Project Cost $5,400.00 Assessment Cost $0.00 Implementation Cost $5,400.00 Funds Needed $4,800.00 Background The United Nations Development Program and many others recognize the key role that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays in the fight against poverty and as an effective tool in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It is clear that information, knowledge, and resources help people build better lives. At the Matete market, located in the Western Province of Kenya near Webuye, the people of this region are desperately lacking a means of communication and computer literacy skills. Through a partnership with the local NGO, Urafiki Initiative Development Institute, and EWB WMASS, the Matete Digital Village is a proposed information center equipped with 20 computers and printers that will serve the communication needs of Matete and 2000 people in surrounding communities.

The Need Affordable access to information technology is not available in the Matete region of Kenya. The surrounding high schools have no resources to offer student courses in computer literacy; therefore information concerning disease prevention, medicines, equipment operation and maintenance, educational opportunities and job training are not available. The youth of the region are therefore disadvantaged in the job market and new business has no initiative to invest here. EWB-USA Response Travel 2008-2009 Students from the EWB-UMASS student chapter visited the nearby village of Namawanga, where they have plans to improve the drinking water supply. Professional chapter members traveling with the students visited the site of the proposed Matete Digital Village building. It was determined that this building was a suitable structure for housing the computers, servers and printers to create the information center. Ongoing The EWB WMASS chapter assembled a team with Information Technology expertise suitable to this project. The project team leader, who is himself a native Kenyan has skills in ICT and will be traveling to Kenya to set up the hardware and software. All the laptop computers have been acquired through donation campaigns and a partnership with Labdoo (www.labdoo.org) was established to bring consistency and sustainability to the project. Follwing Up The project implementation has still not occurred. The chapter continues to work on acquiring the hardware and software for the project and fund-raising to meet the financial needs. Moving Forward Moving forward - the chapter is busy configuring the donated laptops with stable, user friendly, open-source software. Also, small repairs to the used machines are ongoing. We expect all 20 of the donated laptops to be ready for travel by the end of the summer. The chapter is now considering methods for delivering the computers and long term maintenance and planning for the sustainability of the computer center. Our chapter has completed our first fundraiser and is planning a second one in the fall 2010.