Nigeria

Sports Friends' vision is to see an international movement of sports ministers using the powerful relational tool of sports, within a strategic church-centered approach, to transform the lives of youth, their families and their communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We strive to do this by empowering churches and church planters to use the universal language of sports to develop effective evangelism and discipleship strategies which result in dynamic church growth and new churches planted throughout Africa, Asia and South America. Find out more: www.sports-friends.org Sports Friends is a ministry of SIM: www.sim.org

• published: 25 Apr 2012
• views: 348

ESSENCE DU BÉNIN is a documentary project that explores the vast network of illegal trafficking of gasoline (essence, in French) from Nigeria to Benin, a country that has not enough stations to cover a population whose main mode of transportation is the motorcycle. Given this need, a succulent business opportunity emerged. In a few decades the sale of gasoline has become the first –under the table– economic activity. Major traffickers are now the leaders of everything. Politicians have surrendered to their will and the police turns a blind eye in exchange for a few CFA, the Beninese currency. Women, disabled people, university students and even children depend on this activity, as it is one of the few alternatives of work which enables them to pull their families up. All of them are exposed to danger on a daily basis. Explosions induced by small accidents occur often and have caused hundreds of deaths in recent years while the harmful gases coming from gasoline are damaging people's health. The tentacles of the illegal network are embedded in every corner of the Beninese society who cannot cope with a problem that extends way beyond its borders on its own. The only possible solution would be that all players involved took up their role to put these activities on hold. Unfortunately, there is no short-term solution in sight. · AVAILABLE: short documentary capsules for digital media and thirty (30") minutes short film for TV. Follow us: @oak_stories www.oakstories.com

• published: 17 Apr 2016
• views: 477

Chief Architectural Officer, FreeGreen; Co-Founder, Zero Energy Design Lecturer, Northeastern Department of Architecture www.freegreen.com B.Arch, Cornell University M.Arch, Cornell University Ben Uyeda co-founded Zero Energy Design (ZED), a multi disciplinary firm that specializes in ecologically conscious housing. As a design principle Ben focused on sustainable housing projects both in the US and abroad. ZED's work has been published in numerous publications including Architectural Record, Popular mechanics, Design New England, and Boston Home. Ben's interest in designing sustainable housing for developing nations has taken him to a multitude of countries including Nigeria, Dominica, and Panama. In 2006 Ben was asked to speak before the prime minister of Dominica about the possibility of using environmentally sensitive building practices to revitalize the local economy. In 2008 Mr. Uyeda founded FreeGreen.com a web based media company that distributes green home designs over the Internet. By 2009 FreeGreen had become the largest supplier of home designs in the world and was recognized By I.D. Magazine in its annual I.D. 40 issue as one of the 40 projects/people that is transforming the world. FreeGreen's innovative business model has been discussed in numerous publications including: The New York Times, Architectural Record, and Fast Company. Ben has taught in the architecture departments of both Cornell University and Northeastern University. During his time as a visiting lecturer at Cornell, Ben developed an original curriculum for teaching architecture students how to critically evaluate sustainable design strategies. FreeGreen Our theory around our Free House Plans is as follows: No longer are homes made from simple raw materials. Today's homes are assembled from a complex combination of existing products and service providers. With this transition in home assemblies, product placement has become a natural part of the home design process (especially in green homes). From choosing cabinets that work with your kitchen, to making sure your insulation performs well and contributes to good indoor air quality, it all comes down to the products that we choose. FreeGreen has taken advantage of this progression in construction reality to create a symbiotic environment where the placement of our sponsor or vendor products allows us to create better, more usable house plans for our users, while giving us the ability to offer those same house plans for free. That said, we are not shy in saying that: FreeGreen would not exist without paid placement from product manufacturers, and all product or service provider placements should be considered advertising. In the same way that television has used advertiser revenues to bring us our favorite programs for free, FreeGreen, is using house plan product placement to promote and disseminate green design for free. In order to avoid product bias, we present every product and material in a fair and clear light. Users can see ratings from established third-party green certification programs such as LEED and NAHB for each product (good or bad), or research performance through our energy modeling reports. Our goal is to show you a multitude of material and product possibilities through various lenses, including quality, health, and energy performance. Zero Energy Design ZeroEnergy Design (ZED) is an architecture and energy consulting firm specializing in new construction and major renovations. Our commitment to innovative and ecologically sensible design is reflected in our multidisciplinary knowledge base, which spans architecture, mechanical engineering and financial analysis. With this shared expertise, ZED originates designs that are tailored to a client's way of life, environmental ideology, and unique sense of style. We take our name from the industry term zero energy (or zero-net energy), which is defined as a building that creates as much energy as it uses. A zero energy building is the result of a multi-disciplined effort and appropriately symbolizes our integrated design philosophy and approach. While zero energy buildings are an aspirational goal for some, they are feasible for some clients.

• published: 25 Apr 2011
• views: 812

Nigeria's economy may be slowing down but business is still booming in the online sector. The Africa Internet Group, which owns the continent's largest online retailer Jumia, has attracted investments of three-hundred million euros this year alone. Africa, and Nigeria in particular with its huge population, is viewed by international investors as a final frontier for online businesses. How Jumia has conquered online consumers in the continent's largest city, Lagos ?

• published: 05 Apr 2016
• views: 287