Kabissa Launches Capacity-Building Project in West Africa
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Dear friends and colleagues,
Below you will find an announcement of a new project that Kabissa
started this month. Please share it widely to colleagues, networks
and rights groups that you think might be interested. Contact us at
<ttgo@kabissa.org> if you need more information and would like to be
kept informed of the project as it progresses.
Best wishes,
Tobias Eigen
Executive Director, Kabissa
mailto:tobias@kabissa.org
http://www.kabissa.org
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KABISSA LAUNCHES CAPACITY-BUILDING PROJECT IN WEST AFRICA
Washington, DC - November 13, 2002 � Kabissa has been commissioned by
GTZ, the German Agency for International Cooperation, to develop
learning materials to enable non-profit organizations to use the
Internet more effectively in their work. The project, "Time to Get
Online: Simple Steps to Success on the Internet", will initially tar-
get organizations in West Africa whose main agenda concerns human
rights, freedom of information, responsive government and democrati-
zation. These learning materials will be developed over the next
three months and then piloted in workshops with Nigerian rights
groups in February 2003. After the successful completion of the pilot
phase, Kabissa will be distributing the materials throughout West Af-
rica through a combination of electronic copies made available
through the Kabissa website and hard copies available through partner
organizations and on-site workshops.
This project was initially developed out of Kabissa�s experiences
with its members and other organizations in the African non-profit
sector. We have found that many organizations are still unaware of
the power of the Internet for the non-profit sector, while others re-
main frustrated by a lack of skills to take advantage of the technol-
ogy. This project seeks to address these barriers by providing or-
ganizations with learning materials and the opportunity to attend ca-
pacity-building workshops that focus on building the awareness and
skills necessary to use the Internet effectively. The learning mate-
rials will allow organizations to work at their own pace through the
stages of Internet usage, from the basics of getting connected to the
Internet all the way to using the Internet actively as an advocacy
tool. The on-site workshops will give these organizations the oppor-
tunity to ask questions and interact with an Internet expert, while
at the same time providing Kabissa with an effective distribution
channel for the materials and a platform to collect feedback.
Through the completion of this project, Kabissa and its local part-
ners in West Africa will be able to distribute more than 3,000 copies
of the learning materials and reach more than 1,000 organizations
through capacity-building workshops. Each of these organizations will
in turn be able to make a better and deeper impact on the lives of
people in their community, ultimately reaching tens, or even hun-
dreds, of thousands of people throughout the region.
ABOUT KABISSA - SPACE FOR CHANGE IN AFRICA
Founded in 1999, Kabissa is a non-profit organization that seeks to
use technology to strengthen organizations working to improve the
lives of people in Africa. Our programs focus on providing Internet
services, building the capacity of organizations to use technology,
and promoting interaction within the African non-profit sector. To-
day, more than 450 organizations from 32 countries take advantage of
Kabissa�s services.
For more information and to get involved, please contact us at
<ttgo@kabissa.org>
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