At the forefront of tech for good in Africa

Earlier this month, our founder Hadiya Masieh visited Kenya to take part in the Africa Bitcoin Conference. The event was an exciting opportunity to see how using Bitcoin can actually help people in crisis zones to have access to money in a much easier and flexible way than ever.

Hadiya talked about the financial freedom that this can offer and the work that we at Groundswell have been doing to upskill people on how they can use Bitcoin.

The conference was also an opportunity to reconnect with one of our advisors - Hanan Ibrahim - who is using Bitcoin to raise funds towards empowering women in Africa to get into politics.

Watch one of the conference sessions on the theme of 'Bitcoin for Peace and Freedom' by clicking on the video.

Multi-cultural Christmas drop-in this week

Our Community Connector in Manchester, Angela, is busy preparing for a charity Christmas meal this Sunday (29 December).

Being delivered in collaboration with the Open Kitchen Manchester, there will be a hot meal, hot drink and great company on offer for members of the community who may not have other opportunities to celebrate this festive season.

Angela and the Open Kitchen team are also still looking for extra volunteers for the event, so if you are in Manchester this weekend, do get in touch via our social channels linked in this newsletter.

If you want to attend or pass on the information to others who may wish to, the event is on from 2-4pm this Sunday at the Open Kitchen, 366 Dickenson Road, Longsight, Manchester. Donations will also be greatly welcomed - please donate using the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

Mothers for Change course to launch in Luton

Our popular Mothers for Change course - which we have developed and run in several areas - is set to launch in Luton in January.

Our Community Connector Leela said: "We are excited to help empower parents to protect their children from online hate, divisive content and other threats. We understand these threats can be a major cause of anxiety and mental health issues for parents, and this course helps mothers safeguard their children without unrealistic online bans."

The six-week course begins on 13 January and there are still spaces available. Anyone interested in taking part should email kanika@groundswell.world for more information.

Training sessions continue to have an impact

Some of our core work that has run for several years now is our vital education sessions for young people on how to tackle the hate, misogyny and division that is always a threat in today's world.

We have been funded through MOPAC's Shared Endeavour Fund to run our Communities Countering Hate sessions in a number of settings including schools and colleges across London, and are also working through the Prevent programme to deliver these courses outside of the capital.

Our dedicated team are having a real impact and it's also been great this year to have been joined in the delivery of these courses by Freddie Feltham, who is known for his work to tackle the misogyny that is often portrayed online to young men.

Get in touch with us through any of our social or email channels to find out more about where and when we are running these sessions.

Playing our part in stopping racism in sport

Our Community Connector in Glasgow, Adeel, has once again this year played a key role in delivering the Race and Racism Conference focused on Scottish sport in November.

Having co-founded the event last year, this year's conference was run by Sport Scotland and Sporting Equals.

A lot of Adeel's work in Scotland has focused on how sport can be a uniting factor across the communities where we work, including being one of the driving forces behind the re-emergence of the ancient sport of kabbadi.

To get in touch and find out more about his work, you can email adeel@groundswell.world.

Interfaith Week - an opportunity for reflection

We were privileged to be hosted by the Women Interfaith Network in November as Hadiya was invited to speak as part of a panel for Interfaith Week.

The talk - titled 'Keeping Faith - three months on from the riots' - gave Hadiya and others the opportunity to reflect on what caused the riots in August, and what we can all do to try and build peace in our communities.

Watch a clip of Hadiya's reflections on Instagram here.

Download our Kindness Mapper app!

In September, we were excited to relaunch our innovative Kindness Mapper.

The Kindness Mapper is now available on a new web platform and we have also made it available as an app via the App Store and Google Play Store.

As well as finding out what's happening in your local area, there's a brand new feature that allows you to donate to organisations you support.

Lots of feedback we've received over the years has been that people would find our mapper easier to use in app form, so we are really excited to finally make that a reality. Find out more about the map here. Download for iPhone here and on Google Play here.