Meet the latest Op3nCare Fellows: from accessible and inclusive access to care to the secret lives of carers

I’m happy to introduce our new Fellows, community members who have contributed to the OpenCare debate and are now off to writing more about how their work connects with, well … mine and yours!

@WinniePoncelet introduced us to Reagent Lab in Ghent and experimental ways of providing alternative education. Coming from him is this piece on why it matters to bring quality biology education to every child equally. Winnie thinks that the role of biological technologies will become increasingly bigger as we move towards a future circular society. And education is crucial in this process, which we must keep inclusive and, guess what: relevant.

C’mon, show some love :-) Here’s what you can tweet/share to support Winnie:

Winnie is Bioengineering the way to the future of education | ReaGent lab http://bit.ly/2bi33Pa opencare #biohacking openandchange

@Rune Thorsen and @Alexander_Shumsky  are two of the core advocates in the community for bridging research on medical devices for motor impaired people with actual use through more availability and affordable purchase costs. The money quote is definitely the following, which we’re tweeting to show support and find more people/projects with aligned interests:

bit.ly/2aiEOmU opencare opensource #MS research openandchange

Nina Breznik (@ninabreznik) and Alexander Praetorius (@serapath): their work intrigued me with their timely intervention introducing www.refugeeswork.com platform for online learning of web & programming skills. I asked them to do a longer writeup and reflect on the rationale behind their work, and especially how they strike the balance between seeing daily enthusiastic people and small wins vs. making a compelling argument about newcomers actually enter the (a?) job market.

#RefugeesWork: Don’t count on the government to magically create jobs. http://bit.ly/2bXAbvf programming opencare openandchange

@Michel Rakotoarisoa wrote a piece a while ago about an idea of his to raise awareness about ecological agriculture because of the current health damages it produces. 80% of kids under five in Madagascar are asthmatic, and for once this is not poverty’s fault.

Let’s send some love to the Malagasy people!

Fix rice planting, prevent asthma and improve the ratio of doctors to patients. Needed in Madagascar: http://bit.ly/2a6Srq6 opencare openandchange

@Alex_Levene has spent a lot of this year doing work in the Calais/ Dunkirk camp and inspired by the model of organisation in responding to needs of the displaced people: decentralised, volunteer-led and highly collaborative, with no single NGO or government running it. Next I asked him to blog about the intricacies of being on the side that not many people tak about, the carers’ side.

Alex is sharing solutions to refugee care: decentralised systems, volunteer-led initiatives and listening directly to needs of the group http://bit.ly/1MwxuBD

Learn more and join in: edgeryders.eu/opencarefellowships