The Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV) is among the blogs nominated for the 2016 Kenyan Blogs Awards under Best County Blog category. The nomination follows a grueling exercise by judges who sifted through 4,899 blog submissions in 19 categories and selected five blogs per category. The judges included Mikul Shah, Director at EatOut, Ahmed Salim, General Manager at Qube Ltd, Terryanne Chebet, Senior Anchor and Associate Editor at Citizen TV and Muthoni Maingi, Digital Manager at Safaricom. Voting began on March 3, 2016 and will close on May 1, 2016.
The culmination of the 2016 BAKE Award will be a gala event on May 7, 2016. Some of the categories include best technology blog, photography, creative writing, business, food, environment/agriculture, politics, new blog, corporate, topical, sports, education, travel, health, County, religious/spirituality, and best Kenyan Blog of the Year. The Kenyan Blog Awards is an initiative of Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). The award recognizes the efforts of exceptional bloggers by rewarding those who post on a regular basis, have great and useful content, are creative and innovation. The award represents BAKE’s effort in the promotion of quality content creation.
Started in 2011 by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), Laikipia Rural Voices aimed at promoting citizen journalism among young people by training and equipping them with basic journalism skills such as photojournalism, news writing, creative writing, feature writing, interviewing, media laws and ethics, and blogging. The blog has been instrumental in sharing information on agriculture, particularly on successes and issues faced by the youth engaged in agriculture, highlighting the role and importance of family farming as well as issues pertaining to climate change, environment conservation, and natural resource management.
As an organization committed to sustainable development, we recognize that reducing energy costs is paramount for those most vulnerable. The interest is providing a low-cost and high-quality energy service that the community can use as well. It was in 2011 that Nguruman and Isinya Maarifa centres in Kajiado County initiated a community green energy conservation project to help with cooking and lighting. They did this by developing biogas systems that work with cow dung and other biomass material through recycling. ALIN was involved in carrying out a rapid assessment among pastoral farmers to gauge interest in installing tubular biogas technology to help mitigate climate change and sustainable energy resources. To get the word out about biodigesters, which are high-quality yet low- cost products, we created a participatory process with pastoral farmers where they could try out technologies first-hand during an intensive four-day workshop on installation and maintenance techniques.
To install a tubular biogas system, you need a 10-meter-long heavy-duty silage plastic tube of 10metres, long by 3.2 meters, two PVC tubes and pipes, gate valves, sockets, nipples and flexible tube for connecting to the specially fabricated biogas burner. In addition, you will need 200 litres of both cow manure and water. Not only is the Kenyan bio-digester a low-cost system that farmers in Kenya can use to produce gas but also it costs 5,000 shillings, and each farmer needs fresh cow-dung mixed with water for it to begin producing gas in 5-7 days after installation. Tubular biogas technology is affordable and has many benefits including;
Mama Lucy Ndung’u of Nguruman runs a hotel at Endasopia Market in Kenya and she said,"After training at the Nguruman Maarifa Centre in March of 2011, my family's activities have changed. I have cut down on firewood consumption and I am able to save up money (USD 40 monthly) that would otherwise be spent on wood. I am saving to invest in my family. I cook clean food every day in a smoke-free environment. Before I began using biogas, I was having recurring chest congestion but this problem has ceased and I can attribute this to using biogas since it is smokeless! I have always been worried in times of changing rain patterns. Now I feel great to be part of the initiative mitigating climate change."
The tubular biogas technology is affordable and farmers have been trained to use it and are motivated to transfer the technology at a small fee therefore still earning daily bread. The abundant amount of cow dung, goat, and chicken droppings has enhanced the adoption of the technology among the community.
A project to create 100 Maarifa centres in northern Uganda.
Many agree to disagree yet as the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life”, is pragmatic to nearly everything but not limited to technology. It was time to adapt to the new normal. Day after day, technology plays a key role in robust services and solutions. On the grounds of that, Oxfam Novib has partnered with ALIN, Samsource and Inveneo to deliver technology infrastructure to 100 rural Maarifa centres in Northern Uganda as project Internet Now! set sail.
The goal of the Internet Now! The project is to create 100 telework centres throughout northern Uganda, in the districts of Adjumani, Amuru/Gulu and Moyo, offering outsourced ICT data services, wireless Internet access via a wireless café hotspot model, and services such as agricultural education and crop pricing information to generate increased income and employment over time. There are 100 centres in the network, covering 872,000 people with 10 workstations at each centre, two fully equipped. All centres will be stand-alone solar-powered and independent from a grid. The network is staffed with two Knowledge Facilitators who will provide training and support to visitors and a Field Officer who will specialize in identifying needs. ALIN led the team in the project which established a Micro Telco in Northern Uganda. This initiative included 22 ‘service & employment centres’ that were all connected to the Internet via solar and wireless technology.
ALIN is one of the first organizations to pioneer ICT technology in remote arid lands communities and with this it has seen its way to being awarded first place in the Global Knowledge Award, a first-ever from a Sub-Saharan region in Africa. Alin has gone over and beyond to make sure remote rural communities gain access to knowledge and information that will change their lives.
ALIN won the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)’s Access to Learning Award (ATLA) for 2011, which is given annually, marking international recognition of their work. The timing was significant, as ALIN celebrated its 10th anniversary since its operations in East Africa. The Award was given in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 during the International Federation of Library Associations meeting.
Deborah Jacobs, Director of the Global Library Initiatives at BMGF, presided over the ceremony and presented ALIN with the award for its immense contributions to communities in East Africa by supplying them with knowledge centres in remote areas. These communities have used the resources they received from ALIN to initiate local social enterprises that have had a positive impact on their livelihoods over time.
On hand to receive the accolade was Mr James Nguo, the founding Regional Director of ALIN. The ATLA award came with US$1,000,000 in cash meant to help ALIN scale up its winning concept so that it can impact more people. At the event, Mr Nguo said: “We understand that each community we serve is different and each individual is also different. Some communities need information about water harvesting, while others are dealing with a particular kind of pest.
We have also found that some people have taken to computers and technology, while others prefer live demonstrations or lectures in their native language.” “Thousands of people in these remote communities of Eastern Africa are improving their lives through the information available at these centres,” said Deborah Jacobs, Director of the BMGF’s Global Libraries initiative, at the award ceremony. Bill Gates, the Senior Co-chair of the BMGF, was quick to congratulate ALIN for this award. He highlighted how their efforts have helped transform communities’ lives in marginal areas through the establishment of 12 Maarifa (Knowledge) centres. He recognized the organization’s multi-media approach to information capture and dissemination using online portals and magazines. A follow-up event to celebrate ALIN’s 10th Anniversary and the big win in Kenya was held on September 1st 2011. It drew over 300 guests, representing partners and donor organizations, who shared in the celebration.
ALIN scores a first in winning coveted global accolade stamping its authority in pioneering the use of ICTs to empower remote arid lands communities with knowledge and information, transforming their livelihoods.
In a development that marked the global recognition of the organisation’s work, ALIN was declared the 2011 winner of the prestigious and highly competitive Access to Learning Award (ATLA) given annually by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The timing of the award was highly significant for ALIN coming as it did at the time when the organization was celebrating its 10th Anniversary since it started operations in East Africa.
The Award was announced at an event held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 during the International Federation of Library Associations meeting at a ceremony presided over by Deborah Jacobs, Director of the Global Libraries initiative at the (BMGF). ALIN was recognised for taking advantage of the benefits of ICTs to empower arid lands communities by locating Maarifa (Knowledge) centres in remote arid lands across East Africa and providing free access to information resources, including the internet and library resources.
Communities that receive information resources from ALIN have used them to initiate local social enterprises that have improved their livelihoods over the years. This made ALIN to be the first organisation in sub-Saharan Africa to win the Award. On hand to receive the accolade was Mr. James Nguo, the founding Regional Director of ALIN. ATLA comes with a cash prize of US$1,000,000 meant to help the recipient organisation to scale up the winning concept in order to impact a larger number of people.
