Rachel Holding a Mobile Phone, originally uploaded by whiteafrican.

Rachel Kung’u is an amazing woman, and has been quite a heavy user of Ushahidi. Ory and I had a chance to meet with her while in Nairobi this June, and we talked at length about the violence that happened earlier in the year.

She started the Peace Caravan idea back in 2003:

“the idea to start the PEACE CARAVAN was to encourage the youth to form as many youth groups as possible at there own local community in order to tap the available resources within the area for self –reliance and community development. To emphasize that education is not the only way to success but teamwork, hard work, discovering own talents and turning them to a career into a better future.”

Rachel has been active with the youth of the region for some time, working as a voluntary youth philanthropist for a number of years. When the violence broke out in January, she and her team were particularly well positioned to physically go into areas and promote peace.

Even with the end to the major violence of January and February, there are some big issues with the internally displaced people (IDP) who are trying to return to their homes. Rachel is running another Peace Caravan right now, you can find out more on her blog.

“…the issue of Repatriation of IDPs is still alarming, i will briefly say that it was a rushed repatriation and the returnees have no choice since they are returning in order to be considered for compensation. Even though it is the case Kuresoi in Molo Distrist and Kipkelion in Kericho was a vacated place and the IDPS have not taken risk of going back despite the conditions.”

I would encourage anyone who is interested in seeing actual change happen to contact Rachel. She knows more about involving and engaging youth in proactive ways than almost anyone else I know. Her projects also need funding, and you’d be surprised at how much she can do with so little.

The Technology Review by MIT is a magazine known for its coverage of innovation in Energy, Biotech, Nanotech, Infotech and other fields.

The listing of Ushahidi as one of the ten web startups to watch this year is a major nod to the project, and the ushahidi team is honored to be on this list, and we believe it is also a big nod to the Kenyan and African community at large. Read more on this link, or check out the print edition of the TR magazine on newstands.

Do stay in touch with us, we will be updating you as we continue building the next version of the Ushahidi Engine.

Just quick note out to everyone that we’re continuing to grow the community around Ushahidi. We’re trying to use the social web tools that you already use yourselves. So far you can join us on:

Facebook (one week old and 300 strong already!)
Twitter (short blurbs via mobile phone)
Flickr (a brand new group, so upload your pictures and/or see ours)
YouTube (videos we find interesting, or that relate to a certain crisis)

You’ll see a lot of the information revolving around Kenya, as that was where we started with Ushahidi. However, each of these communication channels will change and grow as we get involved with building the next iteration of Ushahidi and it is deployed in other areas of the world.

We hope to see and interact with you more on these different sites soon!