Pamela, Congratulations on the online debut of the InfoCentre in Ago-Are. What an excellent example of a grassroots telecentre initiative in a developing region.
Elizabeth Dr. Elizabeth Carll Focal Point International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; Chair Media/ICT Working Group, NGO Committee on Mental Health, New York Tel: 1-631-754-2424 Fax: 1-631-754-5032 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Pamela McLean Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 5:42 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Telecentres] Introduction and Basic Telecentres Ref reaching out into the community and information flows. The current situation at the little InfoCentre in Ago-Are may be of interest. (Any researchers wanting to follow up on this would be welcome). I have not introduced myself previously on this list and have only been able to dip into this discussion from time to time. This email ties into various discussions about the variety of telecentres, especially small ones, and their connections with their communities (most recently contributions from David Leeming and Elizabeth Carll) Yesterday the InfoCentre was connected to the Internet for the first time. Until now its information flow has been limited by lack of connectivity - now information will be able to flow more freely. We do not have the human resources to monitor and evaluate what will be happening as Ago-Are comes to terms with connectivity. This could be an excellent research opportunity. Please circulate this information to anyone who might be interested. I will be keeping some kind of records and already have a considerable archive to share if anyone is interested in using it.. This is a brief history . The InfoCentre opened in June 2003. It is a bottom up initiative - largely self funded. It is in rural Nigeria, set up by OCDN (Oke-Ogun Community Development Network) - originally a committee set up by three chiefs to support the vision of a local man, the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale. Through "historic reasons of friendship" it is supported from the UK by Lorraine Duff and me (under the name "CAWD volunteers"). We use our home computers to access the Internet on behalf of our friends in rural Nigeria. In August 2003 a needs analysis was done in Ago-Are at the request of COL (Commonwealth of Learning). As a result, COL introduced OCDN to IITA (the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture) and a collaboration ensued - hence the VSAT installation yesterday.. This history means that the community around the little Ago-Are InfoCentre already has friends in the connected community. OCDN and CAWD volunteers have linked across the digital divide from way back in 2001, working together to get the InfoCentre open and to achieve connectivity. The InfoCentre links with a women's group which meets once a week and with a farmers' group which also meets once a week. There are links with teachers, health workers, the youth groups, the traditional ruler and his chiefs, the local government, and the local religious leaders. There is a skills base. There is a local manager and an experienced local trainer. There is a core groups of people who have attended ICT training courses who work at the InfoCentre as volunteers in order to practice their skills. There are good links. There are close personal links across the digital divide. There are relays of communication links - from the local community, linked to the InfoCentre, linked to the CAWD volunteers, linked to the connected community, Now the local community can begin to communicate with the connected community directly - and we will discover what information does in fact begin to flow. Pamela McLean CAWD volunteer and CawdNet convenor CawdNet – Networking in rural Nigeria and the virtual communities of the Internet. For an introduction to CawdNet http://www.cawdnet-intro.blogspot.com To subscribe to the newsletter http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/oocd2000plus To contribute www.bmycharity.com/cawd1 <http://www.bmycharity.com/cawd1> For how it all started www.cawd.info <http://www.cawd.info/> _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
