Women in Africa

For as long as I have been coming to Africa I have always been struck by the profoundly important role African women play in society here and have been equally astounded about how unacknowledged that role is. Women literally do everything here. You rarely see women sitting around doing nothing.


They are either cooking, looking after children, washing clothes, cleaning houses, sewing, collecting water, working the land, running small enterprises like second hand clothes shops, fruit and vegetable shops etc. The list goes on and on. They truly are the fabric that holds African society together.

And yet more often than not they have no voice, no rights, no place to go if things go wrong in their domestic lives. Oftentimes they are forced to leave school early to look after the home and so go through life with little education unable to get out of the prison they are effectively in. In many parts of Africa, primitive practices like marrying off children as young as 8 years of age still take place. Female circumcision in the rural areas is still practiced. Domestic rape is rampant but more often than not abused women do not speak up for fear of the consequences. And even in some of the more 'advanced' cultures women are literally slaves to whatever a man desires. Systems have been setup that protect themselves from hard challenging questions through the use of draconian punishment for 'dissenters'.

Hence the oppressed women have no means to protest their subjugation for fear of what might happen to them and so the injustice continues.

Its one part of the culture out here that I find extremely difficult to just 'accept'. And in most circumstances just 'accepting' a cultural practice is the right thing to do. It makes for better dialogue between different cultural perspectives which ultimately leads to better understanding from both sides.

In this instance I just see the cultural practice as a form of primitive enslavement and a crass and abusive use of power on the part of men.

I visited a project the day before yesterday which was truly inspiring.

A couple of years ago a group of women got together under the magnificent leadership of a Masai woman called Veronica (I do not know her second name and I am sure that is not her Masai name!) to campaign for womens rights particularly in the rural areas of Kenya. Veronica is now in a wheelchair but battles on regradless. Her organisation is called TEWA.

After many years of hard work (and effectively no funding) they finally managed to convince the Kianda Foundation (a large educational foundation in Kenya) to support their cause.

In about 3 months time the magnificent TEWA training center in the Kilifi district (about an hour north of Mombasa) will open. The center will cater for about 100 women at a time giving them access to courses on literacy and numeracy, tailoring, cookery and nutrition, hygiene, agriculture and of course learning to use computers!



The center has full boarding facilities, classrooms and activity rooms and is surrounded by rich agricultural land where the women are taught to farm and cultivate crops.







The TEWA team really understand that learning about technology is crucial for the women that they are training. They have no doubts that entrepreneurial activity will result in this. I have no doubts either.

The center wants to have a state of the art computer training facility and has asked Camara to provide 50 computers - a ratio of one computer for every two women - so that peer to peer learning between the women can happen.
Women naturally embrace this form of learning which is a highly effective way of distributing knowledge. Men generally need to be brought kicking and screaming to a peer to peer learning session preferring to fight their collegaue over ownership of the computer;). Ahhh what the sexes can learn from one another especially us men....

I have no doubt that the partnership with TEWA will be a success. Again, I stress that these kind of partnerships are ideal for Camara particularly around the area of training.

If we can link with well established organisations that are reaching out to the most vulnerable members of the community here then it makes total sense that Camara provides the technical infrastructure and the training for these initiatives. And of course the trainers are local people who have been trained in the digital hub here;)

Suddenly, you can see people getting jobs from what they have learned here in the hub. An example of a development initiative that links education to enterprise - in my mind the holy grail of any development intervention.

If you can teach somebody something positive from which they manage to get a job then you are genuinely making a difference to somebodies life. And the catalyst for making this happen is these extraordinary educational tools we call computers. Thankfully not rotting in landfill sites...

Relative Poverty

Life is tough in Kenya at the best of times. The average wage out here is less than $100 a month with a huge percentage of people living on a lot less than that. What raises the average is a small percentage of extra-ordinarily wealthy people who live in palatial houses and drive cars most people in Ireland would be unable to afford.

The average person lives on a day to day basis. They only think about where the money for the next meal is going to come from. People are prepared to go to incredible lengths to keep going. A typical taxi driver for example who does not own their vehicle works anything up to 20 hours a day - more that half of this time is spent raising the money they need to pay the owner of the vehicle before they start earning money for themselves. This is done on a daily basis. If anything happens to the vehicle when its in his custody he is responsible for the bill. They can be fired at any stage even if they meet their rental commitments.

And this is the average person. Living a life like this makes it impossible to plan anything for the future. This is just existing. It brings home the point that poverty leaves you with no choices. That is the crux of the problem.

Now imagine if you had a disability out here and you are born into poverty. Quite literally, your only option is to beg and if that does not work you simply die on the streets.

Sometimes I wonder if looking after our most vulnerable is just a luxury of wealth. That is why it is essential we practice giving unconditionally so that giving becomes as instinctual to us as staying alive.

In 1972, a young 18 year old Kenyan boxer called Dick 'Tiger' Murunga won a bronze medal in the welter weight division at the Munich Olympics. It was an extraordinary achievement at the time and he instantly became a Kenyan national hero.

A number of years later he developed a debilitating shin injury (due apparently to over training and poor nutrition) which confined him to a wheelchair. Over the last number of years the 'Tiger' has been championing the cause for people with disabilities in Africa. He has tirelessly traveled the globe raising awareness and funds for this cause. He even managed to get an audience with Barack Obama when he was still a senator!

I met him this week to look at the possibility of Camara and his charity doing some work together.

One of the projects he is working on is the establishment of an accessible campus just outside Mombasa where people from all over the world with disabilities can visit. The idea is to raise national awareness around the needs of people with disabilities along with providing an outreach center and funding for local people with disabilities.

Part of this campus will include an accessible computer training center. Dick would like Camara to provide the computers for the center.

I think the partnership has fantastic potential. Here is a local hero, politically unaligned, championing the cause of one of the most marginalised communities in Kenya (and Africa generally) and he has recognised the potent role technology can play to help this cause.

As the Camara operations on the ground in Africa stabilise I have no doubt that more and more connections like this will happen. The audacity of hope....what a wonderful phrase;)

Pate Island Part 2

We took the orange tractor back to the beach after visiting the school to find a very welcome 4WD drive vehicle waiting for us. There literally are no roads on Pate, just walking paths through the vegetation and so to get around the islands you genuinely need a 4WD.

When I got into the car with my colleagues I immediately felt a distance from the reality of the place I was in. I felt like I was in a bubble looking out at the passing world - a visitor to an alien place protected from its harsh realities - able to witness what was going on but unable to really participate.

We passed by salt marshes and lagoons with lonely figures foraging for food seen only in silhouette in the distance.
We passed donkeys slowly walking in the baking sun carrying heavy loads being gently led by their owners who walked by their sides.

We occasionally saw monkeys and small antelopes scuttling across the road as we passed. Herds of goats held us up a couple of times and all the while passers by on the road staring at the big powerful machine so out of place in this stark and simple world.

Over the next few hours we visited various schools that had also been built by the American military. Once again the schools stood in total contrast to the villages built in stone with corrugated roofs as opposed to wood and thatch.

One of the more memorable places we visited was a town called Chungua. They had acquired a generator and a couple of Camara computers and were running a lab in the school. I was curious to see how they were getting on.

We arrived at the school and the generator was running. Only 4 computers out of twelve were on. They explained that if they turned on any more computers the surge protector cut off the electricity and all the computers turned off.

I asked them what the power output of the generator was and they told me that they thought it was 6 KW which should have been enough to power the computers (each computer needs about 400Watts max). I asked them for the generator handbook and discovered that the series 6 generator that they thought they had bought looked suspiciously like a series 3 generator which only output about 2 KW. Somebody had duped them when they bought the generator.

I felt so sorry for them. They had bought the generator in Mombasa and then had the enormous challenge of getting the machine up to the island intact and safe - to then discover that the machine would only power 4 computers.

I explained everything to the councillor and he promised to follow up....

That said, the computers were working and being used. In particular they loved the Camara Wikipedia. I came away convinced that every year we should upgrade and update the Camara Wikidepia and bring it with us for trips like this. It is a very powerful and useful tool for remote areas like these islands.

The head master explained that there was a huge drug problem developing on the islands. With little to do, young men and women were turning to drugs to escape the boredom. The computers however small in number as they were, were keeping people interested and engaged and many of the students asked to stay on after school to use them....it was good to hear this.

Then I noticed a young man wandering in the school yard. At first I thought I was looking at somebody from a strange tribe. His body was totally out of proportion with his head which was only the size of medium size grape-fruit.

He came over to me and I suddenly realised that he had huge learning difficulties. He stumbled over his words and made no real sense when he spoke. He was then joined by two others, a boy and a girl, that were similarly deformed. The head master came over to us and explained that they were 'mental' (his words not mine), that they were all from the same family but that they had two normal older brothers and that they could not 'learn'.

The young girl then tried to interject and showed me she could count up to seven.

'This one, she can learn' conceded the head master.

I asked what the problem was and he told me they suffered from microencephaly.

I had heard the term before but I had never met anyone suffering from the condition. I had a weak phone signal and was able to get onto the net to find out more.

Apparently if a pregnant woman catches illnesses like chicken pox or Rubella or suffers from alcohol or drug abuse microencephaly can occur. There is also a possibility that partners with too similar genetic makeup can case the condition to happen.

I gave the information to the councillor and he was amazed that I could get the information using my phone.

It occurred to me then just how powerful information access is to places as remote as this. Information access could literally save lives and reduce suffering and hardship. Who knows why these poor children were born like this but perhaps with the right information (particularly around the dangers of drug abuse when pregnant) births like this could be reduced.

I feel awful writing a sentence like that and I hope it does not come across the wrong way. If you are born with a disability then I truly believe our society should be setup to care for you. Out here though, if you are born with a disability there really is no support structure and everyone struggles more including the people trying to care for you.

The fact that people can be born with awful disabilities has always been an enormous spiritual challenge to me. I have never truly been able to reconcile it with the existence of a loving God. Its at times like this I wish John Moriarty was around to throw some light on this profound mystery. (If anyone reads this far and has any enlightening insight please fill me in..!)

We left Chungua and headed for Faza. Again the journey in the car was like traveling in a time machine to an age long since forgotten.

We passed by women pumping salt water from ancient wells - water they would use to clean dishes and wash in.








We saw rain catchment gutters designed to capture as much water as possible and feeding them into large black tanks for drinking water. We saw women making dresses from long grasses and leaves at the side of the road.

Faza is on the northern tip of the archipelago. In order to get to Faza town we had to leave the car on one side of a causeway and walk across a narrow stone bridge that stretched for about 200 metres to get to the town.




Millions of tiny crabs were running below us on the baking sand as the tide was out.

Naked children, covered in sand were playing chasing games with the crabs.

At this point I was utterly starving. I had forgotten to bring food with me foolishly thinking I could last the day on fruit and water. The councillor brought us to a local 'restaurant' where he said food had been prepared for us...

To be honest, I was dreading what was coming. I have had too many bad experiences eating local food and suffering for it afterwards. And I had a long boat journey home later that evening...

But I was so damn hungry. In the end I ate a marvelous meal of boiled beans and chapati bread washed down with a hot cup of masala (spiced) tea. I decided that, worst case scenario, my imminent bowel problems might come in useful. They could add a little horse power to our boat and speed up the journey home;)

A few hours later after visiting another school we were making our way back to the beach we had landed on. We had left it late and the sun was setting quickly. One of the reasons we were late was because we had to wait for the local fishermen to return from the sea with a gift for us....

The fishermen on these islands are legendary. They free dive and stay under water for over ten minutes and hand fish! They do not use nets....you would not believe how fit these men looked when they arrived with their catch.

They had caught a number of huge red and white snapper (about 20Kgs of fish) which we were urged to cook as soon as possible.

And so it was that we sped across the islands in the 4WD with this cargo watching the sun go down on this truly beautiful place.

I think I would have enjoyed the sunset more if I was not thinking how challenging it was going to be to navigate the mangrove reef that we had come through in the morning. It did not help that our captain waiting at the beach was urging us to get into the boat quickly.



The journey back across the open section was much rougher. The wind had risen and our little boat was thrown about quite a bit but thankfully all went well including my ability to contain the extra horsepower in my lower bowel. I could see a light ahead and it was clear that the captain was heading for it.

It turned out that the light was from a much larger boat owned by the local police commissioner. We managed to catch up with this boat and simply tailgated it as it navigated the mangrove reef section! I am not sure how we would have navigated it otherwise. How do the Africans plan these things....

A simple twist to the story was that as we were emerging from the Mangrove forest on the final stretch of the journey home the Police boat hailed us asking us for fuel! It had ran out and so we ended up helping it get back to port.

That evening we asked a local restaurant to cook the fish for us and a party of 12 people ate the most magnificent barbecue fish dinner with coconut rice and swahili sauce with freshly squeezed mango juice to wash it down.


A perfect ending to a truly incredible day.

Pate Island Part 1

Every year I have come out here I have traveled to Lamu island which is off the far north east coast of Kenya. Stonetown, the main village on the island, is a world heritage site and is so for good reason. The narrow streets, the lack of vehicles, the use of donkeys to carry people and merchandise captures a way of life that has long since vanished from the West. Even though life is tough here and even though it takes considerable effort to get to the island from Mombasa it is a real privilege to spend a few days here. Every school on the island now has a Camara computer lab and the community here are amazingly supportive and keen to keep improving the program. Its a great example of how even an isolated community with limited resources can participate in the information age.

This year I met a local councillor for the entire region who, coincidentally, was one of the first people Camara worked with when establishing a base in Kenya. He had only just got elected and he explained that since he was actually born in the area he was really committed to trying to improve life for the people up here. He suggested that we visit Pate island (his birthplace) to get an idea of what he was up against.

Pate island is about 4 hours slow boat journey from Lamu. Its right up on the Somalia border and is part of a small archipelago of islands separated by mangrove forests and narrow channels. The islands have no electricity, no roads and get drinking water from rain catchment tanks. There is one vehicle on the islands (which he had access to) and there were 12 schools serving a population of about twenty thousand people plus.

I was honestly reluctant to travel to the islands given the challenging boat journey but he told me there was a quicker way to get there.

If you look at a map of the region (check google maps) it suggests that you need to go around a large headland between Lamu and Pate to go from one island to another. It turns out that the headland is actually an island joined to the mainland by a huge mangrove forest and that it was possible to navigate through this forest on a speedboat which literally halved the journey time.

I agreed to give it a go....

The following day at about 6.00am I checked my email via my phone. A friend of mine had sent me a quote from St Francis of Assisi which went something like:
'When you are faced with the impossible, start with what is realistic, then with what is possible and soon you will be doing the impossible'

At 6.00am, myself, the councillor, and 4 Camara colleagues (all local) got into a 12 foot speedboat with a 40HP engine and we heading off. The trip through the mangrove forest was incredible and I was glad that we had some light to navigate as there were reefs, rocks and roots everywhere. Our captain was very experienced and assured me that all was fine and that he knew the way. When we hit the open sea on the far side I realised just how big the distance to the island was - all fifty miles of it! The Captain opened up the engine and we literally flew across the sea which thankfully was not too rough. Some of my colleagues had never been in a speedboat before and they were delighted with the bumps and bouncing of the tiny craft. I could not switch my engineering brain off which was calculating the stresses on the fibre glass hull....

Anyway, we arrived safely and docked at a beautiful beach where local workmen were building a small peer.

I got off the boat and quite literally stepped into another world....

...it turned out that there was actually a second vehicle on the island at this time. The workmen at the peer had acquired an old, very orange, battered tractor that they were using to carry materials for the peer.



There was a school about a mile away and the councillor suggested that we use the tractor to drive to the school in advance of his vehicle arriving (it was late having to get fuel from somewhere!). So one of the workmen told me to sit behind him on the trailer with the councillor and a camara colleague and off we went. If I was my son Osian, I would have enjoyed the experience - it was a 13 year olds dream trip. Unfortunately I found the trip terrifying being unable to take my eyes off the heavily rusting machinery carrying my now delicate 42 year old anatomy.

We arrived at the school with me ducking just in time to avoid whacking a large low hanging branch (much to the hilarity of the locals out to greet us). It was also a dreadfully undignified lunge from the vehicle that marked my exit, my palpable relief at touching solid ground visible all over my face.

I was soon surrounded by curious children all gaping up at me with huge brown eyes and beaming toothy smiles that would break your heart.


We walked through the village made up of wooden houses with thatched roofs, all filled with farm animals and smoking fires and then onto the school.







I was amazed to find that the school, unlike the houses in the village, was built from stone and was quite modern looking. I found out that it was built by the Americans in the army base directly across the water on the mainland. The Americans had a base there because of the trouble in Somalia.

However, once inside the school I realised the school had absolutely nothing. They were short of even the most basic equipment like chalk, pencils and copybooks. One of the classrooms was even outdoors.

The teachers did their best but the odds they faced were incredible.

And then they asked me could they get computers.

What do you say at times like this?

I told them the basic infrastructure they would need to get a computer lab up and running. As I listened to myself talking I felt ashamed that I was effectively leading them on. At the heart of my rhetoric was a sense of hopelessness....

I then found myself remembering the quote from St Francis that I had read in the morning and looked around suddenly noticing that one of the teachers was carrying a mobile phone.

'How do you charge that?' I asked.

I was led away to a tower in the middle of the village which we climbed. On top of the tower was a 75W solar panel which was charging a car battery.

Connected to the battery was a 12V to 220V inverter out of which was connected a Nokia charger for a phone. There were a couple of phones in the village and they shared the charger on a rotation basis.

They were even able to run an old 14" television for about 30 minutes when the battery was fully charged.

And then it occurred to me (and forgive me if it is obvious to you) that laptops and a couple of solar panels could work out really well here.

As I was leaving the school I asked a village elder that I if were to make a small donation to the village what would he buy. He immediately said that they would like another voltage invertor as a community resource so that mobile phones could be charged. He said communication with the mainland was crucial for local enterprise.



Later that evening I was able to check email again and discover that a very well known tech company was willing to donate a large number of state of the art laptops to Camara if a suitable home could be found for them.....

More from Pate island later....

Uganda decision to close down businesses selling refurbished computers

I am honestly hoping this is not true. I got word yesterday that Uganda has decided to close down all businesses selling refurbished computers within three months.

If it is true it is an incredibly short sighted decision that will have serious long term consequences for the country. The argument that the Ugandan government is giving for making this decision is around environmental impact reasons.

For a long time there has been a perception that refurbished computers are not a good approach to taking on the deep digital divide issues in the developing world because ultimately the computers break down and become electronic waste. A convenient way for the wealthier nations to off load the problem of computer disposal onto the developing world.

This is absolute nonsense and is an argument driven by big corporations telling the developing world to buy new computers to increase their profits and market share.

The truth is this. No matter how new a computer is, it will break down in Africa. The environment out here (especially the humidity and dust) makes it extremely difficult for computers to last the way they do in the developed world. On top of that, power supply issues across the continent can shorten the life span of a computer. Even military standard equipment struggles out here.

What is key to these problems is the need to give people here the skills and knowledge to maintain and repair computers (much more regularly then in the developed world) so that their computers last longer.

Once you address this issue then it does not matter what kind of computer you start with. In fact, it even makes more sense to use refurbished computers because in the process of refurbishment you learn the essential skills of computer maintenance and repair.

Here are some of the consequences of the Ugandan government sticking by there decision:

The education departments will spend vast amounts of money on technology at the expense of other equally important technology investment needs (like power supply and telecommunications infrastructure).

A large percentage of their population will not get access to affordable ICT and so will remain on the wrong side of the digital divide.

And ultimately big multi-national corporations will increase their profits and their market share once again at the expense of the poorest people on the planet.

We really live in an unjust world. And we in the west still naively think that we know best in terms of moving society forward. It genuinely makes me feel ashamed.

Reflections on the new Hub

I am in Kenya over a week now and it has taken me this long to write something about the new Hub that has been established in Mombasa. Part of the reason for this is that internet connectivity has been pretty shaky here all week with poor connection speeds and a number of power cuts.




The main reason however is because I have actually been working quite hard (I know unusual for me!) trying to get a sense of how things are on the ground here.
It suffices to say that Camara Kenya is an amazing venture. The hub is very much up and running with a great staff team and a truly wonderful set of committed volunteers. Systems have been put in place that give you a real sense of confidence in the place.

From inventory tracking, refurbishment processes, monitoring and evaluation in schools looking to acquire computers, training procedures, a feeding programme for the volunteers and even a van with a beautifully painted Camara Kenya logo on it for transport of computers and trainers and volunteers around the area.


It has taken two years to get to this point and there has been real challenges along the way but when I look at the hub now you realise that it has been worth it.

Already after only 3 months of officially opening, the hub has won a national award from the Kenya Linux Association for its contribution to Education. This is a significant achievement for an organisation so young. The award has provided great visibility for the project with articles and media coverage and this can only help the hub going forward.

Why is the hub important?

The hub is providing state of the art technology and more importantly knowledge and training to people that would never get this opportunity otherwise. ICT literacy is now as important as basic numeracy and literacy and if we cannot find ways of insuring everyone has access to this new literacy we will only add to an already huge digital divide. The hub has developed a model that allows everyone participate. This is made possible through a combination of using technology that would have ended up in a land fill site together with the generosity of volunteers who want to give something back through sharing their expertise with others.

I cannot stress enough that the combination of everything makes the project work. There are very few short-term projects in the developing world that can make a real difference to peoples lives. This is one of them. It works because when somebody has been trained on a computer by a volunteer they can keep learning on that computer when the volunteer leaves. And if they need help in their absence they can use the internet.

What are the main challenges?

The ultimate challenge is to make the hub self sustainable as soon as is reasonably possible.

The hubs can be made sustainable with 2-3 years. I really believe that. They can generate revenue from in at least 4 different ways:

(a) The sale of computers to the schools (at a price affordable to any school with electricity)
(b) They can offer a maintenance service
(c) They can offer ongoing training and certification
(d) They can provide internet services and in time software, content and platforms.

The first three approaches Camara Ireland can support through the provision of computer and expert volunteers. The services option is something that the hubs can grow into in time. And I have no doubt that this will happen mainly because of the choice to go the Open Source route. There is an army of seriously talented people out there willing to help and offer their support in making sure the hub is a success. Once you have internet connectivity the solution to any technical problem is a simple email to this forum of experts.

However, there is still fragility ahead. We cannot be complacent out here. There are so many variables out of our control - the riots last year are perfect evidence of what can go wrong here. However, the seed is now planted and my sense is that we are over the threshold where something will take root.

Its an exciting time and its an exciting project. If you read this far consider coming out here at some stage to be inspired....

Joseph

I am staying in an apartment block near the Camara hub and just outside Mombasa. I have stayed here before - its an ideal location in terms of getting access to the hub as its literally within a kilometers reach of the place.

An old man called Joseph is one of the security guards minding the apartment block. Basically he opens and closes the gates and keeps an eye on things during the night. He is probably in his mid sixties, has silver hair, is as thin as a rake and is not unlike Morgan Freeman in looks. His weather beaten face has clearly seen a lot in life much of it tough and challenging.

He is lovely company. He has an easy going manner and a deeply infectious laugh where he throws his head back and his eyes go white bright and glisten with tears.

He keeps himself amused during the day via an old battered 14" portable TV connected to a rabbits ears aerial via a cable that has more sellotape on it than actual co-axial covering. The picture on the television reminded me of the pictures they sent back from the first moon landing except the audio was of higher quality then.

The TV broke down during the week. It just went dead. My first instinct was to tell him to dump the TV and we would look at how to get another one. He told me he was going to fix it.

The following day I wandered over to Joseph on the way to the hub. There he was sitting with the TV taken apart patiently testing each component on the circuit boards with a tiny hobby multimeter. It was old but it worked.

I asked him what he was doing and he said he had borrowed a multimeter from a friend and he was looking for the 'failure'. When he found it he was going to get a new one from the 'Electrical' shop.

The 'Electrical' shop was a place up the road where electronic components were scavenged from old appliances and sold on as spares.

And there was I with a supposed degree in electronic engineering and totally unable to help. Joseph had never finished secondary school.

I came back that evening and the television was fixed. Joseph gave me a thumbs up as I passed by. It had cost him 5 schillings to fix the television (5p).

And we were worried about computer maintenance in Africa....

New Beginnings

I stopped off in Nairobi on my way to Mombasa so that I could meet a good friend there - a woman I have known since this whole adventure started in the summer of 2003. Over the last few years I have written numerous stories about my friend and her incredible courage.

She asked to meet up so that she would learn how to make a website for a new initiative she has started. Its a small church which reaches out to people in the slum areas and gets them to work together and support one another.

We met at the hotel I was staying in which was situated in, lets just say, the 'less glamorous' part of town. As usual I had not done my research on the location of the hotel being attracted to its very generous one night stay rate! I really need to establish an income that stops me making mistakes like this..

Anyway, Mary grabbed my hand and led me through the crowds to a small cyber-cafe where we could work on building a simple website.

It seemed the most obvious thing to do was to start a blog. Within a few minutes she had grasped the principles and promised me that she would practice over the last few weeks configuring it to her needs. It was lovely to see her face light up when we typed in her blogname and she could see the beginnings of her site. As soon as she gives me permission I'll release the URL....

She had heard of Facebook and asked me how it worked and could I setup an account for her. I opened up my own account to show her how it worked and then got a shock.

I was looking at the page of feeds of essentially useless information with comments like how hungover people were, what filmstar they looked like, how much someone had spent on some new toy etc and I imagined how Mary would react to being bombarded with that kind of 'developed world' drivel every time she logged on.

Here is a woman who is desperately trying to get herself out of poverty, making sure her children go to good schools, setting up a church to support people like herself who are on the margins of society and all she needs is a chance to have a go. Her job is to feed 1000 children a day in a slum school for which she earns about 75euros a month. She works day in day out with every spare moment she has to try and further herself in life and make the immediate world around her a better place.

In the 'developed world' we really have no idea what its like to struggle and by extension I think we are creating a very indulgent, selfish model of society that us becoming more and more inward looking and blind to whats really beautiful in being human.

To be honest, I felt ashamed but setup a Facebook account for her nonetheless. I do honestly wonder is it the right thing to do but perhaps her connection her to the virtual world here can help us restore our 'site'....

Back In Kenya

I am back in Kenya. I arrived into Nairobi on Wednesday 3rd June, spent the evening there and then flew to Mombasa yesterday evening.

I am writing this note from the Camara Kenya Digital Hub in Mombasa.

The new hub in Mombasa is fantastic. It is based on a vocational training centre campus called the Mombasa Institute of Technology Centre (MITC). Serious hard work has gone into establishing the base over the last few months and final preparations are being made for the impending visit of the Camara volunteers in a couple of weeks time.

The Kenya hub recently won an award for its efforts in education.

Many of the old volunteers from last year are still working in the centre and the level of expertise evolving in the place is incredible.

I am really looking forward to working with the team here over the next few weeks.