Let them Shine

Delphine Dorgu – Senior Lead Engineer (Renal Technologist)

A Woman in a Male dominated field

Delphine Dorgu is the recipient of the ENGINEERING AND ACADEMIC AWARD; presented to her at the African Achievers Awards in Bradford on 16^th May 2009 by the Deputy Vice Chancellor University of Bradford Prof. Jeff Lucas. Delphine started out her career in aircraft maintenance engineering having obtained licenses in both aircraft instruments and electrics. She went on to work in the aircraft industry with Bristow Helicopters on the Bell 212 and 206 helicopters with headquarters based in Redhill, Surrey. Also at FLS Aerospace on Boeing 747 in Manchester, before going on to study for her honors degree in electronics design at Huddersfield University. After which she decided to go into the medical field, starting out at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and currently the Leeds University Teaching Hospitals.

Human engineering is the most prestigious profession. Countries like Chine are doing well in recruiting female maintenance engineers and technologists compared to other parts of the world and this could easily be reflected in the nation’s productivity. Female role models are therefore required to highlight this problem in the UK. It has been demonstrated that within a successful business environment women have always played a vital role.

“Throughout my work and education, I have been exposed to so many technical concepts that they do not intimidate me, this has made me a critical thinker with good methodical trouble shooting ability. These however happened by working hard with the people that understand my passion for the job coupled with striving to overcome challenges as I encounter them”

Delphine carries out general maintenance from day to day ranging from periodic servicing of different types of dialysis machines, repairs, equipment maintenance, quality, etc, and of recent a project on monitoring of chemical and microbiological quality of water for dialysis fluid. She enjoys what she does and wishes to continue to make a difference in the life of chronically and acutely ill renal patients.

Sine 2007, Delphine has been an Associate Counsellor at the Leeds Metropolitan University where she supports students struggling with their academic work due to certain difficulties in their life which she enjoys so much especially when the student goes on to complete or carry on with their studies. She was awarded the Chancellors Award for this job.

She also serves in her Christian community and has in the past been a leader of women in the community to encourage, empower and engage women in various ways. Delphine is a member of the Institute of Physics Engineering and Medicine UK and also on the verge of moving on to Rehabilitation Engineering at the same University Teaching Hospital. She gets invited to speak/minister at various meetings. She has spent 5 years in the airline industry, 4 years for further university degree and the past ten years in the medical field and in all of these she continues to serve her community in various capacities.

Delphine has suffered a few tragedies in her life. As the only child of her parents, she lost her mother at a young age and years later her father. A few years back, she has found herself entrusted with the raising of her aspiring daughter and three sons alone. She has remained strong through all of this and as she will say, “it has only been by the grace of GOD”

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VINCENT W BAGIIRE

Vincent W Bagiire is the recipient of the COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND PHILANTHROPY AWARD; presented to him at the African Achievers Awards in Bradford on 16^th May 2009 by the Lord Mayor of Bradford City Cllr Howard Middleton. Based in Uganda, Vincent Waiswa Bagiire is a well-respected thought leader in the ICT-for-development field in East Africa, in particular as an active voice and champion for the use of ICT in rural development, healthcare, and youth initiatives. Vincent has strong relationships with donors, the private sector, civil society and government, and he has convened meetings with stakeholders from all sectors to look at how ICT contributes to development. Notably, Vincent is responsible for establishing iNetwork Uganda, the highly successful knowledge-sharing entity serving East Africa. He has the mind and skills of an entrepreneur along with the heart and vision of a practical philanthropist. He brings local perspectives and a unique skill set to bridges.org, which combine international experience with ground-level credibility. Prior to joining bridges.org, Vincent founded African IT Exhibitions and Conferences (AITEC) Uganda in 1997, as part of an international consortium of six international partner companies, and acted as its General Manager for seven years. Under his leadership, AITEC diversified from a focus on exhibitions to a wider approach in ICT-based development work. Previously, Vincent was one of the founding members of Pearl Communications, a marketing and social research company in Uganda.

Vincent has been active in a number of key ICT-based development initiatives in Uganda and beyond, including:

• Member of the Bellanet International Steering Committee.
• Working with the Uganda Communications Commission’s Rural Communications Development Fund, to develop programs for rural farming communities.
• Actively involved in developing the national ICT policy in Uganda, representing the private sector.
• Founder of the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI), to create and support a habitable environment in the Busoga region of Uganda through sustainable information sharing, knowledge management and effective use of ICT.
• Founder and strategic advisor to the CELAC project, which seeks to collect and exchange local agricultural content that works for farmers in rural Uganda.
• Board Member of Kalangala Information Centre. This is the only ICT facility on the islands of Kalangala (on the shores of Lake Victoria in the Buganda region of Uganda).
• Involved in implementing activities of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS with the Uganda Ministry of Health.
• Chairperson of Hallmark, a program that offers health communications in rural areas with practical, innovative solutions, raising awareness and communicating messages through appropriate technology and entertainment.
• Founding member of the Information Society Forum of Uganda, initiated by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology.

Vincent Bagiire is increasing incomes in poor farming communities by using communication technology both to facilitate the sharing of indigenous farming knowledge and to enable poor farmers to obtain better prices for their products.

Vincent has established a network of farmers’ groups and a mechanism for knowledge transfer between them to boost the yields from their farms and ultimately to address persistent poverty in rural Uganda. Most farmers rely on indigenous farming methods handed down from generation to generation. Vincent is leveraging modern technology to build a national central database of indigenous farming knowledge, and then organizing farmers into a network to share best practices from across the country. Vincent uses a variety of information and communication technology (ICT) tools such as a website, blog post, and SMS, in addition to printed how-to guides. Monthly in-person exchanges between farmers and an annual knowledge fair also facilitate the flow of agricultural practices across ethnic groups and geographic regions.

Vincent’s model allows farmers to easily pick up new agricultural methods that can diversify and improve their yields, and to find new solutions to drought, pestilence, or other common threats to agricultural livelihood. Vincent also helps rural farmers sell their products directly to growing urban and foreign markets so they can keep the profits of their labor. With over thirty ethnic groups in Uganda, each with its own indigenous farming methods, Vincent’s model has both the space and relevance to grow and spread nationally.

http://www.brosdi.or.ug

Pauline Long is the recipient of the ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION AWARD; presented to her at the African Achievers Awards in Bradford on 16^th May 2009. She is a Kenyan based in the UK well known for being the founder/CEO of Miss East Africa UK beauty pageant founded in 2006 and Mr East Africa UK beauty pageant founded in 2008 in the United Kingdom (www.misseastafrica.co.uk ).  The beauty pageants which are fully funded by the warm-hearted Kenyan entrepreneur are a voice for East African underprivileged children; the pageants mainly highlight on the plight of children abandoned and orphaned through HIV/AIDS and genocide. Visionary and futuristic Pauline who is a regular writer for African News Newspaper and a regular guest at BEN TV, the Voice of Africa radio and BBC channels has been taken aback by the effects of the horrendous wars and conflicts in various parts of Africa which had deleterious effects on the African child. She is also working behind the scenes of her fashion Label to be officially launched in Africa towards the end of 2009. Pauline Long is also the co-founder and co-producer of Miss West Africa.  

As well as contributing to various media companies, her creative talents were manifest as the former beauty and fashion editor of the UGPULSE magazine which later led to introduction of her very own publication in 2008 -Miss East Africa UK magazine(www.misseastafrica.co.uk/magazine ); a popular online flick magazine with worldwide readership. It’s a magazine that celebrates beauty and fashion, promotes Africa and focuses mainly on philanthropy and encouraging Africans to give back to Africa.  Her contributions to poverty alleviation are channelled through Miss East Africa UK magazine and the African News newspaper, a leading African news paper published in Italy and distributed all over Europe. Through Mr and Miss East Africa UK She supports and fundraises yearly for the following charities:  

www.nyumbani.org  Nyumbani Children in Kenya
www.nyakaschool.org  Nyaka School of orphans in Uganda
www.foreverangels.org  Forever Angels Baby home in Tanzania
www.oneopeneye.org  One open eye in Uganda
www.hopeforthechild.org  Hope for the child orphanage in Kenya
www.myspace.com/rafikischildren Rafiki care home in Kenya

Through her pageants she has opened doors and empowered several young East Africans living in the UK who want to pursue acting, presenting, singing or modelling as a career by putting them in touch with influential contacts and presenting them with international opportunities.  

However most importantly Pauline Long believes that philanthropy is not only for the super rich but everyone who has love and passion to share with the less fortunate and she specifically commends all the young East Africans and Africans giving back and working towards a better Africa. Her dream is to one day see an end to extreme child poverty in Africa and for Africa governments to turn their countries into children’s welfare states. She hopes this dream will be realised through her campaign The SHOUT Campaign (www.shoutcampaign.com). The SHOUT Campaign is a programme that is helping to feed street children throughout Africa with an aim and a mission of taking children off the streets and into rehabilitating. The campaign initiated FEED THE STREET CHILDREN PROJECT in Nairobi, Kenya where 600 children were fed from 13^th -17^th October 2008. Through feeding the street children of Nairobi the team at Mr and Miss East Africa UK hopes to create the awareness of the plight of the forgotten Kenyan children and to inspire Kenyans to give back to their communities. The beauty pageant hopes to work closely with African governments with Kenya as the starting point to introduce a system for children’s welfare. Through SHOUT Campaign Pauline Long and his dedicated team of volunteers from Mr and Miss East Africa UK beauty pageant dedicated the valentines week to street children of Kampala, Uganda feeding just over 1400 children for five days between 9^th-13^th February 2009.    

She is however on the search for lasting solutions to the pervading child and youth poverty all over Africa hence the establishment of the biggest all African reality TV talent show set to take place in Kenya, Africa’s World Best (AWB) – www.africasworldbest.tv . Africa’s World Best reality TV talent show’s main mission is to develop Africa, empower and reward Africans through talent. Building educational facilities, recreational facilities to help develop and nurture their talent, employment of youth through the new projects and establishments of community hospitals are some of immediate goals AWB has set out to achieve.  With her team they have created a non-profit entrepreneurial foundation called AWB Together.

Through AWB Together Pauline Long and her team will put back 40% of the profit from Africa’s World Best (AWB) reality TV talent show to Africa yearly in order to assist young Africans to set up businesses and sustainable projects. AWB Together will begin this process with Kenyan youth and gradually spread to the rest of Africa. The main reason for this large input is to empower the people of Africa with all the essential tools and give back to the communities what belongs to them.  Funds given to Africa by AWB reality TV talent show will assist in:

-          Funding sustainable youth projects in Africa that will help them start their own businesses

-          Funding existing Youth and community projects

-          Building children drop in centres that will take children off the streets

-          Establishing clean sanitation in deprived areas

-          Funding farmers and farming projects

-          Building the first exclusive performing arts centre in various parts of Africa to serve different kinds of talents that can be turned into careers hence creating jobs for masses of unemployed youth in Africa

With a team of dedicated Africa enthusiasts located in Africa and in the Diaspora, Pauline Long believes Africa World Best will deliver first class entertainment in the industry exclusively produced by Africa’s World Best (AWB) Ltd bringing African entertainment industry to the highest level but most importantly AWB will create job opportunities to the masses of unemployed African youth.  She would like to encourage investors and venture capitalists who wish to invest in Africa to join in and support Africa by funding AWB reality TV talent show.