This
Sunday I went to the countryside somewhere in Kisarawe district in a
small village called Kibwemwenda for my personal activities, in my time
there I got a chance to spend time with people from the village. It was
outstanding observing people with passion in technology in the tough
life circumstances they have. In that small village they were no
electric supply cables since the national electric grid didn’t reach
their villages but still you could find people using their phones and
even listening to the music and texting messages and so on.The mobile phones was part and parcel of their life, it was something important and valuable to their daily activities they could contact their customers who are coming to buy the local source of energy burned charcoal in native language ‘mkaa’ in which mostly used by people in small town and cities as the major source of energy. The villagers also used their mobile phones to contact people who provide them with the transport to carry their products to their local markets, most of the time they used motorcycles locally known as ‘bodaboda’, so they use their phones to contact the drivers to transfer their products to small close by towns.
That is the power of the handheld devices even in places were there is know power still people could afford to have mobile phones and use them in their day to day activities. I got a chance to meet a friend of my host Mr. Mwelea they called the village engineer since he has done something astonishing the guy was the solution of the Village lack of energy problem. When he came to town he purchased a solar power system with solar battery which he used for charging villagers phones and other gadgets like small radios and touches. He is making satisfactory amount of money out of this business, according to him he can charge up to 20 phones per day with 300 Tanzania shillings hardly he can make up to 5000 Tanzania shillings per day in his business of charging Mobile phones. Most of his client are village youth who like to use their phones for listening to music, browsing for internet and chatting. Actually he even took me to his house to show me the way he set the charging system using the solar energy source at the roof of his house. Really it was amazing, i even thought in my mind why shouldn't the government implement this since they don't have to put or install several line of grid wires and utilizes a lot of money in creating complex systems.
What
i learnt from my trip to the village is that still we have the power to
reach people through technology, i met some challenges there people are
complaining they are not getting enough information fro the weather
authorities its difficult for them to cultivate depending on seasonal
rains which they are not sure when they are going to rain. As a
programmer you can take this as challenge and see how you can help them
by creating a system either a mobile app or USSD applications through
SMS for them to get the details on time. Actually this is what we need.
We need people to impact and serve the society directly through
technology. Over 35 million Tanzanians are using mobile phones known
make easy apps or small featured applications which is compatible with
more number of phones, boom you are in just like that.Other wise innovation does not stop and it is all about commitment and discipline in whatever you are doing wither is an application you are developing or research you are doing be good at it and be ready to share TanzICT is there KINU is there and SAVANNAH fund is waiting for you, guys let us exploit these great opportunities to do great things. Better tomorrow of our country i believe can come through technology enthusiasts who exist in our local communities and ready to impact those communities
TECH360 Correspondent
By Jumanne Mtambalike