BRCK has long been on a mission to create an onramp to the internet for people who can’t afford it regularly.  To this end, we built the SupaBRCK that runs the Moja Network, and then started expanding that service in Kenya and Rwanda.  Moja is about getting everyone online, even if you can’t afford it, by having businesses buy services from us (content caching, app downloads, surveys, ads), and subsidizing that usage.

The Moja Network has been growing quickly.  In January, we passed 300,000 unique monthly users and 3.7m sessions per month.  This means we’re not only increasing traction with more users, but that our users are returning to the platform 12x per month.  With 1,500 mobile nodes in buses and matatus across Nairobi and Kigali, the Moja Network is one of the largest public WiFi providers in the region.

With this rapid growth in the transportation space, we’ve been getting a lot of demand from our users to expand into fixed locations as well.  Near the end of the year we entered into discussions with the leadership team of Surf, the largest fixed public WiFi network in Kenya by number of locations (1,200).  The conversations about doing an acquisition of their network and IP went well, and we were able to find a way to put those assets under the BRCK umbrella.  
 

This acquisition continues the velocity of BRCK’s public WiFi user growth, bringing us close to 500k monthly active unique users, and putting us over 5m sessions per month.  This makes the Moja Network the largest public WiFi network in East Africa, and second largest on the continent.

One of the great advantages that we were looking for was an ability to have a fixed WiFi strategy to add to our transportation and edge compute model.  With the Surf acquisition, BRCK is now able to take off-the-shelf routers, partner with local ISPs, and roll out network faster into fiber-connected locations.  All of this will run the Moja platform, so there is a seamless user experience between public locations and public transportation.

This is a guest post by Philip Smart, a UNC-Chapel Hill student from the US, sharing his takeaways from a summer in Africa interning for BRCK.

BRCK is a disruptive Kenyan startup with a mission to connect Africa to the Internet. Central to the company’s mission is building technology for Africans by Africans—this poster hangs in the office entrance.

Sure, tear gas in the city centre can make UX research difficult. Sometimes a 30-minute commute triples when your matatu runs out of gas. And every now and then your phone calls will drop mid-sentence.

These are the occasional roadblocks I saw this summer while interning at BRCK, but these problems are not insurmountable (unlike a matatu out of gas in Nairobi traffic).

Matatus are the public transport used in Kenya, usually adorned with spray paint and blaring Kenyan hip hop music videos inside. Some are reminiscent of Mad Max Fury Road.

At BRCK, Kenyans solve these difficult problems. In fact, the company’s motto is “You can do hard things”—and it happens every day there. BRCK is currently tackling the problem of connectivity in Africa, starting in Nairobi. They are installing their SupaBRCK in matatus and providing free WiFi to Kenyans through a platform called Moja, which lets Kenyans connect to the internet without using data bundles, placing the cost burden on advertisers instead of consumers.

The SupaBRCK is a rugged, off-grid connectivity device and microserver giving Kenyans a chance to be a part of the digital economy.

Business models like this and the contextual knowledge from being African are what makes companies like BRCK successful. They have a full-stack Kenyan development team who have built products that change the way Africa connects.

And this innovation doesn’t just happen at BRCK. Just down Ngong Road is Nairobi Garage, and a few blocks away is the iHub, both filled with entrepreneurs and energy. All doing hard things.

Adam Reineck, Ideo.org’s Global Design Director, giving a talk to a packed crowd at Nairobi’s incubator space iHub. Ideo.org has three offices: New York, San Francisco, and now Nairobi.

Doing hard things seems almost central to Kenyan culture. Any Kenyan will tell you about “the hustle”—finding ways to get by. Just ask Mark Kamau, whose self-taught design principles helped him move out of Mathare, a slum in Nairobi. Something he said soccer couldn’t do.

But for many of the startups in Kenya and Africa, the hustle isn’t just to make a quick buck. Many solve fundamental issues that further their communities in meaningful ways. They have an important “why” to their work and aren’t just looking for a unicorn exit.

Mark Kamau doing what he does best.

There’s plenty of inspiring work like this happening across Africa, but it’s often difficult to attract foreign investment here. The infrastructure challenges combined with the homogenous VC market make it an unlikely destination for VC money.

But things are changing. In fact, VC funding in Africa topped 53% year on year growth. Companies like BRCK are designing solutions working with African infrastructure. People are solving difficult problems, doing hard things.

So maybe next time a VC dips into the piggy bank, they should consider investing in Africa. If VCs really want to make a world of difference, they should invest outside of where they’re most comfortable.

Thank you to the BRCK team for an incredible summer! I learned a lot about tech, and even more about life. Credit to them for being such an inspiring, fun crew.

I recently had an opportunity to represent BRCK in the largest design conference in the world, Design Indaba. At the conference, I had a chance to represent BRCK’s work, but perhaps more importantly, what the work represents in relation to a wider African perspective.

Africa has for the longest time endured a perspective and narratives that belie the potential, ingenuity, and drive within its borders. The structures of media messaging that still portray Africa in a certain light don’t help.

From a practical perspective, people living in Africa have for the longest time seen western multinational companies that control global resources concern themselves with the huge challenges that face the world, specifically Africa.

Internet connectivity is a case in point. Over 3 billion people in the world don’t have adequate connectivity to one of the most important socio-economic resources, over 800 million of those are in Africa. In Kenya, over 35 million of the 45 million people don’t have adequate access to the internet. A majority lack connectivity because they live in places with poor on no internet infrastructure. Many of those who do simply cannot afford it. Studies show the typical low-income Kenyan can only spend an average of 20Kshs on internet bundles (approximately 20USD cents).

If you think of the challenge of connecting the next 3 billion people to the internet, I wager the first companies that come to mind are the large ones like Google and Facebook. We have an invisible ceiling of what scale Africans and African companies can think of solutions for Africa.

Why cant African companies think of these lion-sized challenges for Africa?

Due to lack of resources and other reasons, we relegate ourselves to scratch the surface on issues affecting Africa and Africans, while we surrender the solutions for lion-sized challenges to the west.

BRCK and BRCK products challenge this ceiling and with good reason. With SupaBRCK and Moja, we have been working tirelessly to establish an infrastructure that does not rely on traditional infrastructure to connect people to the internet. Imagine getting into a matatu and getting free internet connectivity. BRCK is taking ownership of the connectivity challenge and thinking big. We are connecting the unconnected 3 billion, one user at a time.

The same to education. The Kio Kit stands on the shoulders of the predecessors who have come to Africa to try and solve the challenge of providing digital solutions for education in African classrooms. They include one laptop per child from MIT media lab and others. We have taken learnings from challenges these deployments have and built a solution that relies on deep contextual research and design to develop a solution that is pushing digital education even further.

Presenting real examples of how BRCK is taking on lion-sized challenges for Africa resonated with the well-informed crowd at Design Indaba, and was in line with like minded speakers who embrace a proactive, afrofuturist perspective that is pushing Africa forward in various fields of media, the arts among others.

It also is quite something that the largest design conference is in Africa. Way to go Design Indaba, way to go Africa.

If you ask me, Furahiday is one of the best days for me here at BRCK. It is a day where everyone gets a hands-on experience with users of the Moja Free WiFi out in the field. This is a learning experience for many of us. This quarter’s aim was to interact with users, commuters, drivers, and touts, know their frustrations, and tell new users about Moja Free WiFi.

Mission

Each team comprised two individuals whose job was to interview commuters, drivers, and touts and also ensure that the devices in the matatus were online.

Conducting user interviews is no easy task; it requires patience and discipline. Seeing people from BRCK interviewing users is a humbling experience.

I have previously learnt that the key to getting good user feedback is approaching the interview in a relaxed manner. This makes the interviewee feel more comfortable relating with you. Creating that rapport allows an easier communication flow with the interviewee.

This particular Furahiday, I partnered up with Jimmy. We had some engaging conversations with the drivers in “Sheng” (Kenyan urban language). Their feedback was enlightening. They shared their pain points and expectations.The experience was eye-opening in a way that I really got to relate to how some people live, appreciate their thoughts, and how they can be so efficient in their daily endeavours.

I met Simon, a driver with a 16-year-old son who is still in high school. Simon was frustrated. He felt like he was not living up to his expectations in terms of providing for his family. He earns a meager salary as a driver and has to work two jobs in order to provide for his family. He knows his son would benefit immensely from being able to do research on school projects if he had internet access, but he is not able to afford that. I couldn’t help but try to figure out ways in which free access of internet, even in public spaces, can help optimize their lives. At the end of the day the question that kept ringing in my head was “What is lacking?” I think that’s a good starting point!

The Big Takeaway

I must admit that I previously did not understand what empathy really was until I got to interact with real users. Sometimes we build services, forgetting that the end user is that “mama mboga” who feels left out by the global economy or that “matatu driver” who feels alienated in the digital world. In other words, we forget about empathy, and that is why, as BRCK, it is our role to make sure that such people are not left out. What better way to do this than have the team out in the field so that they too can understand and know who we are designing for.

And who said just because we are working we can’t have fun? Erik our CEO, whose known to be a pro when it comes to taking great photos, was spotted at a shoe market and he didn’t have a choice but to smile for the camera.

A few weeks back, BRCK was in Germany attending Afro-Tech Fest where we presented our core product, the SupaBRCK, as part of the art exhibition.

From 20th to 28th October 2017 the Afro-Tech Fest hosted a week-long festival with talks, lectures, film screenings, performances, DJ sets, concerts, and workshops in various locations in Dortmund. The programme of events, which coincided with the exhibition Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention by HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein) at Dortmunder U – Centre for Art and Creativity, provided numerous occasions to further explore and discuss the themes and motifs of the exhibition. The event featured works from the realms of media art, fine art, film, and photography as well as contributions from popular and digital culture.

Afro-Tech presented speculative projections of the future and current developments in the field of digital technologies by artists and inventors from different countries in Africa, the African diaspora, and many other actors in the USA and Europe.

SupaBRCK was on the spotlight as a device built for the future of Africa. It is a rugged micro server that can be used when you’re off grid and you need a reliable connectivity solution that stands up to the challenges of power, connectivity type, and tough environments. With our core solution, Moja, a free public WiFi network powered by the SupaBRCK, we are able to push the limits of technology by providing users with affordable connectivity at all times. Information is power and at BRCK our mission is to connect Africa to the internet, giving people access to information that could create a brighter future for them.

The exhibition ends on the 22nd  of April 2018. If you are in Dortmund, Germany just pass by DORTMUNDER U, EBENE 3/LEVEL 3 and have a look.

A random seating assignment by a friend on an airplane leads to an email intro, which leads to a meeting in Nairobi. Two years later and I find out that that random person on the airplane, now one of my friends, a business partner, and someone I deeply respect has passed away unexpectedly.

Vanu Bose passed away on a peaceful Saturday morning while I was concurrently on a chaotic 11-hour motorcycle ride down one of East Africa’s most dangerous roads, praying that I would arrive home safely. That irony is not lost on me.

There are certain people in this world who have a special magnetic personality; a way that they connect and spend time with others that makes everyone feel appreciated and who leave with their spirits lifted. Vanu was one of these lodestones. He attracted amazing talent to his team, and great men and women of the world wanted to be near him and have him near them at their times of decision making. He was also a strong leader, a deep thinker, a clear communicator, had a tenacious will to see things through to the end, and maybe most importantly had an infectious laugh. In short, I respected him greatly.

Vanu’s vision was that everyone can and should have economically sustainable wireless coverage. He understood the impact that phones and connectivity have on all of us, and spent his years focusing on the hardest part of that problem, creating a service that could work even in the sparsely populated regions of the world. I was fortunate enough to work with him on this problem in Rwanda, but he was equally active in India, Alaska, and most recently in pouring his heart and company’s resources into getting the Puerto Rico population back on their phones after the hurricane devastated that island.

We shared a common goal, and he and I met at the beginning of BRCK’s road to solving free public WiFi, which would mean that there were many deep conversations held from Kigali to Nairobi, from Boston to Barcelona, and Cape Town to San Francisco. We were focused on solving a difficult problem, but we both brought that optimism unique to entrepreneurs who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

It always impressed me that he was so technical, with his PhD and could hold his own with anyone on that front, but at the same time had such a firm grasp on the business side of what he did and what the market was, that he could see past where so many others in the mobile industry got stuck. I joked with my co-founders at BRCK that it would take any two of us in a room to equal what he could do alone.

He sharpened what I understood about the mobile networks, what the gaps were, and what was important for us all to focus on. I’d like to think I brought some new ideas to him as well, coming from a completely different background in life. However, I have to admit that I took a lot more from Vanu than I gave him. And this, I think, is where a measure of a man should be held: Does he give more to the world than he takes? In Vanu’s case the answer is a resounding “yes!”

Vanu was generous and gracious, and had a desire to see the world a better place. Many people desire this, but few act on it. Vanu acted and put a dent in the world while he still lived, one that those of us who worked with him will continue to pound on and make bigger.

In the end, our lives were made richer due to Vanu, and many across multiple continents had their lives improved by him without even realizing who he was.

Thank you, Vanu. Go in peace.

TED Global was held in Arusha Tanzania recently. BRCK had the privilege of running two UX workshops there, which was an exciting opportunity to interact with some of the greatest minds in the world. This is arguably the most inspiring group of thinkers and doers that gather in one place for the sole purpose of sharing, inspiring, and learning from each other.

We were no different. We went in ready share, learn, and be inspired by these great minds.

As a user experience designer, I relished the opportunity to engage these minds in trying to figure out one of the quintessential challenges of our time: youth unemployment.

How can we use access to the internet to help young people find jobs in a context of a poor/expensive connectivity infrastructure and limited formal exposure?

HERE ARE SOME SOBERING NUMBERS

There are over 3 billion people in the world who cannot afford adequate access to the internet. 800 million of these people are in Africa. If you zoom in closer to home, Kenya has a population of approximately 45 million people. Of these, only 10 million can afford the internet. That leaves 35 million people without adequate access to the internet! This excludes them from massive opportunities across the spectrum of what we nonchalantly enjoy with our suburban connectivity.

BRCK’s mission is to connect African people to the internet. We do this by providing free access to the internet for the masses via our connectivity infrastructure. This is powered by our ruggedized micro server network of SupaBRCKs. For more on this game-changing device, check out brck.com.

HOW DO PEOPLE ACCESS AND ENJOY BRCK CONNECTIVITY?

The model is simple. When a user is within range of a BRCK WiFi signal, they log onto the network and they land onto a captive Moja portal. This is populated with captivating content that includes music, movies, books, and more. They are also able to go online and browse freely or jump onto their social media networks. The only requirement is that they watch a 5-15 second advertisement every once in a while. This is a pretty good deal, especially considering most will not spend more than 20 Kshs (about 2 USD cents) per day on the internet. This service is called Moja, Swahili for ‘one’.

The response to Moja from users has been overwhelmingly positive. We typically have users between the age of 18-24 as our core audience. One of the places we installed a Moja is a youth hangout and betting lounge where they bet on football matches. The owner occasionally has to turn off the service to the over 70 strong audience crammed into the space so that they can get off and bet first.

WHY THE EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE?

One of our tenets as a company is centering our users and being as responsive as we can to their needs. While our users enjoy all the trappings of BRCK connectivity, our user experience research consistently yields one overlying content request: jobs. Young people want access to jobs.

The interesting thing is that we have different services online that seek to link job seekers and vacancies. A case in point is during the workshop, the founder of Duma Works was there decrying lack of candidates for 300 jobs they are trying to recruit for. So what is the disconnect? This must be easy! Right?  Not so fast.

The challenge placed before these great minds was to help us think through how we can leverage the power of the internet that BRCK is making available to these young guys to help them find jobs. It was a healthy cross section of people from different contexts, expertise, and worldviews.

A lot of good ideas came through, some more novel than others, from aggregating job platforms to creating a tinder experience for jobs. We are all back in Nairobi now, ready to get our hands dirty away from the spotlight and really give these ideas a true human centered go. Who knows? Maybe we’ll iterate into an idea worth spreading while we give unemployment a permanent black eye.

The year has started on quite a high note here at Brck. Our vision still driving us forward; to connect Africa to the internet. That’s exactly what we were doing on Tuesday the 10th of January. Duncan Mochama, Madhav Gajjar, Robert Karume and I were deploying a Kio Kit to one of the most rural parts of Kenya, Ungatani Primary School in the heart of Makindu in Makueni county.

The whole trip was going to be quite a journey (approximately more than 130 km from Nairobi) we therefore had to leave early to reach and arrive back on time. By nine am we’d hit the road and were on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

We arrived at the local market, Kathonzweni Market in Kathonzweni, at around 12:30 pm, to pick the headteacher, Mr Pascal Kieti, to lead us, as the road to the school would be quite tricky for first-time visitors to navigate through. It was also to be a 20 km journey from the said market to the school. 

After a much bumpy all-weather-road drive, we finally arrived at the school. It is a beautiful school enveloped in trees and bushes in a quiet and serene environment perfect for learning. The school has children of all levels, from class one to eight. We immediately set to start the training; to the seven teachers first (four had left for a Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development training), then an introduction of the Kio Kit to the kids afterwards.

The training is usually an enjoyable and interesting session. The teachers listened intently throughout the process and were eager to learn and experiment on all the available content and tech techniques as applied on the Kit. They were especially intrigued by the broadcast feature, which basically helps the teacher broadcast whatever they are seeing on their tablet, to the children at the same time. Once they felt confident enough, we got one of them to teach a class while using the Kio Kit.

The Children were just beautiful, expectant and ready as always. We got them introduced to the Kio Kit, what it is, how it functions and what it is supposed to help them achieve.
Afterwards, the teacher gave them a class on the breathing system from eKitabu content on the Kit. The lesson flowed smoothly and was a success not only on the part of the teacher, but also for us as Brck.

It was a learning experience to know where and how to work on the Kio Kit to make it better and simpler with time. It’s always a worth while trip once you see the smiles on the children’s faces and receive endless amounts of gratitude from the teachers and kids. Once again a generation has been touched.

ITU world is the global platform for high level debate, networking, innovative showcasing and knowledge sharing across the ICT. It is the UN specialized agency for ICT’s with 193 member states and over 700 private sector members.

This year, the ITU world gathering was held in the vibrant city of Bangkok in the Kingdom of Thailand. Although the country was in mourning following the death of their revered King His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej, the government decided that the event should still go on as planned. Very noticeable during the week was the black and white clothing worn by the people of Thailand in honour of their fallen hero. Also conspicuous was the Late King’s portrait all over the city adorned with beautiful flowers and memorabilia. It was evident that the people of Thailand really loved their King.

The event was held at the Impact Exhibition Centre in Bangkok. The opening ceremony was graced by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri SIridhorn. There was also an exhibition hall showcasing innovations from various countries around the world.  BRCK was in the colourful Kenya pavilion designed and created by the Communication Authority of Kenya which also showcased the Communication Authority’s products and another Kenyan company also shortlisted for the awards – Africartrack.

The Kenya Pavillion

The highlight of the event was the award ceremony held in the afternoon of 17th November. The ceremony aimed to recognize companies that are effectively using ICTs innovatively for social good, highlighting best practices and the cross fertilization of ideas for innovative socio-economic development and provide a platform to network, mobilise investment and create new business opportunities for ICT solutions with Social Impact.

Companies selected for the awards underwent a rigorous selection process. They had to send in applications and for those that scored 70% and above had to pitch to a panel of judges so as to qualify for the awards.

Alex Masika pitching to a panel of judges

The award categories were as follows;

• GLOBAL SME AWARD – Top award for the most promising innovative solution for an SME
• THEMATIC AWARD – award for most promising innovative solution with a social impact in vertical sectors
• RECOGNITION OF EXCELLENCE AWARD – For the best innovative exhibitor within each pavilion 
• HOST COUNTRY AWARD – for best innovative SME from host country

The host country award and the recognition of excellence awards were presented first and all winners were issued with certificates of excellence.

Then came the coveted Global SME award. Three companies were shortlisted for this award and BRCK emerged the overall winner!!

Alex Masika giving his acceptance speech

Team BRCK is greatly honoured to be the recipient of this award and we are humbled by the fact that the world is recognizing that we are not only creating technology but we are also positively impacting the world we live in. Thank you ITU!

Kenyan delegation led by PS Sammy Itemere, Ambassador Patrick Wamoto, MPs, board members and staff of the Communication Authority of Kenya pose with Thailand’s Prime Minister

AfricaCom: Best Pan-African Initiative Award

BRCK was also in South Africa for the annual AfricaCom event.  This is the largest gathering of technology companies in Africa, and it happens in one of the best cities in the world: Cape Town.  In this year’s AfricaCom Awards, BRCK also came away with top honors as the “Best Pan-African Initiative.  Erik Hersman, BRCK CEO, was there to collect.

CEO Erik Hersman accepting award at AfricaCom

The African adage it takes a village is poignant. The idea of community and doing things together places African communities in a unique position for effective human centered participatory design. It also places a special emphasis on context. Our various contextual deep dives into different communities have illuminated just how diverse the context in Africa are, and how these can influence the effectiveness of design.

The theory of change (in a nutshell) maps expected outcomes and the elements that need to be in place for these outcomes to be realized. Recently, we did a user experience deep dive in Kiltamani primary school, a school on the edge of the grid in Samburu county. We donated a Kio Kit to this school some months ago. Other that provide updates on new features we have since developed as a result of user experience research, we also wanted to reconnect with the community within which the Kio Kit was being used.

For this 5-night visit, I cast my user experience net wider than the Kio Kit classroom situation. We needed to understand what makes the ecosystem work or fail. What the perspective and attitudes of the community were towards education, what the socio-economic factors were at play and the key factors towards improving the education level of these students. I also was keen to learn how design and the Kio Kit fits into this equation.

To realize this, the details were important. From where we pitched our tents, how we interacted with community members, teachers and students.

The change agents that complement the technology we deploy included the following;

1. The community leadership
2. The community (parents, neighbors)
3. Teachers
4. Students

The Pastoralist Context

The Samburu people are nomadic; this means they move from place to place looking for pasture for their animals. The children are the main labor force when it comes to taking care of their livestock, primarily goats. This means for a boy or a girl to go to school, their parent has to really believe in education, because they have to take over and walk for kilometers into the mountainous terrain replacing their children in taking care of the animals.

It is not easy work, taking livestock far into the dry area seeking pasture. A case in point is when elders were suddenly called for an emergency meeting because Hyena had killed 30 goats. One day a child was fighting for their lives after being attacked by and elephant. It is a tough grind, especially in the desert landscape where the school exists. Going to school is a serious commitment both on the parent and the students, often walking 20-30 Kilometers just to get to school.

The school has been performing very poorly in national examinations, with hardly any students from the school qualifying for secondary education. We set up a meeting between the community leadership and teachers to discuss school performance and how to improve the education of their children.

Community Leadership

There is a board of management for the school (formally school committee), that comprised elders from the community, primarily parents with their sons and daughters going to this school. Interestingly, for a patriarchal community, the leadership was mostly comprised of women, especially because they had their children in the school.

The community leadership’s role is to make sure the school is well run, the teachers are doing their work and any support that the school needs from the community is provided. The leadership is essentially the link between the community and the school.

The biggest challenge for the leadership is the fact that they are mostly illiterate. Therefore, it is hard for them to ascertain information coming from the school. Their biggest complaint is that the teachers often would say they children were doing well, only to realize they were not when national exams are held and their children don’t qualify for secondary education. This has greatly undermined the confidence in the teaching staff, with the community feeling that they are sacrificing their children’s time away from the livestock only to be let down by the teachers.

The Teachers

The school has 8 classrooms and only 7 teachers, some of whom suffer from alcoholism. This means absenteeism from class by the teachers and sometimes ill prepared delivery of content to the students. This is exacerbated by the fact that one class is always without a teacher since there is only 7 of them.

Teachers also feel demotivated by severe absenteeism by students. When it is dry, the family moves further from the school to find pasture, therefore an even longer walk to school or absenteeism to find pasture.

The Samburu also marry their girls off very young. There was only one girl in standard seven, with none in standard 8. This is a huge source of frustration for the teachers because sometimes their best students are girls.

Students who perform well are also often transferred to other schools for upper primary studies, meaning they are left with few well preforming students.

The school is also far away from social interaction, meaning the teachers are confined to a non existent social environment for months on end.

Teacher training, materials and compensation is also an issue, meaning they are often ill equipped and poorly prepared to deliver quality education to the students.

The Community

Parents are frustrated by the lack of good results from the school. Their lack of literacy and education means they also have limited commitment to education vis-à-vis their socio cultural practices of marrying their girls young. Some parents however demonstrate a real passion for education for their children, some even taking adult classes themselves to be able to cope.

Without education, we are blind. We are only seeing out of one eye, we want our children to go to school in order to lead us out of poverty and ignorance.

Resolution

The community leadership passionately appealed for the teachers to work harder and produce results that made the future of their children brighter and the community proud of the school.

The teachers asked for more support in ensuring that students are available for class consistently including girls in upper primary. There was a memorandum of understanding signed between each stakeholder with specific commitments towards the success of the school. This was an incredible contextual journey that gave us amazing insights into how the Kio Kit and design can fit even better into this context. For example;

• Designing automated attendance registers that send an SMS to the community leadership and the specific parent when a child is absent means the community is aware and is able to respond in a timely manner. This can be built into the Kio Kit.
• In a context where there is shortage of teachers, more self-learning content for students in the class where there is not teacher would be helpful instead of leaving students completely on their own.
• Materials to support the continuous education of teachers in their skill and practice in order to keep them motivated and progress in their own careers can help counteract the feeling of stagnation and perpetual routine methods.

Many have the mindset that illiterate communities would care less if their children performed poorly because the value of education is nascent. The contrary proved to be true.

I sacrifice the labour my child provides for him to go to school. I am 50 and have to go up the mountains in the heat to take care of our goats so that he gets an education. I have no other investments but my son. All my hope is in him. That he may do well and take us out of this extreme poverty we endure. With him, all my hope lies
Samburu parent.

The stakes are in fact higher, and confirm what I have always said and used as my guiding ethos.

Africa cannot afford un-contextualized design; the stakes are simply too high.
Mark Kamau

As we design for African context, I am glad a work with a company that understands this and is willing to invest in this kind of deep dive to better understand and design with people in their contexts.