Pilot project success

Last October, we hosted the 2nd annual Chornobyl Economic Development Forum conference in Korosten. We invited one of the UN’s Global Compact partners to participate in the conference, and the head of Ericsson Ukraine , Mr. Rasmus Norby, made a presentation about their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Mr. Norby had made it clear from the start, though, that he did not want to be solicited during the conference for donations or corporate sponsorship of any projects. No problem, we said.

Mr. Norby and 2 or 3 of his colleagues who also attended the conference stayed until late that evening, enjoying the dinner reception with the rest of the conference participants. He doesn’t speak Russian or Ukrainian, which made it impossible for him to engage in conversations with most of the other attendees (although his Ukrainian colleauges were able to translate for him). Knowing how isolating it can feel to be in a room with lots of people with whom you cannot communicate, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Norby. Trying to find a topic that I thought would interest him, I started to tell him about some of our computer and internet projects in rural villages. One of our biggest challenges and frustrations has been with Ukrtelecom, the state-owned phone company. Their 10-year expansion plan (a) will take an absurdly long time to expand and upgrade phone lines throughout Ukraine, and (b) puts extremely low priority on expansion and upgrade in Chornobyl-affected territories. Nonetheless, we’ve supported a few projects to provide internet connectivity in a couple schools and one or two youth centers. These dial-up connections are usually extremely slow, unstable, and the service is sometimes simply unavailable for weeks at a time (very reminiscent of my days in the Moldovan village Tvarditsa!). I’ve been questioning from the time I joined CRDP why we are investing in old, out-dated, and inefficient/ineffective technology, when the rest of the technological world is converting to cable, DSL and mobile internet connections. None of us in CRDP have any expertise in the area, though, and in a typical Ukrainian fashion, it has been easier to implement a method that everyone is already familiar with. I asked Mr. Norby his thoughts on the subject, and he explained to me some of the newer internet connectivity options, like the already common GSM and the new technology EDGE. One of Ukraine’s leading mobile providers is gearing up to expand their new EDGE coverage throughout the entire country during 2007.

Then Mr. Norby did something that really took me by surprise – he asked me to write up and email to him a brief overview of the village internet project I had mentioned, including the problems with the internet connection. He offered to look into the situation and see if his company and their partner companies could come up with a new solution for these villages. I was pretty surprised, and very pleased. We talked a few more minutes, than went our separate ways to mingle during the reception.

As the evening progressed, the reception turned into a full-fledged party and I didn’t mention to anyone the conversation I’d had with Mr. Norby. A few days later, back in the office, I’d nearly forgotten about the interaction entirely. Then my boss copied me on an email to our communications manager, Mykola (aka Kolya), asking me to work with him to draft a letter to Mr. Norby. I then remembered, and went immediately to Kolya and recounted the conversation. “Ann, you’re the source!” he exclaimed. It turns out Mr. Norby talked to both Kolya and our boss, Pasha, during the reception about the idea of alternative internet connections for our partner villages, and neither of them could figure out how or why he had gotten this idea.

So, Kolya and I started working with UNDP/Ukraine’s Public-Private Partnerships Officer (Elena), and over the course of the next week or so we drafted a letter to Mr. Norby. Then Pasha and Elena had a meeting with Mr. Norby. Then they did some research on service providers in various areas. Then we went to visit a village to see if it would be a good site for a pilot project. And then… Friday we went to the village Dniprovske (about 2 1/2 hours northeast of Kyiv) with 2 guys from Ericsson, and they set up a new internet connection via mobile (cellular) service in the village hospital! This is lightening speed for a development project, from idea to implementation in less than four months.

We chose the Dniprovske village hospital for this pilot project for a number of reasons. First, there is a really fantastic young doctor running this small hospital. He is very energetic, innovative and a go-getter. He set up a website for the hospital, and won some really impressive medical equipment from a grant competition in Russia. He already uses the internet to promote the hospital with potential donors, as well as for medical consultations with doctors in Kyiv and Russia. (He’s been using an incredibly slow dial-up connection so far.) The second positive factor for implementing the pilot project in this village is the that there is a lot of potential to expand the internet service to other facilities in the village – the school, youth center, and village council buildings are all next to and across the street from the hospital.

It’s very exciting to see this idea realized, and we are all hopeful that we can replicate the model in other villages soon.

New haircuts

Pepette and I both got haircuts this weekend. Her last one was May 2006, mine in September (I think). We were both WAY overdue. Her fur was especially out of control, a matted mess of knots and dirt and grime. She had stopped even attempting to groom herself, which wasn’t particularly pleasant. I had no idea, though, that a cat’s haircut could cost so much – three times more than my own! Ouch. But she’s much happier now that she’s not slowing roasting to death in my over-heated apartment. And much to my delight, she’s already bathing herself again! I’m reading up on “caring for your Persian” today, in hopes that we can keep her fur more under control in the future.

She looks pretty funny at the moment (I’m calling her “naked cat”) and the giant poof on her tail is hilarious.

OSU Alumni Magazine

When I was home in November, I was interviewed by the Ohio State Alumni Association magazine. The profile was published in the January/February 2007 issue.

I was and am flattered that they wanted to interview me. The profile is pretty accurate, except for two rather glaring errors – (1) neither I nor Chernobyl are located in Russia, and (2) I don’t live “in Chernobyl.”

Snow!

We have had fantastic weather in Kiev so far this winter – sunny and warm – the total opposite of this time last year when temperatures were averaging -20C (-4F), and even got as low as -35C (-31F). So far this year, daytime temperatures have been around +10C (+50F). And it’s not just Kiev, or Ukraine even. This was the Christmas in anyone’s memory without snow in Moscow! There have been days when people only wear jackets. I haven’t put on my winter boots at all. My down coat hangs in the hallway unused this year.

So when I was awakened early this morning to a scraping sound outside, I didn’t pay much attention. I listened for a moment, then thought “Hm, that sounds like someone shoveling snow. I wonder what it really is.” Then I rolled over and went promptly back to sleep (and deep into a strange dream about the neighborhood where I grew up, but that’s another story). When I actually got up later in the morning and looked out the window, I was so surprised to see the ground was white! It really had been someone shoveling snow! We got a good 4-5 cm (2″) of snow overnight, and it’s below freezing for the first time this year (about -5C, +23F).

I haven’t been complaining at all about the warm weather, I’ll take it any day over the kind of winter we had last year. But I am happy to finally get to wear some of my nice winter sweaters! And another plus is that the temperature in my apartment might finally be comfortable. You see, most older buildings in Ukraine (and throughout the former Soviet Union) have a centralized heating system, and I can’t regulate the temperature in my apartment. Most buildings are poorly heated and many of my friends live in really cold apartments. I, on the other hand, live one of the rare buildings that seems to be both properly insulated and well-supplied with heat. I wear shorts and a t-shirt when I’m home, and even then I often (guiltily) open a window or the door onto the enclosed balcony. The cat especially likes it when the balcony door is open, as the poor thing is nearly suffocating from the heat, so she likes to sit out on the balcony windowsills, cools off, and when she’s good and cold she comes back inside to sit on my lap until she’s toasty again (yeah, she’s a bit weird). Anyway, I also don’t complain that my building is well-heated, as the alternative is far worse. But these past few weeks, with unseasonably warm temperatures and no regulation of the heating, it’s been uncomfortably warm inside.

So it looks all that will be changing. They are predicting temperatures in the minus teens C (+4 to -4F) starting next week. Winter has finally arrived.

Holidays

We finished the last of the major holidays this past weekend with the celebration of “Old” New Year’s – new year’s eve by the old calendar (which, by the way, was changed nearly a hundred years ago!) . After three straight weekends in Korosten, and more food and drink than imaginable, I’m ready for a break from holidays.

We spent New Year’s and Orthodox Christmas (January 7) with Igor’s family. Both holidays were very nice, quiet and relaxing at home. This past Saturday, January 13, we celebrated Old New Year’s Eve with a bunch of friends, the same group we spent it with last year in Korosten. It’s weird to think that I’ve been here long enough to start to have a traditional way to spend a holiday! We had a lot of fun, ate a ton of great food. I was on the edge of a cold, which has now become full-blown. But, Ukrainians say that the way you greet the New Year is how your whole year will be, so I am glad that I spent it with Igor and friends, happy and warm and with a full tummy.