[Ict4ruralwomeninafrica] Moving on to the next questions

[Marjan Besuijen]

Dear all,

With regards to some of the new question posted:

*What are the opportunities and challenges facing rural information
centres? 

There are so many, but one that comes to mind immediately is the 
financial sustainability of the rural information centres. A 
discussion discussed on many other platforms today and not very 
"gender" specific. One link that might be of interest, is a short 
article published on balancing act: Telecentres special: reaching 
those parts the market cannot yet reach. http://www.balancingact-
africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_193.html (sorry for cross-
posting)

*How can these information centres be used to facilitate
rural women s development? 

I agree with Sylvia that illiteracy and self confidence can push rural 
women away of information centres. Although I have seen 
examples where it happened the otherway around. For a lot of 
people on the list maybe a centre that they have heard of before. 
The example of Uganda, where a cd-rom has been developed on 
income generating activities in and around the house in a rural 
setting. CD rom has been developed in the local language and with 
spoken text so well to use for illiterate women.  A rural women from 
the community has been trained and is now the champion of the 
programme, demonstrating the cd rom to the other women in the 
community.

What I have experienced before and I wonder what the other 
experiences are among people on this list. That initially reaching 
the women in a rural information centre might not be the most 
difficult. But what is very challeging as well, especially when the 
benefits become clear to the community: how to maintain the 
centre a save place for women and how to prevent men to take 
over........


*What strategies and processes have worked in the different contexts 
where you work/live, in making existing public access infrastructure 
more accessible for women and inclusive of their concerns?

Warm Regards,
Jenny


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Marjan Besuijen
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