BONN, Switzerland

Awarded for Contribution to achieving MDG6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and MDG8: Develop a global partnership for development

Millennium Campaign: “No Excuses, Promises Must be Kept”

Stephan has provided the Mgbala Agwa Youth Forum (MAYF) with a professional website, that the organization is very happy with, and that has been favourably commended by several visitors. MAYF operates a resource center on prevention, control, and management of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in rural Nigeria.

Stephan approached his website development assignment just as he would have dealt with any business project. As a starting point, he took the basic ideas of the already existing MAYF website, that had also been developed by online volunteers. Stephan re-designed its structure from the ground up, applying standard design guidelines and instituting a typical development and testing process, to arrive at significant improvements with regard to site usability, scalability, and maintainability. During all development stages, Stephan has made sure that the new website truly represents a team effort. He closely involved MAYF staff in every step, ensuring that the site would perfectly meet their needs and expectations, and included contributions from fellow MAYF online volunteers.

Since the completion of the website, Stephan dedicates about an hour per week on maintenance tasks, a time commitment that is more than sufficient because of the stability of the site. With this arrangement, he is happy to still stay involved with MAYF, while he can dedicate more time to his newborn baby daughter, who he often carried on his lap while developing the MAYF site.

A Swedish development organization recently found the Mgbala Agwa website via a search engine. Its professional design caught their attention, so that they investigated further the activities of the organization. As a result, MAYF is now developing a joint programme with this Swedish organization in their local community in rural Nigeria.

“It still amazes me to think, that through the Internet, I have had a positive impact on an organization half way across the world! … The Online Volunteering service has provided me an opportunity to volunteer my skillset, computer information technology development, in ways I couldn’t have imagined previously. It has enabled me to accomplish a desire to contribute to meaningful causes while still being able to meet my own family and professional obligations by working from home.”