[Telecentres] Introduction and Basic Telecentres

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

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
ecarll at optonline.net

-----Original Message-----
From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org
[mailto:telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org]On Behalf Of Pamela McLean
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 5:42 AM
To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
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/>


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