Proud to have mastered Web2.0 PDF Print E-mail

"Today we are proud, for we have managed to sit in front of a computer. We have braved our fears and we have succeeded. We have demystified this tool, which we thought was mainly reserved for intellectuals." There was a feeling of overwhelming pride at the close of the training workshop held from 27 April to 8 May 2009 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Attending the sessions were 26 rural women who gathered from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Niger to master the main tools offered by Web2.0 (Spore 129, page 8).

The workshop, funded by CTA, was aimed at members of the Union of Rural Women of West Africa and Chad (URWWAC). As well as basic handling of text and photos, participants learned how to send emails, create and maintain a blog, chat online and use Skype and discussion groups. One lady taking part, from Togo, said she was happy that she would now be able to "communicate with my female colleagues (ed note: from URWWAC) without having to travel, no matter how great the distance." Another advantage was that "thanks to ICTs, we are going to improve our image in our countries and communities - no one will be more surprised than our husbands and children."
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Comments  

 
0 #2 2009-07-10 06:54
It is very encouraging to hear rural women sharing this kind of joy. I work for an organization called PELUM Kenya and when we established rural resource Centres in Kenya in 2005, and connected them to the then low cost means of accessing internet for basic information, a lot of people were skeptical about their sustainability. The organizations working directly with the communities did not give up with lower uptake rates. However, slowly the centres have diversified activities and the Mbambe Resource Centre in Western Kenya has been proposed for the government's Millennium Digital Villages! The Centre supported by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), named Kyuso Information Supermarket has attracted a lot of attention and diversified their ICT activities especially through information access through offline methods by e.g. use of CD ROMS. With the mobile telephone network becoming more accessible in Kenya, we hope for the improvement of these centres. After this, a Regional workshop is set to take place in Moshi Tanzania, targeting PELUM Association member countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
 
 
0 #1 2009-07-10 06:43
Very interesting! The ICTs can really revolutionalize agriculture in the long run by improving communications at a global scale!
 

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