<incom> LWATI - The SANGONeT e-Newsletter, November 2006

Tue Nov 7 11:07:51 CET 2006

* LWATI *

The monthly e-newsletter of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT)

November 2006, Number 29

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS
<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION
<> ICT SERVICES
<> ICT ADVOCACY
<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
<> CONTACT DETAILS

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 29th edition of SANGONeT’s monthly e-newsletter!

In the past month we have once again implemented a number of significant 
activities and events.

To coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 
SANGONeT and the National Development Agency (NDA) hosted a National 
Poverty Conference on 17 October 2006 in Johannesburg. More than 300 
representatives from the NGO and broader development sectors attended 
this important event.

As a follow-up to the conference, the SANGONeT NGO portal will continue 
to provide a facility for development practitioners to comment on 
critical issues related to the challenge of poverty and inequality in 
South Africa.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/4s6 for copies of the conference 
presentations.

On 24 October 2006 we celebrated the first anniversary of the launch of 
the SANGONeT NGO Portal. The portal has already achieved significant 
results and has gained widespread local and international recognition as 
the online community platform for the South African NGO sector. 
Furthermore, in attracting an increasing number of international 
visitors, the portal also elevates the profile of the local NGO sector 
in the global arena.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/4s7 for an overview of the portal’s 
objectives and achievements.

SANGONeT also announced the introduction of the new SANGOTeCH online 
technology donation and discount portal on 24 October 2006. In 
partnership with TechSoup, the San Francisco-based nonprofit technology 
capacity building organisation, SANGONeT is finalising a web-based 
platform that links technology donations and the South African NGO 
sector. Ultimately, this initiative will be expanded to the rest of 
Southern Africa.

SANGOTeCH will start processing registrations for software donations on 
1 December 2006. The first two donation partners are Microsoft and Cisco 
Systems. Various other partners and applications will be added in coming 
months, including open source solutions. SANGOTeCH will also start 
publishing practical technology articles relevant to NGOs in South Africa.

For more information about SANGOTeCH, refer to www.sangotech.org.

Looking to the future, we have decided to move the annual SANGONeT “ICTs 
for Civil Society” Conference and Exhibition from its traditional time 
slot in March to June 2007.

To register your interest and assist us in shaping the conference 
programme, refer to http://www.sangonet.org.za/conference2007.

As always, we are very interested in how you think we could best serve 
the NGO sector with relevant information and ICT products and services. 
Please send us your views, comments and suggestions.

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard at sangonet.org.za)

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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION (CSI) PROGRAMME

# SANGONeT Portal

October witnessed two important developments related to the SANGONeT NGO 
Portal. Firstly, in order to generate debate about poverty issues in the 
run-up to the National Poverty Conference, a comment section was added 
to the home page articles to facilitate feedback and discussion. A fair 
amount of feedback was received in relation to the articles that were 
produced both before and after the conference. Refer to 
http://sangonet.org.za/url/4s3.

The past month also heralded the launch of a new-look HTML version of 
the NGO Pulse e-newsletter. Currently this newsletter has more than 7 
000 subscribers. It is released weekly and informs subscribers about new 
postings on the SANGONeT portal. To subscribe to NGO Pulse, refer to 
http://sangonet.org.za/url/4s2.

As always, the CSI team continued to produce relevant civil society and 
development-related content for the portal. The editor’s choice for 
articles produced during October focuses mainly on the poverty debate.

October Editorial: Poverty Eradication - Holding our Leaders Accountable
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4rs

Feature: Civil Society Partnership with NDA: Beggars Can't be Choosers
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4rq

Feature: Closing the Gap on Local Government Finance
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4rt

Opinion: Women on Farms Violated due to Alcohol Abuse
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4rr

Opinion: World Habitat Day - Cities are Magnets of Hope
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4ru

For more information about the SANGONeT NGO Portal, kindly send a query 
or comment to the Editor of the portal, Fazila Farouk, at 
fazila at sangonet.org.za or editor at sangonet.org.za.

# PRODDER: The South African NGO and Development Directory The SANGONeT 
portal continues to house the most up-to-date online directory of NGOs 
and development agencies in the form of PRODDER, and we remind you to 
list your organisation on this free and searchable database.

The directory is available at http://www.prodder.org.za.

The PRODDER team continues to make progress with the development of a 
human rights directory for the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR). The 
directory is developed as a component of PRODDER, thus deepening the 
human rights and social justice focus of SANGONeT's work in general.

For more information about PRODDER and the FHR project, please contact 
Aadila Molale at SANGONeT on prodder at sangonet.org.za.

# SN-Announce

SN-Announce is an e-mail advertising service that provides an invaluable 
service to the NGO sector in Southern Africa. It remains one of the most 
cost-effective and efficient ways to reach non-profit organisations, 
development practitioners, grantmakers and others working in the 
development sector.

All members of the development sector can advertise on SN-Announce. The 
type of information distributed includes alerts for vacancies, events, 
campaign launches, conferences, meetings and services for the 
development sector. The CSI team published 16 announcements during 
October 2006.

Subscription to the SN-Announce service is free.

For more information about how to subscribe to SN-Announce or post an 
announcement, please contact Butjwana Seokoma at SANGONeT on 
butjwana at sangonet.org.za or visit http://sangonet.org.za/url/4rz.

# SANGONeT Development Calendar 2007

SANGONeT is currently compiling its 2007 Development Calendar, which 
will once again be designed and produced in the form of a year planner. 
The Calendar covers a comprehensive list of international, African and 
South African dates (e.g. World AIDS Day, 1 December) of significance to 
people involved in development and civil society issues.

If you know of any dates which should be included in the calendar, 
please forward the information to info at sangonet.org.za.

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<> ICT SERVICES

# Telecentre Train-the-Trainer Project

SANGONeT, in conjunction with the Universal Service and Access Agency of 
South Africa (USAASA), Microsoft and Torque-IT, continues to implement a 
training project aimed at improving the capacity of IT trainers based at 
telecentres in South Africa.

Twelve representatives from telecentres in Kwazulu-Natal completed a 
three-week train-the-trainer course during October 2006 in Johannesburg.

# Central Case Management System (CCMS)

SANGONeT is implementing a series of improvements to the Central Case 
Management System (CCMS) with funding from the International Commission 
of Jurists-Sweden (ICJ).

With this additional funding, the CCMS project aims to create a 
centralised source of information for advice offices that can be 
processed, analysed and packaged with reference to social justice issues 
and trends.

For more information about the CCMS, refer to http://www.ccms.org.za.

# Joomla Content Management System

Botswang Kgeledi trained SADTU staff in the basics of using the Joomla 
Content Management system. SANGONeT provides content management services 
and training on both Joomla and Drupal.

# Technology Consulting

SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions, 
including open source software consulting, facilitation of web 
workshops, portal and other web-development queries, as well as 
assistance in developing a technology plan for your organisation.

For more information on how we can assist you, please contact Matthew de 
Gale or Joseph George on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or matthew at sangonet.org.za 
/ joseph at sangonet.org.za.

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<> ICT ADVOCACY

# Thetha - The SANGONeT Regional ICT Discussion Forum

SANGONeT and the Botswana Council of NGOs (BOCONGO) hosted the third 
Southern African Thetha forum from 5-6 October 2006 in Gaborone, 
Botswana. More than 100 participants drawn from civil society, 
government, private sector and academic institutions attended the event.

For more information about the Botswana Thetha Forum, refer to 
http://sangonet.org.za/url/4ry.

SANGONeT and the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN) 
will host the fourth Southern African Thetha forum from 22-23 November 
2006 at the Lehakoe Club in Maseru, Lesotho.

If you are interested in participating in the Lesotho event, please 
contact Thandiwe Solwandle at LCN before 20 November 2006:

Tel: (+266) (22) 31-7205 / E-mail: thandiwes at lecongo.org.ls

For more information about the Lesotho Thetha Forum, refer to 
http://sangonet.org.za/url/4s4.

# Third Annual SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition

SANGONeT will host its third annual "ICTs for Civil Society" conference 
in June 2007 in Johannesburg. Building on the success of the first two 
events, the next conference will focus specifically on how the NGO 
sector is adopting, using and implementing ICT applications in their work.

SANGONeT therefore invites anyone interested in participating in the 
event as a speaker or participant to register their interest at - 
info at sangonet.org.za.

We are especially interested in receiving information on any case 
studies, technology solutions, etc. which could be incorporated into the 
conference programme.

Refer to http://www.sangonet.org.za/conference2007 to assist us in 
shaping the conference programme.

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<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

# SANGONeT and Project Literacy hosted the fifth meeting of the CEO 
Circle on 27 October 2006 in Pretoria.

# SANGONeT’s Information Coordinator, Butjwana Seokama, attended the 
National Civil Society HIV and AIDS Prevention and Treatment Congress 
from 27-28 October 2006 in Randburg.

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<> CONTACT DETAILS

SANGONeT
P O Box 31392 2017
Braamfontein
SOUTH AFRICA

29th Floor,
UCS Building
209 Smit Street
Braamfontein

Tel: (+27) (11) 403-4935
Fax: (+27) (11) 403-0130
E-mail: newsletter at sangonet.org.za
WWW: http://www.sangonet.org.za

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CopyLeft. 2006. SANGONeT.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and modify this document. 
Please provide an acknowledgment to SANGONeT.

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