Internet Cafe in Lyantonde, Uganda

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.

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."