[UgaBYTES] KAIPPG Kenya: Use of Mobile Phones (posting again due to config problems)

[Janet Feldman]

Note to Moderator and All:  I'm sending this article through again as a 
plain-text, because it appears not to have configured properly when posted 
on this forum. My apologies for the double postings, and hope this one is 
more readable! Janet Feldman


Dear Friends,

Immense thanks for the excellent discussion abt mobile phones, which have 
been used by the rural Kenyan nonprofit, KAIPPG (www.kaippg.org), that I 
represent at the international level. Mobile phones are an essential part of 
our communications network, which also includes radio, photography, cassette 
players and video cameras, as well as traditional art forms (such as 
theatre, music, and graphics).

We have established a central location for a physical telecentre, and also 
have developed a series of kiosks (for educational and communication 
purposes). Mobile phones help to link this network together, as well as 
serving a wide variety of information purposes--from weather reports to crop 
prices--and providing women in particular a way to engage in 
income-generating projects, with less discrimination than they otherwise 
often face.

Hopefully this will be a helpful example in terms of the issues under 
discussion, and please be in contact with myself or James Onyango, Exec 
Director of KAIPPG Kenya (kaippg at africaonline.co.ke). With greatest thanks 
and best wishes, Janet Feldman, KAIPPG International, kaippg at earthlink.net

http://ictupdate.cta.int

http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/Kenya-The-health-and-agriculture-community-radio-network

Kenya: The health and agriculture community radio network

AIDS remains a major problem in Kenya, and it is often women and girls who 
bear the brunt of the pandemic. They have no rights to own property such as 
land, and are physiologically at greater risk of catching HIV/AIDS. They are 
generally less well educated and only a handful are employed, and so are 
socio-economically more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection. Many women also 
suffer from malnutrition.

To help address these problems, the Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention 
Project Group (KAIPPG) has established community-based informal learning 
centres, called nutritional field schools, in six of its 28 project sites in 
western Kenya. Each field school works with 30 participants, giving priority 
to orphans, widows, low-income women and older vulnerable children from 
HIV/AIDS-affected households.

The participants are taught about nutrition, and receive training in 
relevant skills and techniques to enable them to care for people living with 
AIDS, to maximize crop yields and, generally, to become economically and 
socially empowered.

Using the GenARDIS grant, KAIPPG organized a health and agriculture 
community radio network for women who had completed the training. The 
participants were organized into six radio listening groups, and were 
trained in the use of audio and video recording equipment to enable them to 
exchange information such as on farming techniques, and to raise public 
awareness about HIV/AIDS.

The groups were also trained in photography and the use of drama and 
traditional oral storytelling as tools for learning, education and 
development. A radio cassette player and a mobile phone was distributed to 
each of the groups, and the participants were encouraged to communicate with 
national FM radio stations - to respond to programmes, obtain information, 
and share their experiences with a wider audience.

Each group prepared and recorded on tape a presentation, song, poem, 
role-play or story on a relevant topic of their choice. One women's group, 
for example, performed a play about farming and the preparation of 
nutritious food for people living with HIV/AIDS. Another group sang 
traditional songs on planting, harvesting and the preparation of sweet 
potatoes.

The tapes were then exchanged among the groups so that each group was able 
to learn about the work of the others. Each group also set up an information 
kiosk stocked with the tapes they had produced and other information. KAIPPG 
hopes to translate the tapes into English and French, and to release the 
content also on diskettes and CD-ROM.

James Onyango is executive director of KAIPPG (www.kaippg.org), a Kenyan NGO 
that works in rural communities of Kenya to address the challenges posed by 
HIV/AIDS, using an holistic approach.