Electronic Community Overview
The allegory is as old as human memory and translates into
any culture . . . a father shows his son a stick and asks him to break it,
which he does easily. Then he brings forth a bundle of sticks and asks the son
to break the bundle. The son is unable. The father’s lesson: in unity there is
strength.
In 1998, 24 nonprofit organizations in Nigeria – known as
NGO’s, or non-governmental organizations – joined together in an electronic
community to enhance their effectiveness. With the help of the Ford Foundation
and the Boston-based East West Foundation, they began a journey into the future
that today has them communicating with one another and the world on a regular
basis.
With few exceptions, they had not ever used a computer or
surfed the Net. Yet, they could see the future and knew that despite the
divergence in their missions there was an important convergence taking place
within the world. They knew they
needed to understand and embrace this in order to effectively carry on under
conditions that in most parts of the world might be seen as impossible.
2 years later their dream is finally beginning to bring
results. Each organization now has at least 1 computer with access to the
Internet. Each organization now actively participates in the Electronic
Community – which has become their official name. Each organization has learned to use technology to further its mission and its
reach – and to help build relationships that reach across mission to common
ideals and dreams. . . economic prosperity, justice, peace, hope.
The Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team (NEST): Now
online with its own Website, (www.NEST.org)
NEST is rapidly becoming one of
the premier environmental research organizations within Nigeria. Since they
established an on-line presence, requests for NEST to participate in strategic
alliances to provide in-country research on broader global environmental
projects have increased dramatically, not only helping insure NEST’s future but
providing valuable insight into global environmental issues for International organizations.
The Farmers Development Union (www.FADU.org
): Numbering more than 1/2 million members FADU had one - rarely used - email
address and no access to the Web when the Electronic Community began. Today
they use email to communicate between field offices, track loans on their
financial accounting software packages and are using computer aided design to
develop plans for their new central office building where all work stations
will be networked with access to the Internet and integrated with regional
offices and the newly established Finance Division destined to provide a profit
center for the organization to reduce its dependence on outside sources of
funding. Visitors to the FADU Website (www.fadu.org) can even choose to make
their philanthropy work for private enterprise by makings an online commitment
to provide low interest loans to small indigenous enterprises through FADU’s
micro-credit program.
Girl’s Power Initiative (GPI): Armed only with a commitment
to elevate the status of women and the enthusiasm of its staff at the start of
the Electronic Community project, GPI now uses the computer and training
received through the EC to seek grants, communicate with supporters, send news
releases and, most recently, to provide advice and help to other members of the
Electronic Community. This past month, the Electronic Community, in its
biweekly emailing to members,
featured a tip for sending a fax by the Internet from Ese Amadasun GPI’s
technical support person.
These are only some of the success stories of the Electronic
Community, which according to former NH Senator Wayne King, director of the
project, hopes to become the information and technical support resource &
Web portal for NGO’s throughout West Africa. With a fulltime presence on the
ground in Nigeria and hopes of adding the same in other countries, King sees
the opportunity to use economies of scale and technology to assist NGO’s in
West Africa and beyond. Including the establishment of a technical cooperative
that provides technical resources that today are unaffordable to the majority
of NGO’s in Africa.
“Our pilot technical support cooperative in Nigeria has been
incredibly effective”, King said. “Providing semi-annual site visits to each of
the participating NGO’s, intended to build technical capacity from the ground
up and the vision to utilize technology effectively from the top down in
addition to technical assistance with any equipment that is not functioning
properly. Additionally we have help desk and Web based support for the
organizations to assist them between technical team visits.”
“Our vision,” said Osita Aniemeka, a member of the Nigeria
based technical team, “is to demonstrate to NGO’s that they can work together
more effectively AND reduce overall operating expenses while continuing to
expand services. It’s a tall order, but we are convinced that these
organizations are demonstrating that they understand.” For each of these organizations to hire
the kind of technical assistance that the Electronic Community provides through
the cooperative would just be out of reach to these organizations. By combining
forces with initial funding from the Ford Foundation we are demonstrating that
this kind of assistance is affordable and effective. We expect that within a
few years these organizations will be putting the technical cooperative
directly into their own budgets and funding their own participation.”
For Nigerian-born, and now US Citizen, Dr. Chidi Nwachukwu,
the Electronic Community project is a dream come true. . .an opportunity to
reach out to the country that he loves in a real and meaningful way. Nwachukwu,
a member of the Electronic Community Team, is the President of Uconnet.com an
Internet Service provider in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a digital entrepreneur.
He sees the Electronic Community as his opportunity to help his native land
reach for the prosperity he knows it can have. “Ethical Leadership and Hope”,
says Nwachukwu, “are the key ingredients for creating prosperity in Nigeria. No
force is better organized in Nigeria to provide that leadership than the NGO
sector. But until now these NGOs have operated as individual entities focusing
only on their individual missions. The Electronic Community creates the
opportunity for each organization to view itself as part of something larger
than its own individual mission. An entity where the whole is much greater than
the sum of its parts.”
Kip Bates, Senior Systems Administrator at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, and technical guru of the Electronic Community team
readily admits that his initial involvement stemmed from an old friendship with
college chum King (They attended the University of New Hampshire together).
Now, however, Bates speaks like someone on a mission from God. “Technology can
help these West African nations overcome centuries of economic marginalization
and deprivation,” Bates says. “In just two short years we have seen the
evidence of its power and we believe the best is yet to come. As these
organizations become more and more comfortable with technology and strive to be
more self-sustaining and effective we believe they will have the power to move
mountains within their countries . . . whether that means stemming the ravages
of AIDS, protecting important ecological resources or providing micro-loans to
small business enterprises that would otherwise be without capital, these
organizations will work together to change the course of history in Africa.”
None of this success has come easily. The telecommunications
and power grid infrastructure in
West Africa alone presents challenges that to others might seem insurmountable.
But the Electronic Community Team, with the unflagging support of the Ford
Foundation, West Africa and Dr. Adhiambo Odaga the program officer who is the
spark behind the Community, have been willing to accept failures as learning
opportunities and successes as lessons to build upon and in doing so have
overcome the odds that others fear to face.
“We’re not ready to declare victory yet,” said Anddy
Omoluabi, a member of the Nigerian EC technical team, “but we are certainly
ready to declare that we have something very special – of which we are very
proud. There are many miles yet to tread but this journey of a thousand miles
is now well on its way.”
News Release
February 2000
Contact: Wayne D. King
603-786-9378
