Folks, This looks like a good case study for Stephen's enquiry.
Bougainville is an island in the W. Pacific, scene of a ten-year conflict between the Papua New Guinea Government and secessionist movement the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. Peace has been regained in the last few years, but living standards and service levels still have a long way to catch up with those of even 30 years ago. ************************************************************ NGO BRINGS EMAIL ACCESS TO ISOLATED CENTRE ON BOUGAINVILLE An isolated training centre in the mountains of Bougainville, Paruparu Education Development Centre (PEDC), can now talk to the world, thanks to an email link provided by the Melanesian Farmer First Network (MFFN). The PEDC training centre is far from power and telephone services. "This may not sound remarkable but considering that PEDC is sending their emails from a saksak house in the mountains of central Bougainville, a full days walk from the nearest road, along which it is a further five hour truck trip to Buka, the only town on Bougainville with normal telephone lines and telecommunication, it has some significance as an innovative development project", said MFFN coordinator and TerraCircle member, Tony Jansen. "The rest of Bougainville's approximately 150 000 people have no communication services to the outside world", he said. The email connection will enable PEDC development workers and trainers, as well as others, to communicate with the wider world and to share their experiences and learn from others. Communication is important to communities in isolated regions of Melanesia as they are far from the international telecommunications networks and information is more difficult to find than in the cities. In the absence of telecommunications services and grid electricity, the email system relies on transmission by high-frequency (HF) radio. HF radio is used by development agencies and other organisations in Melanesia for communications between isolated outposts. The Bougainville station uses a similar system to that installed at a number of the project bases of the Kastom Gaden Association in the Solomon Islands, some of which use power produced by photovoltaic panels to run a laptop computer, data modem and HF radio. The PEDC system was installed by Andrew Mears from the University of Technology, Sydney. Andrew is associated with the regional development agency, TerraCircle. The project was not without mishap. After a secondhand laptop computer was obtained by Sydney TerraCircle associate, Fiona Campbell, it was stolen by raskols (the PNG Pijin term for criminals) during a holdup in Port Moresby. Andrew donated a replacement laptop which he took to Bougainville without mishap. The laptop was connected to a HF radio using a data modem. This allows PEDC to connect to a base station in Goroka in the PNG Southern Highlands where a local development NGO, CRMF, has its headquarters. >From there, messages are transmitted directly into the internet using the PNG telephone system. "The isolation of Paruparu is not unusual in Melanesia, where most of the population is isolated to varying degrees", said Tony. "Their connection to the internet, via email, is particularly notable given the recent history of Bougainville where there was a total destruction of communication infrastructure during the 10 year Bougainville crisis. The system is yet to be restored despite almost seven years of peace. The reality is that even in pre-crisis times, when Bougainville was considered one of the more developed provinces in PNG, communities like Paruparu still had very little in the way of services. "The use of this type of communications technology, delivered through peoples' organisations like CRMF and PF Net (People First Networks, a telecommunications NGO) in Solomon Islands, is very exciting as it can be an important tool to help to break down the barriers and problems that have led to increasing conflict and frustration for rural communities across Melanesia." PEDC is part of the Melanesian Farmers First Network. The Network links NGOs in the Solomon Islands (Kastom Gaden Association/ Planting Material Network), the PNG Southern Highlands (Community-Based Health Care, Tari), Vanuatu (Farmers Support Association) and Bougainville. A number of participants in the Network are associates of TerraCircle, which is based in Australia and Solomon Islands. PEDC achieved remarkable feats during the Bougainville crisis, mobilising local communities to improve their health, agriculture and to make use of appropriate technologies at a time when they were totally isolated from the outside world and received virtually no assistance. During the conflict with PNG, PEDC's Linus Sia ran a communication workshop where he trained bush technicians to build and repair HF radios and other electronic equipment. "It is important that PEDC's ideas, experiences and lessons learned are shared with Bougainville and other parts of the Pacific and the world", said Tony. "The Bougainville email station follows one that went online at the Tari (PNG Southern Highlands) associate of MFFN just a few weeks ago". Other email stations in the network exist in the Solomon Islands at the Kolombangara seed centre, the village of Silolo, Malaita Province, and other locations. MFFN and PEDC's connection to the world was made possible with the assistance of Oxfam Australia in its support for the Melanesian Farmer First Network as well as PFNet Solomon Islands, CRMF Goroka and others. TerraCircle and MFFN: http://www.terracircle.org.au more on PEDC: http://www.terracircle.org.au/reports/boug.html Solomons' PF Net: http://www.peoplefirst.net.sb/General/PFNet.htm Cheers Roland Lubett Last-First Networks P.O. Box 1104 Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia Tel: +61 (0)2 6772 0333 Fax: +61 (0)2 6771 4560 *** Check out our new-look searchable website! http://www.lastfirst.net ------- linking practitioners * activists * organisations ------- ------ in holistic development ------ ------------ ***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]>. 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