Welcome to #OPENVILLAGE

Become a fellow

As an OpenVillage fellow you will learn and collaborate with your peers on inspiring open source projects around the world.

Work with an international network to develop your own project and make it more sustainable through open knowledge and technologies. People like Hegazy who is building a transport map for the chaotic public transit in Cairo. You can collaborate with Winnie in using open science to make insulin cheaper and more accessible. You can learn from the creative solutions Matthias has to come up with to get coffee beans from Nepali farmers to the European market in a way that ensures they get most of the profit. And how others are bringing public cinema screenings to the Himalayas. And much more!

Who can participate?

Anyone with a story of trying to solve a challenge for their community related to one or more aspects of well-being in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco or Tunisia. It can be about your project or experience, or about one you know well. To get inspired, read some of the stories already submitted.

Why do this?

You should get involved in this initiative if you want to

  • Grow your international network to access new knowledge and opportunities.
  • Develop and improve meaningful projects with support from peers and mentors.
  • Experiment with new ways of collaboratively generating livelihoods.

What happens if I am selected?

Costs for participating in the program covered as well as a 1000 USD grant to support travel and expenses

Project feedback from peers and mentors, facilitation and support for building partnerships during an Edgeryders run workshop in your country

A ticket and and travel to Edgeryders' Festival in Brussels (19-21 October) where we design The Reef MENA. At the festival you will be part of a team training on community building and digital security tailored for regional dynamics.

A project residency in the first ever Reef MENA house in a beautiful, calm location. The residency consists of a structured set of online activities and co-working/ co-living space for your project for one month

A ticket to The Reef MENA community camp in December at a secret location.

What is expected of you?

  • Participate in one short online chat per week to discuss the projects, and invite more people to join these virtual meetings
  • Participate in the project residency program designed to develop participants’ ideas into strong projects.
  • Actively engage with people from their countries online and offline about The Reef MENA and invite them to come to one virtual meeting
  • Recruit peers to participate in the project development workshop in your country in September
  • Recruit more peers also working on relevant projects to participate in co-creating The Reef MENA

Fellowship Eligibility

To qualify for a fellowship is very easy

  • Create an account on edgeryders.eu
  • Introduce yourself and your work to the community here
  • Tell us about your experiences in affecting positive change for yourself and for your community. You do this by writing a story in your own language on our platform. If you need help with this, write to hazem@edgeryders.eu
  • Respond to comments or questions about your story from others.

Application Deadline

The deadline for completed applications is September 20th. For participants in our workshops the deadline is extended to October 15th. Get started now! Please do not wait until the last minute because we will select fellows as soon as the right people show up, first come first served!

How candidates will be selected:

We will offer a Fellowship to 5 people who demonstrate the most interest in being part of this community. You will be considered an attractive candidate if you: