During the decade I recently spent in East Africa, I spent the majority of my time experimenting with disadvantaged communities to explore ways that participating in the Internet could influence their lives in positive ways. What I learned is that empowering the poor through the Internet is much more complex than teaching people where to click to find information. There are fundamental perception issues at play that serve to keep Africa’s engagement in the online world lower than it should be. One widespread misperception is that enabling Africa to access information from the rest of the world is going to empower African people - as if Africa’s problems would be solved if the average semi-literate African woman could simply find, read and digest what the rest of the world has to teach her. Fundamentally, however, empowering people means helping them believe that they matter, and that what they have to offer has value . Unfortunately, foreign information and culture pushed at Africa o
Dear Friends, In December 2006, I started Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project, aptly known as LnP, from my dorm room at Babson College. I was a senior who just completed an activist project for an Interdisciplinary Approach to Human Rights course with Professor Elizabeth Goldberg. This was an experience that changed my life ! You have been a supporter of LnP and for that I thank you and am grateful for your company on this journey. It has been almost two years since you’ve received an update from me, and today I’m going to share some intimate remarks about myself, LnP, and where we go from here. Please read on. Since graduating from Babson in 2007, I have learned so much from my former professors, friends, colleagues, mentors and advisors, and the world. I have observed the habits, actions, and inactions of all types of entrepreneurs in many areas throughout the world. This observation took place mostly online using tools like LinkedIn, SocialEdge, Social Earth, Facebook, Twitter, Ning