VESEL: Village e-science for Life

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In the United Kingdom Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is part of our everyday life from chatting and taking pictures on a mobile phone to writing an essay for college and being able to buy goods in the shops or on-line. The situation for rural communities in Africa is very different. People there rely upon farming the land to provide food to eat and sell and yet they lack valuable information, for example about their soil, the weather forecast or the location of the best market for their goods. They also lack basic literacy skills and have little or no knowledge about ICT. Technology ought to be able to do a great deal to help these communities to improve food and water security, education and health. But what is the right technology and how can we help these communities to use it effectively? This is the question at the heart of this project. A team of UK experts in telecommunications, renewable energy sources, sensor technology, education and design will work with local experts at Nairobi University, organizations such as aidworld, agricultural information providers and teacher training organizations in Kenya. This collaboration will enable us to define the most urgent information requirements for a rural farming community and to design the appropriate technologies to meet these needs. This may mean providing sensors to give information about soil quality, cameras to take pictures of crops or the internet for up-to-date weather information and communication with other villages and the world beyond. We will work with trainee teachers to help them to use technology within the community and set up the school as an ICT hub. We will work with children to see how they can help their families to use and maintain the technology to best effect. Our aim is to fuse educational and environmental objectives to empower local communities.