[Ict4ruralwomeninafrica] Welcome to the e-consultation and in troductions

[Catherine Njuguna]

Greetings from Kenya. 

Catherine Njuguna here. I am an Information Officer at Arid Lands
Information Network-Eastern Africa. This is a membership organization
targeting development workers in arid areas of Eastern Africa. We try to
facilitate their exchange of information with each other  and to learn from
each other. And we see ICTs as one of the tools to facilitate this. 

So basically I am very much interested in understanding ICTs more and in
particular their  potential in alleviating poverty and empowerment of the
marginalized groups including women. I am also interested in issues of
evaluating the impact of ICT initiatives and also their sustainability. 

And yes, I am looking forward to learning a lot through this online
consultation. 

Warm regards, 

Catherine 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Radloff [mailto:jenny@apcwomen.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 11:45 AM
To: ict4ruralwomeninafrica@lists.womensnet.org.za
Subject: [Ict4ruralwomeninafrica] Welcome to the e-consultation and
introductions


Greetings All,

Apologies for the 1 day delay in starting. We had to sort out a technical 
mailing list problem! So let's begin.

Welcome to the e-consultation on ICTs for the advancement of rural
women's empowerment: Strategies, platforms, tools and training. 

In this email I will:

* briefly outline the process of this e-consultation 
* invite people to send in a brief introduction of themselves and
their work and/or interest in the topic.

To give you some idea of how our e-consultation process will work. As
facilitator I will begin discussions by posing the questions as
outlined in the invitation to join the e-consultation. These are
merely guides for our discussions. You are welcome throughout our
e-consultation to contribute personal and organizational stories,
resources, activities and events that would contribute to the
discussion and to the workshop deliberations.

My introduction: I am based in Cape Town, South Africa and I 
coordinate APC-Africa-Women which is a project of the Association for
Progressive Communications. We are a membership-based network of
organisations and individuals that work to empower African women's
organisations to access and use ICTs for equality and development.
http://www.apcafricawomen.org

We do this through training, information facilitation, gender and ict
policy and advocacy, networking, research.

I believe that the appropriate use of technologies can contribute to
social empowerment and a more just and equitable world. There are 
many
creative and innovative examples particularly in the "developing"
world. ICTs need to "speak to" and evolve from social needs rather
than being imposed or applied. ICTs can be useful tools for positive
social change but also as tools for deepening unequal power relations!


I look forward to hearing more about your work and discussing the
topic at hand.

Again - a very warm welcome to you all!

Jenny Radloff



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