First Green Desert workshop and researches at PLG’s Training and Knowledge Centre (VTC)

(Robert Strey from Green Desert shows the volunteer workers Ebrahima Samusa and Yaya Jallow how to produce organic fertiliser. After the four weeks workshop the volunteers have been able to produce their own fertiliser and gained experience in seedling breeding and planting on the experimental training field of ProLightGambia’s VTC area.)

New Yundum - During a first Green Desert workshop in May 2011 a team from ProLightAfrica’s partner organisation Green Desert e.V. has trained volunteer workers from ProLightGambia's Vocational Training and Knowledge Centre (VTC) at New Yundum in the Gambia.
The training was focused on the production of fertiliser with local available material, construction of a fertiliser station and the experimental seedling breeding and planting by using fertilised soil.
Mr. Robert Strey, a senior student in geology and soil science and Mrs. Bianca Kummer, a landscape architecture candidate, spent more than three weeks in the West African Country. Goal of the excursion was a first feasibility study for Green Desert projects like innovative farming techniques, mechanical pump systems, wind generators and compost toilets. Green Desert e.V. is a charitable science and technology association based and registered in Hannover, Germany.
The Vocational Training and Knowledge Centre have been founded by ProLightGambia’s Country Director Pamodou S. Jallow, supported by the women garden community of New Yundum and volunteer workers from Tabokoto. The VTC offers open source knowledge and training in innovative and easily adoptable farming techniques, environmental protection, renewable energy production and stand alone solutions for infrastructure development - especially for rural areas.

(Joint signature of the Memorandum of Understanding. From left: Pamodou S. Jallow, Country Director of Project Lighthouse Gambia; Matthias Duchscherer, president of Project Lighthouse Africa e.V.; Yusupha Sanyang, Deputy Mayor of Kanifing Municipality Council and Councillor of Bakoteh ward.)

Kanifing - With the joint signature of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kanifing Municipality Council, Project Lighthouse Gambia and Project Lighthouse Africa e.V. the foundation has been laid for the landfill gas combined heat and power (CHP) unit project at Bakoteh landfill in the Gambia. The project will be implemented in the Kanifing Municipality which represents more than 1/3 of Gambia’s population and which is the economy centre of the West African country. The CHP will contribute to a more stable and ecological responsible power supply to Gambia’s population and economy. More information about the project you can find here.

(Agreement about Green Desert support of ProLightGambia’s VTC in New Yundum / The Gambia.)

Hannover - In March 2011 Project Lighthouse Africa e.V. and Green Desert e.V. have agreed on a close cooperation fostering different projects in Gambia and Kenya. One of the first collaboration projects will be a workshop at ProLightGambia’s Vocational Training and Knowledge Centre in New Yundum / The Gambia. A Green Desert team will travel to Gambia in May 2011 for a first exploration and facility study at the VTC.

Green Desert e.V. is a charitable science and technology association based and registered in Hannover, Germany. The organisation is engaged in open source knowledge transfer and development of customised solutions for renewable energy production, water management, water treatment and sustainable farming. All concepts are realised with locally available materials and are planned for easy adaption by the local population. Green Desert benefits from different skills and knowledge of its members - students, Ph.D. candidates, scientists, engineers, project managers and master craftsmen in relevant disciplines.

(German/Canadian delegation visiting the Vocational Training Centre of Project Lighthouse Gambia (PLG) in New Yundum. (from left): Enrico v.B., Matthias Duchscherer - CEO of PLG, Ms. Thuy and Pamodou S. Jallow - Country Director of PLG.)

Kanifing / New Yundum - A deligation from Germany and Canada visited the ProLightGambia Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in October 2010. They got an introduction to the concept of the VTC by Pamodou S. Jallow, Country Director of ProLightGambia and Matthias Duchscherer, President of ProLightAfrica. The deligation is representing a consortium of companies which are operating in the field of infrastructure and health. The delegation was impressed of the ongoing construction work and the good job of the volounteers and the community.

Munich - Project Lighthouse Africa e.V. was formated as international operating roof organisation in Germany in Dezember 2009. Since 18th February 2010 Project Lighthouse Africa e.V. is registered under the number VR 202798 at the Register of Associations of Munich. ProLightAfrica will join the different operating branches of Project Lighthouse as international headquater. Project Lighthouse Gambia and Project Lighthouse Kenya are currently working as regional NGOs in West and East Africa. For further information about ProLightAfrica klick the icon in the navigation bar.

Nairobi - The two day conference end of Mai 2009 focused on the relations and reciprocal effects between conflict patterns and the media presence in civil society. Journalists from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Rwanda as well as editors and experts from Germany who are interested in the region and in civil society conflict management analysed existing practice, discussed the functions of the media in conflict management in civil society, and drawn up possibilities for conflict-sensitive journalism in current and future crisis situations. Matthias Duchscherer, CEO of ProLightGambia, supported the conference board, respectively the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), Stuttgart and the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin as conceptual advisor. As panalist he lectured about the relevance of mobile communication and the internet in intrastate crises, focusing on the example of the post-election crisis in Kenya 2008.
More information about the German - East African Media Dialogue you find here

Nairobi - Matthias Duchscherer, CEO of Project Lighthouse Gambia, university lecturer and trainer in journalism as well as in Public Relations, coached the editors and reporters of Kenya's famous radio station Capital FM 98,4 in Kenya's capital city Nairobi in June 2009. Some photos of the coaching programm you find here: group photo; coaching chief editor; newsroom; studio