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Kenya
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Category:
A Global Village
Vision, objectives and goals:
(i) To help bridge the digital divide between the have- and the have- Nots. Internet access has been a preserve of the rich. We at SIDAREC is trying to bridge this gap and make sure that information is made available even to the poor. Information is power.
(ii) To help reduce unemployment through computer and Internet training. We intend to start teaching web design. Computer training has enabled some youths to land jobs with corporate sectors, thus reducing the level of unemployment in the slums.
(iii) To create access to development opportunities in the slums.
(iv) To equip the youths living in the slums with computer kNowledge
This project is unique in the sense that it was started by the youths and offers training to the youths in and out of school to acquire computer skills. Through Internet, the youths have come across several organizations worldwide almost doing / carrying the same activity.
As an advocacy organization, SIDAREC has a web-site and operates a cybercafe, which enables young people from the poor neigbourhoods learn about information techNology especially the Internet.
These youths have been able to open their e-mail addresses where they could receive their messages from friends.
This project is unique in the sense that through memorandum of understanding, SIDAREC youths have undertaken to train more youths from other slums of Nairobi. The aim here is to open the slums to the international community at the same time opening the eyes of these young people to see what goes on beyond the slums.
How ICT contributes to the organisational objectives:
The reason of starting this program was to equip the young people living in the slums with information techNology. Africa has been left behind from industrial revolution to information techNology, and it is from this reason that the Ford Foundation came out with this program to benefit youths living in the slums of Nairobi who are disadvantaged in every sphere of life.
The Resource centre has proved more popular with the young people than expected. Several young people coming for the slums have benefited from free training of computer skills. The youths have been using Desktop Publishing to publish our monthly magazine called Slum news. From keying in articles to layouts and printing of the magazine.
This has saved the organization a lot of money, which we used to give other agency to do as the layouts.
Apart from services offered to the community like word processing, the community benefits from the use of web browsing, receiving and sending E-mails.
Training offered to the youths in the information techNology has helped some of the youths to acquire jobs related to information techNology. Several traders have benefited through the use of information techNology since some could Now sell their products directly to the foreign market. This is reducing poverty level among our people and enhancing better living conditions of our people.
We have also started offering basic computer skills to primary school teachers to equip them with computer skills. Our desire is to see that every school in the slums has computers and the children taught computer skills.
Our partners (Yen members) have gained considerably. Most of youths working in these organizations have been trained by SIDAREC youth and are Now computer literate. They also have E-MAIL accounts through SIDAREC and therefore could access their mail anywhere they want.
Above all, we¡¦ve managed to stir something in these youths that they have never realized before ¡V passion. They have a passion for information techNology and would even go at great length to kNow more. In other word, we have encouraged them to dream big dreams.
User needs:
Slums Information Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC) is a community owned youth Non-governmental organization established in April 1996. SIDAREC operates in the Pumwani and Mukuru Kwa Njenga informal settlements of Nairobi, which have a combined p
Summary:
It is a well-kNown fact that Africa lags behind in this era of information superhighway. The most affected are people residing in the slums and rural parts of Africa.
Slums Information Development and Resource Centres, formed by poor youths who have a passion to learn information techNology came into being .The organization is situated in Pumwani slums, one of the earliest slums started in 1902. It will be Noted that Pumwani slums with a population of 200,000 was a prime residential area designated for Africans by colonialists. Some of the prominent politicians and leaders who have once lived here among them is Kenya¡¦s first president, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Pumwani has a high population (over 200,000 people) whose needs exceed available resources. Most of infrastructure (roads, health and other social facilities) are those which were left by colonialists.
To a visitor, the scenario gives an impression of people living in abject poverty.
In 1996, about fifty young people came together to start an organization that will help the community from this cycle of poverty. We ackNowledge that there is a lot of potential in the community, but they lacked information to stir them in discovering their potentials. We started with the community magazines called Slum news / Habari Vijijini.
This magazine highlight issues on environment, social, cultural and ecoNomic, and places great emphasis on the need to build capacity among the local community members in order for them to tackle some of those social issues, like unemployment, HIV/AIDS, Illiteracy and igNorance.
The objectives of the organization was to: identify resourceful youths within the slums and convert their talents into useful returns for other community members; establish community media; reduce idleness among the youth which breeds delinquent behavior by establishing community resource centre and reduce incidences of children of ages 2-8 yrs running to the streets due to harsh socio-ecoNomic conditions within their families.
The project has been funded by Ford Foundation. The equipment purchased are six Compaq Computers with one designated as the server. Every machine has uninteruptable power supply (UPS). The computers are networked; therefore we use only one modem and a printer. We use telephone lines in the dial-up, which has proved to be very expensive.
The centre is managed by the local youths who have undergone training. They inturn train there peers in the use of computer, Internet browsing and E-mail.
We use the equipment in our publications (Slum News). We also use the equipment to produce business documents which we inturn use to train the community with Business management skills.
We also offer training to teachers who inturn teach their pupils how to use computer. We have also managed to find market for goods being made by the local communities outside the country. This inturn has been improving the lives of poor families.
Competition year:
2001