{"id":8532,"date":"2014-02-05T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T16:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=8532"},"modified":"2014-02-03T15:19:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T23:19:26","slug":"8532","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/02\/05\/8532\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Calling phone donation program goes local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa Calling, the organization that started on Camosun College\u2019s campuses, has come a long way since we last checked in with them. In fact, they\u2019ve gone to Africa and back. But now the student-created charity is also reaching out to the local community.<\/p>\n

Since 2011, Africa Calling has collected nearly 3,000 used cell phones to redistribute in rural African villages in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Sudan, providing tools to increase literacy, connect families, and increase safety for Africans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A rare picture of Africa Calling\u2019s Kevin Davis with a phone that has a cord attached to it (photo by Greg Pratt\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kevin Davis, who started it all in 2011 when he was a Camosun student (he\u2019s now at UVic), has never been to Africa himself, but he didn\u2019t let the limits of student obligations, time, or finances stop him from piloting the project, which also makes donations to local people in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is social work, and I didn\u2019t need my degree to do it,\u201d he says. \u201cI just put my hand up to volunteer and now I\u2019ve probably given out even more phones locally than I have to Africa at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually his classmates, faculty, local businesses and even international NGOs began supporting the program. Davis says the phones are carefully sorted and designated for use in Africa, but a lot of the phones that can\u2019t be used abroad, for whatever reason, are donated locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the donated phones that don\u2019t have a SIM card are given to local women\u2019s shelters, community centers, and other social service agencies in Victoria,\u201d explains Davis, \u201cthat\u2019s empowering local people to be more equipped to get jobs, a place to live, and reconnect with society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other than the benefits that those in need, both locally and afar, receive from the donated phones, Davis also notes that the program has long-lasting environmental rewards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also very important to understand the environmental impact cell phones have when they aren\u2019t recycled correctly or reused,\u201d he says. He estimates that up to two million cell phones are improperly discarded in landfills every day. \u201cAnd we can do something to change that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Davis says his 2011 sociology class at Camosun, taught by Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, was the inspiration for Africa Calling. Davis, who has since shared his experience with Adu-Febiri\u2019s subsequent classes, wants similar service-oriented courses available in schools from a younger age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to contact the Ministry of Education to make service learning a standard curriculum throughout Canada,\u201d he says, \u201cso people can realize that you can make a difference even if you\u2019re \u2018just a student.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa Calling, the organization that started on Camosun College\u2019s campuses, has come a long way since we last checked in with them. In fact, they\u2019ve gone to Africa and back. But now the student-created charity is also reaching out to the local community. Since 2011, Africa Calling has collected nearly 3,000 used cell phones to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-february-5-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8532"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8538,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532\/revisions\/8538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}