GlobalGiving.org: Internet Cafe in Lyantonde, Uganda

New Ways to Link Permaculture and ICT training

Seva Gandhi — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:22:57 GMT

In the past few months many exciting new developments have happened within the Lyantonde Internet Center Project. Currently, Project FOCUS and our local partner ICOD Action Network are working together to create a three year sustainability plan for the center, as well as working on a plan to fuse together the permaculture work in Lyantonde with ICT training and internet use.

Ahabwe Michael, the executive director of ICOD Action Network, was recently in the United States on the Bold Food Fellowship, learning practical skills on conservation farming, sustainable agriculture, and permaculture principles. During his visit, Ahabwe also found time to speak about food security at the Jane Addams Hull House at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and about ICOD Action Network, the internet center, and challenges the town of Lyantonde is currently facing on Worldview with WBEZ’s Jerome McDonnell.

During Ahabwe's visit, Project FOCUS and ICOD Action Network met and had excellent discussions on the future of both the internet center and permaculture training in Lyantonde. The internet center is doing well, with an average increase of 12% customer usage per month since its opening. The next step Project FOCUS and ICOD Action Network have decided to take is to create a plan to use the internet center and information access to crop prices and sustainable agriculture to supplement the permaculture and conservation farming training that will take place within several different communities in Lyantonde.

Staff member Madelene Pario was also recently in Lyantonde, taking a closer look at the outreach potential of the internet center, and staff member Seva Gandhi is headed to Lyantonde in a couple of weeks to work with ICOD Action Network on future programming plans.

ICT and Permaculture Training in Lyantonde

Florencia Rojo — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:23:43 GMT

With your help, the Lyantonde Internet Center opened its doors in June 2010, providing people with access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) previously unavailable in the area.

Individuals now have access to the internet for personal and professional use, but the benefits of the center extend beyond individual use. ICOD Action Network and Project FOCUS have partnered to provide capacity-building training on a community level through the Center. Thus far, over 60 people have been trained in ICT, nearly 70% of whom are women.

In addition to ICT training, Project FOCUS and ICOD Action Network have also partnered to implement a 1 week long Permaculture workshop for local farmers in the rural community. 137 farmers, over 80% women, participated in the Permaculture skills workshop.

Our partnership will continue to serve the general population of the Lyantonde region, with an emphasis on developing practical skills, especially for women.

One Permaculture training participant, Nalukwago Fatuma, shared her experience with us: "Before March this year, none of us here in Lyantonde knew about permaculture... Throughout this course, I was introduced to many new things that are very important for our daily lives like planting a food forest and embracing nature so as to sustain ourselves and the future generations. I now believe that our standards of living can only be achieved if we only embrace nature and preserve it."

2010 - A Year to be Proud Of!

Daniel Yang — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:13:27 GMT

Project FOCUS started 2010 with our biggest goal ever: to build an Internet Center in Lyantonde, Uganda. Last year, you played a pivotal role in making this goal a reality. Please click here to view our 2010 Annual Report.

In 2010...

Our community contributed over $28,000 to fund the building of the Internet Center in Lyantonde.
We established a partnership with the Lyantonde community-based organization, ICOD Action Network.
We formed relationships with six different schools around Chicago who raised funds to "adopt" computers for the new Internet Center.
We opened the first Internet Center in Lyantonde, Uganda with more 3,000 visits from community members since its opening.
We organized five agricultural groups in rural villages surrounding Lyantonde to create a system of information sharing and skill building, and the center has partnered with female trainees from the village agricultural co-ops to provide ICT training.

We would like to thank all of you who have been involved with Project FOCUS; without you, our accomplishments this year would have never been possible. Whether you have invested your time, your talents, your ideas, or your hard earned money, we are deeply grateful for your support.

If you have trouble viewing the annual report, please copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=63337

ICT Essay Competition

Daniel Yang — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:52:41 GMT

This fall, our local partner ICOD Action Network hosted an essay competition for Ugandan students in secondary school. The essay competition was entitled "ICT a powerful tool," with the objective of assessing students' understanding of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and increasing the adoption of ICT among younger users. Three winners from the competition were awarded "back to school" packages including mattresses, school books, and other supplies. This year's winners, selected by an independent committee of Ugandan school teachers, are Agnes Komujuni, John Baptist Ssenkyai, and Bernard Byakatonda.

Here are a few excepts from the winning essays, organized by topic:

ICT in Schools

"[ICT] can be a catalyst by providing tools which teachers use to improve teaching and by giving learners access to electronic media that make concepts clearer and more accessible."

-Agnes Komujuni St. Gonzaga SSS

ICT in Homes

"In homes, [ICT] has enabled many people to benefit by playing computer games, listening to music, watching the latest videos, retouch a photograph, and then provides leisure activities to many people that enables individuals to relax for proper working during the next day, thus promoting development."

-John Baptist Ssenkayi St. Gonzaga SSS

ICT in Businesses

"Economically, ICT promotes trade. Goods can be sold and bought online thus reducing the risks involved as well as saving time."

-Bernard Byakatonda, Ian College S5

Vlog #5 – Agriculture Information Sharing Program

Daniel Yang — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:43:24 GMT

As the Internet Café continues to develop, Grant has been working closely with ICOD to implement an Agriculture Information Sharing Program to bring better agriculture practices to rural villages surrounding Lyantonde. Our latest video blog highlights two group leaders who are receiving free ICT training so they can retrieve necessary information from the Internet and share it with their local farming communities. We’re also excited to announce that ICOD’s Director, Ahabwe Michael, has taken over the video camera and will be continuing our Vlog series that documents the progress of the Internet Café.

We're proud to introduce Michael's first video! (Link below)

Links:

VLog 5

ICT is Key to Rural Development

Michael M. Ahabwe — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:02:59 GMT

Director of ICOD, our Ugandan partner, publishes a letter in Uganda's leading newspaper - the Monitor:

ICT is Key to Rural Development

‘…most farmers still lack access to information that is vital like commodity prices, accurate weather forecasts, availability of markets and what to grow when, using which technology…’ Ms Maractho wrote in a well-thought out article in Daily Monitor of June 29 about the importance of ICT in empowering rural farmers.

I agree with Ms Maractho that the government and related institutions have failed farmers, especially in equipping them with the skills relevant in their lives. And with NAADS performance in the spotlight, it’s time to explore other avenues of enabling farmers to benefit from their enterprises.

When farmers lack access to information relevant in their daily lives, it increases their chances of being exploited by middlemen. Due to the collapse of cooperative marketing boards, less than 5 per cent of rural farmers directly sell their produce to national or international markets, and lack access to information on crops/animal diseases, prevention of such diseases and weather forecasts.

The year 2011 is beckoning on the wings of promises of heaven and earth! Recently, an aspiring political leader spoke at a rural NGO’s launch of an ICT centre and he had good news for the folks in attendance (who included my parents)… “You should always vote people like us who have brought this service to you. In addition to this, I am giving so-and-so village a Shs300 million feeder road so that you can stop complaining.”

Everyone clapped and the political leader smiled. Was he smiling because the masses had fallen for his fiction, or was it for the “service” that he had brought them? Maybe both! False promises to offer essential services may earn a politician votes but they keep rural folks marred in poverty. Access to information about one’s life and environment is vital to changing them. As Ms Maractho put it, ICT is key to empowering farmers and must be adopted in rural development.

It is important to establish ICT centres with the aim to help Selected farmer’s group members and to train a network of people living with Aids in computer and Internet use. The centres will be able to collect and locally relay information that the community group has requested from the Internet. With approaches like this, I am certain that the rural population can be empowered and can find their way out of poverty.

Michael M. Ahabwe, ahamitch@gmail.com www.icoduganda.org

Links:

ICT is key to rural development

Internet Cafe Opened!

Grant Buhr — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:08:10 GMT

Its finally here! On June 5th, 2010 the Lyantonde Internet Center was launched. This project is a collaborative effort between ICOD and Project FOCUS several years in the making. We are very grateful to those who have supported us in this endeavor and are excited about the information the center will bring to the community of Lyantonde. The cafe is connected through a satellite internet access and powered by solar panels. This video blog shows the creation and opening of the cafe. There was a bicycle race to commence opening day festivities along with a lot of excitement and good spirit.

View our 4th video log:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aq1as9ISv0

Links:

Video Log 4

Project FOCUS Video Log 3

Grant Buhr — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:06:33 GMT

In this third video blog we get a look at the Bwera Information Center. The center was founded in 2003 as a community based organization and is run and owned by a consortium of about 40 local civil society organizations. Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the predominantly rural farming communities, with a special focus on women and marginalized groups.

On a demand driven basis, BIC provides information on agriculture, marketing, soil and water conservation, human rights, good governance, basic health care, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection, education, gender and peaceful conflict resolution and coexistence. BIC has grown into a centre where local people meet and freely share information and meet Martin a member of ICOD.

Five farmers within the Lyantonde community will learn about effective IT communication and information dissemination through the center. We also meet Martin, a community development officer within ICOD who talks about the importance of the information Bwera had to offer.

View the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectFOCUSorg#p/a/u/1/NRzStFIgiSg

Links:

Video Log 3

Featured as a Model of Fundraising

Daniel Yang — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:02:39 GMT

This week, Project FOCUS was featured on Inveneo's ICTworks site as a model for fundraising in their story, 'How to Fundraise Money for Computer Labs and Internet Cafes in 3 Easy Steps.' While I can't think of anyone in Project FOCUS who would put the words "fundraising" and "easy" in the same sentence, Inveneo does a great job of highlighting the key components of our fundraising strategy.

http://www.ictworks.org/news/2010/04/12/how-fundraise-money-computer-labs-and-internet-cafes-3-easy-steps

Inveneo is a partner with Project FOCUS in establishing the internet cafe in Lyantonde. They are a non-profit social enterprise that gets the tools of information communications technology to people and organizations in rural and highly underserved communities of the developing world. Click here to visit Inveneo's website:

Inveneo.org

Links:

Project FOCUS Video Log 2

Grant Buhr — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:52:08 GMT

Video Log 2 - A space for learning, sharing, creating and income generation!

In his second video blog Grant welcomes the Project FOCUS community to the empty space that will soon be transformed into the community Internet Cafe. He also introduces Michael, the founder of our partnering organization, ICOD, and takes us on a brief trip to the Lyantonde market where we can see and hear some local flavors of the community.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectFOCUSorg#p/a/u/2/EcxwfOmAUiI

Links:

Video Log 2

Project FOCUS Video Log 1

Grant Buhr — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:37:59 GMT

Our First Video Blog from Uganda!

Welcome to the first of my video blogs from Uganda.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectFOCUSorg#p/u/3/T1IP-UrPVZ0

I hope this can help you to feel a little more connected to the lives you've touched in Lyantonde through your support of Project Focus and our work here. This is an introduction, and with each posting I'll try to go a little deeper into life in Lyantonde.

Links:

VLog 1

Project FOCUS featured on Worldview

Daniel Yang — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:30:26 GMT

Project FOCUS was featured on the Chicago Public Radio program - Worldview. Our long-term volunteer, Grant Buhr, spoke with host Jerome McDonnell on the weekly Global Activism series about the history of Project FOCUS, our philosophies, and our current development project - an internet center in Southwestern Uganda. Listen to the interview here:

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?segmentID=40136

Jerome McDonnell hosts Chicago Public Radio’s long-running global affairs program Worldview. From Nobel Peace Prize winners to Nicaraguan sweatshop workers, Worldview highlights a range of voices that go beyond the headlines.

The show also delves deep into the people and forces shaping Chicago’s world communities, exploring issues and events through in-depth series and public events.

Links:

Listen to the interview

Press Release

Daniel Yang — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:50:06 GMT

Project FOCUS is partnering with local organizations in rural Southwest Uganda to launch an Internet Cafe, providing access to information and communication previously unavailable to residents of the region. The Cafe will also provide technology skills training, a revenue source for a local community-run primary school, and allocate space and tools for the production of creative multi-media projects.

Web access provides communities with the opportunity to improve social welfare and claim their voice in the global conversation on strategies for rural development. With this service, the local populace will benefit from direct links to job, educational, weather, and health information, as well as more efficient markets for produce and products.

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan warns of the danger of excluding poor rural communities from the Internet: “People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, healthcare and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may, indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them.”

In a time when most development strategies are being created and authorized from behind desks in Washington D.C., the Internet Cafe initiative is a culmination of a running partnership between Project FOCUS and Ugandan service organization ICOD (Integrated Community Efforts for Development) aimed at implementing community-lead, sustainable development projects in the southwestern district of Lyantonde, Uganda, a region that continues to be heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Looking forward, Project FOCUS and ICOD see this service as a financial and physical foundation for change in the region, as the Internet Cafe holds significance both for direct participants and the broader economy. The two organizations have their sights set on supporting growth and stability in the key sectors of community development – education, health, agriculture, business – and will continue to champion locally developed solutions to local challenges.

Links:

1 minute promo video

Attachments:

Internet Center Media Kit (PDF)