This continues a series of guest columns on how technology is reshaping hobbies and passions – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.
This time it is Will Scott, founder of Waer Systems. Will has led a fascinating life around the world and could have written about so many of his hobbies. But I am delighted he chose to write about what he does for his birthplace – Zambia. From a long distance, with the help of technology.
“After a week on the road touting supply chain software, you wouldn’t think that I would relish reading emails on Saturday morning. Between late nights and my Blackberry, I manage to keep my inbox at bay but certain emails get flagged for follow up at the weekend. They also get assigned with a category of yellow. Yellow because this color, for me, symbolizes both the hope of a brighter future for a people in Africa and the raw sun baked beauty of a land whose time is yet to come.
These emails originate in the Tikondane Community Centre in Katete, Zambia and technology is one of the tools that will help to secure their future. The particularly relish the emails from Elke, a nurse (in the photo at the bottom) who has dedicated her existence to improving the quality of life for roughly 25,000 people living a centuries old system in 30 villages in “Tiko’s” catchment area.
Tikondane actually means “let’s love one another” and one reason that I may love this project is that I was born in Zambia nearly 50 years ago. In those 50 years, my quality of life has advanced beyond my wildest dreams, enriched by the opportunities of my adopted country but also in large part by the high tech industry where I make my living. The same cannot be said for Tiko which continues to be ravaged by many of the problems that define Africa. Daunting problems, if one does not carry hope; the kind of hope that Elke and her team represent in Tiko. In turn, my colleagues at Rotary International and I give them hope by showing that we care and providing resources that lead to a better quality of life for the families in their community. Resources that include technology, especially technology for education. After all, hasn’t technology been one of the greatest contributors to our advancement?
Ask a Zambian what you can do for them and they will say: “Educate my children, educate me, Zikomo (thank you.)” But when I took my children to Zambia in 2007 is that they were the ones who got the education. No amount of telling them how lucky they are living in the US could rival the lesson they received. The mother of a baby they befriended asked my 11 year old daughter to take little Moses back to Chicago with her. Chloe laughed at the presumed joke but the mother said, “No, seriously, please take Moses to Chicago where he can have a chance at life.” Can things be so desperate that a mother would offer up her child? Yes, they can.
So how does technology help me help this remote corner of Zambia that borders on both Malawi and Mozambique? Well, it certainly begins with email, without which we could not communicate and I could not get my weekly “Tiko fix.” Email quickly extends to Skype for instant messaging although the VOIP feature is challenged at 56k dialup and video calls are near impossible. But need a map or a picture and Elke can scan, pdf and send with the best of them. And when laying out the location of new wells, it’s amazing how useful Google Earth can be. What about calling to a cell phone? Surprisingly, this is a breeze. Cell phone towers in areas that have never seen a motor vehicle or a white man have coverage to rival American suburbs. An enduring memory is young people using their cell phones from an Ox cart in the African bush, an hour from the nearest road.
Time to send more funds for the next project? We simply wire the money of course. Need a signature to secure a matching grant? Next day by return.
One piece of kit that we provided is a projector and a laptop for use in the budding school. DVDs are cheap, effective and draw from a large area for easy one-to-many education. Also, when the sun goes down and there is no electricity, what can young adults do on an evening? Movies can keep young women from selling themselves to the truck drivers that pass through, a pastime that comes with the risk of AIDS.
Another technology that excites and which has infinite possibilities is solar power. So far we have provided solar lights which promote productive activity in the evenings such as crafts that can be sold, solar ovens that reduce deforestation and a solar bakery that can feed a village. Without solar power, Tiko relies on a diesel guzzling generator so “free” energy is very attractive.
Of course, sometimes the old technologies are the best. Like the good old inginga (bicycle) for transportation, the treadle pump for raising water from the well and the pit latrine. In Zambia, these are still more efficient, cost effective and reliable than SUVs, electric pumps and flushing toilets!
The Tiko cause generates empathy and we get donors from all over the world. But this would not be possible without getting the word out. How do we do this? Well of course the web helps. Via the Tiko website. And our own website hosted by the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise is the online method preferred for credit card donors . How else could we secure a $200.00 donation from an unknown benefactor based in Japan as we did this very morning? Maybe she found our YouTube video which is just another technological way of us getting others to share the passion that I have for this needy community in the country of my birth.”
Comments