We here at Aspiration and all of the previous recipients of the Dirk Award are happy to announce the 2005 winner of the award: Ungana-Afrika. Here is the official announcement. Congratulations!
The Dirk Award Committee is honored to announce Ungana-Afrika as this year's winner of the Dirk Award.
The Dirk Award is given annually to those circuit or eRiders who have shown extraordinary contributions to the nonprofit and international NGO technology communities while paying tribute to the principles of social justice and the role technology can play in empowering other
communities and individuals.
Ungana-Afrika provides innovative technology support to NGOs in Southern Africa. Ungana-Afrika believes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer new opportunities for African community-based and development organizations to do what they do better.
With its emphasis on technology, social justice, and community empowerment, the small staff of Ungana-Afrika has taken the principles of eRiding to innovative new levels with its trainings and capacity-building workshops and innovative projects such as those focusing on community radio and free and open source software within an African context.
Ungana-Afrika further works tirelessly to assure that the eRiding model takes hold in the Southern Africa region by working with other organizations in the region on developing their own eRiding projects. It makes its learnings and materials widely available under Creative Commons license and its staff are active community participants in the
international eRider Network. The organisation is supported by the Soros Foundations Network and the Government of Finland.
eRiders are one of the largest global resources of ICT capacity building for development organizations and work in a world-wide movement with growing representation in more than 20 countries.
The Committee of previous Dirk Award recipients and the global eRider and nonprofit technology support community congratulate Ungana-Afrika and its staff Toni Eliasz, Ryan Jacobs, Angel Kgokolo, Tshepo Thlaku, and Rudi von Staden for visionary and exemplary work!