Sorting Out The New Laptops For The MoCo Project

The laptops for our pilot project MoCo finally arrived.We could now give each organization two laptops that would be allocated and used by the counselors that was allocated to do the online counseling.

Over the weekend Marlon, Craig, Mikey and myself  was busy sorting out the laptops and making sure it could connect online.It was a long day but we got everything sorted out and the laptops was ready for delivery.Monday was delivery day and the organizations would soon be ready to go online form their new laptops

Watch this space as we go and deliver the laptops to the various organizations.All glory to God for the great things He is doing.

MoCo(Mobile Counselling) Goes Live!

On Thursday we launched our pilot project called MoCo (Mobile Counselling) services and all the NGO,s involved came together at The Impact Centre for the launch.All of the various representatives from the different organisations first met met for some nibbles and something to drink before MoCo went live.

After filling out tummies  and quenching our thirst, it was time get down to some serious  work.We had each organisation set up at their own station as they got ready to counsel young people out their on their mobile phones that is facing problems with substance abuse and other issues.

I am so proud to be part of the fisrt ever mobile counselling service in the world.And to be playing an intrical part in all of this.

Here are some stats as to how the first day of counselling session went:

During the first two hour session of the pilot, 103 subscribers made contact with us and 2034 messages were sent to people in need of support in the area of drug addiction.

MoCo Role-Out:Back To School Is Cool

I found myself doing a presentation at Bridgetown High Secondary School, my old high school ,this week.I did not complete my schooling at Bridgetown High and left the school under very poor circumstances.

Learners at Bridgetown Secondary High

It was a good feeling being “back at school” and for all the  good reasons as well.  Not to reek havoc like I did in the past.I never thought I would be doing presentations in my old high school,not in a million years.So here I found myself going from being class clown , to giving these kids a contact that could possibly save their lives.

My prayer is that they use this MoCo contact when they are facing any issues or problems in their lives.I am ooking forward to chatting with the kids of my community via the MoCo counselling service.

Some of the other schools we roled MoCo out at.

 

Jaques setting up and getting ready for MoCo presentation

 

Learners all seated at Oval North High School

The Role-Out Of MoCo:Support for Drug Abusers using Mobile Counselling

Me sharing my story at one of our MoCo presentations we did at a school in Atlantis on the West Coast

With all the training done with the delegates from the 5 NGO,s ,it was now time to role out MoCo (Mobile Counseling) at the various schools that was ear-marked in the high risk areas.

This initiative aims at taking support for learners at schools across Cape Town as part of a pilot to test mobile counselling as a tool for drug intervention.MoCo will be live on Thursday 19th November.We are looking forward to making contact with these kids and help them with the difficulties they are facing.

This project is a collaboration between RLabs, Impact Direct, Department of Social Development, SANCA, Dopstop and Sultan Buha

Stay tuned for more on this project.

Learners at school in Atlantis

“The Art of Mobile Counselling” Workshop:Day 3 (Conclusion)

We only had like half day worshop on Day 3.We started the day off with the praticipants again presenting their homework that was given to them the previous day.The day consisted mostly of re – capping,answering question and discussing the way forward.

After that it was time for the handing out of certificates which was done by the CEO of Impact Direct Ministries Roger Petersen and the project manager of RLABS Rene Parker.

Handing over of certicates

RLABS staff gather round to congratulate the participants

This was the end of the workshop and in the week to come we,along with the participants will be rolling this out at various schools in The Western Cape.We will be giving the learners a contact that they can add to their current mxit they have on their phones.And through this contact we will be assisting them with whatever problems and issues they might have.

I just want to say thank to the participants for the support and being easy to learn.God bless them and the great work they and their various organizations are doing.

RLABS staff with participants.Group photo

“The Art of Mobile Counselling” Workshop:Day 2

Day 2 of the training started off with a bang!The praticipants had to bring in their homework that was given to them by Clinton.This was quite fun as some of these participants was not familiar with the chat lingo the kids use on mxit.So they basically had to go out and do some research and asks kids in their area for some words for their homework.

Here are some of the chat-lingo words the participants brought back as part of their homework:

watching t.v – wtv

listening to music – l2m

never mind – nvm

later – l8er

These are only but some of the words they brought back and well done to them for the great research they done.Some of them said it was not easy as most of the words they got from the kids has swearing content in them.

One of the participants giving feedback on thee homework he got.

Next up was Craig Ross.He session was “Introduction To The System”. He basically introduced the participants to the system that they will be doing the counseling from.This session took some time as we had to get everyone signed onto the system and then they had to take turns in working on the system and getting the hang of it.We had half of them in one room(they acted as the users seeking help) chatting from gtalk.The rest was in another room(The Lab) chatting  as counselors on the system.This went well as everyone had a chance to be the victim(user) and then the rescuer(counselor) as well.

This is Craig Ross doing his presentation "Introduction To The Sytem"

The introduction To The System took most of the day.We had a activity (ice breaker) after that just to get the juices of the participants flowing.And then i did an overview of day two.I also gave the participants some more homework.Those who did not have mxit on their mobiles was to go home and download it from the internet from their mobiles and then install and register to mxit.

Some of the participants doing their activity (ice breaker)

Stay tuned to see how it unfolds………

“The Art of Mobile Counselling” Workshop:Day 1

I want to first of all give God all the glory and praise for what He is doing in my life.It is only because of His Grace that I have the ability to do what I am doing.

RLABS hosted and facilitated the 1^st SUBSTANCE ABUSE MOBILE COUNSELING TRAINING in the world.I am so honored to say that I was one of the facilitators on this particular pilot project.We as RLABS will be training and equipping up five organizations in the Western Cape as  how to use and administrate the system we are currently using to do the mobile counseling from.The day started off with registration, coffee and tea.Michael Abrahams (one of the facilitators) did the introduction and welcome.

 

Then it was my time do my presentation which was: “Social Media For Social Good”. In this presentation I basically painted the picture as to why we will be using mobile phones to counsel people and the potential thereof .One of the slides in my presentation read as follows:”4 Billion mobile phones are being used worldwide and it is the largest

distribution channel platform”-World Bank 2008..This was to show people how many people we could possibly reach out there.

Craig Ross was up next and he did:”The Art Of Mobile Counseling”.He basically told them the difference of one- on- one counseling and mobile counseling.Up next was Clinton his presentation was:”The Confessions Of Mobile Counselor”.In this presentation he engaged the participants as to what is required from a counselor when they go on-line etc.Clinton also had some homework for the participants.They had to go out and get 10 chat lingo acronyms and share it with the class th following day

By the end of the day all the participants was registered onto our system.On day 2 they all were going to do role-play and get a chance to work on the system as counselors.

Will fill you in on Day 2 as things progress.

Western Cape Mobile Substance Abuse Counselling Service Part II

We had a follow up meeting at Reconstructed Living Labs (RLABS) with The Department Of Social Development  last week Friday (23rd October) to determine when our pilot project would be launched.

The five areas in the Western Cape that will be targeted is, Khyalitsha,  Atlantis, Mitchells Plain,  Athlone & Paarl. The NGO’s that will be part of this project is SANCA, Dop Stop, Sultun Bahu and Impact Direct Ministiers. This NGO’s will target 3 schools each in their area from grade 8-10. Each of the NGO’s will have two cousellors  that will be online for four hours per day Monday-Thursday.

As we here at RLABS have developed the system we will be using to do the mobile counseling from, we were delegated to do the training with the 5 NGO,s as to how to use the system.We will be starting the training this Monday ( 2nd November) with the 5 NGO,s and th training will run for two and a half days.

This is the start of great things and new  parterships as we come together to combat the scurge of drugs on The Cape Flats that is destroying homes and our community.

I will be keeping you updated as we things progress.

Western Cape Mobile Substance Abuse Counselling Service PART I

Today I was in a very significant meeting. It was meeting where new things were to give birth. There was five different organisations present and Marlon Parker from RLABS presented to the various organisations how Social Media could be used to combat the scurge against the drug problem in our country. Also present was Social Development with whom RLABS is partnering and taking this pilot project forward.

RLABS is to role out a Western Cape Mobile Substance Abuse Counselling Service. As a group we are piloting a distributed mobile counselling service across the Western Cape starting in 5 high risk districts. The  mobile application we are using to reach out to the youth in South Africa is Mxit. Mxit currently has about 15 million users in South Africa alone and 80% of them are ages between 13 -35.I will be giving you stats in my next blog post of what our counselling service is all about.

WHAT IS A LIVING LAB?

A Living Lab is a user-centric research methodology for sensing, prototyping, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and evolving real life contexts. It is a human-centric Research and Development approach to ICT solutions and innovations.RLABS (Reconstructed Labs) is a community based organisation and is an innitiative by Impact Direct Ministries

Here is a bit more about RLABS:

The Reconstructed Living Lab is one of ten in South Africa, and the first one in the Western Cape. The project has grown out of collaboration between Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), a community organisation Impact Direct Ministries (IDM), and the Bridgetown Civic Organisation. It has features that are unique in living labs as it is community led and is based in a social deprived area in Cape Town.

Athlone is situated on the Cape Flats of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. It is today known for two features, the new football stadium and the obsolete power towers which dominate the area. The society is described by Parker (2008) as a community in tension. Factors for the grounds of tension include: lack of economical development (e.g. unemployment, inflation); Social inequality (e.g. lack of social services,) Lack of education and lack of appropriateness and use of technology (e.g. technology not being utilised fully within communities for its intended use). Athlone has all these social problems, and is plagued with violence, drugs and gangsterism.

RLABS is one of the projects that also falls under the banner of Impact Direct Ministries.I now work for Impact and have a role that I play within RLABS. My job description is that of Operations Manager within RLABS. This particular pilot project will be funded by Social Services and we are looking forward to rolling it out in the schools.

For now I cannot go into much detail about this project but will be keeping you updated as things unfold. We will be having another meeting this Friday (23/10/2009) This is just another way of how you can use Social Media for Social Change. Watch this space as we see how the lives will be changed by with the use of Social Media.