Round two winners in ARC comp announced

"We continue to be amazed at the strength of the ideas proposed on the Africa Rural Connect site," said Molly Mattessich, manager of online initiatives for the NPCA and a former Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. "It's always difficult to narrow the ideas down because there are so many creative and thoughtful proposals submitted on a regular basis."

Winning ideas

The winners of round two for the ARC 2010 ideas competition are Christopher Thompson of the United States and Derek Bruce of Kenya. A Peace Corps volunteer who served in Togo from 2006 to 2008, Thompson proposed dramatically expanding a small beekeeping operation in a Togolese village to allow residents to sell honey. A development worker with a degree in food and nutrition, Bruce proposed helping rural widows and orphans in a Kenyan village replace indigenous chickens with ones crossbred to have higher meat and egg yields.

The winners will receive US$1,000 each to implement their ideas and will be eligible for the grand prize of US$12,000 to be determined in December 2010. Two more winners will be selected in the third round, which runs through to 15 September.

"Both of these projects present a sustainable vision for the communities that can be kick started with a small investment upfront," Mattessich said. "The winners also showed their deep knowledge and understanding of the communities they hope to help with their proposals."

To submit an idea and join the discussion, go to www.AfricaRuralConnect.org.