyone!