A New Coordinator

A core volunteer since the early days, Sam completed his degree in Development Studies this past December. He is now taking on the responsibility of coordinating our activities in Buhugu.

Sam is also a key participant in the Low Cost Websites pilot, and has been in Nairobi for the past week, training, meeting partners and clients and building websites.

Now back in Uganda, Sam will spend time between Mbale and Buhugu working on both buhugu.org and buhugu.com.

Sam gazing into the rift valley from Ngong Hills, Kenya

The Computers are in a Box

Buhugu is without power, and has been for some months. The issue is over pay, we hear. The sub-county has been asked to pay some significant amount in arrears, and it doesn’t look like it will be resolved soon. At least, that’s what we have gathered from the various conversations.

So, for now, everyone is in darkness and we have packed most of the computers in a box and put them to rest. This is somewhat symbolic, as our approach is shifting from free access and training, to income generation and service delivery.

Mzei Ndugu, our “senior volunteer”, has offered to secure premises, with power, at the nearby trading center. Both he and his wife are strong supporters of our experiments, to say the least.

When the computers are resurrected, our focus will be on sustainability.

A look back at what they have achieved in a few years:

• Hundreds of young people have become computer literate.
• Trained tens of teachers, nursing students, government workers and those in the NGO sector.
• The total reach is estimated to be between five hundred and one thousand people.
  
• Provided the platform to experiment with rural IT outsourcing, that led to the launch of buhugu.com
• Helped identify young talent in the community, in whom we are making further targeted investments.
• Ultimately, they were the catalyst that brought the volunteers together and helped launch our other experiments.

buhugu.com Launched

.org goes .com! In preparation for the January 2010 pilot, we have just launched buhugu.com.

A Base in Nairobi, Kenya

Some of the volunteers have relocated to Nairobi and have been establishing a base from which to expand our experiments in Buhugu.

Nairobi is a dynamic, exciting city and things have moved very fast in the last couple of weeks.

We have been busy doing market research, building partnerships and laying the foundation for phase II of our rural outsourcing venture.

More on this soon.

Low Cost Websites

March has been a good month for Buhugu IT. We've been kept busy by the launch of a couple of websites, website updates and transcription work.

After much research, we have identified a number of ways to deliver low cost websites to our clients. In doing so, we are hoping to provide avenues for individuals, organisations and businesses who are currently not part of the digital information archive (the Internet), to add their voices to it.

This, of course, in addition to creating opportunities for knowledge transfer and income generation for young people in Buhugu.

Project Spotlight - here are two websites we launched this month:

JNUinfo: An information portal for (foreign) students at the Jawarhalal Nehru University in Delhi, India. We created a new site for JNUinfo using content from an older site, improving the look and feel as well as making it simple for the client to make changes.

Country: India / Belgium


Joge Rescue Center: A brand new website for a community project in Kenya that provides services to orphaned children and widows.

Country: Kenya / USA

Mount Elgon

We have (finally!) launched the Mount Elgon website: http://mountelgon.net

Mount Elgon forms a graceful and inspiring backdrop in Buhugu. Tourism is not well developed in this part of Uganda and not many people have even heard of the mountain.

After much consultation with elders and volunteers in Buhugu, the staff at the Mount Elgon National Park and also people involved in the tourism sector in Budadiri (one of the bases for summit treks), we decided to launch an unofficial website featuring information about the mountain aimed at travellers.

It's a work in progress and hopefully will grow in to a comprehensive resource over time.

"The mesmerising beauty of the peaks in the early morning light, the rainbows after the rains, the bird songs, gorgeous sunsets, the glittering night sky, the Milky Way, the fireflies... At times it felt like we had stumbled upon a secret, and perhaps it was better to keep it that way." More on the about page.

The Buhugu Tree

by Nicole "Namataka" Gilbo

Buhugu IT

Do you need a website? Or own one? Need to add some photos to your page? Or upload the latest news?

No need to sweat the small stuff.

From as little as $1, Buhugu IT offers services to help you with your IT needs.

Think of it like a bazaar. The price is unbeatable, you can buy just about anything and in the quantity you need, and you can even haggle!

"Thanks for doing this. It looks so professional!" - to quote one of our clients.

Drop us a note, no matter where you are in the world: it [at] buhugu [dot] org

Buhugu IT - bringing the village to the global marketplace.

Hitting the Pause Button

Besides providing website updates to clients (anywhere in the world) and Internet access, typesetting, printing and such services to folks in Buhugu, there was one more (ambitious) plan.

It was to set up a company in Uganda which would deliver high quality IT services to clients within Uganda.

The IT sector in Uganda is small, but growing, and we wanted to get on board, providing services that are not easily available. The company would also serve as a training ground for young people from Buhugu and elsewhere in the country, and a percentage of the profits would go towards the Buhugu Initiative. And once the company has established a reputation, it would be handed over to one or more of the young people who learned the ropes while growing the company.

We had a name, the mission and vision statements, had spent the better part of a week at a client's site fixing up things, and were on the verge of registering the company.

And then we hit the pause button. Why? The reasons are many, and here are some:

• Uganda's private sector is small and young, and hence the need for IT services is not strong.

• Clients are not necessarily willing to pay more for quality.

• Delivering services to a client doesn't guarantee payment. And we were reluctant to spend a lot of time "chasing" payment.

• Often it's the government and the NGO sectors which require IT services and we ideally didn't want to work with either sector.

There were other subtle and not-so-subtle reasons. But, in our guts, we felt that the time was not right. Not just yet.

E-Learning

Over the last five months, three of the volunteers have been doubling as IT interns. Sam, Geoffrey and Rogers have helped deliver websites updates for clients in Uganda and the US, receiving on the job training, and at the same time contributing to the sustainability of the project.

Since my return to the US last week, we are experimenting with continuing that process. The Internet - what a magical thing it is! - is making it all very possible.

With some guidance from across the Atlantic, Sam has wasted no time in using email, Skype and online resources such as W3 Schools, to continue the learning.

Introduction to CSS was the topic we explored this morning/evening (the time difference, currently, is 7 hours between the east coast and Uganda).

Oh the possibilities.

Three laptops

In the last months, Buhugu IT has received three laptops from friends.

The brand new Asus EEE is a sweet addition - light, tough and versatile, it is particularly useful when on the move. It's been seen at Kampala hotspots, client's site and of course, around Buhugu. Thank you Ben.

Thank you to Cindy and Jennifer for the two Dell Inspirons - being used by students as we compose this post. Given that floppy disks are still in circulation in Uganda, the older laptops with floppy drives are often in demand.

Thank you also to Moez and T for the help in getting them here to Buhugu.

The Magic Yellow Box

The little yellow thing is our portal to the rest of the world. It lets us stay in touch, stay informed, learn and sometimes play.

Here you see, James, a teacher at Buhugu Primary School, surfing the net.

Slowly, people are getting introduced to the Internet here in Buhugu. And those who are already net-savvy are generous in thanking us for having brought the Internet to the village. Previously, to access the Internet, it involved a trip to Mbale, about an hour each way. Now we can all save money, time and energy and enjoy the magic right here in Buhugu.

A Genuine Yamaha Generator

Here in Uganda, buying a generator is not as easy as one might expect it to be.

The market is flooded with cheap brands and fake goods.

Having checked out a number of stores, we decided to head to the Yamaha dealer in Kampala. And what a different experience it was. Great service, knowledgeable staff, quality generators and the assurance of a warranty.

So, we are now in possession of a brand new, genuine, Yamaha generator with a maximum capacity of 550 Watts - enough to power three laptops and the printer.

We will soon put it to use as the electricity went off a few hours ago.

A very big thank you to N and friends for contributing the funds to purchase the machine!

"Ignorance is expensive"

The Internet and the library were "officially" launched yesterday.

Young and senior volunteers were on hand to welcome visitors, show them around and also to demonstrate the use of the Internet.

We had a couple of friends, from Hawaii and South Africa, joins us online for a chat which spiced things up a bit. Otherwise, the Ugandan dailies' websites, New Vision and Monitor, as well as BBC proved to be popular.

During the speeches given, many encouraged the community members to make use of the facilities and services available. One quote in particular received much laughter and resonated with those present - "ignorance is expensive".

Thanks to all those who worked hard towards this, and all those who came, from near and far, to be part of the occassion.

Do check out some photos we'v uploaded to our album.

Internship in Western Uganda

Rogers has just returned from Bushenyi in Western Uganda after completing a three week internship.

He contributed to a project aimed at networking the computers at the Bushenyi District Local Government office, and in the process learnt much. He worked under the guidance of Oliver, also a volunteer with the Buhugu Initiative.

"The whole training was so interesting." - Rogers.

We are happy to have him back.

Live From Buhugu

Power is back after some heavy rains knocked some electricity poles out. Internet is behaving itself. Life is good.

Currently only the volunteers have access to the Internet, while we create a plan for how to introduce it to the community. As part of the process, tomorrow a couple of us are visiting the district headquarters to inform the powers that be, about this new development, and seek their input.

We are really not sure what to expect once we go public. And given the pros and cons of the Internet, we are trying to put in some serious thought prior to any challenges arising.

Yes

A white pickup pulls up on a busy street corner. The passenger door opens. Cash and a package are exchanged. A traffic cop approaches. The driver hurriedly starts the car. I flash a smile and say a friendly hello. He stares briefly, says hello and moves on.

Contraband? Though the feeling is akin to that of having received a substance long denied and hard to find, it was a modem that was delivered by an MTN sales rep, Carol.

We are happy and rather excited to announce that this blog post is transmitted wirelessly via a small modem (that fits in one's palm). It hooks onto any machine that has a USB port and can transmit and receive data anywhere where there is a mobile phone network (belonging to MTN). Neat, don't you think?

Next week, the modem will travel to Buhugu. We can't wait to blog live from home-base!

Internet

It's been a long drawn out affair, though not completely unexpected.

After much research, we chose to get Internet over GPRS (mobile phone network) from MTN.

It's been a couple of weeks since we submitted the necessary documents and paid the security deposit, but we are still eagerly waiting for the delivery of the modem. Although somewhat amusing, the unprofessionalism of the MTN staff has been dealt with some harsh words from us, unfortunately.

Well, we've been promised delivery tomorrow. We are not holding our breath, but are hopeful.

Buhug IT - Doin' it from Buhugu

Buhugu IT has been in operation since the start of this year. The IT services, mostly web development, that we've so far delivered have provided the majority of the funds currently available for projects being implemented in Buhugu.

However, this week we reached a new milestone. For the first time Buhugu IT is delivering IT services from Buhugu!

The latest news updates on wcfjc.org were converted to HTML by two IT-consultants-in-training in Buhugu.

Part income-generation, part training and part generating resources towards community projects, Buhugu IT is starting play a central role in our activities here.

The Power Challenge

Solar power seemed quite promising. Clean. Maintenance free (just about). Long lasting. Reliable. All the discussions in Buhugu was taking us in this direction.

Oh but the cost! At around $5 for one watt, we will run up a bill of $17,500 for the projected 3.5 kilowatts. And that's just to get our hands on the panels. Then there is the matter of transportation and installation. Anyway, our entire operating budget currently is a mere fraction of this rather insane amount.

Why not seek funding? We could and we did, without much success. But, this not being a scalable solution, even if we were to get some funding, we started looking elsewhere.

Given that Buhugu is connected to the power grid (though the supply is erratic), some combination of a generator and car batteries would solve the immediate challenge. These are not ideal given the environmental impact and the continuous operating cost for fuel and maintenance.

So, for the long term, we are exploring such options as bio-gas.

Just Who are We - Officially Speaking?

Are we a Community Based Organisation (CBO) or a Not-for Profit one? Should we register in Uganda only or also in the US? What about other countries from where we might receive help? If we register outside Uganda, will that compromise the role of the community members in Buhugu as partners?

What about Buhugu IT? Should it be registered as a limited liability company, even though all profits are to go towards funding community projects? Which countries should we register it in? Under what legal framework will the volunteers who contribute their skills and time to this company work?

There is much debate concerning these questions at the moment.

By next month we hope to have arrived at some answers and begin the various registration procedures.

It is important that whatever organisational entity we create enables us to work together as partners, not hinder it. It also matters that we don't end up serving the organisation, instead that the organisation serves to facilitate what we want to achieve.

In the Company of Volunteers

Buhugu IT is more an idea than a company.

It came about because we were pondering the following questions:

1. How to do the Buhugu Initiative with sustainability built in to it from the beginning?
2. How do we use our skills to generate funding for our projects?
3. How do we create jobs for young people in Buhugu?

Technology happens to be something we know something about. So, it is not a surprise that we got pulled in this direction.

But the idea as it stands now is interesting, exciting and new - for us.

Is it possible to create a company that delivers IT services and products and is in part run by volunteers from around the world and in part by young entrepreneurs from Buhugu?

We take inspiration from the open source development process, of course. But can we translate a distributed network of IT professionals and enthusiasts (albeit small) into real projects, real jobs and real transfer of skills in Buhugu?

As a step in exploring this, last weekend five of us from Chennai, Gainesville and Ann Arbor met online, talked, shared ideas, asked questions and resolved to try it out.