Email for rural Africa Introduction:
I am exploring email options on behalf of a grass roots rural development project: OOCD 2000+ (Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus). Through historic reasons of friendship I use my home broadband Internet connection in the UK on behalf of the project. Any advice on technical issues, or organisational practicalities of setting up and running a bureau would be appreciated. The need: The email facility is needed in Ago-Are, Oke-Ogun, Oyo State, Nigeria. Communications are difficult. David Mutua, the field officer there, tries to use email services twice a month. This involves travelling to Ibadan, which is half a day away by public service vehicle. Despite his heroic efforts, even the target of twice-monthly use of email has proved impossible to achieve. David says there are many other people in his area travelling to Ibadan to send emails. He points out that although emails from Ago-Are, via satellite link, would probably be more expensive that the Ibadan ones, the total cost (avoiding the journey to Ibadan) would be competitive. Infrastructure: OOCD 2000+ will have to use a satellite link as the nearest phone services are in Ibadan. Electricity is a problem. There is a supply, but it is unreliable. Generators are expensive (and noisy and polluting - but expense is the local concern). Solar power would seem to be an attractive option, but is not in use locally. Project details: OOCD 2000+ is exploring appropriate ways to use ICTs to help the community to help itself. A committee of respected community leaders leads the project in Oke-Ogun. Options researched to date: One: Last June the committee saw the Solo prototype in use in Oke-Ogun. It seemed ideal as it is designed for rural use and is powered by a small solar panel. However it is not yet in production. We'd be interested to hear from other potential users, because if enough of us want it we might get it. Two: David found a reference to VITA Connect, so I copied their website onto a CD and that has now arrived in Oke-Ogun for viewing, using the project's laptop. This looks like a possible solution. We'd be interested to hear from other users. Funding Our project has no external funding at present, but our field officer will be attending a VSO workshop about that in January. We are intending to establish a sustainable email service in Ago-Are (ideally repicatble elsewhere in Oke-Ogun) but we may need some pump-priming help. Pam McLean On behalf of OOCD 2000+ (Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus) ------------ ***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/>
