The Eden centre for appropriate technology is a dream come true for Karagwe communities. Established in 2007, the centre has a goal of promoting appropriate rural technologies and land rehabilitation through demonstrations, by availing information resources and community empowerment.

Among the many technologies at the centre include a hub for information and communication technologies (ICTs), renewable energy technologies like solar drying, solar energy, wind energy, water harvesting, zero grazing, piggery, bio-fuel trials and innovative farming technologies.

The vibrant Nyakasimbi Maarifa centre

The Nyakasimbi community Maarifa (knowledge) centre is a fully fledged information and communications hub that offers free access to information and knowledge resources on sustainable development. The centre supports communities in documentation of local knowledge and experiences in an effort to facilitate information exchange among communities, experts, research institutions and much more. The Maarifa centre project was invigorated in August 2011 following a tripartite partnership among Renewable World (UK) Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN – headquartered in Kenya) and FADECO (TZ). Equipped with modern information and communication technologies, the centre has a VSAT installed for Internet access, five computers for basic skills training, three computers for information access via Internet, a library equipped with research reports, newsletters and books.

Other multimedia resources at the maarifa include DVDs, digital photography, camcorder for film making and much more. The centre runs on solar and wind energy hybrid as a demonstration of green energy technologies.  Communities including resident agriculture students access various information resources and capacity building on IT skills for poverty reduction.

“We started the IT training in January 2012 and it has become quite competitive. The centre has registered over 108 trainees’ categorized as youth (75%), farmers 10%, business community (10%) and workers (15%) from within Karagwe. Majority of the trainees come from far hence pair up to meet their accommodation costs at Nyakasimbi market. We’ve scheduled the trainees to attend two hour sessions every day. Given that we have five computers allocated for training, during each session we handle 10 trainees of which two share one computer. Since we have four sessions per day, we manage 40 trainees everyday!  Remarked Miss Zawadi Peter the IT trainer at the Maarifa centre.

According to the Field Officer Mrs. Abella Eustace the maarifa centre is gradually gaining popularity among communities. However, a lot needs to be done to reach out to the communities and partners so they can learn the potential of using the maarifa centre facilities and information resources to improve their livelihoods.