Learning and sharing information in Groups.
I was very happy to be given the opportunity to hold one of the 100 days of Learning events that were organized by Age of Wonderland. We held the day of learning in Kenya on 17th October 2017.
My goal was to share with the world, and especially those in the rural area, with evil believes that Disabled persons cannot contribute to the development of the world, on how I acted shiftily to a new profession, and how I didn’t allow the community to pull me back to their understanding that I was only for begging in the streets for a living, after the bad road accident that left me on wheelchair in July 16th 2000.
I opted to do the day of learning through my None Governmental Organization — Rural Connect Network NGO, which I founded in 2013 and up to the date of this day of had not yet been operational. Rural Connect Network (RCN) is non-profit making organization, non political and non partisan.
RCN is registered by the registrar of non-governmental organizations under the NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CO-ORDINATION ACT 1990 Section 7 (b) as a National NGO. The Organization started in the year 2011 in Kibwezi East Sub County and got registered in January 1st 2013. RCN currently operates in Makueni county, with plans to expand its operation to its immediate neighboring counties ie. Kitui, Machakos and Taita Taveta
Makueni County is one of the 47 Counties of Kenya. It is in South Eastern Region and it has 6 Sub Counties, with a population of 884,627 and a coverage area of 8,009 km2. The poverty level in this County is above 65%.
My participants
With the help of the County Director of Community Social Development of Makueni County, we invited all the six Sub County Directors in the County. We had also the chairman of RCN Board of Management, the IT Manager, Programs Officer and I, the Director of the organization, as well as the teacher in the day of learning.
Department of Community Social Development.
County Director: Daniel Mulonzi — dmmulonzi@gmail.com
Kibwezi East Sub County Director: Lydia Mwadime — lydiakatini@yahoo.com
Kibwezi West Sub County Director: Mercy M Kuria — kuria_mercy@yahoo.com
Makueni Sub County Director: Christopher Muriithi — chrismurii@gmail.com
Kilome Sub County Director: D N Nganga — mbuyad@gmail.com
Mbooni Sub County Director: Elizabeth Mumbe — elizabethmumbeth93@gmail.com
Kaiti Sub County Director: A M Kimeu — kimeuam@gmmail.com
Driver: Fredrick D Rabuku
Rural Connect Network
Director : Dominic Mutua Maweu
RCN Chairman: Samuel Kiilu Maingi
I T Manager: Kimanthi Mutua
Programs Manager: Phoeb Mwongeli Mutu
The County Director, who acted as the chair person of the event said that the sharing arrived at the right time when there was a lot to share with the community. Each was given time to reflect on the day of learning and all reflections revolved on the idea of sharing information through Rural Connect Network.
We all agreed that Rural Connect Network has now kicked off, and they are going to be field coordinators in their respective Sub Counties. This Department of Community Social Development is the one in charge of registration and moderation of community groups.
There are 8,334 registered groups of Women, Self Help, Youth, PWD and Community Based, that are spread all over the County and much more others that are not registered. Each Sub County Director agreed to be coordinating the sharing of information through Rural Connect Network framework. Each made a promise to be committed in making the dream of connecting all the groups in one on/offline network come true.
Each Sub County Director will be finding the areas of interest in their respective Sub Counties and all the success stories worth sharing. While we Rural Connect Network will make sure all the websites for sharing will be online as soon as possible. We will also approach and negotiate with the local Radio stations for hosting our educative programs.
Finally, we agreed to fundraise both locally and international to get financial support so that we can be able to pay airtime for our programs in streamline media. This includes training the groups on how to use internet on their cell phones and learn in their group meetings.
I therefore appeal to the international community also to join us in this noble idea of connecting the world in one big network of learning and sharing information. We made a collective promise to make Makueni County the place for bench marking for all the other 46 Counties in the Country.
Information is power, and we in Rural Connect Network believes in sharing information in any unique way possible. That why we have decided to connect all the organized groups in the rural areas of the country in one on/offline network for the purpose of learning and sharing information together.
Internet is the most cheapest way of getting information. For the rural communities who has limited resources, all they need is one member of their group with an internet enabled phone to Google any kind of information and starting learning. They can also with the help of that one member with the internet enabled phone, share all that they feel the world needs to know.
n?��␙
