October242010
The Islamic Online University (IOU) from UAE is now launching the world’s first tuition-free, online Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies. The site description says:
he Islamic Online University (IOU) is the brainchild of Dr. Bilal Philips. He envisioned an institution that would offer online intensive, undergraduate, and graduate courses in Islamic Studies completely tuition-free.
The IOU was initially launched in 2001 from UAE with an offering of a few short courses. After a five year interlude, it was restarted in 2007 from Qatar with a greater offering of completely free short courses.
Alhamdulillah, although we began with 1,500 students in 2007, by the end of 2008, the number of registered students tripled, reaching 4,500. And now, as 2009 has ended, Allah has blessed the IOU with a student body of over 15,000 students from over 160 different countries (Current statistics).
The IOU is now launching the world’s first tuition-free, online Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies. This path-breaking initiative plans to utilize the worldwide presence of the Internet and advanced open source online learning technology to bring low-cost, university level Islamic education within reach of anyone on the planet who has access to a computer and the Internet .
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The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Sub-Working Group on Gender and Humanitarian Action has developed an e-training on core issues on gender and how it relates to aspects of humanitarian response, including the Cluster approach. The training provides the basic steps a humanitarian worker must take to ensure gender equality in humanitarian programming during an emergency. The e-course is based on the IASC Gender Handbook: Women, girls, boys and men, different needs - equal opportunities endorsed by the IASC in 2006. The three-hour course is self-paced and free, and can be accessed from here.
September132010
By Anabelle B. Ragsag | Monday| September 13, 2010 | Filed under: Mindanawon Abroad
CAIRO (MindaNews/13 September) — From a whole afternoon of coordinating an organizational evaluation exercise, I was ready to call it a day. The first cab I flagged down stopped in front of me. But a lady cut me off. “Ow-kay, go ahead”, I thought, “In no time, another will come along. I give five minutes, tops.”
Thirty minutes later, the crowd not thinning, I was already flagging taxis as if they were the last flight out of a war zone. And then it dawned on me that I was caught in the midst of the pre-Ramadan shopping rush. This was the Monday before that Wednesday’s Ramadan.
Ramadan is the holy month in Islam where participating Muslims fast from eating, drinking and sexual activity starting at dawn until sunset. But fasting also means a spiritual exercise of consciously abstaining from saying or doing anything offensive.
I did manage to get a cab – after an hour of waiting, in my two-inch pumps. But I didn’t care anymore – my feet may had been complaining but my eyes were enthralled by the array of colorful Ramadan fanous (lanterns), luminous decors, and the pulsating downtown crowd carrying shopping bags and packages. Picture the Christmas rush in the Philippines, and you were almost there with me.
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September122010
“Menstruation has historically, socially and culturally been cloaked in fear and shame. Deconstructing these beliefs, with brute force when necessary, is empowering.”
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The UN Public Administration Network offers free e-courses on development-related issues, with completion certificates to boot. What are you waiting for? Enroll to one of these, as soon as you can! *Backgrounder: a number of these e-courses were designed/recorded/set up in the Philippines*
I am in the middle of the Monitoring and Evaluation of the MDGs e-course. Hope to finish it soon. And I am just doing it on the side, normally 10 minutes each before I go to bed.
