“Sponsoring organisations of Balesa and El-Adi boarding facilities could not incur watering expense since the nearest water point is 98 kilometres away across the desert in Horr town. Parents have shifted together with their children in search of water for livestock during the December holidays and they might not return quickly for opening of schools…”–Marsabit North District (Kenya) Education Officer Mr Simon Kimani

Once again, we are reminded of how everything in the world is inextricably linked together. In a nutshell, a drought in Northern Kenya has caused nomadic families to shift their herds to greener pastures, thus preventing their children from attending school. As many as 1,000 students will miss class.

Not only is Kenya affected, but also districts in Southern Ethiopia where a surplus of water is causing an influx of herders, and an influx of students who are straining the system. Concerns have been noted on the impact this influx will have on the quality of education. Also noted is the need for boarding schools in Northern Kenya for students whose families are herders.

What interests me most is the ways in which education for nomadic herders is handled. This is particularly a huge issue for many families throughout rural Africa whose educational needs are rarely able to be met by the system. This is a topic of interest I am going to have to explore further. Your thoughts are welcomed.

The iHub might be new to Nairobi, but these types of collaborative working spaces have recently been popping up in several other places on multiple continents, albeit of different uses and purposes. This is really great news for technological innovation in low- and middle-income countries on all fronts. Yet, one question that kept coming back to me every time I read about these hubs of innovation is how they were being used and what the profile was of the ordinary user. In other words, who are they catering to? Some of the curiosities I’d like to explore are:

• What background does the average user have at the iHub and other spaces? More technical? More business/entrepreneurial? Less nonprofit oriented?
• How can collab spaces like the iHub seek to leverage the demands of the local society given the complexity of needs?
• Importantly, what role does education play in these collab spaces in business training, technical training, seminars, etc?
• What is the average education level of users at collab spaces and what importance does education play? Bonus question: Considering that not all users of collab spaces are entrepreneurial-minded (or are they?), how does that change the value and place of education?
• Are any users of these collab spaces focusing on tech solutions to the problems plaguing the education sector?
• Does nonprofit tech take a backseat to for-profit tech projects that might directly benefit the local communities?

Obviously, what I’m asking is a complex question in itself. But I guess what I’m driving at is, are there needs not being met at these collab spaces and, if so, what are they and how can these spaces be leveraged to meet those needs? Given a huge draw of budding technologists to for-profit initiatives, how is technology that benefits the local communities encouraged in these spaces?

My main concern that I’ve seen over the past year or two is how the number of users being drawn to these collab spaces are more entrepreneurial minded. How many of those users are working on tough society-related problems that can be solved with technology, given the easy lure of the tech dream of success?

My questions are most certainly not criticism of these collab spaces, as I find them highly beneficial to the communities they serve simply by the collaborative and innovative nature they promote. But I’m curious as to how many of them are working on problems in their communities that can be solved with technology.

Any thoughts?

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Nelson Ndung’u Itotia, a water distributor in Muthure, Kikuyu, Kenya. As water is a critical need in Africa, the services that Nelson Ndung’u Itotia provides are essential to his community’s survival.

According to his Kiva business page:

Nelson Itotia is a 35-year-old married father of two children who lives in Muthure, Kikuyu. He supplies water to homesteads and construction projects. He also owns rental houses where he earns about KSH 4,000 per month. Nelson was introduced to KADET by a friend who was already a member of KADET. He has borrowed from K-REP Bank before but this will be his first loan with KADET. He wants to use the loan to dig his borehole deeper so that he can have enough water for his personal use and for his business. One day Nelson hopes to expand his water supply business by buying a truck to supply water in large quantities in addition to delivery with his donkey. In addition to all that, he would like to raise pigs on his farm.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on August 30th.

• Name: WhereCampAfrica
  Website: http://www.wherecampafrica.org/
  Location: Nairobi, Kenya
  Date: April 4th, 2009
• Name: Next Web Conference
  Website: http://2009.thenextweb.com/
  Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  Date: April 15th-17th, 2009
• Name: Africa Gathering
  Website: http://www.africagathering.org.uk/
  Location: London, England
  Date: April 25th, 2009