Kamukwape's Diary

Follow me on this Journey as I work on producing the Video as a Finalist for the Seeing Thoughts Video Competition for Young Professionals in Agriculture organised by Young Professionals' Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD)

SATNET (Southern Africa Telecentre Network) as a regional telecentre network is a great channel and fertile platform for the establishment of local content and services through coordinated efforts with national telecentre networks and individual telecentres. Telecentres have continued to play an important role in the realization of sustainable community development. However, the effective achievement of this, to a large extent depends on the appropriateness, dynamicity, relevance, and authenticity of content and services. “There is an increasing recognition that networks can leverage content and services development, including the creation, packaging, training and provision of support services. Those content and services activities can then be replicated and distributed at the local and international level (such as through other TCNs). Herein lies the power of a telecentre network.” States the Guidebook for Managing Telecentre Networks-Content and Services. As telecentres transform ...

Farmers in Southern Africa, like elsewhere in Africa, are faced with problems of how to access timely and up-to-date technical agricultural information. This is mainly due to, among other reasons, a lack of adequate frontline agricultural extension officers, poor flow of information to and from farmers, and inadequate communication between research institutions and extension services. This is one of the major challenges the agricultural sector is facing in Southern Africa. Agricultural sector in Southern Africa Agriculture plays an important role to the economies of Southern African countries. Agriculture contributes significantly to about 35% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of most SADC member states. In addition, agricultural exports are a major foreign exchange earner, contributing on average 13 per cent to total export earnings and constituting about 66 per cent of the value of intra- regional trade. In countries like Zambia, the sector absorbs about 67% of the labour force ...

I have extra important duties to complete, a mission to fulfill, my efforts are dedicated to this. I am not ready to accomodate fear, worries or negativity, as long as it comes to drain me...only if it comes for the good. So if a side situation comes apart from my dedication , I will not allow it to occupy my mind thru and thru...I need to do something completely new...above what I have accomplished in the mainly dark past of my life...I can starve, spend sleepless nights, weep, laughed at, be broke, not welcomed in offices, not get adequate support from friends/comrades e.t.c. But I am a kind who never and will never give up like that...

Written on International Volunteers Day On this lovely day, I have every reason to rejoice having looked back into my solid 5 years of volunteerism, contributing my skills, knowledge, time, financial resources, e.t.c. For a number of causes. I am glad for having lived this life,though such a rough duty.I am encouraging everyone to consider volunteering. A simple hand to others can go a miles in their life.thanks to Dad for inspiring me when he used to be a WorldLife Conservation Volunteer, and to all those who have given me opportunities to volunteer, those who have built my capacity, my team mates, and all those who have contributed in different way positively and negatively...I think I will blog on this achievement...HAPPY VOLUNTEER DAY TO YOU ALL

My mind, heart, spirit and soul have a story to tell, a story about the hardships, success, unity,challenges and opportunities, ubuntu, of the youth and people of my land, my fingers itching as they struggle, so eager to drop the finest and very first ink to lay my story, solemly my life proclaims, sharply penetrating my humble past,thru to my present, and swiftly to the future , Oh yes! simply to whisper to me, I will not write my story on paper, but in the life of each of the people I serve...that it may be read and passed on like a folk lore for generations...

Its half past 11am and I have not even pressed a single button of the keyboard, yet I have a dozen of correspondence to clear, my nerves are also giving me a strange filling, companionship seems to have distanced itself from my life...could it be a glimpse of what is yet to come, a glance of how the struggles of the years explored would bear fruit of the exploration? This question strikes my conscious every moment, as I look around my eyes globe like open, like some one falling of the helicopter in a crashland...into a desert of the foreign tongue...Swiftly the sparkly seemily mineral deposits of the desert sands brings hope as their reflected rays lights up my shy eyes...then what? Oh yes, there in my diamond hides, unearthed as I push my sunk feet out of the warm sands...Now I know that every bit and beat of this life, glorious and sorrowful, lonely and accompanied, leads me to a soul satisfying tomorrow, and let me gently arise and pursue...

Street children A street child may be: a ‘child of the streets’, having no home but the streets. The family may have abandoned him or her or may have no family members left alive. Such a child has to struggle for survival and might move from friend to friend, or live in shelters such as abandoned buildings. a child ‘on the street’, visiting his or her family regularly. The child might even return every night to sleep at home, but spends most days and some nights on the street because of poverty, overcrowding, sexual or physical abuse at home. a part of a street family. Some children live on the sidewalks or city squares with the rest of their families. Families displaced due to poverty, natural disasters, or wars may be forced to live on the streets. They move their possessions from place to place when necessary. Often the children in these ‘street families’ work on the streets with other members of their families. in institutionalized care, having come from a situation of homelessness...

Over the years community based telecentres, rural service centres, ICT resource centre and others that share similar synonyms have been yearning for technical and management support to enable their organizations provide required services and operate sustainably. Equally many of the southern African countries need collaborative efforts to ensure that telecentres share and inform each other on key issues that affect respective development agenda. The advent of Southern Africa Telecentre Network and emerging telecentre networks in countries of the region is proving to give hope to a number of national telecentre practitioners to mobilize themselves into formidable service delivery national organizations. Strong and viable regional and national organisations will provide opportunities for fostering information sharing and capacity development for the work of community telecentres and generally integration of ICTs in areas of agriculture, health, education and other social and economic sect...

As a developing country where the youth aged 25 years and below account for 68% of the country’s estimated 11.7 million people according to Zambia Central Statistics Office, 2006 projections. With a rise in population according to the 2010 Census preliminary results, in which the country’s population recorded to be about 13 million, the youth population is also expected to rise. This bottom heavy demographic presents a major challenge with its far reaching consequences on the productive and social sectors of the country. The main problems that youth in Zambia face include poor information flow on issues affecting their own survival and transition into adulthood, limited participation in national development and decision making, lack of quality and adequate and equal education especially secondary, lack of quality, affordable, and easily accessible training, lifelong learning and skills development opportunities, an absence of youth rights, lack of opportunities for their integration in...

The critical challenge in African countries and Zambia in particular is access to information resources and services that add value to the lives of people. Most of the potential of rural African resources and its people still remain untapped. Thus among others, we face several challenges. To contribute to the development of ICTs in southern Africa, Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET ) focuses on supporting innovative activities that would help reduce digital divide, facilitate service delivery to rest of the population. This can only be attained through the use of local based ICT infrastructures; community telecentres. Our expectations are to effectively contribute to the Zambian and Southern African Development Community (SADC) knowledge society as guided by existing Zambian, regional and international policies. Importance of agriculture and its trends in Zambia and southern Africa Agriculture plays a critical role to the economies of Southern African countries. The sector con...

This success story is based on the presentation made at the Southern Africa Telecentre Network and Panos Institute of Southern Africa Media Forum on the Role of ICTs in Agricultural Development . The success story is based on Panos experiences in implementing radio/ICT initiative in Zambia in particular Kasempa and Itezhi Tezhi districts under a programme supported by Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional ICT Programme. In this case Convergenceis used as enshrined in the Zambia ICT Policy as culmination of traditional services in telecoms, online media, broadcasting and information technology into platform and services making the ICT sector. Radio as tools for development Radio offers the best opportunities for the dissemination of information to rural communities.With a wide coverage of radio accross Zambia and the availability of easy to operate, portable FM radio gadgets which can be used with disposable batteries, more people from low income, and rural areas ...

Introduction: The blog is a collection in a series which are part of the Study Tour which Zambia Telecentre Network selected team of Four undertook to Botswana in August,2011,with support from Southern Africa Telecentre Network to learn and exchange the use of ICTs in the country and its connection to livestock and agriclture. Nteletsa is a Tseswana word that means ‘call me’. The Telecentres are deployed as a public private partnership project between the Ministry of Technology and Communication and Mobile phone network operators Botswana. This initiative is part of the government’s effort to achieve rural access to information as part of the universal access agenda. Under the department of Telecommunication and Postal services , the government of Botswana have developed an innovative approach to respond to the high need of information for survival and development among the rural population of the country who are mainly livestock farmers. The information centres are deployed in diff...

As mobile phones becomes cheap and accessible by most people in society , it has become the most preferred mode of communication for many .However, the question of how mobile phones can add real value to the student’s learning experience becomes a concern for many .The varied components needed to ensure an appropriate educational design was the main focus of discussion in this session .Applications to new devices and the better use of existing tools were shown during this session. The session was chaired by Richard Niyonkuru,M & E Advisor for ICT ,Ministry of Education ,Rwanda. John Traxler ,Learning Lab ,UK gave the first presentation entitled Learning with ‘Appropriate ‘Technology : PC Labs or Mobile Phones . In his presentation, the speaker stated that It is important and urgent to debate and discuss the issue of ‘development’ in relation to e-learning and the issue of ‘appropriate’ technology in relation to e-learning, and especially to debate and discuss these issues in rela...

The Fifth International Conference on ICT4D ,Education and Training , E-Learning Africa 2010, took place in Lusaka, Zambia from 26th to 28th May, 2010 . eLA is the largest gathering of eLearning and distance education professionals in Africa, enabling participants to develop multinational and cross-industry contacts and partnerships, as well as to enhance their knowledge, expertise and abilities. As one of the relevant events at the conference ,the WVS-Representative attended the 4th African UNESCO-UNEVOC TVET Summit: “Flexible Learning: From TVET Policy to Skills Training Practice”, which was led by UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training ,Common Wealth of Learning and German Federal Institute for Vocational Training . The event took place in the Main Hall from 09:30 to 16:45 Hrs . This year’s summit was planned to have two main elements: The adoption by TVET institutions and skills training providers of: 1. A technology-supported, blen...

Dear All, The time has come and the opportunity is here to speak out. To tell the story that Africa’s youth is not some black NGO statistic or sad clip on the international news. We are Africa’s youth: brilliant, determined, innovative, and ethical and the foundation of a new Africa. This is a redefined African youth image. We will take our stories of hard work and resourcefulness to the streets, we will take them to the World Wide Web and the world will hear us roar. That is “I am Africa. This is my story…” http://www.i-am-the-story.ning.com Every African youth has a story and is worthy of telling it. Every African youth has a story worth listening to. Millions of African youth from all levels of society, tribe and religion have a history, challenges, purpose and a future. African youth, You have the right, freedom now an opportunity to tell to the world who you really are. As African youth, you have the right to tell the story the international press has failed miserably to tell...

“In this new environment, the danger of the gap between the rich and poor in Africa is growing wider and more seriously than ever and threatens the economic prosperity, social stability, and very survival of democracy. Measures are needed to give all citizens the opportunity to acquire knowledge, frequently update that knowledge, and become fully engaged members of society. Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET) recognises that internet communication is central to the transforming of the way people interact all over the world. However, access to it is largely dependent on its governance. It is through various ICT tools such as the computer and mobile phone that citizens access internet services. However, access to and interaction through internet among citizens in Africa still remains an obstacle. We believe that universal access to ICTs and internet is the key to the above challenge. We have a choice in our quest to achieve universal access. From our experiences and feedback fro...