PASHA! IS THE POINT MISSING US YET?

With the majority of Kenyans still lacking better access to Internet services and ICT’s, we have seen in the recent past, a renewed push for these services and solutions to the rural based communities and pasha is not an exception, these initiatives however face certain challenges that require financial might, innovative thinking and perhaps better use of technology to overcome problems and needs.

The day has come to an end, and many comments, ideas, discussions etc have been shared and listened to,   a quiet question pondered into my mind, when the PASHA Initiative come to be in place the objective was to connect communities and it is doing so through ICT’s for the sake of digital inclusion. This is enough, later this week, AITEC East Africa ICT Summit 2012 is to be held at Oshwal Centre, Westlands Nairobi themed “Smart cities > smart societies > smart enterprises”

So what is a “smart community”? it is a community in which members of local government, business, education, healthcare institutions and the general public understand the potential of information technology, and form successful alliances to work together to use technology to transform their community in significant and positive ways.

This is fine, so I asked myself what is a PASHA Centre is and what is its “Object of Formation” a simple explanation could be digital inclusion and empowering the community trough ICT’s. This is meant to achieve the objective of mitigating an information-based society which is one of the main priorities of the Government towards the realization of national development goals and objectives for wealth and employment creation.

 Speakers came in, question are put forward answers are given back and still there is that miracle moment expected that the all thing changes to be a favour of some sought if I may call it. The day’s session made me think that the game has to change and  I took the opportunity to ask myself once more, what is the relationship between the two definitions, only to find out that the common denominator was ICT’s and Transforming communities.

Smart connected communities

One moment after another I realized that this linking of all community functions and general public making them understand the potential of information technology, form successful alliances that work together and use of technology to transform communities in significant and positive ways is what defines a product that leads to creating a smart community.

From these I now understand my object of existence, that through an entrepreneurial process to favour my sustainability path I am an agent to creating a smart community. So how can My PASHA Centre be viewed to be?

 Game Changer

This meant the moment to call for a redefinition of the whole model, I just watched our partners, facilitators and presenters one after the other and had a feeling that maybe and just saying maybe I need to review my objectives and see if all my effort is really driven towards my goal “Connecting Communities trough ICT’s for empowerment and transformation”, do I belief in this core aspect and am I playing the role as I purported to, is the process so complicated that nobody understands my scenario or am I just sailing in a ship that has shown a distress call and instead of helping he captain for a solution, go on pestering with the question, “why did you let us sail in a faulty ship?”

From all this, am I really still on course, that is connecting communities, do I drive the point from an entrepreneurial point of view, can I be a game changer? Should I be moving towards an agent to Smart Community development and make it ready for the Knowledge economy.

Ever imagined of a game changer, Can pasha be one?