Toolkit of free and open source software for NGOs

How many of you are involved in the care of people at the end of their lives? They may be 80 or 18. They may have cancer or AIDS or pneumonia. You want to help them, and their carers, to make the last months easier. You want them to have a good standard of physical, mental and spiritual care, with pain relief and medication. The name for all of this is Palliative Care . There is a World Association for Palliative Care ( thewpca.org ). Now they are making their resources more available in more languages.

A Canadian, Daniel Kish, who was born blind, felt that his mobility – using a long white stick – was too limiting. He set about finding out how to improve on it and has now developed a mission to facilitate the self-directed achievement of blind people everywhere. A key component is echo-location, which involves blind people making noises to bounce off objects nearer and further away; they can be trained to become much more aware of the sounds around them, to become more confident and to move more freely. Graduates use bicycles to travel around. A full explanation of World Access for the Blind’s ‘Perception Based’ approach can be read at www. worldaccessfortheblind .org/node/120

Dear Friends and Colleagues, The Networklearning website has been updated after a long period of behind-the-scenes redevelopment. It is now in a new format , Joomla! . This will allow us to be more up-to-date and interact better. (On the other hand if you find any problems using the new site let us know!)

Managing the money is a subject that anyone starting an NGO needs to grasp well. You need to be comfortable with accounting terminology and have confidence in the bookkeeping system you use. Networklearning’s new Beginner’s Guide to NGO Financial Capacity (31-page PDF) aims to make the learning curve easier – for all of us who don’t have a financial background or higher education. It bundles together best practices and explains the necessary jargon in simple language, with examples, from the perspective of an NGO. By reading it and discussing its content with other colleagues, non-technical staff will be able to learn and master essential functions in financial management, including planning, control and supervision – laying the groundwork for success and sustainability. » Download directly from the Library

There is currently a lot of attention in the global news for the Ebola virus. Yet the people most at risk often lack the essential knowledge, and the means, to protect themselves adequately. Our colleague Shine writes from Monrovia, Liberia: “I am sure you have heard about the Ebola outbreak in some parts of West Africa, affecting Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in particular. It’s the worst outbreak ever recorded. Over 1,100 people have died and the World Health Organization has declared it a global health emergency.

Big business, with its pursuit of profit at all costs, creates some huge problems in society. Such as poisoned environments, factories run with slave labour… and the process of globalisation is spreading them everywhere. So what can the little person do? Just this: make a conscious choice not to participate – and actively search out better alternatives. Because while the world is awash with stuff we don’t need, we definitely do need more ethical entrepreneurs. And, at the same time, conscious consumers. A nice example is Sanchi Bags, recently started up in India with the vision to promote the use of eco-friendly products and empower women. The idea is that the fashionable bags – including ones for laptops and tablets – will attract youth into the “go green” movement and become trendsetters across generations. The bags are made from locally-sourced biodegradable material and, most importantly, manufactured in their own households by suburban and rural woman homemakers. You can connect with Sanchi via their facebook page www.facebook.com/sanchibags