Africa Connections is a media company that connects African diaspora groups with independent news and community services from their homelands. We launched our first pilot project, Ugandans Abroad, in late 2009.
There are a million Ugandans in the diaspora, who live in countries as diverse as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Russia, and Kenya. Ugandans Abroad offers a combination of independent reporting on issues at home (business, politics, culture) and service journalism for issues affecting many Ugandan immigrants (how can Ugandans abroad launch businesses at home? Make sense of confusing visa processes?). Ugandans Abroad also navigates the sea of local Ugandan media and aggregates the most important stories for Ugandans abroad and their friends– so even if you are short on time, you can stay well-informed on the issues that matter the most.
Ugandans send over a billion dollars a year in remittances– but need a little more support and information to have a greater impact on the pearl of Africa.
We are currently working on expanding other services for the diaspora, such as wire transfer services that are cheaper than Western Union; online shopping for Ugandan goods, and an online classified site similar to Craig’s List. AfricaConnections also offers a free social networking site for Ugandans abroad and their friends. We’ll let you know when the other services are available, and appreciate any input you have as we work on these projects.
Ugandans Abroad is the pilot project of Africa Connections, supported by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s Center for New Business Models in Journalism, and the Ugandan American Association of Greater New York. We hope to learn from our successes and failures, and launch similar sites for Kenya and the Sudan.
Please let us know if you would like to get involved. Email rebecca.jane.harshbarger@gmail.com, or comment below– and kindly stay in touch.