Recently I was asked to speak at the info Poverty World Conference. This was obviously a great opportunity for me. Specifically I was asked to focus on alternative methods of connectivity for ICT’s. As I started researching this I found that many locations in the world do not have connectivity at all.
As I did more research I found an article that talked about an individual with limited education that watched a couple of videos on his phone and started collecting junk from the Local trash heap. He was able to build a complete radio from the videos and the junk he was able to find. This made me think about what it would take to provide just video education to the locations in need. We all know that the best education is in person education this allows for interaction and allows for the instructor to adapt his or her teaching methods based on body language and input from the students. The second best method is Online in person training. In this type of training the instructor is remote but has the ability to interact with the students via video and voice. In some cases there is a virtual white board and may even have survey capability. This is a pretty good method of instruction but often times it does not allow for the instructor to keep track of all the students and or see if they are actually understand the content. The 3rd method of instruction is via a recording that people can watch. This method obviously does not allow for interaction. However if the video is well laid out and follows some general principals of instruction. They are often very successful. Think about this. If you have ever had an instructor that was capable of holding your attention and explaining a process or subject better than anyone else you had seen. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have them be videotaped and then post that for others to watch? This allows for one to many type of educational solution with some of the best instructors in the world. Kahn Academy is a great example of this. Knowing the above I started to think about can we deliver the video’s as cached content. As I did more research on this I found that World Computer Exchange is already doing something similar. In some cases their computers that they deliver may have portions of Kahn Academy already cached on the local machine. However the problem they have is often the hard drives do not have the space needed in order to really cache all needed content. As I started to think about this it made me want to find out what content could be included and how could we make this more viable. This started me thinking first of what content we could cache. Here are some of the things that I found: USAID (provides video’s for Agriculture improvements these are made with local farmers that have the solution working) Kahn Academy Project Peanut butter (how to treat malnutrition videos) CDC (putting your hands together hygiene videos) Unicef Hand washing campaign (I have not found a video yet) This is just a few of the potential options. I am sure there are many more. As I continued to look at this. It started to make more sense to add the Cacheing server to something like the LifeBox Container that ACI is currently deploying. Based on this idea we started to expand this. The LifeBox can become the central hub for the community. We can actually add wireless to the container. This would make it easier for people to use the content on their local devices if they have them. With initiatives like one laptop per child And the World Computer Exchange this is becoming more common. At the same time we can start pre-educating people before teams arrive on site. This could be handled by the initial evaluation team that is reviewing the location in preparation for an onsite team. The lead team could deliver and upload additional content related to their project and instruct the local group on how to view the content. Then the teachers could learn with the students at the same time. And the community would be prepared for the arrival of the onsite team. I know this is a long post and there is much more we can do with this. I will attempt to post more over the next several days.
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Recently I was asked to present at the United Nations during the 13th
Infopoverty World Conference. This sounded very interesting but I wondered what this conference really was about. The title told me a little bit but to be honest I accepted the opportunity and began to prepare without fully understanding what I would encounter. The topic I was asked to present on was alternative connectivity methods in country’s with limited connectivity. If you want to see the presentation it was recorded and can be found here: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/watch/3rd-4th-plenary-13th-infopoverty-world-conference:-ict-innovations-for-nation-building-and-the-empowerment-of-people/2253228969001 I am about 2 hours and 25-27 min into the video you should be able to scroll through to that time and watch my speech. However, that is not the purpose of this post. So back to the question, what is Infopoverty? Well, in today’s day and age we are overloaded with information, from the moment we wake up you can have instant access to the latest news, sports and weather. Our phones are so smart now you can be in constant contact with work, friends and family, even if you don’t always want to be. But, can you imagine being in an area that has no connectivity at all? Totally or completely deprived of Information and Communication from the outside world except for when someone visits? This is what Infopoverty is about, the lack of availability of information. At the conference we were focused on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s). One of the story’s I heard was from Dr. John Steffens of the Infopoverty Institute based out of Oklahoma City. He was talking about a school that the head master had called and asked him to obtain computers for his school. John worked with other organizations to deliver several computers (not sure about the total number) the head master called him to let him know the computers arrived. The village had a huge party and parade to welcome the computers to the School. Everyone was excited however they were not able to use the computers because they had no power. My first thought was, “What?” you mean that someone did not even think to ask if they had power? Of course this is my ignorance showing through. Dr. Steffens continued to explain the Education Minister from that country came to the school and was amazed they had computers even when they did not have the power to turn them on. Because of this the Education Minister and others helped negotiate the power connection down to half of the original cost. Last thing Dr. Steffens heard was they were still negotiating the power connection but it had come down significantly. Little did I know that delivering the computers even though there was not power would ultimately help the school and possibly the entire village receive power before others. David Neely the CEO of Affecting Change International often talks about how important it is to part with the local community to be sure that whatever project you are doing is really what the village needs. Sometimes what we think they need is not what they really need at all. In some cases we may even think the request is outlandish. But this shows that partnering with the Head master of the school and delivering what he asked assisted in way more than just having a couple of computers. To quote an inspirational woman I met in Cambodia named Jane, “everybody needs a ‘popeye moment’.” For those of you who are not familiar with the cartoon character, Popeye was a sailor man who was madly and helplessly
in love with the damsel in distress, Olive. Olive always seemed to find herself being harassed by Popeye’s arch nemesis, Brutus. Each time Brutus goes to kidnap Olive, Popeye insists that he won’t butt in, that he’ll let Olive fend for herself and fight Brutus off if that’s really what she wants. However, in every episode, there comes a point when Olive’s cries for help are too much for him to handle. He throws his hands in the air, clenches his fists, and screams, “That’s it! I just can’t take no more!” He pops a can of spinach that explodes his normally measly muscles, and fights Brutus off in the blink of an eye. It is critical that we all have a moment like this, a moment so vivid and so real that we clench our fists and cry out that we can stand it no longer. For me, that moment came in the form of a pair of brown eyes and a little girl I will never be able to forget. I spent a month of my sophomore year of college in Cambodia. I went to study the current social justice issues there with a group of 24 classmates. The course took us from the genocide that occurred in Cambodia in the 1970’s through present day, teaching us what governmental, socioeconomic, cultural, and structural factors contribute to the current state of the country (don’t worry, I will expound on this in great depth in another post). It was getting towards the end of the trip, and, while it had been fascinating, educational, and extremely challenging, we were all growing homesick. The trafficking of women and children for sex is running rampant in Cambodia. Many factors play into this pandemic, but the abundance of villages and rural communities surrounding the capital city of Phnom Penh make young people especially vulnerable. We learned that families are selling their children to traffickers in hopes of receiving a cut of the cash these children bring in. Children are also being tricked into believing there are jobs for them at hotels or restaurants in the city, and they will be able to send money home to their starving families. The harsh reality sets in though, that they have been sold to a brothel. They are immediately financially indebted to their trafficker, all of their identification and legal documents confiscated. Toward the end of our third week in Phnom Penh, we had the opportunity to head to a nearby village called Svay Pak. Svay Pak was the home for a major brothel until it was raided and shut down thanks to the dedicated work of the International Justice Mission. A local church had moved in, and a leader was working fiercely to transform the village. He had a gym built so that males could exercise and learn how to appropriately express their energy and masculinity. Programs were started at the church for children to have a safe place to play and adults to have a support group. We even got to walk through the building that was once a brothel, a place that held so many horrific memories for the village’s women and children. They left the stalls where they forced the victims to perform intact as a memorial for the living hell they had to endure. It was a wonderfully exhausting day of walking and learning. We had learned who is the most vulnerable to this atrocity, how to recognize an undercover brothel, what to do when we suspect there is trafficking happening, etc. But it’s as if we all hit a wall, and we just needed a break from it all. On the way back to Phnom Penh, I couldn’t stop talking about how badly I wanted some American food. What I would give for a burger and fries! My roommate and I had discovered this little café right down the street from our hotel. We had eaten there a couple of times already and recommended it to the group as a fun place to go altogether, so all 24 of us headed to this restaurant. I immediately noticed the little girl at the table next to ours. She wore the most darling little pink dress and her hair was curled perfectly. She was sitting across the table from a middle-aged European man. I tried not to jump to assumptions. I figured I was being overzealous because of all the information I was processing from the day. However, other group members started to notice. We realized that the waitress kept bringing the little girl drinks, and the drinks were making her giggle and flail her little body. The old man sat across the table from her, devouring her with his eyes, and it hit each and every one of us. That little girl was being sold to that man. I stood, knowing I had to do something. A couple of other students started moving around too, none of us feeling prepared to stare the transaction of a human being in its ugly face. But we quickly realized we were not the only ones watching closely. A couple men came from what we thought was the kitchen and stood by the bar with their arms crossed. I remember making eye contact with one of them and his eyes shot me a look that made chills run up my spine, in spite of the beating sun. The waitress hurried to the table with a princess back pack, fluffed the little girl’s hair, and got her ready to go. As the European man grabbed the little girl and put her on the back of a motorcycle that had just pulled up, she made eye contact with me. And that was my moment. I’ve never been able to get that little girl’s face out my head. I remember feeling truly sick the rest of the night, knowing that little girl was going to have her innocence, and probably her life, stripped from her. She was going to face days, weeks, even years, of beatings, coercion, rape, and drugs. All she needed was somebody to step in. Somebody to clinch their fists, throw some spinach in their mouth, and refuse to take anymore! But I was silenced. The muscles of the common day Brutus caused me to stand by and watch as this little girl was sold into a life of abuse. A life no one, NO ONE, should have to face. I made a promise to that girl that night. I promised her that her brown eyes would stay forever engraved on my heart. I would fight every day for the rest of my life for her. And that even if it meant one little girl was rescued from the bondage of modern day slavery, that’s one set of eyes I would get to gaze into with joy, rather than mourn. There are 27 million women and children trapped in the bonds of slavery today. That’s an overwhelming truth. But there is one little girl that I was less than 5 feet away from in Cambodia that was sold to a man for sex. That’s intolerable. And that’s my motivation. What is yours? By Alison Hofmeyer Picture by classmate and friend Gabriel Hymer |
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August 2020
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