Will Ruddick and his team are continuing to proliferate community currencies in various places around southern Africa using their Bangla-Pesa model.
Will reports as follows:
The Berg Rand or BRAND – which means ‘Fire’ Money in Afrikaans, had an amazing launch today! The FlowAfrica team lead by John Ziniades and Anna Cowen of Meshfield spent over 6 months training local youth in topics of architecture, video creation (see their youtube channel), currency and businesses development. These youth helped mobilize a network of small businesses across 3 different towns in the Bergrivier region. The businesses formed the Bergrivier Exchange Network (BEN) and designed their own medium of exchange. Similar to Bangla-Pesa and the other community currencies in Kenya the members of the BEN must be local prosumers and guaranteed by four other members of the network and must contribute to a community fund with their BRAND for social service programs, like trash collection and alien vegetation clearing.
Read the full story here.
Beyond Money 
Pingback: More news from Africa: Berg Rand Launches in South AfricaConspiracydesk.com | Conspiracydesk.com
Reblogged this on Ronmamita's Blog.
LikeLike
Tom, it is really good to see these efforts, in many domains, and involving youth. I sense that they are on the upswing, which may be one of the factors moving the elite to gain more control. All tactical gains should prepare for a backlash – most don’t.
Not to be a wet blanket, but long term success requires other efforts that are missing today. A hard fact is the new organizations, becoming successful, simply don’t have the time or insight to do what is needed to build essential collaboration and synergy. Success attracts new players at the first level. The euphoria of growth intoxicates. Belief in the future “coming together”, the Aquarian Conspiracy, NATURALLY.
Activists on the front line correctly fear attempted control from top-down. They haven’t yet learned to distinguish top-down-control from holistic-coordination. EVERY human’s frame-of-reference is a tiny cross-section of “reality”. “Big Picture Thinkers” are narrow specialists, as are everyone – specialists in their personal realities (Wrlds). It is not expected that front line activists “go meta”. WHO is to initiate “going meta”?
When a front line movement is successful, new levels of action are needed. Actions to be initiated at future junctures of success need to be prepared BEFORE that moment is achieved. That this requires persons NOT involved in front line actions is seldom acknowledged.
Futures Thinking is a skill that many people lack, and who are adamant that there is no lack. I experience this lack first hand in my immediate family. These are among the subtle issues we must face.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Giftoftruth United and commented:
This is great news, thank you.
LikeLike