SENSITISATION SEMINAR ON THE USAGE OF ICTS FOR DEVELOPMENT
TO COMMUNITY LEADERS IN KARAGWE DISTRICT, 7th August 2003.
INTRODUCTION:
 This
seminar was conceived after Mr. Joseph Sekiku attended a technical update
seminar (TUS) in Dar es salaam in March 2003 that was organized by LearnIT
and supported by IICD-The Netherlands.
After this TUS, FADECO submitted a proposal to IICD to create awareness
among the community leaders in Karagwe district, about the importance
of ICTS in rural development. This seminar was originally planned for
July 2003 but due to unavoidable circumstances, it was rescheduled to
7th August 2003. The following is a report about the seminar.
Background information on ICT in Karagwe:
Currently, only 1 in 1000 people in Karagwe has access to telephone (landline
and mobile). There is estimated to be not more than 150 Television sets
in the whole district of 400,000 people. News papers/ dailies all of which
are published in Dar es Salaam (the capital city of Tanzania - 2000 Km
away a journey of 4-5 days by road) hardly reach Karagwe.
Radio transmission from Dar es Salaam is also a dream except for the
recent intervention by the private radios: Radio Free Africa and Radio
One. Those with TV sets can access telecasts from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
A few who are linked to cable can access other international TVs like
BBC, CNN, DW including the local ITV and Star TVs. Karagwe has less than
20 people/institutions connected to email and out of these only a handful
have access to internet (limited usage between 6.00 P.M and 6.00 A.M).
Those with access to email/internet would bear with me that the costs
involved are really too much and unaffordable and the connectivity very
intermittent.
Amidst this situation, the level of information access, sharing and exchange
is very limited. And worse, the region is lagging behind in development
manifested in very low standards of living (poverty levels), poor education
standards, prevalence of all sorts of preventable diseases (malaria, abdominal
illnesses, respiratory infections) and also HIV/AIDS.
Objectives
The aim of this seminar among other things, focussed on sensitising the
participants (drawn from a wide cross section of the community leaders
in Karagwe) on the importance of information as a tool for rural development
and how to effectively transfer, share and exchange this important resource.
Briefly stated, the main objective of the seminar was:
To sensitise community leaders in Karagwe district about the importance,
usage and benefits of ICT in promoting sustainable development and inculcate
an atmosphere fostering cooperation and exchange of knowledge and information
among community development workers in the district.
Contents of the one-day sensitisation seminar:
- The concept of information and development
- General understanding of ICT
- Benefits of ICT in daily life
- How to acquire ICT infrastructures
- ICT as a tool for development
SEMINAR FORMAT
The seminar was conducted in two parts. The theoretical part (SAWATA
Conference Hall) concentrated on discussions about ICTS in general and
their relevance in facilitating development. While the practical part
(FADECO RESOURCE CENTRE) was a hands-on session and concentrated on introduction
participants to different ICTs especially computers, on networking options,
use of Internet, etc. as shown in the following timetable.
The facilitators used overhead projector and flip charts to deliver their
subjects. Handouts were provided to all participants. The sessions took
a participatory approach where participants were free to interrupt with
questions for clarifications. An evaluation made at the end of the seminar
revealed that all participants found the seminar very useful. The summary
of the presentations is attached as annex to this report.
Summary of the evaluation (Comments and Remarks from the participants)
- Time was too short
- All asked FADECO to open an Internet café
- This was the first seminar of its kind they had ever attended!
- FADECO should provide email and Internet services
- FADECO should start a computer school
- FADECO should help secondary schools to establish computer labs
- FADECO should link education and social service institutions to others
via the internet
- Knowledge about ICTs is good but how we can access it
At the end of the seminar, all participants were able to:
- Understand the importance and usefulness of ICTs in their daily life
and in facilitating development
- Be motivated to exploit the use of ICTs in their life and for development
- Appreciate the importance of sharing and exchanging information
- Increase their awareness about the different ICT resources and how
they relate to each other
- Have practical experience and touch on the different ICT resources
- Undo the misconceptions and misunderstanding surrounding the ICT
- Have confidence in the use of ICTs in their work and
- Have an increased desire to solicit and use ICT to facilitate their
work, life and entire local development.
General observations by FADECO:
- 20 out of 58 participants had actually touched a computer
- 40 Participants believed computers were robots
- All participants believed computers were for specialized persons
- 50 Participants did not know other computer uses other than office
work (secretarial)
- 8 Participants had ever sent/ received emails
- 6 had yahoo email accounts while 2 had africaonline.co.tz accounts
- None of all participants ever attended a computer course
- Only 8 knew what an internet café was
Follow-up:
From the comments and remarks received from the participants, FADECO
was challenged to consolidate information services in the district including
transforming the existing resource centre into a Tele-Centre with internet
access facilities, organize more sensitisation seminars of that kind,
set up a computer training centre, etc.
In light of the above, FADECO would seek further support to be able to:
1. Conduct at least 1 seminar a year per district in Kagera (total 6
districts)
2. Explore opportunities for Internet Service Provision (internet/ email)
in Karagwe
3. Initiate computer training for community development workers in Karagwe
4. Introduce computers in Secondary Schools in Karagwe
5. Transform our Resource Centre into a Tele-centre
Participating Organisations:
The following organisations showed their high participation and collaboration:
Tanzania Telephone Company Ltd (TTCL)- Kagera
LearnIT/ Softech Ltd
SATCOM Ltd
Africaonline.co.tz
IT Complex Mwanza
Karagwe District Council
Karagwe Secondary School
Sawata (HelpAge International in Tanzania)
AITEC- Tanzania
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