Yema yema! (Get up and do something)

Mijn 1e Hivos post!

One month ago I arrived in Pretoria, South Africa, to join Ungana-Afrika through PSO's Youth Zone Program, facilitated by Hivos. Ungana-Afrika is a young organisation passionate about making sure South(ern) Africa does not miss out on the benefits Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can provide. This is right up my alley since I have a passion for ICT4D (ICT for Development).

Participatory Entrepreneurship Development
I am currently setting up my own project: Participatory Entrepreneurship Development. Together with people who live in areas that currently lack the benefits of ICT services I will assess what their information and communication needs are. Based on these needs we identify, again in a participatory manner, ideas for setting up viable social enterprises that will provide beneficial services for the community. After business idea generation I aim to assist entrepreneurs in setting up their businesses by performing feasibility studies and business plan development. Last week I joined a colleague in the field where we conducted interviews to gauge what information and communication needs people in under-served communities have.

Persevere
Ms. Mirriam Mahlangu from the arts and crafts cooperative called Kgotlelela (persevere) in Verena would love to reach international markets with her beautiful beadwork and other crafts. For the past three years she had a grant by the South African government allowing her to pay the ladies in her cooperative a stipend of ZAR 800 or EUR 80 per month. With this grant expired she is all the more determined to make sure she can sell more of the group's products giving her ladies the opportunity to provide for their families. Mirriam knows that the internet offers innovative ways of marketing and selling and is convinced a website could help her sell more. Seeing potential customers in all strangers that visit her she proudly showed us the World Cup 2010 ball her ladies minutely covered with beads in perfect patterns. She is one determined lady making her group's name very appropriate!

No ICT literacy and “you're out”
The headmaster (Mr. George Maliakel) of one of the schools we visited indicated that students who graduate without the knowledge of computers simply “are out”; a big additional barrier is created for these children to get into and do well at University. He wants his pupils to be able to search the internet for background information for their assignments and to become computer literate. Earlier government projects had promised him internet, and a satellite and wires have been installed, but since then nothing has happened. This is one of the reasons Ungana-Afrika supports social enterprises that offer ICT services, for an affordable price, but with the money making incentive to keep going.

Interestingly schools are required by the educational department to submit surveys online twice a year. School employees travel to internet cafés in nearby towns to be able to comply with this requirement. According to another headmaster we spoke to “the department is moving towards everything being submitted online”. Also there are assessment forms provided by the department of education that require students to look up information on the internet.

If my project ends up making life easier for any of the beautiful committed people we spoke to, I will be very content.