RIC-NET OFFERS TECHNICAL SUPERVISION TO INFORMATION CENTERS

On the early morning of Friday 27th 2012, RIC-NET staff ; (program manager, Finance officer, Documentation officer, ICT personnel and Assistant Information officer) set off for kamwenge Communities’ Information Centre (KACOICE) located in kamwenge town . The team was welcomed by centre members who were eagerly waiting for their arrival. A brief meeting was held with the centre members to discuss issues affecting the centre; achievements, challenges and way forward. The members appreciated RIC-Net support extended to them such as capacity building, financial support among others.

Through interactions with staff and board members, the team learnt about the progress of the centre in the last three months as they had been boasted with funding from HIVOs through RIC-NET which have facilitated a set up of a KACOICE sign post

for visibility purposes, daily newspapers availed to the readers from which articles relevant to the farmers are photocopied and shared with the farmers being that they are the majority of the users, the centre had so far shared information on bee keeping, pineapple growing, poultry, diversification in agriculture among others

The centre had also collected about 1000 telephone numbers from stakeholders to facilitate information sharing using the bulk SMS, the RIC-NET staff did a lot of orientation done in this area as most members interacted with had a thinking SMS alerts are always generated by the technical staff at RIC-NET but later they realized that since they are placed at the grassroot most of the times the SMS alerts would come from them as the technical team sends them.
Noting that KACOICE has subcounty level centers, the team also had an opportunity to visit one of them located in Nyabbani subcounty known as Nyarwe mixed farmers, where they appreciated the success stories shared in the newsletters but further requested RIC-NET to make a Documentary of their work on pineapple growing and the best practices which could inspire other farmers at regional and national level.

However, the members addressed the following issues to RIC-NET; they needed training on the use of online platforms(blogs,skype,D’groups) website for their center, repackaging their information and some skills in handling computer related programs of which RIC-NET pledged to fulfill as it has always done in the past.