By Nivi Sharma & Loyce Chole

Mathare Valley is one of the oldest, poorest, most densely populated slums in the world. Despite having over 60,000 people living per km² (in contrast to the national average of 82 persons per km²⁾, many people in Kenya are not aware of the poor living conditions in the region. It’s rare for people in the rest of the world to even know about Mathare Valley, let alone understand the impact of the digital divide on their livelihoods.

BRCK has connected more than 2 million people to the internet over the past 3 years. This year, we have embarked on a bold and ambitious project in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Within the framework of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funding program develoPPP, GIZ and BRCK joined forces to bring Moja free WiFi to Mathare Valley. The partners are installing a technical infrastructure that connects the entire slum population of at least 600,000 people. This infrastructure is the largest mesh network in Africa where residents are able to access the internet at no direct cost. Using their smartphones, users perform digital tasks on the Moja platform like watching an ad or filling out a survey to earn Moja points that they can then use as credit to access the internet. Moja is also a repository for health and education information that is disseminated to residents, helping them cope with the economic impacts of the pandemic. 

5,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs are being trained by our partners, Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). SHOFCO, is a Kenyan, grassroots non-profit that aims to build urban promise from urban poverty. SHOFCO are training Mathare business owners on how to leverage the free Internet service to unlock the potential of digital access to jump start or grow their businesses; and digital services to gain business skills as well as take advantage of government and social services. A further 5,000 residents of Mathare will be trained on basic digital skills giving them the tools to participate in the global economy.

BRCK’s innovation lies in using mesh technology to improve network coverage and resilience in Mathare by allowing access points to intelligently connect to each other and fail over in case of network issues. In order to provide high quality, affordable connectivity, BRCK has developed the SupaMESH WiFi Access Point. This device has been co-created by BRCK, Ignitenet and Facebook Connectivity to enable large mesh networks (>100 Sites) in challenging environments. 

Deploying and maintaining a network infrastructure in Mathare Valley is not without challenges. Power is a major issue at most sites – it’s neither reliable, nor clean. Theft and vandalism are also a risk we foresee. However, having rolled out a quarter of the planned network so far, we see how much the youth value the service and we’re confidently counting on them to continue to protect the “bright yellow WiFi squares” that have dotted the Valley. We are especially grateful for the support from Community Based Organizations and Youth Groups like Mathare Social Justice Centre, Pamoja Twaweza Community Project, Shantit and Muoroto.

One of the biggest concerns that young people brought to BRCKs attention was that there are not enough points earning activities for them. In short, they want more digital tasks on the platform from organizations who value their time or their eyeballs. These are the first important steps towards giving the youth the opportunity to earn from real digital work: we are encouraging all organizations interested in engaging with these young people to think creatively about leveraging the Moja platform: advocacy and awareness campaigns; short polls and long surveys; and brand awareness. With Moja WiFi, the youth of Mathare Valley now have the opportunity to be active participants and beneficiaries of the digital economy.

BRCK’s Moja network covers 2 million people and has 8 million+ sessions per month, making it one of the largest public WiFi networks on the continent.  With that kind of reach, we realized we could do something to help spread the information that’s so necessary during this crisis in order to flatten the African curve.

• First, we’re making sure people who want to get online watch approved coronavirus educational videos in order to earn their free internet time.  This mechanism isn’t available almost anywhere else, so it provides a great opportunity to push the right information in front of people. 
• Second, we have a whole channel dedicated to information, contacts, and alerts/updates on the coronavirus. You can see the current COVID-19 channel here. 
• Third, we’ve created an educational channel for all ECD, primary, and secondary content so that children can continue learning when they’re not at school. You can see the current BRCK Education content aggregated here.

Educating Through Moja

The work Moja is doing today can have a huge impact on the non-pharmaceutical interventions to stop the spread. Moja is an outdoor public WiFi network that connects almost 1 million people in Africa to the internet for free every month. We reward our users for their attention and engagement with a digital currency called Moja points. Moja points can be used to connect to the internet. 

Our users, like many people in Africa with smartphones, want to connect to the internet, the largest, greatest network of knowledge and information in the world. And they can afford to spend time, but not money, to get online. These incentives and connections are the pipelines through which we have now started disseminating locally relevant educational content about COVID-19. 

Information about COVID-19 is the first thing users see upon connecting to Moja WiFi. Users connected to Moja can watch an educational video to earn points to go online. 

People in urban Africa are no longer huddled around radios and TV sets waiting for the government to tell them what to do. They are looking to find information and connect with others on their smartphones. Unlike everyone reading this blogspot, and learning from other online sources, not everyone has the privilege of digital access. Not everyone has the privilege of being perpetually and ubiquitously online.  The 4 barriers to connectivity are:

1. Access (to a signal and/or a smartphone)
2. Digital literacy
3. Relevance of content (local languages, and accessible for the illiterate, etc.) 
4. Affordability

Because Moja addresses all 4 of those barriers, we are playing a growing role in bridging the digital divide. We are using that bridge to:

• Disseminate to our users as soon as they land on our captive portal the many PSAs in English and local languages about COVID-19, tactics, and strategies to stop the spread.

• Give our users the latest official and verified updates from government bodies and WHO.

• Provide an education content portal for learners, parents, and teachers. We had already done a lot of thinking during our Kio Kit days about the most relevant content for Kenyan students.

Looking Ahead

The challenge we have now is to use these tools to drive behavioural change by helping our continent understand why these changes are crucial to saving millions of lives. Because the paternalistic “what and how” approach simply won’t work. We need creative ways of communicating these messages effectively to people who may not even have a primary or secondary school education. 

If you have content to share with our users, please click here.

We have a lot of work to do, and the work of the technology sector must include connecting 800 million people in Africa to the information they need to both understand and fight this pandemic. 

The pipelines we build today will continue to bridge the digital divide for our young, entrepreneurial, and astute population that lacks access to the global digital economy today. 

The title of this blogpost was supposed to be “A Day at BRCK”. But there is no typical day at BRCK and it’s interesting to think about this at the end of the year and look back at what a culmination of days has looked like and meant to me.

As the COO of BRCK, my job is to take our company strategy and operationalize its execution. That often feels like rolling 10,000 marbles from one side of the table to the other. I’m constantly looking for ways to make “self-driving marbles”, always watching out for marbles that look like they’re about to fall off the table, or are going in the wrong or opposite direction, or moving too slowly, or have stopped altogether. 

I also have to pay attention to the bumps and failures that lead us to better, smoother, paths. A good tool we have for dealing with these are “blameless post mortems”: what can we learn from this failure, mistake, blooper, etc.? What can we do to avoid it ever happening again? Sometimes it’s filling the hole in the table, other times it requires all the marbles to go around that hole.

Either way, this year has taught me that small steps lead to big accomplishments. Interestingly, some of the most important work I’ve done in 2019 has not felt like the “work” itself. It’s been about untangling human conflicts, assumptions, and misunderstandings. It’s been about documenting crystal clear processes for people to follow, putting in writing objective expectations we have of one another. I’ve become hyper aware of the impact words and small actions can have on those around us. I see the snowballed negative impacts of people speaking and acting from spaces of insecurity, resentment, or self-righteousness. The negative impact these words and actions have on the people saying/doing them themselves and also on others. These words and actions, when we’re not careful, quickly become our habits and personalities. 

On the other side of that spectrum, seeing people speak and act from spaces of confidence, empathy, and a commitment to learning has brought about some of the biggest personal and organizational transformations. It’s in these examples that marbles became self-powered, self-directing drones!

The problem I’ve chosen to solve for this year is meaningful connectivity. Connectivity between people sharing ideas, thoughts, resources, experiences, etc. I’ve been thinking about this deeply on two levels:

1. How does the BRCK team connect with each other? How does communication between team members make or break our strategy? I’ve encouraged and created tools for team members to have respectful, meaningful meetings with people they don’t agree with or understand.
2. How does BRCK enable our end users to connect meaningfully? The internet is the largest, greatest network of knowledge and information. How can Moja users leverage their connectivity to meaningful change their lives? I’ve worked on a partnership to develop a digital literacy platform that helps users understand how technology affects our bodies and brains.

By executing against small tasks, I create a thread of “meaningful connections” to look back on. I have set the stage for what next year will look like for me – 2020, the year of clarity and focus. I have a clear intention to focus on being of service to the people and organizations we work for – the commuter on a matatu, the makanga, the driver, the marketing manager leading a campaign, the investor, the team member at BRCK.

Although we are not an “impact-driven social enterprise”, somehow, with this narrative of meaningful connectivity, we have an inbuilt purpose in our organization. And I hope that the purpose will live beyond our time here by constantly ensuring we are doing right by our end-users, our customers, our partners, our investors, and most importantly, our team; by working towards making all these people truly feel like family. 

A question we get asked often at BRCK Education is about data supporting the effectiveness of our work. Potential customers, donors and investors want to know what metrics we use and have to verify that the Kio Kit improves learning outcomes.

The truth is that the Kio Kit doesn’t have any impact on learning. The Kio Kit without education content is just really cool hardware. The metrics buck really stops with our digital content partners and teachers. Whether a school/teacher decides to use the Kio Kit to teach literacy using the Tusome, eLimu or Jolly Phonics content is what might determine the learning outcomes at that school.

The Kio Kit is not at all prescriptive in how we expect all teachers to use it in class. We believe that the Kio Kit is a toolbox with several tools inside it. Which tool is used, when it is used and how it is used should remain the decision of the person who knows the students best: their teacher. In some cases, we have curated a collection of standard content, but when we deploy Kio Kits to the Solomon Islands or Mexico, we have no say in what content the kids there will consume and interact with.

But metrics are important. It is important Kenyan primary schools talk about the KCPE results. It is important that we know literacy levels of students. They say numbers don’t lie, but we all know people who lie have used numbers. If there’s a measurable school reform intervention that worked in inner-city DC, it does not mean it will work in Samburu. This is where metis plays an important role.

It is not just children who go to the school

In Greek mythology, Metis was the personification of deep thinking, knowledge and wisdom. The Kiltamany expedition was 7 days without running water or electricity; a school in the middle of nowhere, forgotten by the government, politicians and most.

Some of the challenges we observed while we were there:

• 4 teachers and 1 headteacher were allocated by the Teacher Service Commission to this school with 8 classes.
• Teachers were from Meru, Archer’s Post, Nairobi. Most were not happy about being posted to such a remote school, far from friends, family, amenities and a social life.
• Teachers were not tied to the local people in any way.
• Teachers were often absent and sometimes drunk during class.
• Most classes we observed during our time there did not have a teacher present
• Students were also often absent. Parents viewed school (especially with such teacher absenteeism) as a waste of time – taking care of the goats was a better alternative.
• Teachers were demoralized by the absenteeism of students, especially the smart girls who were married early.
• Teachers were demoralized by their low pay and were often seen taking calls during class to “side hustle.”
• By 11am, it becomes unbearably hot, effective learning and concentration become near impossible.
• If the borehole of the village dries up, children are sent to get water for lunch from elsewhere. One day, the children waited till 4pm for lunch – for many it was the only meal they would eat.

Some of the challenges were surprising, others are pervasive everywhere in Kenya. What learning from metrics can we apply in a school like this? What we saw working in the school were some excellent instances of local knowledge and community leadership: metis.

Meet Sylvester Lengamunyak, an amazing example of metis. If anyone knows what is needed to transform Kiltamany Primary School, Sylvester does. If anyone is able to connect the dots and make those things happen, he is. If anyone is able to bring all the right stakeholders together, he is.

Sylvester (L) is also a teacher!

While were there, we saw Sylvester:

• Call a meeting of village elders, the school Board of Management and the teachers to agree on the way forward. Each group stood up and owned responsibility of what they needed to do. These agreements were written and signed by all.
• Organize for water to be fetched from Intrepids Tented Camp when the borehole was dry. He had a good relationship with the kind manager there, they also sold us some diesel and checked our tires.
• Organize for boda rides for teachers, volunteers, patients and visitors.
• Organize for 40 women to have literacy and numeracy classes 3 times a week. This involved approval of the elders, their husbands and the school for the facilities.

Deep local knowledge, empathy, passion and purpose are the things that bring people like Sylvester, content like eLimu’s and hardware like the Kio Kit together. It takes a village to gather their collective strengths and knowledge, to strategize and work together to build a culture of genuine teaching and learning.

L-R: Sylvester, Nivi, Edoardo. An important lesson from Samburu: the best herders are at the rear of their flock.

Recommended reading: “Metis and the Metrics of Success” by Ernesto J. Cortes Jr.

Two weeks ago our CEO Erik Hersman was invited by the Economist to speak on a panel about digital ecosystems at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

A short video was created with soundbites from the event.

The discussion was chaired by Matthew Bishop, Editorial Director, New Initiatives, at The Economist between the President of the Republic of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Chief Executive Officer of CA Technologies, Michael Gregoire, the Chairman of Cisco Systems, John Chambers, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the TradeUp Capital Fund and Nextrade Group, Kati Suominen and the Chief Executive Officer of BRCK and Founder of iHub Nairobi, Erik Hersman.

Kio tablets in action

Kiltamany Primary School is your typical forgotten school. A 20km dusty path from Archer’s Post leads to a small village between Kalama, Samburu and Westgate conservancies. Most women make beaded necklaces and most of the men herd goats. The children giggle coyly when you speak to them, but, like children everywhere, they are curious and eager to learn. As we sat around the campfire last night, it dawned on me how much energy we draw as a team from our “inner child.” I’m thrilled we are working with children this Expedition.

When we arrived at the village yesterday evening, the women sang and danced to welcome us. We took many pictures of their warm and carefully rehearsed welcome. At one point, a woman pulled out her phone and took a picture of us. In that beautiful moment all our hearts soared!

Until 3 years ago, the women of Kiltamany village would walk 13km everyday to fetch water. The new solar powered borehole water tower now means they have a few extra hours in their day. 6 months ago, they starting using tablets and learning how to read, write, add, subtract and now multiply. I watch in wonder as a 50-year old lady learns the concept of division. She weaves her thin fingers between the 12 strands of a beautiful beaded necklace to show me 3 bundles of 4 strands each.

Wmalimu Elijah and his class

The Kio Kit charged in the school last night. This morning, the headteacher, Mr Elijah Njogu rang the bell and the children from surrounding villages began to trickle in. “December holidays” do not apply to Kiltamany. We ran 3 classes back to back today. It’s crucial to our design process to understand how exhausting it is to be in a hot, dusty classroom with excitable children all day. Our appreciation of the work of teachers grows every time we go to schools. The children, like all children, take little time to start using the tablets. The headteacher lead them through lessons in counting, nutrition and force. After watching the catchy Ubongo songs, the students remembered key concepts that would otherwise take several lessons to reiterate.

The Kio Kit in a school room

Two children on the Kio

The BRCK Kio Kit

As always, we notice challenges and strive to learn valuable lessons. The classroom where the Kio Kit charged was dusty and the lights of the Kit attracted many bugs; we wonder how many dead bugs we will find in the Kits in a few months, what damage they may do. A shy girl peered at us through the classroom window as her goats grazed nearby; we have come a long way, but still have some work to do to ensure every child has the opportunity to go to school.

The community has not asked anything of us. They express again and again how much they value education and what they dream of for their future. As we sat around the fire tonight eating goat with the elders of this community, we heard a vision for a community that desires equal access to education for all of their children – boys and girls. This cultural shift towards a future that would see a small girl from Kiltamany one day sit as Chief Justice or even President of Kenya is a harbinger of the future that we as BRCK Education are honored to play even a small role in realizing for our country.

Since we last updated you a month ago, a lot of great things have been happening.

Reg and Erik are on their way to Austin, speaking at SXSW on Friday. If you’re in town, do come by and talk to us. We’ll have some BRCKs with us and will show you how it’s going. You can also ask any questions and geek out with us on what you can do from the software and hardware sides to extend the BRCK core functionality.

Though Austin is always a fun place to be for SXSW, this isn’t the only reason we’re there. While the BRCK is designed and engineered in Kenya, the final assembly and manufacturing is done in the US – in Austin, TX. We’ve started our production orders, production boards are being flashed, and we’re doing regulatory testing now as well, trying to get that all accomplished quickly so we can get your BRCKs to you as fast as possible.

Some other goodies:

The BRCK Eclipse Expedition A couple months ago you might remember that the BRCK team was chasing a rare hybrid eclipse in Northern Kenya, to the shores of Lake Turkana. If you missed out on following our adventure, you can read about it on Erik’s Blog. Here’s the video of that trip:

BRCK Eclipse Expedition to Lake Turkana from BRCK on Vimeo.

Boxes and Dashboard Sneak Peek

Jeff Maina joined the team in February and we’re excited to have someone of his design skills on the team. Here’s a sneak peek of the box and the dashboard.

Jeff holding the BRCK packaging (note: the final will be cardboard colored, not white).

Both Jeff and Emmanuel have been crunching out a bunch of pixels and code, so that everything from the initial setup process to the dashboard work. It’s all completely responsive design, so that you can access it via your browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

The Sandstorm (@SandstormKenya) team in Kenya is making the special pouches for the BRCK backers who came in at over $300. The original design was cool, but they just came back to us this week with an even more amazing and rugged case made of canvas, leather and brass. It feels like we moved from a Landrover to a Range Rover with it!

But, when does the BRCK ship!?

This is the date we’ve been hunting as much as you. It’s been a longer road than we though, due mostly to component manufacturing issues and having to redesign things at the last minute. While we could have pushed out a basic BRCK earlier, it would not have been something that you (nor we) would have been happy with. Assuming all of the final issues lined up around components, assembly and regulatory issues, the BRCK should ship in April. We’re bending all of our time, energy, sweat and tears towards making that happen. Thank you for your patience!

Erik Hersman, for the BRCK team

BRCK’s been lucky enough to get some exciting press attention in the last month, here are the highlights.

Der Spiegel has a great article about mobile changing Africa and gives a great context for BRCK.

The Conversation featured BRCK as well

OH, we also made it into Wired UK back in November!!!!

There and Back from BRCK on Vimeo.

A quick sneak peak at our adventures up country thus far.

Nothing is certain. You’ve thought through all the variables, your made your plan, you’ve prepped, but nothing is certain. The next best thing you get after certainty is reliability. BRCK stood up to the rigors of one of Africa’s most challenging environments even as the total eclipse was hidden behind a passing storm. We’re proud of how BRCK held up in our field trial and we’re looking forward to showing you how some of that worked in the coming weeks.

We did get a brief view of the eclipse through the clouds late in the event. Here’s a photo. Well have lots more to share soon.