The East African Telecentre Leaders Forum (EA-TLF) is around the corner. This third of its kind will be co-hosted in Kenya by UgaBYTES and Kenya Network of Telecentres – KenTel in Kenya Siaya District. The event is planned to run in two phases; the online and face-to face sessions. The online sessions will be guided by subject matter specialists. Each of the session is important in fostering learning and sharing within the sub region and beyond about key telecentre issues

The EA-TLF is an East African telecentre event that occurs twice a year and with rotating venues within the sub region and focusing on different themes. It is part of the global framework of telecentre.org and partners’ gatherings that are focused at facilitating learning and sharing of ideas and solutions among telecentre practitioners. As such the EA-TLF uses open space facilitation methods – in which every participant is a learner and facilitator.

Telecentre practitioners in the sub region are encouraged to contact the following National network leaders who are charged with selecting national participants to the event, who will be facilitated by the organizers.
Sekiku Joseph – Tanzania sekiku@satconet.net
Paul Barera – Rwanda pbarera@yahoo.fr
Ken Chelimo – Kenya chelimoken@yahoo.com
Sulah Ndaula – UgaBYTES ndaulasula@ugabytes.org.

Participants from Burundi are advised to contact UgaBYTES’ Pamela Ogwal opamela@ugabytes.org. We encourage participants who can facilitate themselves to the event to also contact the respective national representatives. For details about the event see below;

Theme; PROMOTING ICT FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT; MEETING THE MOVEMENT CHALLENGES

Event Parts & Dates;

Online sessions: 14th ¬ 25th May 2007 (hosted on UgaBYTES mailing list)
Face-to-face session: 4th/5th June, 2007 Telecentre Visit: 6th June, 2007 Deadline for express of interest: 11th May 2007

Areas of discussion for the 3rd EA-TLF;

Connectivity improvement: The session will explore various connectivity options that are reliable and affordable to telecentres. Ideas such as bandwidth sharing, pay as you go connectivity… will be discussed
Management skills building; The session will cover skills development in the most important areas of management that affect telecentre performance. The areas will be identified by participants.
Knowledge sharing & Online support services: This will be an ongoing side event throughout the days of the event. It will focus on developing practical skills and understanding of how the telecentre community can access and use of the online tools (web 2.0 tools) and technology like blogging, podcasting, wikipidia etc The session will also explore the existing online support services that can be utilized by telecentre practitioners; online support centre, online training, online resources etc.
Partnerships for Content development: This session will focus on understanding how telecentre practitioners can develop content and services while taking advantage of various NGOs and Community development groups. Ideas such as involvement in HIV/AIDS and Malaria eradication campaign will be discussed. This discussion will help telecentre practitioners to develop practical skills in identifying key stakeholders in content development, key issues and challenges in identification and development of content. It will also be important in identifying ways of deepening socio-economic impact created by telecentres.
National networks enhancement: The session will examine issues concerning; Network funding and sustainability, practitioner and networks’ capacity building, promotion of CMC for rural development and enhancing e-business in telecentres.
Capturing & sharing our stories: The sessions will discuss how telecentre practitioners can effectively capture, assess and share their impact in the community using multiple tools. It will also discuss the importance of telling our stories and successes.
Strengthening the EA-TLF;
Fundraising for EA-TLF; Ways, means & approaches to source funds for an inclusive EA-TLF. How marketing of the event; locally, regionally nationally & internationally - the role of the media. Identification of the next host country and setting the core strategy.
Exhibition: The forum will have an information point; where all participating organizations will display their showcases, information leaflets and materials. This point will be kept accessible throughout the forum’s period.

Hope to read from you online and see you in the face-to-face to event...

On Mentorship…

From 10:30am yesterday — until about 4pm — twenty young people had the opportunity of experiencing the first in the series of Lagos Digital Village Mentorship Roundtables. Supported by Heinrich Boll Foundation, the selected applicants had the chance of listening to the diverse experiences of those who’ve been there and done that within the ICT industry.

One of the mentors a CEO of an IT firm came in from the UK.He talk about how the particpants could provide IT solutions and create Entrepreneurship Opportunities and services, one is an IT executive based in Nigeria and the third from Action Aid Nigeria arrived from Kenya that same morning and facillitated a personal profile analysis of each of the particpants(it was almost like a SWOT analysis but more on personality,morals,expectations and individual relationship with people at work,home and society at large).

Now, talk about willingness to reproduce their success stories in others! As speak from a participant view of the Mentorship roundtable that the process will move online and bring thousands of Nigerians face to face on the same issue of mentorship within the ICT sector.

The online platform will soon be announced, Watch Out…

The executives and members of Dee-Relate in partnership with African Youth For transparency and Support from His Royal Highness OBA Solomon Omotoyinbo & DFID Ado Ekiti had a Three day workshop on HIV/AIDS Awareness, prevention, treatment and creation of HIV/AIDS clubs in secondary schools. In the first phase 10 executive members of the student union of Aisegba who will help facilitate and interpret to the Host community in their own language.The second phase which is the main workshop and awareness rally for the community as a whole and coordinate the various HIV/AIDS clubs that will be established in schools.

Theme: "SMALL VIRUS BIG PROBELM"

Day 1

Prevention: safety measures and safe sex, counseling, testing and regular updated information.700 students from the community high school & 500 students from comprehensive high school in aisegba were in attendance.it started with introduction on Hiv/Aids and other STD's
,preventive measures for the students.then we had group disscussions and opinons/views on the subject.

Day 2
Treatments: various types of treatments, their advantages and disadvantages, how to live positive lives and nutrition, volunteering, counseling and testing.
PLWHA spoke on treatments since they themselves are Hiv Positive and are receiving treatment.many of the students and members of the community were misinformed or had no imformation on VCT and free drug distrubtion centers.
Day 3

Awareness: various levels of HIV and other STD’s (symptoms).At the end of the third day an Awareness walk around the community by participants and members of the community in their local language was done.there was a possitive attitute by the participants on "spreading the message not the virus".

The Cybercrime Roundtable hosted by Lagos Digital Village and supported by Heinrich Boll Foundation on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at Heinrich Boll Foundation Ikoyi Lagos.

it was attended by 20 youth leaders from the nigerian ICT sector & members of the nigerian WSIS youth Caucus(Gbenga sesan,Titi Akinsanmi,tope shoremi,kola osinowo,pascal smith,ayo oladejo etc)
The roundtable was an interactive session, with the theme, "Cybercrime Bill and Nigerian Citizens", we ask particpants to study the two documents which are the two bills that seek to address cybercrime that is before the national assembly in Nigeria. There are plans for amendments so our duty is simply to look at both bills in the light of how it can solve the beastly problem of cybercrime and its possible impacts of the citizens, noting that some clauses may raise questions about the privacy of individuals, for example. Please note that while the "Computer Security and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Bill 2005" is a wholly cybercrime bill, "The Information Technology Bill 2004" only touches on cybercrime in Part IV.

Presentation 1: Insight into the Bills / Policy Process - Discussion on Presentation by Mr Adesina

who also showed and explained how The Information Technology Bill and the Computer Security and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Bill were been used and enforced in other countries.
Presentation 2: Insight into the Bills / Policy Process by Mr Basil Udotai further shared light into the the two Bills becacause he was on the drafting team.we shared experiences on why the bills had to be passed because nigerian law enforcement agencies need orientation on Computer Security & cybercrimes when a computer student is been detain by the police for carry CCNA book found in his bag and he had to call a friend to come to his aid.

Defination of computer in THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BILL 2004(Computer” means a person, thing or entity that computes; or a computational machinery having an internal storage where it stores data and or programs, and which without human intervention stores and retrieves data and programs, and executes the programs, modifying same as the nature of the data may require; or a network or network of networks of such computational machineries.)Question for all(is a computer a person or a thing?)

After the two presentations Rapporteur presented recommendations and highlights of roundtable discussions.we decided to continue discussions online.

our easter holiday was spent with refugees at the popular Oru camp in Ogun State, Nigeria. With a population of a bout 5,000 refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo and Sudan, you need to be there to know that these people have been through alot
I was invited to train them on ICTs and computer networks(LAN & WAN).the trainig took place at the 842 Computer Center.(History)The computer center was built by the community to support a young man Eric Wowoh who Someone donated a computer to and he learned how to use the system, and at some point realised his life was being changed.With the interest of his fellow youth at heart,he worked towards training others. After a few years,we the support of the community and support from other organisations the center was completed and now had ten (10) computers — and a standby generator. There, refugees — and some students of the nearby Olabisi Onabanjo University are trained at no cost!
A group of young volunteer and medical doctors conducted medical counselling,treatments for the refugees.the health clinic was on for three days,8hours per day.there was a health seminar on Hiv/Aids and STD's based on the observation during the clinic that one out of every three persons had sexually transmitted disease.
there was also a childrens easter party and vocational training on beads making,baking cakes etc.we left the camp monday to come back to lagos.
we had 50 youths in attendance and it was an experiernce one will never forget.