Malawi-based fulfillment center broadens Keepod’s African outreach
A new fulfillment center expedites shipping and lowers Keepod costs, expanding personal computing opportunities for students across Africa.
With a population of over 18 million, Malawi is becoming a hub for the personal computing movement. Located in southeastern Africa, Malawi is home to a variety of tribes, languages, and cultural landmarks. The country is full of potential yet lacks many of the resources needed for its citizens to thrive.
“Leading up to the most recent presidential elections [in May 2019], there were severe power shortage problems in Malawi,” said Carl Meyer, a Keepod associate and the co-founder of Shift IT. “The power grid seems to be improving, but the vast majority are still not connected to the electrical grid and do not have access to the internet.”
Meyer began tackling internet connectivity issues around 10 years ago. He deployed the first country-wide hotspot network and has experience in the African Internet Service Provider space.
One of the prominent groups Meyer worked with is the Malawi Cricket Union. The Union hoped to obtain computing devices, specifically Android tablets. Through the company Source IT, the Union’s wishes came true. However, within a month of receiving the tablets, they were all broken. Source IT looked for an alternative device, as repairing the tablets cost just as much as buying new ones.
Keepod and Meyer soon formed a relationship, creating a low-cost alternative for the Union. Through distribution of Keepods, schools around Malawi were able to live stream cricket games from the Malawi Cricket Live Youtube channel.
In May, Meyer helped create a “fulfillment center” in Malawi. This center, funded by Dzuka Africa Hub, is solar-powered and allows for Keepod manufacturing in Africa. This new project helps spread Keepod products across the continent, decreasing associated shipping times and costs.
“If people want to purchase their own devices, we need to look to where we can reduce the costs,” said Meyer. “With the fulfillment center, the opportunity has arisen. In the future, Malawi will not need to pay any additional charges, upholding the promise of the $7 PC.”
The center costs upwards of $2000 to set up. Compared to the alternative of international manufacturing and shipping, this fulfillment center will help keep costs low and create jobs in Malawi.
Through this project, the team was able to provide rural students with offline RACHEL plug-and-play servers. The server contains downloaded educational websites and content for students.
For those that are not connected to the grid, the companies use the “sneakernet” to obtain technology requests. The “sneakernet” refers to the physical movement of media rather than transferring it over a computer network.
Typically, a few rural citizens have access to low-data using apps such as Twitter. Through a social media request, the company is able to download the response by a data courier using a smartphone and then loading the data onto each server.
This project has had a massive impact on rural Malawin communities.
Recently, students at the Rainbow Hope Secondary School were able to expand their studies in STEM through Keepod devices. Crowdfunded by STEM Build Malawi, this project, led by 20+ women engineers, used Keepod devices to help build a STEM classroom at their school.
Through the Keepod devices, these engineers will be educating students, parents, and teachers about jobs in the STEM field as well as practicing skills they have learned through classroom workshops.
The long-term goals of the center are to shift potential income to local communities, which encourages social and physical development.
“This is the first time we [Keepod] have created this model and we want to replicate the center around the world,” said Nissan Bahar, the co-founder of Keepod. “We want to act as a responsbile company. It is not a tagline, rather, it is how you change the communities you work with.”
With access to the right technology, students in Malawi have the opportunity to expand their studies and potential career paths. Providing these communities with personal computing is the first step in building a fulfilling educational experience.
