[Ict4ruralwomeninafrica] Moving on to the next questions

[John Dada]

When we acquired a VSAT a couple of months ago, we noticed an increase
in the number of female clients using the facilities. These, however,
are of the young age group (below 30) and were either in secondary or
tertiary education. Our core interest group of illiterate/semiliterate
females in the rural communities where we work are largely unaffected by
this facility. We are therefore still a long way from meeting their
information needs, and facilitating their access to the range of
information now available to the younger, literate women. How we will
facilitate the enabling environment through which illiterate,
intelligent, rural women can access this facility remains a challenge
for us. Relevance of the technology and its affordability are challenges
that drives our efforts in community radio, local assembly of computers
based on solid state technology design, and free and open source
software that can be used to address our multi-lingual needs.