Location
Matters
Location is a real challenge in Benin, as it is in much of the
developing world. Where they exist, telecenters, cybercafes
and community learning centers are typically established in
more well-serviced urban centers, not in remote or rural areas.
Certainly, the infrastructure in primary urban areas is more
conducive to the establishment of such services, where a concentration
of population is necessary to maintain financial viability.
But it is also true that secondary and tertiary urban centers,
precisely because they lack the support available in capital
cities, may have more pressing need of the services than their
urban counterparts.
In
the case of internet connectivity in Africa, the political
capitals are the focus of early efforts while smaller towns,
some of which are educational or economic centers in their
own right, are under serviced or not serviced at all. It is
important that the tendency to concentrate new resources in
areas already relatively well serviced be addressed through
an effort to extend valuable learning services more broadly.
This is what Songhai’s CNSCs is all about. As Father
Nzamujo puts it, “What we’ve been saying on the
corner is now out in the public.”
The
Best of Both Worlds
Songhai’s Community Service Networkiing Centers will
serve three formal development objectives: (1) allow for the
more ready sharing of Songhai’s Porto Novo experience
with the students, faculty and communities at the new centers
(and beyond) via internet or CD-ROM delivered, multi-media
distance learning courses; (2) facilitate the administration
of the new centers through a Songhai intranet; and (3) enable
Songhai to share more of its experience with the larger development
world through the World Wide Web.
|
