One Human Family Gospel Choir will present a concert at Lambrick Park Church, Saturday, 15-March at 7:00 PM.
This will be an exciting, uplifting evening; with all proceeds going to REMCU!
See Poster below for ticket information.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
REMCU Benefit Concert - Saturday, 15-March
Thursday, February 14, 2008
2007 In Review
Dear Donors,
Thank you for your generous contributions in 2007. You helped sustain our communications network in Africa, and prepare for network growth and improvements in 2008 and beyond. For your interest, here is a brief update of 2007 REMCU results.
The network in Africa is now more stable than ever, and is experiencing consistent daily traffic. Partly this is due to better equipment we were able to install this year, but this is also in large part due to the staff of our partner organization, the Zambia Flying Doctor Service (ZFDS). They are becoming very familiar with how to support the system, and regularly monitor its status.
As one might anticipate, there is quite a variation in use of the system - some remote sites are using it daily and receiving great value; some have left their system idle. We are working with ZFDS to encourage the low use sites to take advantage of the system, and trying to understand how we can make this tool more valuable for them.
On the technology front, we have made some inroads that will improve the offering we can deliver to the remote communities. We continue to focus on reliability and total cost of ownership. During our upcoming 2008 trip we plan to implement some of the new alternatives. We are very confident in them because we have tested them in our now-very-well-equipped development/test facility in Victoria, and across the continent of North America with new REMCU supporters.
Humanitarian communications opportunities continue to far out number our ability to assist. Throughout 2007 we had many inquiries from other organizations that were hoping we could help. We are working with a few that we feel we are a good match to best collaborate with at this time, but we are keen on growing our capacity to become more responsive.
2007 was our first full year as a stand-alone registered charity in Canada. There was a lot of work just to run the organization and meet our legal/fiscal requirements, and a lot to learn in the process. Thanks to the help of friends, family and new partners we have a foundation for future success and efficiency.
Thank you again for your support! Please visit our web site (www.remcu.org), and particularly the “blog” (web log); we will be using this more as we start to achieve more milestones in 2008. We are very excited about what is possible to achieve; with your continued support we most surely will increase the positive impact we are having!
Sincerely,
Nzola Swasisa, Rob Porter, Trever Blair
Thank you for your generous contributions in 2007. You helped sustain our communications network in Africa, and prepare for network growth and improvements in 2008 and beyond. For your interest, here is a brief update of 2007 REMCU results.
The network in Africa is now more stable than ever, and is experiencing consistent daily traffic. Partly this is due to better equipment we were able to install this year, but this is also in large part due to the staff of our partner organization, the Zambia Flying Doctor Service (ZFDS). They are becoming very familiar with how to support the system, and regularly monitor its status.
As one might anticipate, there is quite a variation in use of the system - some remote sites are using it daily and receiving great value; some have left their system idle. We are working with ZFDS to encourage the low use sites to take advantage of the system, and trying to understand how we can make this tool more valuable for them.
On the technology front, we have made some inroads that will improve the offering we can deliver to the remote communities. We continue to focus on reliability and total cost of ownership. During our upcoming 2008 trip we plan to implement some of the new alternatives. We are very confident in them because we have tested them in our now-very-well-equipped development/test facility in Victoria, and across the continent of North America with new REMCU supporters.
Humanitarian communications opportunities continue to far out number our ability to assist. Throughout 2007 we had many inquiries from other organizations that were hoping we could help. We are working with a few that we feel we are a good match to best collaborate with at this time, but we are keen on growing our capacity to become more responsive.
2007 was our first full year as a stand-alone registered charity in Canada. There was a lot of work just to run the organization and meet our legal/fiscal requirements, and a lot to learn in the process. Thanks to the help of friends, family and new partners we have a foundation for future success and efficiency.
Thank you again for your support! Please visit our web site (www.remcu.org), and particularly the “blog” (web log); we will be using this more as we start to achieve more milestones in 2008. We are very excited about what is possible to achieve; with your continued support we most surely will increase the positive impact we are having!
Sincerely,
Nzola Swasisa, Rob Porter, Trever Blair
Monday, February 11, 2008
REMCU 5 year visions - In 2013:
effectiveness, including: reliability and meeting the needs of the developing communities,
total cost of ownership, including: installation, maintenance and ease of use.
We have installed over 150 remote e-mail nodes since Jan 2008. We operate 3 HF-server hubs. We have full time administrators in Africa, South America and South Pacific that provide training and tier-2 field support. In Victoria, we provide tier-3 technical support. For each hub we have trained “super-users” to provide a minimum of tier-1 support to the e-mail nodes associated.
We are partnered with 4 or more well known humanitarian groups such as Operation Eyesight or Charity Help International, whose efforts directly or indirectly support the Millennium Development Goals. We receive funding from them, install systems for them, and share best practices for assisting the developing world.
We have secured stable “maintenance funding” which allows us to continue to provide Radio-E-Mail support and administration free of charge to our remote e-mail nodes.
Also since Jan 2008, we have helped over 10 other humanitarian groups (whose efforts directly or indirectly support Millennium Development Goals) with the installation of their own email systems. We have done this by providing technical and financial consulting, including: installation guides, trouble shooting guides, and bills of material. We provide tier-3 technical support for them and have trained them to provide tier-2 technical support for their clients.
We have a strong technical team that is very well connected and well respected in the humanitarian communications community. The factors that drive their application research and development are:
We have strong support teams that, among all the statutory non-for-profit management requirements, are able to confidently find and maintain reliable sources of funding for growing and maintaining the client email systems, and further REMCU’s ability to meet the communication needs of developing communities.
We have a strong leadership team that has continued to recruit great people, set new stretch goals, and keep the REMCU organization motivated and moving forward toward these goals.
Note: Tier-1 support: basic user-training to send e-mail, & minimal trouble shooting ability.
Tier-2 support: a superset of tier-1 with added ability to trouble shoot common technical problems. Tier-3: a superset of tier-2 with additional mandate to troubleshoot any problem, prioritized by overall up-time metrics.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Message received from Zambia Flying Doctor Service Radio-E-Mail
administrator (comments in parentheses added by REMCU for clarity):
Dear REMCU,
Today is 5th February, 2008 on Tuesday at 08:34 hrs in the morning. Here in the Copperbelt (province in north-central Zambia) the rain is pouring almost every day since January up to date. Also the whole country is receiving heavy downpour resulting in floods in most areas. Most people have been made homeless because their houses have collapsed due to heavy rains.
Thanks,
Charles Kasonde
ZFDS, Ndola, Zambia.
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