Monday 22 July 2013

NEW BATCH HAS STARTED!!!!!!

After completion of the second batch with 24 trainees, a new batch (third batch) has started at Songambele Maarifa Centre. this batch comprise of 10 females and 14 men from Songambele community.Every one was glad to join the trainings in the third batch. This is due to good testemonies that SONGAMBELE community hears from the previous graduates.

Songambele Maarifa Centre located in Kongwa District, Dodoma ha become the centre impacting  computer knowledge to nomal villagers. Computer literate level in Songambele community has become high.

 
New batch trainees during the trainings. photo by Sadock
 AS you can see on the picture above, those are trainees during the trainings in the first session (morning session). Trainings are provided to the whole community freely disregarding of age, sex, occupation or level of education.


MR. ALEX, a graduate and secondary school teacher preparing for training.
Songambele Maarifa Centre has been adventageous to teachers also who have been lacking complete computer knowledge during their studies at colleges.

Sunday 2 June 2013

More income for a business lady after gaining computer skills



Ritha works at Chambasho Saccos Limited located in Songambele village. Her office was awarded a computer from Lutheran World Relief (LWR) but nobody among the workers was able to use the computer. She was very eager to have computer knowledge. When the centre started she applied but could not be selected during the first batch due to large number of applicants. She got the chance in the second batch and gained sufficient computer knowledge.

Ritha, far right with other trainees during a class session. Photo by Nehemiah Mabawa
 She was able to do everything concerning computer activities after gaining computer knowledge at Songambele Maarifa centre. She convinced her husband to open a stationary in which she is the one working since her office is nearer to her residence. Since she joined trainings, she is very competent, advertising her stationary to customers being sure that she will fulfill their needs and even asking tenders from  different schools to type and print the exams as she did for both primary and secondary schools in Songambele.

Ritha Haule at her stationery attending to a customer.
 photo by Samuel
This has increased her income and she is planning to invest by opening more stationery not only in Songambele but also other areas that are in need.

Friday 31 May 2013

Parents report improved results as solar lanterns offer students more time to study

When solar lanterns were introduced to songambele maarifa centre and communities informed of their importance, many people have realized a lot of benefits and praised the initiative citing that, it will go further to improve their livelihoods since they will be able to save a lot of money they used to buy paraffin and use the same to attend to other family needs.
Mr. Ainea Mudachi, the village executive officer (VEO) songambele B village could not hide his joy as he narrated how the solar lanterns have triggered anxiety among community members and how it has enabled his children have more time to study, a fact he attributed to their improvement in school.
Mudachis sons during evening studies.
 Photo by Sadock
Mr. Mudachi said that, his four shildren, three in songambele primary and one in Milimani secondary school were able to improve on their school performance since they could comfortably study for longer hours and in bright clean light that was not straining their eyes and free from smoke as compared to the time they used kerosene lamps which produced a lot of smoke which posed health risks, and blurred light  that strained their eyes and needed a lot of fuel to run them.
“I have noticed a lot of improved exam performance for my children since I started using solar power in my family. My children can now learn at any time of night and for longer hours as the solar lantern I have can support two lighting systems for 8 hours. My daughter who is a form four candidate has been using the opportunity to prepare for her national exams later in the year… Thanks for the technology”.
“I have been able to save a lot of money that I used to fuel two kerosene lamps which consumed fuel worth Tsh 1200 daily. The solar lanterns need direct sun light only to recharge, a resource that is free of charge…” he added.
Similar sentiments were echored by Neema Pearson during a follow-up visit where she explained how she has been able to save lots money by using the solar lanterns. She has been able to use the money to meet her personal needs.
"I have been using solar lantern for the last three months and have realised alot of benefits including; savings from money I used to buy fuel, clean light energy free from smoke thus health benefits. thanks to ALIn and DONET for the technology." she said.

Neema during an interview on solar lantern usage.
 Photo by Sadock
According to the reports at the maarifa centre, many community members flow in to enquire on solar lantern usage and prices so they can buy them for use at their families. Interestingly, another category of enquirers need to know much about wind energy that is also used to power the maarifa centre and are willing to have it installed to their homesteads so they can supply power to their neighbours.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Free ict training skills stirs young lady to volunteer her services



Hellaena  Tayari, a form four leaver born 18 years ago in Songambele b village never thought one day she will find computers being used in her home village being aware that, computers are expensive and needed a lot of power to run them a resource which was not available at her village. Hellena went through secondary education at Mbezi-inn located in Dar-Es-Salaam which is in urban setting and could just see computers being used and never thought she will one day be a computer guru. 

“I could see other people use computers but I had phobia for them… I feared even to touch them and never thought I will have an opportunity to use them…” said Hellaena
 
Hellaena assisting ICT students during their practice session. Photo by Sadock
When Somgambele Maarifa centre was established in November 2012, she was lucky to be among the first lot to benefit from Free ICT training. Her excitement could be noticed all through the training period and could ask questions on areas that she couldn’t understand well according to Mr Sadock, the ICT trainer at the Maarifa centre.

“She could stop me from moving to the next point if she didn’t understand the first one… I could notice her curiosity from the way she was asking her questions…” Said Sadock.

Hellena completed her computer studies three months later and she is now proud because what she could see other people do, she is able to do it even better. She says that, she is now able to comfortably work with the five packages she has learned from the ICT class.

Students and their trainer during class session. Photo by Samuel
“I am now happy since I know all computer basics and can work with Ms Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Thanks for the free ICT training…” added Hellaena

Her efforts were rewarded when the advisory committee saw her fit to serve as a community knowledge facilitator (CKF) at the maarifa centre among many youths who had applied for the position and she has gone even further to help in computer training among other duties at the maarifa centre.
Her appeal is to have more machines and have internet connection at the centre since a lot of community members are interested to join the training.

Thursday 4 April 2013

More work with less effort


Computing School Results of Songambele Ward
Even in the remotest parts of Tanzania, things are gradually changing with the introduction of new information and communication technologies that make work efficient. This brief article shares the experiences of how teachers in 6 schools were able to use computers in setting, marking and releasing examination results in the shortest possible time. On 13th March 2013, a total of 388 pupils of Standard VII in Songambele Ward sat for their Ward Examinations. The pupils from the 6 schools in the ward included 215 girls and 173 boys. The pupil population per school was as follows: Songambele, Masenha 13 boys and 13 girls, Ndachi  63 girls and 32 boys, Isang’ha  51 girls and 44 boys, Muungano 10 girls and 14 boys and Mtunguchole  girls 15 and 25 boys. These pupils were examined on the five subjects of: Mathematics, Kiswahili, English, Skills of Work and Science.

Hands on computing the results 
Ms Marcelina Julieth and the Village Executive officer reviewing results
Supervising the pupils to do all the subjects and marking all 388 papers per subject is a tedious job for teachers. This activity took two full days. After marking all the papers, the results were given to 2 teachers undertaking ICT training at the Songambele Maarifa centre. According to Dorosela Mabale, Happy Matandala and the Ward Education Officer Marcelina Raphael who are ICT trainees, computing the results using Excel package they had learned will make it easier to present all the school results. With the assistance of Maarifa Centre Field Officer and ICT trainer, the three educationists used the computers at Maarifa Centre to compute the total and average marks for every pupil per school. They compiled the results for all the schools and generated a list arranged according to the performance of the pupils starting with the highest mark to the lowest. Using excel their work was very much simplified as after two  hours overall results were out where by the Best Performer for every school was known as well as  Ward Best Performers.

Previous this kind of job was done for two or more days as they were using calculators to have totals and average mark for every pupil then had to arrange them manually for every school to have best performer, and getting the best pupil per Ward.

Ms Marcelina Raphael testifies her new experience
Ms. Marcelina Raphael is the ward Education Officer and shared her experience in Kiswahili as follows:
Kawaida kazi kama hii huwa tunaifanya kwa siku mbili mpaka tatu wakati mwingine na hii  husababishwa na vitendea kazi tulivyokuwa tunatumia yaani vikokotozi vya kawaida. Tunashukuru sana kuwa hiki kituo cha Maarifa centre maana kwa mara ya kwanza matokeo yametoka baada ya masaa mawili tangu walimu walipomaliza  kusahihisha mitihani. Kwa kushirikiana na watendaji wa kituo na walimu ambao ni wanafunzi wa darasa la computer tumeweza kuingiza matokeo ya wanafunzi wote, kwa kutumia program ya excel tumetafuta jumla na wastani wa kila mwanfunzi na kupanga matokeo kwa shule na baadae kwa kata nzima, kazi hii imefanyika kwa muda wa masaa mawili tu kitu ambacho hatukuwahi kufikiri kama kinaweza kuwezekana. Tunashukuru sana kituo cha Maarifa Songambele, uongozi wote wa kituo pamoja na  wadau wote waliofanikisha kuwepo kwa kituo hiki chenye manufaa makubwa kwa jamii yetu.

In the past this kind of work was quite hectic and usually took us two or more days. This is due to the equipments used which are normal calculators. We are grateful to have this Centre in our community as for the first time Examination results were out only after two hours following the marking of the papers by the teachers. With our close cooperation with Maarifa centre staff together with Teachers who are ICT trainees at the Centre, we managed to compute all pupils’ results and by using Excel Program we were able to find totals and average mark of every pupil and lastly we arranged according to performance of the pupils per school and per Ward. This work took us two hours only something which we never thought before that could happen.  We thank the Centre Management and all stakeholders who in one way or another manage to run the centre.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Empowering Songambele Communities with Digital literacy

What is digital literacy?

Digital literacy is about the level of experience someone has with computers. It refers to having skills and the knowledge to use computers competently in many applications for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In today’s world, almost everything is going digital hence the need for communities to acquire the basic skills in information and communication technologies. Since the establishment of the Songambele Maarifa centre in November 2012, communities are constantly getting new knowledge that can be used to improve their livelihoods.  Among the capacity building initiatives at the Mmaarifa centre are scheduled ICT trainings.
The centre is equipped with five computers dedicated for training communities on various computer packages. These include Introduction to Computers, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point, Internet and e-mail.
Who can be trained?
The centre is open to all community members regardless of whether one is a farmer, business person, hawker, student, teacher, nurse or even an unemployed youth etc. The first ICT training started in December 2012 and involves 24 trainees; 4 teachers, 3 business people, 5 government employees, 7 youth (boys and girls), 2 church leaders and 4 school leavers. This group of trainees will finish their training by end of March when another group will start. Already over 86 community members have registered and a criteria will be used to select the next batch of 24 trainees. ‘At the end of the training, each participant will be tested and awarded a certificate of participation’, remarked Mr. Noah Lusaka of ALIN from Nairobi during a brief discussion with some of the trainees during his recent visit. The ICT trainings will enable communities explore available opportunities especially among the youths on e-learning, e-commerce, access appropriate information for development and much more.
Reaping the many Benefits of being ICT compliant
According to Ms Herieth Sila, the Maarifa centre Field Officer, ‘The ICT modules taught have been very useful to the community as they have started applying them in different areas in their lives. For instance the workers like extension officers can now type their different documents ranging from reports and other documents while the Village Executive Officer (VEO) can type letters confidently. Teachers use excel to tabulate and arrange pupils results at school; a task that used to take more time’.

"Some of the youth trainees like Johari Farijala have already been booked for employment by the Stationery shop owners at Songambele market!” Remarked Ms Herieth. Ms Zawadi Michael who volunteers at the centre as a Community Knowledge Facilitator uses her Excel skills to catalogue Maarifa centre information resources.

Many of the youth have indicated they would like to pursue further studies online as they seek Internet related work. Jared Mkanwa, the VEO says: “the Maarifa centre project was timely because it will reduce instances of idleness among the young people and thus a reduction in petty crimes. The project will in the long run reduce rural-urban migration. It is already helping parents to cut down costs for training their children on ICT skills being offered only in Dodoma at a cost of approximately Tsh. 650,000/= (USD 420).

 Watch this space for more testimonies!

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Congratulations! TCRA officials laud Songambele Maarifa centre initiative


Dr. Maria Sasabo in a meeting at the Maarifa centre
The Songambele Maarifa centre was blessed to host Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) central zone officials on 21st February 2013. The TCRA is a statutory regulatory body responsible for controlling the communications and broadcasting sectors in Tanzania. The three officials included the Zonal manager central Mrs. Maria L. Sasabo, Charles Mbele and Elly Bernard. During the visit, the officials were interested to learn more about the services offered by the centre, community participation in centre activities the centre sustainability initiatives.  The TCRA officials were on their routine monitoring activities in central zone and keen to support the centre where possible. Others present during the meeting were the Village Executive officer Mr. Ainea Mdachi, Village chairman Mr. Sostenesi Mhoga, Mr. Noah Lusaka of ALIN Nairobi, the ICT trainer Mr. Sadock Peter and Ms Herieth Sillah the Maarifa centre Field officer.
 Responding to community needs
Ms Herieth Sillah the maarifa centre Field officer received the officials and briefed them about the services rendered to communities by the centre. She outlined that the centre started its operations in November 2012 and offers free information exchange services to communities. The centre is powered by a solar-wind energy hybrid system that provides enough power for all Maarifa centre equipments. The installed hybrid system serves as a demonstration of affordable renewable energy technologies for rural communities. Ms Herieth went on to explain: ‘the centre was initiated by ALIN in partnership with DONET to meet the Songambele community information needs and to enable them access affordable and sustainable clean energy resources.
Community involvement
The communities and local government leaders were involved from the project conception through consultative meetings and as part of the maarifa centre management framework; an advisory committee drawn from stakeholders was put in place. The committee members identified two young members Christopher Chibaya and Zawadi Michael who voluntarily support in running the centre and community outreach activities.  The two Community Knowledge Facilitators (CKF) have just benefited from trainings on installation of tubular biogas digesters and use of solar lanterns. They will be championing dissemination of information to communities and capacity building on renewable energy technologies. The communities were also involved in a baseline survey on information needs and energy resources utilization at household level during the period 8th to 15th February 2013. Through the Maarifa centre, communities are lobbying for an improvement of the GSM network to enhance mobile phone communications, Internet access and other services like Mpesa.

The diverse Maarifa centre activities
Ms Herieth informed the officials that the centre activities are quite diverse and include:

ICT trainings – The centre has five Inveno low power computers out of which four are dedicated for training purposes. The free ICT trainings started in December 2012. The 24 trainees were selected and are trained in three sessions i.e. 8 trainees per session covering five basic information technology packages.  
 Information Access and dissemination: The centre has a library section equipped with some publications that include newsletters, reports, books, audio visuals and much more. Whereas the centre has invested in equipment for Internet access, this has not been possible due to lack of GSM network. Ms Herieth inquired if the TCRA officials could intervene to help the centre access Internet for community use. Internet access by communities will enable them communicate easily through e-mail and skype, access e-government resources, participate in e-learning activities and much more. The centre also documents local content for wider sharing through Internet and magazines

Maarifa centre sustainability
The advisory committee in collaboration with the Field officer plans to establish a revolving fund through dissemination of solar lanterns and biogas digesters. The centre once fully operational will venture in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to enhance local youth employment.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Lighting Songambele village with clean energy


LOOK! Don't stay in darkness, use solar lanterns for lighting
Communities in Songambele village will no longer stay in darkness when the sun sets! The Songambele community Maarifa centre has introduced affordable renewable green energy technologies for use at household levels. Among the new technology spreading in the village is the introduction of solar lanterns. Most communities use the chimney lanterns or the common ‘koroboi’ a wick lamp that uses kerosene. Others use torches for lighting at night forcing them to buy dry cell batteries regularly.
This kind of energy is unclean and causes indoor air pollution that has negative health effects to communities. The lighting Songambele village project aims to enable communities’ access clean energy and reduce their dependency on kerosene for lighting at night.

Demonstrating use of solar lanterns

The solar lanterns were introduced to Songambele community after demonstrations on their effectiveness were done at the Maarifa centre. During the occasion, five different solar lanterns were displayed and communities were able to select the best that they would like to use in the future. This was the first time the communities were exposed to the solar lanterns and were quite enthusiastic to start using them. The solar lanterns basically have panels for charging during the day and the energy is stored in an in-built battery.  Once fully charged, the lanterns can light for over six hours and some have capacity to charge mobile phones or to power a radio. The lanterns give bright light and are smokeless. This will go a long way in curbing pollution as well as reduce respiratory diseases and eye ailments mostly occasioned by smoke emitted by kerosene lamps.

The many benefits of clean lighting
Mr. Beterson Charles testified that he uses ¼ litre of kerosene everyday that costs Tshs.600/= for lighting his house at night. When he learnt of the new solar lanterns from the Maarifa centre, he opted to borrow and use it for two nights. When the centres’ staff visited him, he had this to say: ‘the solar lantern gives bright light and once I put it on the cupboard, I’m able to see every corner of the house. The lantern emits smokeless light and lights for over 10 hours.”
A young boy enjoys reading at night using the solar lantern

His young boy in standard 5 was able to read and do his homework comfortably without straining his eyes. Mr. Beterson was also able to charge his phone using the lantern thus saving him time and money that he would have spent at the local market. These sentiments were expressed by other community members who borrowed the lanterns from the centre including Mr. Yaredi Mkosi, Charles Mnyangalo, Valentinah Muhumba and Jossefina Senyagwa. The solar lanterns costs ranges from Tsh. 24,000/= to 125,000/= depending on the functionalities.

The Songambele maarifa centre has introduced other appropriate renewable energy technologies to communities that include: a solar-wind energy hybrid for powering the maarifa centre equipment, tubular biogas digesters for use at household level and much more. Watch this space for more updates!


Friday 15 February 2013

Thursday 24 January 2013

About Songambele maarifa Centre

The Songambele Maarifa centre housed at the Village Executive Offices
Songambele Maarifa centre is an initiative of Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN),  Dodoma Environmental Network (DONET) and the government village office. Established in August 2012, the centre is located at Songambele B village within the ward executive office, Kongwa district in Dodoma region. The centre is hosted by DONET and received financial support from Renewable World a UK based charitable organisation for installation of wind-solar hybrid system to power the Maarifa centre operations. The centre was established with the main goal of responding to community information needs and to catalyze documentation of local knowledge while building community capacities on use of ICTs in development initiatives and access to renewable energy resources. The Maarifa centre is run by an employed Field Officer who offers technical services and enables communities to access information resources. The Field Officer is supported by two volunteers’ referred to as Community Knowledge Facilitators (CKF) selected from the community and an advisory committee selected by stakeholders. The centre has an ICT trainer and also offers outreach activities to communities on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy technologies.