Health sciences major Evelyn Castle (’12) on her last day at the health clinic in Kaduna, Nigeria. The clinic’s new records room includes two computers.

Over at eHealth Nigeria there is a new press release by the UC Santa Cruz Public Relations called “Students forging a new frontier in global health”.

Growing up, Evelyn Castle rarely journeyed beyond California’s borders. Foreign travel was a completely foreign concept.

So the Orange County native and second-year health sciences major at UC Santa Cruz didn’t waste any time on her first trip abroad. During a three-month-long project last summer at a health clinic in Nigeria–part of the UCSC Global Information Internship Program (GIIP)–Castle was instrumental in creating Nigeria’s first electronic medical records system.

Strictly speaking, the effort was part of a field study program, but it resembled more the work of a graduate student, or an international NGO, Castle’s advisors say.

That’s because the pilot project, with financial backing from heavyweights such as the Packard and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, has the potential to be replicated throughout sub-Saharan Africa–and, Castle hopes, it could ultimately revolutionize the way health information is managed, helping millions of women and children with very little extra required in terms of time, resources, and money.

Castle spent her first month hanging around the clinic in Kaduna, seeing how it was run and gaining people’s trust. After that, she hunted down several small, low-cost computers and spent her afternoons converting paper forms into computerized ones using the HTML design skills she learned in class at UCSC.

She taught data entry to the clinic staff, and was rewarded daily with large home-cooked meals and chauffeured rides back home in an ambulance to the Nigerian family she stayed with.

With computerized record keeping, medical histories are clearer and more reliable. Now, for example, if a sonogram shows that the position of a fetus puts the mother at risk during birth, there’s no chance that the information will be lost or illegible when she goes into labor.

Also with electronic records, the process of sending monthly reports to the government is cut from weeks to seconds. Before, filing monthly reports meant sifting through thousands of paper records to tally simple data required by the Ministry of Health.

“It was surprising to see that there was this need that we could fix with pretty simple technology,” said Castle, 21. “It just took a lot of improvisation.”

Read more >>

Funding ICT Initiatives

• General Tips and Strategy
• Specific Resources, Directories and Funding Networks
• Prizes / Fellowships
• Other Funding Ideas
• Further Reading

Tips and Strategies

1. Focus on what the technology will help you achieve, not the technology itself.
2. Monitor and evaluate the success of an ICT initiative just as you would any other part of a project.
3. Include how you plan on sustaining the technology once funding runs out.
4. Calculate costs correctly.

Funding Sources

• Foundations – eg Ford, Kellogg, MacArthur, Packard, Rockefeller…
• Prizes
• International Development Agencies – British Embassy, European Commission …
• On-line Directories and Networks
• Equipment Donations
• Donations, Commerce, Services and Partnerships

Online Resources and Networks

• International Human Rights Funders Group http://www.hrfunders.org/funders/index.html
• Women’s Funding Network  http://www.wfnet.org/
• ICT Hub Sources of Funders Report – www.icthub.org.uk/research
• ICT Hub website Funders Section – www.icthub.org.uk/funders

Prizes

• APC Prizes http://www.apc.org/en/prizes
• APC Hafkin Communications Prize
• Gender & ICT Awards
• APC Betinho Communications Prize

Some Other Ideas

• Income Generation with ICT
• Accept Online Donations
• E-Commerce
• Services

• Corporations and Partnerships

• Equipment Donations – Computer Aid International (see citad.org)

Resources

• How to Cost and Fund ICT: A guide to identifying and budgeting for technology at your nonprofit (http://bit.ly/13PrYL)
• Helps you get the money and equipment to finance your ICT work (http://bit.ly/4vdoOx)
• Bridge Foundations (http://bit.ly/KLuB9)
• UNITeS: Researching Grants and Funding Resources Online (http://bit.ly/ARI1a)

Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD, http://citad.org/)

At CITAD Ian Anderson (http://skissar.com/nigeria/) and I are working on an directory of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs).  This will be hosted on-line and hopefully facilitate networking among international groups that need to find “on the ground” expertise.  The  goal is to have this ready for the conference that we’re attending in Abuja that will have 100 or so NGOs/CBOs in attendance.

The next project is to begin to move some of CITAD’s curriculum into and on-line learning environment (Moodle, http://moodle.com).  We’re working on a system of local hosting at CITAD so that students in the lab can take quizzes submit assignments, etc.  There will be and Internet-hosted version that will serve primarily to share the curriculum broadly.  To make some of this work effectively will be engaging in networking training and server setup with the CITAD lab as our hands-on project.

Lastly with CITAD we’re going to trial a small portable solar setup and begin to experiment with low-power computers.  We’re looking to have a plan for a low-power and zero-petrol lab based potentially on Inveneo (http://inveneo.org/).

Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences and Technology

Evelyn Castle (http://evelynlcastle.wordpress.com/) and I are working with the Health Information Management Program at the Makarfi campus to provide introductions to the Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS) to see if it is an appropriate option for the school to 1) train other students on as part of the Diploma program and 2) as a patient record system for the local clinics they are partnered with.  In the same vein Evelyn wants to see if OpenMRS is a good fit for the free maternal and child health clinic that is operated by the Kaduna campus.

Also at the Kaduna campus are 3 medical program: Public Health Nursing, Midwifery and Reproductive Health.  These programs all have some ICT or basic computer skills components.  We’re currently reviewing the curriculum to see where we can begin to add to and revamp these materials.

We’re continuing to look at mobile tools for the health but this seems like it will take a bit more exploration.  We’re going to review some of the mHealth case studies that are available and mostly provide information or sensitization workshops for some key health staff.  Mostly we see the potential for portable mobile devices with data connections that can facilitate the collection of health information at the clinic and village level.

The 2 campuses that we’ve visited thus far have decent libraries but are in need of 1) more electronic resources (eLibrary) and 2) a library management system.  Some open source library management tools have been identified now we need to explore the feasibility of implementing.  Potentially this could be used to link all of the campuses libraries on-line.

Lastly Ian and I will provide some support in developing a website for the College so their programs and other resources can be available on-line for easier discovery and sharing.

Development Research Projects Center (dRPC, http://drpc-ng.org/) and the Leadership Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health (LDM) Program

One of the core goals of this summer is to conduct research on the use of ICT for leadership development in the reproductive health field.  This involves identifying key fellows and strategic organizations within the LDM network and assessing their individual and organizational use of ICT.
Following this we’ll define goals for increasing ICT capacity and providing the necessary training, equipment and support.

MacArthur Foundation (http://macfound.org/) Workshop with the Berkman Center (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/), and Digital Bridge Institute

Interestingly I was introduced to Colin Macay at the Berkman Center that is working with MacArthur and the Digital Bridge Institute in hosting a 3 day workshop Abuja from July 14-16.  The workshops on ICT, human rights and health care are for MacArthur grantees from Nigeria and other African countries.  I’ll participate in a couple of discussions during the conference:
1. A discussion with Paul Lubeck, YZ Ya’u (of CITAD) and myself on the ICT projects underway with some emphasis on health initiatives.  Also we’ll discuss the development of international collaborative partnerships.
2. The second discussion I will provide for the general meeting (July 16) which will involve many more NGOs/CBOs from Nigeria.  I will discuss ICT-based project funding strategies focused on Nigerian RH and human rights groups.  I’m working also on identifying some specific information from Nigerian funders like MacArthur, Open Society Institute of West Africa and others.

The End and Other Stuff

It’s already been a very exciting trip to Nigeria.  There is still so much more to explore and learn and only 5 more weeks to do it.  I think I’ll start to explore ways to extend my trip.

I’m currently in Kaduna, Nigeria and heading to Markarfi tomorrow with Evelyn to visit the College.  I’ll most likely be back in Kano Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.   Send me emails and comments if you want more info or have other ideas and resources that might be useful.

Ian and Evelyn are my partners in this undertaking (their blog links are forthcoming) and have had a really exiting introduction to Kano filled with lots of rides on speeding okadas (motorcycles) through the “old city”, Kormi Market and around Nassarawa.

We are anxious to get our work started and experiment with new tools, ideas and methods.  We’ll be trying out mobile-based systems for collecting health care information and connecting people with educational materials as well as looking into alternative energy sources (I have a 70lb box of solar equipment that somehow made it through to Kano without a hitch).

While the Internet situation in Kano proves to be challenging I’ve had moderate success keeping up with e-mail so please feel free to send me your thoughts, ideas or let me know when/if you’re in Northern Nigeria so we can keep up.  If you can call shoot me and email for my Nigerian mobile number.  As always I’ll be available on chat via gmail, aim and skype when available.

Here is a not complete list of recent articles that are very detailed in there analysis of this current problem.  Besides the database purges that may or may not be on purpose but certainly illegal the Republican party is suing in places like Ohio to get lists of voters that can be challenged. These are voters majority Democratic precincts and majority Latino/a and African-American.

• Wired Politics – Sept ‘08 – Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands
• NYTimes – Oct 9, ‘08 – States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal
• Wired Threat Level – Oct 21, ‘08 – Voter Registration Databases and Purges — Part I

In addition the firestorm around ACORN is being used to justify voter suppression efforts.  Brave New Films has a clarifying video (Brave New Films – Help spread the truth about ACORN):

What to Do?

Make sure voting problems get documented.  Video the Vote 2008 will let you submit video of voting problems. MoveOn has a ‘No Stolen Elections Fund‘ While there doesn’t seem to be consistency in where to report voting problems nationally each county should have a person or place to report to. Lastly if there is difficulty finding your correct (up-to-date) polling location and want to avoid having to use a provisional ballot that can be easily challenged you can use Google Maps.

It is despartely important that this election not be stolen and it’s hard to say exactly what can be done about it.  Surely though making sure everyone is aware of the irregularities and tactics used to suppress votes is a place to start.

Update: Twitter Vote Report is hosting a “Code Jam Sessions” on Oct 24, 2008 to get programmers together to build tools to help in reporting voting issues.

1. What is the impact of Islamic Scholars (called Ulema) on government, law and civil society? This project was funded by the Federal government of Nigeria. This to me seems very interesting given the small amount I’ve learned so far about the involvement of Ulema in supporting maternal and child health.

2. How are political parties in Nigeria funded? This to seems like such an appropriate question to ask and equally surprising that nobody yet knows. Enlightenment around this issue I think is really key for people having faith in this electoral system. The most fascinating part however was comparing what groups are doing around electoral organizing in the US and Nigeria. Our conclusion from the conversation was that there are a lot of technical differences but a lot of similarities in values and goals towards systemic social change.

The last project of CDRT that we learned about was a beginning collaboration with Freedom Radio Nigeria that is meant to come up with effective ways to start a discourse about the needs of public.

Training Updates

In other news we’ve had several trainings since my last writing one on simple office networking that covered wireless networking and security, file and print sharing with Samba using an Ubuntu Linux server, and setting up mDNS/ZeroConf (Rendezvous, Bonjour, Avahi) to get cool domain names like “citad.local” instead of 192.168.1.103. We also introduced and played with installing Ubuntu Linux (which continued over into today). I went over installing but mostly everyone took to the live-cds and browsed around. There was an interesting discussion of languages and Scott and I spent sometime researching Hausa language software packages, which turned up next to nothing… except for the Ubuntu hosted software translations. I think there is potential here to develop some community around contributing Hausa language updates to at least these Ubuntu hosted projects.

At dRPC we now have the wireless network going which means they can now begin using their Google Apps hosted email and calendar (soon to be synced up with Thunderbird email clients for off-line access, including calendar). We spent some time installing ClamWin, Spybot and Firefox on computers in an effort to stave off the onslaught of viruses and spy-ware. Lastly we had a discussion and presentation on data management tools. Including this simple yet effective MS Excel as a database tool capable of quick analysis (via pivot charts), filtering (aka the lay persons querying) and easy generation of outputs (mail merge or reports).

I’m continuing tomorrow (Friday) with computer assembly, more data analysis in MS Excel, and Wordpress (led by Scott) on Saturday. I’m also looking into how to register Nigeria domains for the groups that we’ll work with here and maybe it’s just me but I find the whole deal very confusing (though it is free).

Preparing for Departure

With only 5 days or so left I’m pretty excited to be returning home but also torn because there are so many projects here that I want to either start or somehow be involved in. Besides working with civil society and community-based groups I really want to see how I can participate in promoting alternative energies and improved telecommunications…. more on these later.

Second since I’m only here for 9 more days panic has set in about being able to finish what we set out to do.  Scott and I are going to wrap up our web design training tomorrow afternoon with a open session on html/css and Wordpress for content management.  We will also do a morning session tomorrow possibly on databases or data analysis with spreadsheets (TBD from our review this evening).  In the meantime I’m cranking away on Insaan (the RH Leaders DB tool built in rails).  Also we have plans to develop 2 additional sites for partner groups the Mumbayya House (Center for Democratic Research and Training) and possibly the Health Tech Institute in Makarfi.  If that’s not enough we still need to spend time at dRPC to go over computer maintenance, the website and their email situation.

Lastly we spent more time at Spice Foods and met a friend from Jos who is originally from the Philippines .  It was an fun an educational night the ended up with Scott and I sharing ONE bike home in the rain after midnight.  It also turns out there are police road blocks everywhere after midnight in Kano (so be careful).

update: more videos from Eugene

1. Hiking Dala Hill
2. Indigo Dye Pits
3. COBTAK Tour

The materials above provide the main breakdown and detail of how everything went.  Mostly day 1 was challenging because we were trying to gauge where we were all stood and make it fun and interactive.  This goal to make it user driven really worked and then the generator blew up and caught on fire (not kidding).  This shortened the training partly because the computers were out and we only had a few laptops but mostly because with no electricity to power the fans it was way too hot to be there.

Day 2 we picked up where we left off and a few folks had completed there homework even (side note: I think I need to figure out homework for the end of every class, it’s not mandatory but everyone liked the idea).  Everyone is really eager to learn and wanted to spend even more time than allocated.  Today we reviewed poorly designed sites, and spent the rest of the time building an html/css template (using heavily materials from maxdesign).

Other things we noticed: viruses and spyware are pervasive and have crippled a lot of the available computers.  So we are going to fit in a short MS Windows maintenance and security training and perhaps even and Intro to Linux session.  Simple free AV software (clam, avg) could have a significant impact on reducing this problem if we can get people access to it (the web here is too slow to download it).  Other trainings up coming this next week are introduction to databases and data analysis using spreadsheets.

Also today we took a ride on “achabas” (sp?) or motorbike taxis, a very popular and cheap mode of transportation.  We went over to Spice Foods for really great food and beer (shhh!).  We got some great time in with the restaurant owner talking about the deteriorating situation in Kano amongst other things and then we took the “achabas” back home.  The motorbike ride is not nearly as scary as I thought even at night.  Whether I’m up to it during daily traffic is another story.

Sai anjima!

What is an ICT Park and why would Kano want one?

An ICT Park is a strategy where a state can provide resources, infrastructure and other incentives to encourage the development of ICT-related businesses.  These businesses typically focus around call centers, outsourcing, software development, data processing and related services.  The goal is to provide and entry point into a global information-based economy and drive economic development.

Kano State appears to also think this ICT Park will create a ripple effect into the rest of the economy to improve education, job opportunities and infrastructure.  Given Kano’s current conditions it faces huge challenges in not just opening the park, getting the resources it needs to run successfully but also finding a business community and workforce to fill it.  Additionally this building was not originally designed as an ICT Park.  It was built during one governorship and renovated during another with no utilization plan and a lot of money in contracts and little oversight.

Core Challenges:

1) Funding and management – The ICT Park seems to be funded and managed complete by the Kano State government.  This strategy for management and funding is almost certainly not sustainable.  One person said that the current investment by Kano State is 1 billion Naira (~ $8,547,000).  As a side note the maternal and child health hospital that the Katsina State government cost only 400 million Naira (~ $3,418,800).  I’ll leave it up to the readers to decide which has greater benefits.  Some of suggestions from the meeting include finding private ownership and selling public shares.

2) Infrastructure – This building already completed for years and renovated once is still not open because there is no power, water and telecommunications.  The plan for the building (10 stories and with space for 300 businesses) will be powered on diesel generators 24 hours each day.  All other challenges aside this is the most dramatic and show stopping.  The pollution impact, cost of diesel, and inconsistency of power is going to present series challenges to overcome.  It appears already a lot of businesses can not stay open because of the cost of power and generators.  The representative from UBN (a large bank in Nigeria) claimed that they had difficulty investing/loaning any money because they did not think businesses could overcome the cost of energy.  The task of providing water to the building is a serious task as well in a city where most do not have running water.

3) Education and workforce – The focus group that I participated in dealt with training and skills.  First off the question that is evasive is that nobody can define what skills are necessary.  Obviously this is going to vary depending on the types of businesses.  Second the skilled workers needed just to maintain the technology in the building do not seem readily available.  A lot of the suggestions involved getting the government to develop guidelines and monitor training centers.  Regardless there is a serious need for investment in universities, technical schools and training centers.  One problem is that this component (education) is usually a precursor to ICT parks in other countries.

What Next?

This is a good question.  It’s very unclear what the next steps are by government, business, or NGOs.  Whatever the outcome is the discussion about what Kano needs in order to promote economic development is something that needs to continue.  Pervasive issues of power, water, education need to be addressed now.

See also:

• Kano set to host workshop on ICT park (ITRealms 5 May 2008)

First off Sunday concluded the IIE/LDM meeting of country managers.  Represented was India, Pakistan, Phillipines, Ethiopia, and Nigeria (dRPC).  In addition Scott and I along with Eugene participated in some of the discussions involving especially technology strategies.  I gathered a lot of information to contribute back into the database application that I am finishing for IIE/LDM called “Insaan” (the urdu word for human).

Second Scott, Eugene and I visited with two organizations affiliated with dRPC to interview with regards to information technology capacity.  The first group the Community Health Research Initiative led by Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba specializes in health research to influence public policy in Nigeria.  Dr. Magashi was mostly concerned with capacity around data collection and analysis but also interested in developing there web precense so they could control and update in-house.  The second organization was the Coalition of Budget Advocates in Kano (COBTAK).  This coalition of about 20 Kano-based NGOs was interested in developing the ICT capacity of its member organizations as well as further supporting promoting its work on good governance.  With some funds from the European Union they acquired space and a set of computers (none of which have been put to use yet).  This coalition has plans for an computer training center to support the work of NGOs in Kano. Lastly we were able to visit the British Council where we toured the facilities and interviewed staff about the programs.  In general these are the best facilities I’ve seen anywhere in Kano.  There are new computers, high speed access and high security.  While they offer trainings on Internet use their focus is young professionals and do not focus much on the NGO or community organizations in Kano.  However I think there may be room to negotiate use of their facilities on off-days to offer trainings… we’ll have to follow up on this.

Next we went with the IIE country managers on a study tour of Katsina which is several hours north of Kano.  In short this trip was next to mind-blowing… the main critique was that nobody had enough time to take it all in.  Our first stop was in Katsina to meet with members (and LDM fellows) of the Sharia Commision of Katsina state.  We then picked up Alhaji Magagi Zandam (sp?) the traditional leader of a group of remote villages bordering Niger.  We had a tour of a village medical center and learned about Magagi’s or maternal health related projects.  This is a major example of the success of the LDM program especially since Magagi told me that he did not even believe in HIV/AIDS before his first LDM sponsored training on maternal health.  We left the village to pay a courtesy visit to the Emir of Katsina (the top rank of the traditional royalty whom apparently were “absorbed” by Islam during the Jihads led by Usman dan Fodio against the Hausa, see wikipedia). The visit with the Emir was also a unique experience that is difficult to explain.  The last part of this trip involved a tour of the minisitry of health facilities in Katsina State.  The Katsina State government is building an impressive hospital dedicated to maternal health!!!  And there are using only government funds to do it!!  This is quite amazing undertaking and is very close to opening (inshallah).

The rest of the week we worked on technology planning and training and finally got a visit with CITAD to discuss trainings we are going to carry out starting July 3 on website design and development.  I’ll write about that outcome after this Thursday.  It should be a great learning experience for Scott and I.  Additional we’re going to work with dRPC and IIE/LDM on developing their websites.  We met also with LDM fellows that came to a training on Facilitative Leadership.  These health fellows we hope to visit to discuss technology issues. Especially a group in Kaduna that has a computer literacy center and focuses on health education for youth.

Today (July 1) we went with YZ Yau of CITAD to the Kano ICT Park “interactive meeting”.  This was an interesting couple of hours that again probably deserves its own post.

Now I’m continuing development of Insaan (rh leaders database), planning for the upcoming web design trainings, developing a plan to upgrade the website and IT skills of dRPC, developing a plan for the IIE/LDM website and finally working out the details of a continuing GIIP-IIE/LDM partnership (the main goal of my trip here).

If I haven’t emailed or called yet to check-in I apologize.  The inconsistent connection and power make this difficult and slightly annoying.  I can send my Nigerian cell phone number (shared with Scott) to you if you email me or send me a message.

Sai Anjima!