Source: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently presented its 2011 Access to Learning Award amounting $1 million to the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN). ALIN is engaged in providing knowledge and information through a variety of innovative channels in remote communities throughout Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
ALIN’s Knowledge Centers provide people in these communities with the opportunity to use the technology and other tools for gaining information to improve their health, increase their incomes, and better their lives. Microsoft, a partner of the foundation in its efforts to help public libraries connect people with relevant technology and skills, will provide ALIN with a donation of over US$270,000 worth of software and technology training curriculum to help the organization serve the local community.
Main focus of ALIN’s 12 Knowledge Centers, also known as Maarifa Centers, is to provide practical information, particularly in the area of agricultural development. The vast majority of people in these regions are small-scale farmers who are in continuous need of information concerning issues like drought, pests, and finding markets for their crops. The centers customize their strategy according to the needs of local communities.
“We understand that each community we serve is different, and each individual we serve is different,” said James Nguo, director of ALIN. “Some communities need information about water harvesting, while others are dealing with a particular kind of pest. We’ve also found that while some people have taken to the computers and technology, others prefer live demonstrations or lectures in their native language.”
Besides providing agricultural information to farmers, Maarifa Centers also concentrate on health issues such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, ways to improve people’s daily lives such as how to create an energy efficient biogas stove, and administrative requirements such as applying for an official identity card or getting tax exempt status. Some people have used the centers to create groups for the disabled, earn advanced degrees online, or create thriving small businesses.
“Thousands of people in these remote communities of Eastern Africa are improving their lives through the information available at these centers,” said Deborah Jacobs, director of the Global Libraries initiative for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at an award ceremony in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “All knowledge workers can learn from this inventive model of delivering targeted, customized information.”
All Maarifa Centers offer free access to computers and the Internet and provide free training in how to use them. Because there is only one paid staff member at each center, ALIN relies on volunteer facilitators to help provide core services. These volunteers receive training in a variety of key areas, including computer skills, good farming practices, treatment of medical conditions, and communications skills, which they use to educate others in their communities.
ALIN will use the award towards expanding its network of Knowledge Centers, upgrading its hardware and software, increasing the number of computers available to its users, and expand on the training and education provided to its community knowledge facilitators. ALIN also hopes to create an innovation center to advance ideas in information and communication technology.
