African tech and innovation hubs, let’s work together to make the Next Big Thing come out of Africa

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There are A LOT of interesting things happening in the innovations, entrepreneurship and ICT fields in Africa. I had the privilege of representing  iLab Liberia at a meeting of the Afrilabs network of tech & innovation hubs in Africa last weekend, as a pre-event to the Global Innovation Lounge of the re:publica conference, in Berlin, going on this week. There were all in all about a dozen African labs present and meeting for the very first time.

 

Africa is not one story or one market. However, the choir of our voices can be louder together. As later mentioned by one of our hosts, GIZ’s Christian Gmelin, having Erik Hersman open up the huge re:publica digital media conference with a keynote “Innovating Africa”  turns the typical setup to a new direction – it was not the West talking about Africa and spreading there but rather a story of how Africans innovate at all levels of the society. Hersman presented some of the developments in Africa, highlighting that ideas and innovations come from the edge, from outfits and the disruptors – this means that we need to be on the lookout to learn from anyone – and the powerholder corporations, beware! And right now, there is a lot happening in Africa – and there are now more efforts to work collaboratively across the continent

 

So what’s in it for iLab?

 

The meeting and the conference were energizers, eye-openers and door-openers.

 

First, it was absolutely great to feel the energy amongst peers – all the hubs have a community of their own – but now there is also a network of hubs that makes us stronger, as we the users of the labs are getting to…well, thousands, if not perhaps already tens of thousands! And that makes for a powerful feeling of doing things together, around the continent.

 

Secondly, discussing with peers and hearing and seeing the stories at each of the places was – in addition to being entertaining – very thought-provoking and a learning experience.

 

Some of the key trends and developments that we discussed included:

 

-          Hubs moving up in the value-creation chain, i.e. moving gradually from being tech and coworking centers to being incubation and accelerator hubs, places that coach and develop companies (of course, not everyone has to be like that. At iLab, we are not quite yet at a phase where 5 or 10 startups could be incubated at iLab – but we are moving towards a pre-incubation phase, having various events and programs in place that encourage entrepreneurs to work together and it won’t be long before we have the first set of companies working out of iLab.

 

-          Hubs thinking about sustainable funding and business models – how hubs generate all or a substantial portion of their income by their own activities in a moderate time. As for iLab, this year’s budget is not fully covered by grants – we are looking to generate as much as 15-25% of our budget through various paid services.

-          It’s certainly not just “traditional IT” that these tech and innovation hubs are embracing: hubs that foster social innovations, physical computing and hacking/making and green technology had some of the most creative things happening. ILab is just starting out and experimenting on physical computing (Starting next week!) but already knowing that some of the other hubs have, there are great possibilities to learn

 

Thirdly,  the Afrilabs meeting and the joint Global Innovation Lounge at re:publica was a about initiating new contacts and collaborations – both in terms of collaboration between the various hubs on the continent, but also between hubs and donors, venture capitalists, academics and so on. We started our first collaboration with Hive Colab in Uganda, regarding Girls in ICT and more specifically Girls in Programming.

 

Pictures? Oh yeah, hub manager from around the world in action

Workshopping at Supermarkt. It used to be an abandoned Supermarket in a run-down area. Now several spaces in the area have been taken over by creative industry professionals and the areas has revived as well. It’s a great place for co-working and doing workshops.

 

Springtime in Berlin, very pleasurable weather. Whenever doing groupwork, most preferred to talk outside. The sun is good for creative thinking!

 

Some of the results from the first day: how do we make Afrilabs, the network of African tech and innovation hubs as success story.

 

The second day: after getting a few more into the city, the hubs briefly presented themselves, some of their unique features and challenges – to launch workshops on the most mentioned topics.

 

Topics of the second day.

 

The hubs that were present at the event.

 

The Global Innovation Lounge is not about flashy corporate style, but rather business and innovations coming from the grassroots. We demonstrated this feel by “hacking and making” our area at the conference – with inexpensive materials and a big heart. Jay Cousins from ICECairo leading the pack.

 

So…we all got our handmade pillows made.

 

Erik Hersman delivering the keynote: “Innovating Africa” and claiming that the statmakers got it all wrong – patent statistics are not really the way to define where innovations are happening.

 

This is what an early phase innovation might look like – a DIY 13-phase security system.

 

From a VERY early proto to a crowdfunding capable production version – the BRCK from Ushahidi

 

The crowd was gathering at the Lounge, it was busy most of the time

 

African hubs and their managers.

Kate, we miss you plenty-o!

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It has been and emotional time here at iLab lately as Kate Cummings, the warm and inspirational co-founder and director of iLab has been transitioning out of Liberia. As the new incoming director, I have greatly enjoyed the three weeks that we have been able to work face-to-face – getting to know iLab and its users, collaborators and donors.

 

On March 22, Friday, tens of people gathered at iLab for a chance to meet and talk together before Kate was set to leave. It turned out to be a very emotional evening, during which we had plenty of laughs and what seemed like a river of tears shed. A great many testimonies were spoken out by the fine people from the various organizations we’ve had the pleasure of working with. For me, it was a very important and insightful evening  as I was witnessing first-hand the accounts of people describing the impact iLab has had on them or their organizations. Many memorable moments from the last years – from 2010 and 11 onwards were shared, reminding us of the hard work Ushahidi, iLab and all their users have done in the past.

 

 

Luckily we, the staff had a few more days together before Kate’s departure – delayed due to circumstance until March 29. We were also fortunate to have the other co-founder John Etherton join us for two weeks, meaning that the staff had a good chance to exchange knowledge, pick up some new skills and all in all work as a team together, face-to-face.  We also had a chance to spend some time together just talking about personal matters as well as naturally exchanging some farewell and welcoming gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the collaborators were asking how to be in touch with Kate in the future. Rest assured, she will be keeping eyes on iLab as she is on the Board of Directors of iLab and formally the Treasurer of iLab International. She can still be reached at kate@ilabliberia.org.

 

We, the remaining staff of iLab in Liberia, wish Kate all the best in future challenges. We are certain that whatever paths she decides to take up, she will be successful and make a great impact, just as here in Liberia. Meanwhile, we are motivated to keep fulfilling the mission of iLab Liberia and are very much looking forward to Kate’s next visit here to see how things have evolved since. Let’s make sure she is proud of us!

 

Deep bow of respect and a thank you once again, Kate.

Pitching A Brighter Future for Liberia

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Blair Glencorse is in Liberia working on the Accountability Lab, which aims to find answers to problems of accountability. He also started pitch salons, a cross between speed networking and TED Talks.

 

 

While walking around Monrovia recently, I asked a Liberian friend if he could imagine his country as a place where resources were managed sustainably, women were treated equally, corruption was fought consistently and social enterprise was seen by young people to provide real opportunity. “Where on earth would we start?” he replied. We started several days later when I invited him to Liberia’s second Pitch Salon- held again in partnership with the brilliant and generous iLab Liberia and with the support of the RSA- where the Pitch Salon recipe of great ideas, brilliant people and unique format once more led to some fantastic discussions.

 

As always, the pitchers gave an “elevator pitch” for an organization, cause or idea that is engaging, accessible to an informed listener and has the potential to change the world for the better. The pitches this time around were as diverse as they have ever been at a Pitch Salon. Pandora Hodge, a serial entrepreneur in the making, talked about her idea for a student-run art house cinema in Monrovia; Nora Bowier, an environmentalist and community-rights advocate pitched about her pioneering work on natural resource management around the country; Tom Gwagee, the image of a modern African businessman, discussed his idea for a Liberian bike factory using Dutch thinking and techniques; Maryealee Pennoh, a women’s rights activist, gave an impassioned speech about her idea for a summer camp for disadvantaged girls; and Robtel Pailey, an academic with a real understanding of practical problems, discussed “Gbagba” her book used to teach children about the dangers of corruption.

 

The audience of forty or so from across the private sector, government, civil society, media and donors-  and including many of the pitchers from the inaugural Liberian Pitch Salon- listened in, feasted on food from one of Monrovia’s favorite restaurants and provided advice and connections to the pitchers. Business cards were exchanged, funding possibilities were discussed and there was a real sense that the concepts were beginning to move towards realities. There are very few outlets for young Liberians to express their ideas in a collegial atmosphere to people who can really make them happen, and the Pitch Salons are beginning to fill this gap. In keeping with the concept, a film-maker at the event even suggested that the Salons themselves be recorded professionally and shown on Liberian television in the future so that the ideas can reach an even wider audience.

 

A few days later, I bumped into the same Liberian friend I had invited to the event, and asked him what he thought of the Pitch Salon experience. “I saw up-close the passion and creativity of Liberian youth” he said; “the question is not where we start, but why we haven’t started doing this earlier”.

 

Blair Glencorse is an RSA Fellow and was awarded a Challenge and a Catalyst Grant for the Pitch Salons. You can follow him on Twitter @blairglencorse

 

Challenges and Benefits of iLab & Ministry of Commerce Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) ICT training

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Nowadays, the widespread uses of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) are changing the way people or companies work. It is a feature of the technological advancements of this period in history where there has been immense innovation in the information and communication sector.

Thus, the pace of technological change and what is available for use by businesses has change how they interact and do business with others. In particular, ICTs have a valuable potential for developing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through more effective use and better integration of ICTs in business processes while assisting them to make more efficient decisions relevant to their performance. ICTs have the potential to generate a change among SMEs and make them more competitive, innovative and generate growth.

 

 

Challenges faced by SMEs owners in Liberia

the current generation that’s old enough to be engaged in entrepreneurial activities are not aware of the benefits of ICTs since they’ve never been exposed to them

There is a problem in Liberia with the lack of basic computer skills and digital literacy. By our own conservative estimate, more than half the population have never taken a course on any aspect of computer use. The current generation that’s old enough to be engaged in entrepreneurial activities are not aware of the benefits of ICTs since they’ve never been exposed to them.

 

Most entrepreneurs only have a basic knowledge of ICT and don’t consider it as a strategic tool. They prefer investing in their core business rather than in ICT.

Education, training, and workforce development are key factors to improve the ICT uptake and to make effective use of it in general and for SMEs in particular.

The use of ICTs in Small and Medium Sized businesses is not very prevalent in the Liberia. From interactions with the small businesses owners who have participated in our training so far, we’ve gathered that their businesses use some form of ICT. The kind of technology in use is mostly telephones and standalone computers / laptops for basic wordprocessing and Internet purposes. They do not have dedicated ICT staff to carry out the ICT-related responsibilities.

 

They also listed different barriers that prevent them from learning and adopting or implementing ICT, ranging from socio-economic issues to technology-related issues: lack of money, lack of stable electricity, lack of knowledge, technology intimidation and perceived high cost of ICT. The Most of the barriers could be possibly overcome by learning more about ICT and by SMEs employing knowledgeable ICT staff.

 

 

Benefits of the training

 

Owing to these facts, since last year, as part of our regular free ICTs training at iLab, we have partnered with the Ministry of Commerce & Industries’ SMEs department to host series of contextually relevant ICTs training for over thirty (30) Small Businesses owner’s and employees. These training range from Google Map Maker – which allowed them to add and update their businesses geographical information on Google Maps and Google Earth for millions of users / potential customers to see.

Facebook and Google + – social media tools that allowed them to create pages for their businesses to advertise and market their products and services. GNUCash – a free and easy to use small-business financial-accounting software that will allow them to track bank accounts, income and expenses.

MS Excel - an electronic spreadsheet program that they will use for storing, organising and manipulating their organisational and financial documents.

 

Recently we had an intern, Shira Khaminsky from the University of Massachusetts who taught the Small businesses owners a course we labelled as intro branding and advertising. Doing her time she taught them to use Scribus, a free & open source design software to create customised business card, logos and brochure for their business. We’ve also just concluded an Intermediate version of the branding and advertising course for the same group of small business owners.

 

 

On the whole, ICT tools can provide several benefits across a wide range business operations and transactions. Certainly, ICT applications can contribute to improving information in a firm, can reduce transaction costs and can increase the speed and reliability of transactions for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions.

In addition, they are effective tools for improving external communications and quality of services for established and new customers. More specifically, SMEs can obtain a wide range of benefits from the use of ICT.

Among these benefits,it is possible to mention:

 

1. Enhance the productivity and effectiveness of certain activities or functions.

2. Enable the access to new environments as well as the generation of new markets and business models.

3. Improve the qualification and specialisation of human resources, which increases

efficiency.

 

To conclude, our doors are always opened to partner with the Ministry of Commerce and other ministries to train small business owners with contextually relevant ICT skills that will encourage the use of ICTs and enhance their productivity and effectiveness to deliver the best possible services to their customers. We hope that these training will serve as a stepping stone for Liberian entrepreneurs / small business owners to integrate technologies that will boost productivity, thus, generating growth in their businesses.

 

Luther D. Jeke

Training Director

*iLab_Liberia

 

User Statistics, 2012 Review

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In October of last year we did a blog post about the demographics of people that use iLab. Since then, we have tallied up our users and now we have the stats on who has used iLab up until December 2012. There are lots of changes that have taken place in the new stats of our users.

Female participants – the minority

The number of female participants is very low as usual. During this period, 19% of the total participants were female and the remaining 81% male. This low figure reflects a common Liberian perception that the ICT sector is best suited for men. At a recent girls-only iLab event, a participant noted that she was discouraged from entering the ICT field by various people because it would too much math and coding.  To help create more gender equality, iLab now has a customized ICT-Girls Mastering the Internet course which is exclusively for women and high-school aged girls. We believe this course will serve as a stepping stone to encourage Liberian women to learn about the Internet and its many components as they gain more exposure to the opportunities before them in the field of ICT.

Intermediate and advanced courses get a boost

We also now have a lot of Intermediate and advanced trainings, unlike before. When iLab was first launched, we started with basic courses like Intro FOSS, Intro Mastering the Internet, Intro Website design, etc. But as the months went by, the participants who took these courses kept coming to iLab and wanting more. Because of this demand, we now have intermediate and advanced level courses that were previously only offered at the intro level. For example, 46% of people who took Intro FOSS have come back to iLab to take the Intermediate FOSS. We might have even offered the Intermediate FOSS to a larger of number students , if iLab were able to admit all participants who take the pre-test for the Intermediate. We often turn down a lot of interested participants because our two labs only hold 15 participants for a course. Thus, we are not able to hold as many people in the intermediate FOSS course as want to attend. The Intermediate FOSS course is offered in one of the labs approximately every two months.

TED talk – our most popular event

From the inception of iLab until now, we have always referred to Intro FOSS as iLab’s most popular course, and it sure is. No other course at iLab has drawn more interest and produced a high number of participants like the Intro FOSS course. However, it’s now time to also recognize our most popular public event – TED talk night. From the testimonies we have received, many see it as being more interesting, inspirational and overall very educational.

Demographics and Usage – Sep 2012

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Back in February I did a blog post about the demographics of the people that use iLab. Since then we have tallied up our users and now have the stats on who has used iLab up until September 2012.  Here’s what we have found about all the users iLab has had from May 2011 to September 2012 and the new users since February 2012. Before we get into the data, let me give a short disclaimer: We did our best to collect this data as accurately as possible, but as with any attempt to gather statistics, there may still be errors or omissions, so please keep that in mind. Though this data represents “what” is happening we cannot with any certainty say “why” these things happen. There are too many variables to account for. Thus any attempt to explain why the numbers are what they are is based on the best information we have and obvious correlations. Lastly, as someone who works for iLab, my analysis about why is probably going to be biased towards the positive. We welcome comments about this data and my interpretation.

By far the most striking thing about this new set of data is that not much has changed, except the number of people we have served. As of February 2012 iLab had served 335 people, as of September 2012 we have served 771 people. That’s a 130% increase in 7 months. In comparison it took us 10 months to reach 335 people. Part of this could be attributed to our new lab space that allows us to serve twice as many users at the same time. This could also be because more people have learned about iLab and what we offer.

Who uses iLab

As before, by far, most iLabbers identify themselves as students. Keep in mind that on the form we use to capture what kind of user someone is, they can select more than one choice, so someone could put themselves down as both a student and a entrepreneur. The biggest change in the user front is that IT Professionals has become the clear 2nd category of our users. Previously IT professionals, entrepreneurs, and other were all very close, but now IT professionals has clearly pulled away as the second most popular category for our users to identify themselves by.  Perhaps this could be because the IT industry is expanding and more of our users now fall into this roll. On the other hand, this could happen because people from other sectors do not see iLab as a place that benefits their interests.

What events people attend

As before, our top event is still TED Talks, but now our second most popular event is Movie Night. Before it was Mapping Parties. This is to be expected as both these events recur frequently and require no technical abilities. Mapping Parties are our 3rd most popular event. Mastering the Internet, a course on how to navigate the online world, is quickly catching up as the 4th most popular event. Intro to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) rounds out the top 5. Part of the reasons these courses are so popular is that they are offered frequently, but this is in response to demand. Overall it could be said that this shows that majority of demand is targeted around introductory classes and events with a low technical barrier to entry. One big change between May 2011 – Feb 2012 and Feb 2012 – Sep 2012 is the variety of events we offer. We have gone from 10 to 21.

Looking at our events that repeat, Mapping Parties, TED Talks, and Movie Night, we see that TED Talks are far more popular now, than they were between May 2011 – Feb 2012. This can be seen both in terms of the total number of people who have attended at least one TED Talk and the number of people who attended multiple TED Talks. Mapping Parties now finish 3rd with Movie Night taking 2nd place. However, more users repeatedly attending Mapping Parties than Movie Nights. Though given how new Movie Nights are compared to Mapping Parties, this may also change soon.

Gender

Last, but certainly not least, we look at gender at iLab Liberia. While there is still a large discrepancy, 20% / 80%, we have improved by 3% from 17% / 83%. We believe that part of this is due to our efforts to reach out to groups that work with women and girls to bring them to iLab. For exampled our work with the group ICT for Girls (ICT4G). iLab will continue to work to lower this gap and engage more women.

Raw Data

The raw data in Excel format for those of you who prefer to crunch your own numbers.

Again, we welcome comments and critiques of this data and its analysis.

Thanks,

John.

 

Liberian Hipco Artists Share One Vision

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For many of Liberia’s most talented hipco artists, the love of music is a reason to stick together.

 

Hipco, which is short for “hip colloquial,” refers to the broken English commonly spoken by most Liberians. For the circle of nearly twenty artists living in the Sinkor area, hipco is a way of life and a means of self-expression.

 

iLab was first introduced to the team of musicians through hipco advocate, Nora Rahimian. She was eager to see how we could teach local artists the skills necessary to promote their work to a wider audience, while also enhancing their ICT skills.

 

 

After an in-depth evaluation with the musicians, iLab’s team customized the Social Media course to include YouTube (along with the popular Facebook and Twitter), and despite efforts to also instruct Soundcloud, Dropbox, and Bandcamp, the staff wanted to focus attention on a few platforms first.

 

Lawrence Logan, commonly known as ‘Marvalous MC,’ shared the most important aspect of how the training is beneficial to him

 

“It’s important for me and other artists to work hard to improve the music industry and get Liberian tunes out to the rest of the world – for most of us, it’s been a way to band together to unite our country.”

 

As they entered the Twitter-sphere, generated Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels, excitement spread quickly as to how learning these platforms can generate instant exposure of their work.

 

Hipco artist Abu B. Bernard, or ‘Sunshine,’ reminds us all of the beauty of music:  “Music as a whole doesn’t have any boundaries, so there’s no reason I should as a musician.”

A Cross-Cultural Learning Experience Comes to Liberia

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September 20, 2012 marked a unique day in Wales, United Kingdom: it was AfriCAN Day.

 

AfriCAN Day was inspired from President Obama’s elections campaign (“Yes we Can!”), and has now become an annual event that aims to give schools and community a taste of Africa’s rich and vibrant cultural heritage. The day also seeks to explore how African people have impacted and contributed towards United Kingdom and Welsh society, highlighting the achievements made by people of African decent who have made Wales their home over the years.

 

With the help of an organization known as Wales Liberia Connect (WLC), efforts were quickly made to host an online forum for students in both regions to have an opportunity to learn about the others’ culture.

 

When Max Kpakio, CEO of WLC and a Liberian living in Wales, reached out to iLab to see how we could assist in linking his Liberian counterparts with students Wales, the answer was easy.

 

A simple Skype call at iLab provided the real-time platform that connected nearly 15 students from three high schools in Liberia (St. Peter Lutheran, Free Pentecostal Global Mission, and Well- Hair Stone) to students and instructors in Wales.  Mrs. Asatu Bah-Kenneth, Assistant Minister of Justice for Administration and Public Safety, was the special guest speaker who discussed her views on Liberia’s civil war that paralyzed the country, providing Welsh students a rare opportunity to ask a Liberian official questions pertaining to the war. For nearly two hours, students took turns asking each other questions about important issues in their respective regions.

 

Having seen the power of how a simple platform like Skype can engage students from around the globe, iLab hopes to continue to partner with more schools and organizations in the future.

UMass Graduate Seminar Now Accepting Liberians

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Shira Khaminsky studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and works as a Senior Editor of the school newspaper. This article has been cross-posted from the Mass Media website.

 

“I saw parents killed by their children. I saw children abandoned by their parents. I saw neighbors from rival ethnic groups who had lived together for generations accusing and causing the death of each other,” said Gleh Huston Appleton, describing the Liberian civil war. “I have also seen a nation entrapped by its past due to bad governance.”

 

Appleton’s experience is not unique. The Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that lasted for 14 years and ended in 2003, cost 250,000 lives and left the country in ruins.

 

Today, the relatively small West African nation is still in the process of rebuilding. The vast majority of Liberia’s citizens have no access to the electricity grid, running water, basic health care or high quality education.

 

So what’s the connection between Appleton, Liberia, and UMass Boston? The answer is Michael Keating.

 

Keating, a lecturer in the Conflict Resolution program at the McCormack Graduate School and the director of operations at the Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, has been working on issues in Liberia since 2006.

 

This semester, he is launching a unique pilot program, offering a group of Liberians the opportunity to take his Globalization and Development seminar remotely, alongside UMass Boston graduate students.

 

Appleton is one of the Liberian students in the class. A development analyst with experience in Liberia, Sudan, Juba and Lesotho, 34-year-old Appleton has a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Liberia Christian College and a Masters of Public Administration from the Management Institute of Canada, which he pursued online. One of 14 siblings, he lost both his parents before the age of 10. During the worst periods of the conflict, Appleton experienced extreme hunger. Referring to those days, he describes himself as a “walking skeleton.”

 

This program, Keating said, was born out of necessity. In his visits to Liberia, many Liberian students approached him about studying in the US.

 

“They have a strong desire for an American education, but they don’t really know what that entails,” Keating explained. “Educational methods and standards are much different in Liberia, so students don’t know what is expected.”

 

In order to fill that gap, he organized a group of Liberian graduates from several of the local universities. These students work in the Liberian government, in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in the private sector. They do not pay to take part in the seminar, and they won’t receive any college credit for it.

 

With funding from Academics Without Borders in Canada, Keating found a space where the Liberian students can gather for Skype sessions with their American colleagues. This space is called iLab Liberia, a unique computer lab in the capital city of Monrovia. Sponsored by Google and eBay, among others, iLab has its own satellite, providing the fastest internet connection in the country. ILab’s staff, comprised almost entirely of Liberians, offers free training to Liberians who wish to learn how to use computers and the internet, skills that many of them lack.

 

The cooperation benefits students on both sides of the Atlantic. Tara Conklin is a graduate student in the international relations program at UMass Boston, and she is taking Keating’s seminar this semester. Conklin already has a connection to Liberia: she was there this summer with Keating, as part of an international internship initiative from the Office of International and Transnational Affairs (OITA). Conklin worked as an intern for a Liberian congresswoman and in the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.

 

“I think the American students in the class will gain invaluable insight from our Liberian counterparts,” Conklin said. “They can enhance our understanding of development theory by providing specific examples of what we’re learning and educating us on their own experiences and observations from their country.”

 

Keating agreed. “Of course, the Liberian students are living out in their daily lives the issues that we Americans only read about. For them it is not theory,” he said.
Appleton, who hopes that this experience will help him decide whether or not to pursue a Ph.D. in international development, said that the class is “a great way of transcending cultural boundaries.”

 
“The course is a proof of globalization at work,” Appleton said. “The mix of the class presents first hand opportunity to classmates in the developed world, who have not or may never experience the impact of international development policies on poor nations of the world. It gives them an appreciation of the deeper implications of each policy instrument on underdeveloped nations.”
Keating plans to continue and expand the UMass Boston’s involvement in Liberia.

 

“I hope to be able to continue a program like this into the future. It is very low cost, and I believe it can have great potential value for building relationships among students from very different backgrounds who are looking at the same set of problems. Of course, I also hope to will motivate American students to travel to Liberia to work or research or to simply get to know that fascinating place.”