Rebekah Heacock

Rebekah is a Lawrence, Kansas native who currently lives in Boston. She writes about technology, aid & development, East African public transit and anything else that strikes her fancy at Jackfruity. She previously co-directed the GV Technology for Transparency Network.

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Latest posts by Rebekah Heacock

Uganda: Can a Viral Video Really #StopKony?

  8 March 2012

A film aimed at making Ugandan guerilla leader Joseph Kony "famous" in order to raise support for his arrest has swept the Internet by storm, pushing #StopKony onto Twitter's trending topics list and prompting a wave of backlash from bloggers who worry the film and its associated campaign are overly simplistic.

Uganda: Police Paint Protesters Pink

  13 May 2011

Ugandan police have responded to the past month's ongoing Walk to Work protests by spraying protesters with tear gas and live bullets. During a demonstration on Tuesday, they took a different tack, firing water cannons filled with pink liquid at demonstrators who were attempting to walk to Constitution Square in the center of Kampala.

Uganda: Gay Rights Activist Found Murdered

  27 January 2011

Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato was found murdered yesterday, just weeks after winning a court case against a local newspaper that had called for Ugandans to “hang” homosexuals. Kato was an advocacy officer for gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda, which published a press release reading: David was brutally...

Technology for Transparency: Five Lessons Learned

  25 August 2010

Rebekah Heacock and Renata Avila outline the learnings from the first round of Global Voices' Technology for Transparency Network collaborative research project, sharing links to several successful online initiatives.

Uganda: Bloggers react to bomb blasts

  12 July 2010

Soccer fans gathered in bars and restaurants around the globe to watch the final game of the World Cup last night. In Uganda, these celebrations were interrupted when bombs exploded at two popular nightlife spots in Kampala, the country's capital.

Announcing Round Two of the Technology for Transparency Network

Transparency International's 2009 Global Corruption Barometer found that citizens around the world are increasingly worried about corruption in both the public and private sectors. People are often hesitant to speak out against corruption, and see traditional complaint mechanisms as ineffective. A growing number of citizens, however, are beginning to use...

Tech for Transparency in Sub-Saharan Africa

  2 May 2010

Transparency and accountability efforts are supported by a growing tech community in sub-Saharan Africa, though a widespread lack of access to information and communications technology (ICT) and a consequent lack of understanding and interest in these tools constitute a significant challenge to their success.

Sudan: Checking in with Sudan Vote Monitor

  29 April 2010

On the eve of Sudan's 2010 presidential elections, I interviewed Fareed Zein, who heads the citizen election monitoring project Sudan Vote Monitor. On Wednesday I checked in with Zein to get his thoughts on the project now that the elections have ended.

Uganda: Students riot, Kampala burns

  17 March 2010

Two separate tragedies struck Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on Tuesday: students at Makerere University rioted after the shooting death of two of their peers. And the Kasubi Tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the burial location of the king of one of Uganda's largest ethnic groups, burned to the ground.

Sudan: Is ICT all it's cracked up to be?

  4 March 2010

The Financial Times recently reported that a multimillion dollar World Bank plan to supply Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, with computers and Internet access has fallen through. The news forces the question: is the hype surrounding information and communication technology (ICT) justified?

Uganda: Hundreds feared dead in landslide

  3 March 2010

A mudslide in eastern Uganda Monday evening left at least 80 people dead and over 300 missing. The mudslide, triggered by a day of heavy rain, has buried three villages in Bududa district and displaced more than 2000 people from their homes.

Uganda: President Says He Will Block Anti-Gay Bill

  23 December 2009

Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 still awaits a final decision by the country's Parliament, but the country's Daily Monitor newspaper reported Wednesday that President Yoweri Museveni has "assured the US State Department of his willingness to block the Bill."

Uganda: Nine Dead in Kampala Riots

  11 September 2009

Riots in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, have led to the deaths of at least nine people (BBC) as members of the Baganda ethnic group clashed with police and military forces on Thursday and Friday.

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