Mboalab is an open and collaborative space located in the village of Mefou-Assi, Yaounde, Cameroon. The aim of Mboalab is to catalyse sustainable development and improve people's living conditions through open science. We bring together researchers, scholars, educationists, policy makers and the general public to discuss, conceive and implement projects responding to the health, economic and social needs of the community, such as the coronavirus pandemic. Our approach focuses on the integration of local knowledge by centering the local community especially women.
The aim of Mboalab is to catalyse sustainable local development and improve people’s living conditions through open science.
To this end, the main missions of Mboalab are as follows:
- Provide community and lifelong education for the population, as well as formal education for the younger generations.
- Serve as a platform for exchanges on issues related to local context; mediate between local communities and academia.
- Propose solutions that meet the needs of communities, using local knowledge and open digital technologies.
- Raise public awareness of environmental issues.
- Facilitate access to basic health care.
- You can take a tour of our lab here.
The lack of information in today’s age posses a serious threat to life and increases mortality rate. Hospitals globally offer treatment of various diseases, however, information regarding which hospital can treat a patient of what, and where is it located is a major challenge to both health personnels and patients themselves. This project is to connect hospitals so as to share resources and information as per the services they offer. Treatment of patients can be much more facilitated and referral process made easy given hospitals are able to know which hospitals offer which services and in which location. This will reduce mortality rate, as not only hospitals but patients can search which hospitals offer treatment for which diseases, and the various locations globally.
The objective is to develop an open source application where hospitals can sign up, and register the various facilities and services as per their location, and other hospitals can easily refer patients, or patients can easily locate a hospital for each case. This saves time, and money and most importantly, reduces mortality rate.
The high cost of modern stethoscopes remains a significant barrier to physicians and allied health professionals practicing in low- and middle-income countries, where few affordable high-quality options exist. Stethoscopes are generally hard to sterilize resulting in a use model where cheap stethoscopes are acquired by the hospital/clinic and one is assigned to each patient, with every professional who works with that patient using the same stethoscope. This can result in cross-contamination as someone touches many stethoscopes. Cheap stethoscopes also wear out quickly and have short hoses, resulting in professionals getting physically closer to the patient than necessary, particularly if they have to put their arm around the patient and listen to positions on the back.
The shortage of coins (small change) is today a serious problem in many countries having a detrimental impact on commercial activities: gas stations, bakeries, pharmacies, food markets, no sector is immune from this problem. The situation affects sellers who see their turnover drop considerably because to sell, they must first have the small change to give back to consumers who, in most cases, come with banknotes. The situation is just as difficult for consumers who needs to prepare change in advance or make undesired purshases to buy any item.
A good number of reasons can explain the occurence of this problem including the increasing number of small Jobs meaning that more small change is needed.
If comercial solution to the problem exist, through smart payment methods and tools, there has been some limitation in the adoption and wide use of these technologies by local population especially in the informal sector where this problem is mostly felt.
Our project aim to solve the issue of small cash scarcity by bridging the gap between trust, inclusion and technological performance. We want to develop an Open Source technology combining the used of a mobile app, couple with a miniaturised hardware system to transform any smart device (smart phone, tablet etc..) into payment tool.
In line with Outreachy’s guideline, the focus of our project is to prioritise the learning process and applicants' self-development over skill acquisition. Both applicants with or without previous experience in open-source contributions and complete beginners are welcome to participate and contribute.
Our main objective is to provide applicants with notions on open-source contributions and spirit, as well as with basics and advanced skills needed to complete the project;
Applicants can contribute to theses project through the project repository on GitHub. Check the Contributions Guidelines and the list of details via Technical Documentation
Each project’s Starter Task is supervised by a specific mentor. Applicants desiring to contribute to a specific task should get in touch with the assigned mentor. Information about the assigned mentor can be found in the task’s descriptions.
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