News from betterplace.org

betterplace.org in cooperation with the German-Arabian Friendship Society (DAFG) has the pleasure to invite to an evening devoted to CINEMA JENIN!. The topic of the evening, part of the DAFG series „Is Peace in the Middle East Possible?” is **How can culture contribute to peace? ** The event will take place on Monday, 22nd of June, 7 p.m. at the Humboldt -Viadrina School of Governance (Wilhelmstraße 67, 10117 Berlin) In spring 2010 an impressive cinema, closed since 1987, will be re-opened as a modern cultural centre. The initiators of Cinema Jenin, among them the documentary filmmaker Marcus Vetter, will be screening extracts from the internationally acclaimed documentary The Heart of Jenin, and present the project. During a panel discussion, moderated by Sawsan Chebli, Martin Kobler, Federal Foreign Office, head of the Directorate-General for Culture and Communication, Marcus Vetter and Joana Breidenbach (betterplace.org) will exemplify how art and culture can contribute to peace and mutual understanding in the Middle East. The evening will be opened by Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan (initiator of the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance) and Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wildung (Director of the Egyptian Museum Berlin and Vice President DAFG). The event will be held in English. In case you’d like to join us for the evening, please contact Ms. Susanne Weiß ([email protected]; Tel: 030-20648888; Fax: 030-20648889).

Every project responsible fundraising on betterplace.org should draw the attention of his or her own network to the need in question, as a first step. To attract initial attention towards a certain project on betterplace.org, we introduced a new tool: the betterplace.org widget. A widget (/*wi*jit/) is a small window applet that can be easily integrated into an existing website and keeps its visitors informed about the project’s current progress, supporters, and ratings. Everybody can add a project widget to his website or blog. How it works: 1.) Click “Spread the Project” on the right upper corner of every project page 2.) Scroll down to No. 4 “Via Widget” 3.) Copy the text in the text box, (e.g. “ <script type=’text/javascript’ src=’https://www.betterplace.org/widget/project/1563’></script> “) 4.) Paste the text into the source code of your website It is much easier than it looks - have a try! If you have any questions or need any help, please do not hesitate to contact us!

In the kitchen of the Cinema Jenin Guest House For the last 5 days I was in the Palestinian town of Jenin, visiting Cinema Jenin, one of the projects the betterplace Incbator has supported over the last 16 months. After having been so deeply involved in the project and accompanying the two project managers Marcus Vetter and Fakhri Hamad on many occasions, I was obviously very curious to finally see the project site with my own eyes. The renovation of the cinema, located in the city center in a stately building from the 1960s, has been nearly completed and early next year the cinema-technology will be installed. Over the summer a spacious house next door has been turned into the Cinema Jenin Guest House,housing some 30 people in (single-sex) dormitories and double bedrooms. Its here were I stayed together with a large group of mainly German volunteers, who are helping with the renovation process, run workshops or research their MAs. The lively atmosphere is supplemented with visiting locals and (a few) expats who call Jenin their home. What kind of films do the locals want to see? My task consisted of a preliminary study about the expectations the local population has regarding the cinema and especially the kinds of films people want to see once it is operating. Jenin is known as a very conservative Palestinian town – the majority of women are veiled, pictures of martyrs line the streets and during the Intifadas many of the suicide bombers came from here. Leisure activities in Jenin are scarce: TV in people’s homes, a few restaurants, an internet café reminiscent of the early days of the computer industry and private visits and festivities. The next cinemas are in Nablus and Ramallah, more than an hours bus ride away. Thus many of the young people I interviewed had never been to a cinema, while the older ones remembered their last visit to the cinema in Jenin to date back to the early 1980s (the cinema was closed with the begin of the 1st Intifada). But what kind of films are acceptable in a society where it would be impossible for a young man to take out a girlfriend to the cinema? Should men and women sit next to one another in the cinema or are women-only screenings advisable? Together with Feda, a witty and self-confident young translator, I spent the days talking to a broad range of people: from entrepreneurs and market traders to women from the surrounding villages to NGO representatives and dvd-store owners. The result was a differentiated profile of tastes and expectations: yes, many people wanted the cinema to show the same fare as they get on TV already: US action movies and Egyptian comedies and a few Bollywood films. But they are also interested in good documentaries for their children, high-quality comedies for their families and selected films by Palestinian filmemakers, films they have no access to so far. Screenings on the Roof Especially exciting were the evenings, when we watched a number of films in a mixed German, Dutch and Palestinian group. Marcus and I had brought a number of dvds with us in order to establish a list of films to be shown at the opening festival of Cinema Jenin. One of Marcus favourite documentaries The Monastary was rejected by our Arab viewers as far too slow (and thus boring) for the viewing conventions of their copatriates. The Earth received favourable reviews, while the British children film Son of Rambo pleased the Palestinians, but got very mixed reactions from the Germans (I liked it). Univocally we enjoyed Persepolis, the life story of a young Iranian women before and after in Islamic revolution, rendered in the form of a wonderful cartoon. Very often the discussions following the films included counter-intuitive interpretations, making them really rewarding for us Westerners, who had entered Jenin with certain expectations regarding „local culture“. Even though nearly all of my interview partners had stressed the special cultural code of the city which needed to be taken into consideration when choosing films, the faultlines between what kind of nudity and explicit behaviour was acceptable and which not, often surprised me. Unfortunately I had to leave before a visit from the Mufti of Jenin, the highest religious authority, who is going to attend a screening tomorrow. He is also in the committee, which will decide on the final group of films to be shown at the festival. The visit confirmed by earlier conviction that Cinema Jenin is a courageuos and very necessary cultural project, run by a group of highly motivated people. I am very much looking forward to the opening of the cinema and hope that a number of betterplacers will also find their way to Jenin in the summer of 2010.

This year, the Berlin Football Club (BFC), Dynamo became the first professional football club to have a playground built on their stadium grounds. The club has its diligent fans and supporters to thank, as well as betterplace.org, the transparent marketplace for social engagement. The entire playground project was financed in record time by donations made over betterplace.org. Such a successful campaign is therefore a prime example for effective fundraising among one’s own networks over betterplace.org Set-Up Fans of the BFC Dynamo began by posting a profile site on betterplace.org. Potential supporters and helpers could read about chosen tactics: how the project was planned, how much money is needed for which specific purposes, and who was managing those tasks. A teeter-totter was the first in line to be constructed, followed by a swing-set, a bench, a sand box and – last but not least – aslide. Kick-off To give the project the initial boost needed for its launch, the project managers next activated their networks: the fans of the BFC. They displayed the playground project prominently on the club’s official homepage along with a link to the project page on betterplace.org. Fans, guests, sponsors and journalists learned first-hand about the planned construction of the new play area. Each contact was thereby a possible networker for further donors. Gameflow The project was quickly picked up on and discussed in the club’s forums. One click, one donor – it couldn’t be more simple. Fans were updated about latest developments on the project as well as the donation levels needed for the next step. The project managers posted a Call-to-Action text with a link to the project on their website. The text could be cut and pasted and passed along through emails, messenger, blogs, or online communities. Whoever had their own BFC fan page could use the downloadable project widget to spread the word. As soon as one phase of the project was completed, the project managers documented the accomplishments with photos and blogposts on betterplace.org. This transparency motivated new donors: “There’s something going on, and I want to be a part of it!” Game analysis The community of donors on betterplace.org soon outgrew the boundaries of the playground project, reaching out to other supporters and even members of other football clubs – an astonishing effect. In one online community for active football fans, a user remarked on a common solidarity: “Separated by our colors, united by our cause.” The success story of the new BFC playground illustrates more and more the preferred mode of action for social engagement on betterplace.org. Instead of the more-costly and less-efficient conventional fundraising practice to cover all bases in every direction, a project could be specifically targeted, spread and concluded all via betterplace.org. Tailoring messages specifically within one’s own target groups and networks can optimise the donor potential for the organisation. Plagiarism emphatically recommended!

Sometimes social projects do not develop according to plan because fluctuations in prices, politics or simply the weather are unpredictable. Just the same applies to projects on betterplace: One always has to expect that donations may need to be used differently than originally planned. The great thing about betterplace.org is, however, that thanks to the direct contact between supporters and project managers, donors stay involved in the project development along the way. Otherwise, we might never have heard about this fabulous story: In March 2008, Katrina Smith registered a project on betterplace.org with the aim of financing a water supply system for Mukureku – a remote village on the Indonesian island Flores. Katrina had previously been working as a Public Health consultant on Flores and now wanted to support the community in setting up the much-needed water supply. In the project description, she stated: “The 237 families that make up the community of Mukureku have given up waiting for the government, or anyone else to solve their problems.“ The villagers had already collected money from every family in the community and, together with the local NGO Tananua, worked out a plan for the construction of the water supply. The only thing missing was more funding. They raised this from the betterplace community. After nearly nine months, the required funds were gathered and the implementation of the project endeavour could in fact have begun had it not been for the four month rainy-season on Flores, rendering construction work practically impossible. And in the meantime, the community of Mukureku won a competition for government funds to build a water supply! Upon receiving this sensational news from Indonesia – Katrina lived in Ecuador by then – she decided without further ado to use the donations collected on betterplace.org to support a neighbouring village on Flores. Thus, not only is Mukureku now equipped with a functioning water supply, but also the community of Taniwoda. In Taniwoda, the funds raised could even finance the setup of two water pumps. How exactly the project was implemented and the new system is managed sustainably can be read on the project blog. This is a great example of how donors on betterplace.org receive direct feedback about the actual project development, and how a situation can be made even better when things don’t work out the way they were planned! PS. And speaking of water: have you already checked out the betterplace LAB Water Knowledge Portal?

Online volunteers of Nabuur.com combat malaria through social networks A thousand-mile journey starts with a single step, they say. In this case, a journey spanning the globe starts with a click as Emmanuel, an agricultural Engineer from Uganda, logs onto Nabuur.com. Soon after posting his message – a request for help outlining his mission to cut death-rates from Malaria in his home village of Wakitaka – his entry is read by a health-worker in a neighbouring village. Two hours later an economics graduate turns on her laptop in a European café. Click. Ideas and offers of expertise pour in from around the world. Click, click, click. This is Nabuur – a community of impassioned online volunteers who refuse to say “it can’t be helped.” When ordinary people put their unique expertise and energies to extraordinary use, virtually anything is possible. For villagers in Emmanuel’s home village, this means no longer suffering debilitating, and frequently fatal, bouts of malaria. Emmanuel’s vision takes shape. A collaboration is formed between Wakitaka and neighbouring Mawoito and Jinja Central villages. Funds will be raised to provide 1,000 vulnerable families with mosquito nets and to educate them about malaria prevention and treatment. Efforts will focus on protecting children, 350 of whom are killed by Malaria in Uganda every day. “Most families do not cover their children with treated nets due to lack of funds and information,” says Emmanuel. Tonny Ulambe, Nabuur representative and founder of a centre caring for orphaned children, adds: “the government doesn’t take it on itself to provide for vulnerable children here. Their communities must protect them.” TweetANet gives private donors a way to help ground-level activists like Tonny by harnessing social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to reach donors and spread the campaign’s message: for just 2 euros – less than the price of a latte – you can protect a child from malaria. “Both Nabuur and the TweetANet fundraiser are based on the belief that anyone with a computer can contribute and make a difference in villages that have not been reached by the big donors so far,“ says Maria Zandt, TweetANet organizer. It’s working. As of April 15th private donors have funded about 170 mosquito nets. This means 170 families protected from this deadly, but preventable, disease. This means children back in school, parents relieved of costly medical expenses. This means healthy communities contributing income to other Nabuur projects such as local education and income-generation initiatives. These donors – ordinary people with access to the internet – are making an extraordinary difference. You can join them by logging onto betterplace.org and making a donation or simply by spreading the word and becoming an advocate in support of TweetANet. Capuccino? I think I’ll pass.

We can all be journalists - citizen journalists. Start right away by writing what cool projects you are working with or supporting! Maybe you could even get the chance to see your article featured by BBC one day! We would also love to read your stories. Write us a comment with your website so that we can have a look! Do you also know that you can write blog posts with your project on the betterplace.orgplatform?

The Pennergame Team appears unbeatable. Almost 800 virtual homeless players have gathered together on the online role-playing “Penner Game” (penner means “pan-handler”) and have collected over 27,000 Euros. And about 4,000 of that is directed to mob Inc. and their project to renovate the common room. The Ostkreuz School photographer Daniel Seiffert has captured this space with beautiful photos, which we used at the end of 2009 in our betterplace works! brochure (only available in German). You can enjoy his entire collection of photos from mob Inc. here in this slideshow, since we didn’t have space for them all in our brochure. Created with flickr slideshow.

Human Rights – everybody knows they exist, but what exactly are our rights? Do you know them all – I am guessing no! That’s why we dedicate February to Human Rights. In our category “human rights” you can find exciting projects concerning this topic the whole year round. This month our campaign-page is also full of projects that are working with human rights. Besides projects that work on human rights in Germany, you will also find international initiatives. We would like to introduce to the projects of the month febrauary now: Traumatized refugees in Berlin need you! (Berlin, Germany) This project makes citizens of Berlin to mentors for refugees from all over the world who had to leave their home country. In Germany many unknowns situations are waiting fort hem: a foreign language, complicated paper work with the officials, a new surrounding and a new culture and lifestyle. This projects connects them with a personal, volunteering mentor. A one-year-mentorship costs 100 Euro – donate now! Teams for children’s rights (Germany) The UN-convention for children’s rights specifies the right of our kids. Many kids do not know their rights – just like their parents. To change this in the future, this project offers Children’s-Rights-Boxes – filled with information for example for schools. One children’s-rights-bag costs 30 Euros – donate now! Anne Frank – here and today (Berlin, Germany) The Anne Frank Center in Berlin offers lectures, ZEITZEUGENGESPÄCHE, movie nights, seminars and PODIUMSDISKUSSIONEN. For schools and other young groups they offer guides who consider their age and existing knowledge. Here it is possible to discuss topics like racism and antisemitism – then and today. A project day for a school costs 240 Euro – donate now! Human Rights for the poorest (Bangladesh) If you don’t know you’re rights, you can’t claim them. Especially the poor people in Bangladesh are affected by human rights violation like dowry, betrayel and marriages between children. To fight against this in the future, this project educates human rights advocates, who can offer workshops fort he rural communities. To educate a human right advocate costs 18 Euro – donate now! Protect human right activists (Hamburg, Germany) This project supports women organisations, environment organisations, lawyers and the families of crime victims in their work for defending human rights. In addition this project reports the work of human right activists all over the world – currently there are many volunteers in Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Nepal, and Indonesia. 100 newsletters cost 33 Euros – donate now! Protection of Ancestral land of Palawan tribe (Philippines) The land of the native tribe Palawan is in severe danger – because they don’t have the right papers a company is already drilling for nickel on the ground where they grew up. Together with a local organisation this project fights fort he right of the Palawan people to stay – the goal is to declare the area as he land of the native tribe. The documentation of the indigenous lifestyle costs 200 Euro – donate now! You can’t take a decision which project to support? Then donate on our campaign page – the collected donations will be split up between the projects introduced in this blog post.