Press Release: First European Wins Africa Rural Connect's Fourth Round in Online Ideas Competition

Swedish winner demonstrates global appeal of online contest helping rural Africa

The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) today announced the fourth round winners of its Africa Rural Connect (ARC) online contest. The first place winner is from Sweden while the second and third place winners are from Malawi and Tanzania. ARC is an online community that launched this summer fostering collaborative thinking and creating an online space for users to engage with each other and share ideas to help solve rural Africa’s greatest challenges. NPCA created the four-month contest when they launched the ARC Web site to encourage people to sign up on the site and post their ideas.

“This just shows the global interest and reach of our initiative,” says Molly Mattessich, manager of Africa Rural Connect and a former Mali Peace Corps Volunteer. “We have people on the site sharing their ideas from practically every nation in the world.”

The top three winners of the fourth round receive a prize winner badge that appears on their ideas page on the ARC Web site. And as like in other rounds, the first, second and third prize winners receive $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively, to help implement their plans.  The seven runners-up receive a round winner badge that is also affixed to their page.

The top three fourth round winners of the ARC contest are as follows:

Sweden-1st Place-$3,000 seed money: The Ndekero Challenge: A Systems Approach to Rabbit Keeping by a Rural Community in Partnership with a Commercial Rabbit Farm

Malawi-2nd Place-$2,000 seed money: Bamboo Lota: The Dream for a Sustainable Malawi

Tanzania-3rd Place-$1,000 seed money: Rainwater Harvesting in Rural Tanzania

All four round winners of the ARC online contest, including runners-up, will compete for the final prize where a panel of judges will select the best idea from the final pool and award one winner $20,000 to implement their idea. The champion of the final competition will be determined by December 15, 2009.

“We look forward to the final competition where the best of the best ideas from around the world will face off against each other for the grand prize,” adds Mattessich. “This truly has been a worldwide contest.”

To share your idea on Africa and be part of the Africa Rural Connect online community, visit: http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org

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About The National Peace Corps Association
The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization connecting, informing and engaging returned Peace Corps Volunteers, former Peace Corps staff and friends of Peace Corps committed to fostering peace through service, education and advocacy. The NPCA network also includes 140 member groups across the U.S.

For more information, visit: http://www.PeaceCorpsConnect.org.

Follow us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AfricaRuralConnect 
Join the Twitter conversation @ideasforafrica and use hashtag #ideasforafrica.
To join the conversation through your mobile phone, dial: 001.202.316.7310 and punch in “ideas.”

Press Contact: Alison Beckwith, 202-536-4077, [email protected]