First round winners for Africa Rural Connect

WASHINGTON, DC: The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) announced late last week the two winners of the first round of the Africa Rural Connect (ARC) 2010 ideas competition. ARC is an online program of NPCA that aims to foster collaborative thinking to generate ideas to help solve rural Africa's challenges.

"We received close to 100 new business plans and ideas during this first round," said Molly Mattessich, manager of online initiatives for the NPCA who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. "Project ideas ranged from food security to women's issues, so we definitely had a broad spectrum of plans submitted."

The ideas that received the most endorsements in this first round were submitted from the US and Canada, but Mattessich says people who reside in dozens of other countries also submitted their ideas for consideration.

The first round winners of the 2010 ARC online ideas contest are as follows:

Achieving rural literacy via innovative Web 2.0 use in post-conflict Northern Uganda posted by a Canadian on behalf of BOSCO Uganda.
Africa's fair share of fair trade posted by a Returned Peace Corps volunteer from the US who wants to implement her project through the World Cocoa Foundation and the Sustainable Tree Crops Program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.

"We are beginning this year's ideas contest on a strong foot," adds Mattessich. "And I hope to see an increased number of participants submit their innovative and creative ideas through November."

To share ideas on Africa and join the Africa Rural Connect online community, go to www.AfricaRuralConnect.org.