Dear GKD Members, Hello and great question about the telecenters! I have listed some I know of below (Fantsuam among them), then more general reources, and finally mentioned projects with which I am affiliated, through KAIPPG <www.kaippg.org>, an HIV/AIDS and development nonprofit with HQ in Kenya and my international branch in the USA. We had had a few computers in Kenya for office use until the GenARDIS grants (see below)--in 2003 and now 2005--allowed us to introduce ICTs more widely into our activities and in the communities we serve. Thanks much and look forward to hearing from others and sharing more about our own work! All best wishes,
Janet Feldman KAIPPG International [EMAIL PROTECTED] ********************************************* Telecenters: Asante Akim Multipurpose Community Telecenter: http://www.patriensa.com (Ghana) CAWD (Committee for African Welfare and Development) http://www.cawd.info Owerri Digital Village (Nigeria): http://www.unites.org/cfapps/WSIS/story.cfm?Sid=22 (more on this is at the Youth for Technology site, which doesn't seem to be working today, but just recently checked in and they were doing fine...www.youthfortechnology.org) Nakaseke Telecenter (Uganda): http://ip.cals.cornell.edu/commdev/documents/module06.doc I first found out about this project and org. through WOUGNET (Women of Uganda Network), which has other such resources too: www.wougnet.org MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (India): http://www.mssrf.org/index.htm Datamation Foundation: http://www.datamationfoundation.org/villageict.htm WiRED International: http://www.wiredinternational.org (10 countries worldwide have health-related telecenters) UNITeS: http://www.unites.org (telecenters have been set up through this program) Multiple Listings of Telecenters and related resources globally: www.developmentgateway.org (6 pages of resources) http://wriws1.digitaldividend.org/wri/app/index.jsp http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/index.cfm?keywords=Telecenters&resource=f1 <http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3938&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECT IO N=201.html> In Kenya, two programs w/which I am connected, as a member of KAIPPG (Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group): 1) http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/ovf/projects/ovf_kenya/grassup.html (a multi-party nonprofit coalition, sponsored by The Commonwealth of Learning, with ICTs/ODL projects in 3 communities, and in each a telecenter...KAIPPG is establishing a group of information kiosks in addition to a centralized community center, this due in part to 2 GenARDIS grants) 2) http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/frontpage/29 ("Kenya" entry) GenARDIS 2003 competition The latter project actually began the community telecenter and kiosks approach we have been able to develop in the rural communities we serve in W. Kenya. KAIPPG works in a number of districts there, and our holistic program encompasses all aspects of addressing HIV/AIDS, plus poverty/income-generation, mal/nutrition and food security, education and healthcare, environmental sustainability, and gender/youth concerns. For both GenARDIS 2003 and 2005 (we have just won a second grant to build upon our first project), we introduced ICTs--radio, mobile phones, audio (cassette/recorders) and visual (video and photography)--to the women's groups who comprise our nutritional field schools. They now have a range of information and new skills with which to gain access to markets for their products, create multimedia educational content, become advocates for their own needs and interests, and ensure a better livelihood and health for themselves and their families. Most of these women are farmers, most HIV/AIDS-affected in some way, and--before this project--some 90% had little to no literacy. The GenARDIS 2005 grant will allow us to set up more information-kiosks, create more multimedia content, and improve our learning centers. Through the GRASSUP NOW project ("Grassroots Underpinnings: Poverty, Nutrition, ODL/ICTs, Women"), the parties involved have developed both a model of cooperation and packages of contents (educational modules) in the areas of income-generation, nutrition, and environmental education. Each of 3 parties is operating in part already via learning centers, and upgrading and further development of these centers are planned for the next phases of the project. We may also work with the Kenyan government and others on an e-government initiative which is being discussed now. We did start out as an organization focusing on development, and then added ICTs. One or more of our partners does have ICTs as integral to its development purpose and mission, however, and one partner is a Kenyan affiliate of World Computer Exchange in Boston, an ICTs-based company seeking to use them for development purposes. We (individually as KAIPPG and collectively as GRASSUP do hope that what we are doing can be translated into a "model" and used by others, and there has been interest in doing so as expressed by orgs in other parts of Africa. The integrative focus on ICTs, nutrition, income-generation, health issues may be breaking new ground in some ways, but we are not alone in doing this kind of work. In fact, some of the resources used to help us craft the ideas for our GenARDIS grants came from the groundbreaking work of others, like Nancy Hakfin and Helen Hambly Odame, who have researched and written on the topics of "gender and ICTs" (http://www.apc.org/english/hafkin/haf_about.shtml, http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hhambly). Another Resource: Title: Telecenters and the Gender Dimension: An Examination of How Engendered Telecenters are Diffused in Africa Graduation Year: 2003 View Thesis: http://cct.georgetown.edu/thesis/KelbyJohnson.pdf Abstract Telecenters have become an important component to development programs that seek to narrow the digital and knowledge divides that exist throughout the world. Despite the proliferation of telecenters throughout Africa, women continue to be cut off from essential info- communication resources that could improve their lives. This thesis examines the relationship between gender differences, telecenter design and women's accessibility to information and communication technologies (ICTs). By examining how these elements interact in the context of the diffusion model, this thesis suggests that the incorporation of the gender dimension into telecenter designs can enhance the diffusion of engendered telecenters, thereby increasing women's access to ICTs and improving their ability to contribute to the evolution of Africa's information society. ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
