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Lee Thorn: Actually, the villagers of Phonkham came up with it in 2002. They live six kilometers [four miles] from the highway, with no electricity at that time and no phone service, on roads that wash out in the rainy season. They wanted better communication with the outside world— to help them check on market prices, bid on construction projects and stay in touch with relatives overseas. We were still looking for a viable solution when a couple of villagers came to visit me in California near Silicon Valley. Inspired by what they saw there, they asked for a computer for Phonkham. Jhai had done computer projects in schools and hospitals, but Phonkham’s remote location demanded a whole new approach. Lee Felsenstein, a pioneer in the personalcomputer field, designed the first JhaiPC to work on very low power, using electricity generated by a stationary bicycle and connected by Wi-Fi to a relay station on top of a hill and then 11 kilometers [seven miles] to the nearest phone line. That project was shut down in 2003, but the JhaiPC is going strong. We’re working using the new, low-cost, low-powered JhaiPC 2.0 in Phonsavanh now, and we are branching out to other countries. Are all of your computers pedal-powered? No—that’s just one of the options we recommend. Phonsavanh uses a diesel generator and connects to the Internet by satellite. In some places, solar or wind power might work best and dial-up or cellular is the best network option. It all depends on local conditions. Ours is not the only low-cost computer out there. What’s special about the low-cost, low-power JhaiPC is how well it’s matched to the needs and resources of rural people in clinics, schools or community centers. The JhaiPC supports voice and video conferencing through Jhai Networks, a new communication suite. The fact is people don’t have to be literate to use it. They can share photos and drawings, or work together on documents as well without the need for expensive software or a high-speed connection. You can do all this on dial-up? Yes, we can. You have described your approach as bottom-up and relationship- based. And you have said that the one thing you insist on is sustainability. Are these values connected? Absolutely. When we work with people, we do a lot of listening; we assume that they have 80 percent of the solution themselves. When I first came to Laos, I met people whose villages had been destroyed in U.S. bombing raids, during a war in which I helped to load the bombs on the planes. Being able to talk with them was a healing experience for me—and, they told me, for them. As we talked, we gradually came to see how we could work together to solve problems they identified. If people own a plan, it’s much more likely that they will work it. Once Jhai gets involved, we stay available long-distance or in person. But 98 percent of the people involved in a project are local. What else does Jhai do to help ensure sustainability? We start slowly and work at a pace that ensures participants remain fully involved. We give business training, and we insist on a business plan that specifies how people will make money from the project and keep it going. There are hundreds of thousands of broken computers all over the developing world. It’s critical to design for long-term sustainability. Have you learned anything from your clients that surprised you? Phonkham villagers make beautiful weavings. Working part time, it might take two people a month to finish a weaving, and a traveling merchant might pay $10 for it. Villagers used the computer to arrange for relatives in the States to market the weavings in Lao-American communities for use in traditional ceremonies. They might sell a weaving for $80, give $20 of it to one of their relatives, who is now a middle person, and still increase their earnings sixfold. This approach, incidentally, would work for a lot of countries with diasporas in the industrialized world. The Jhai Foundation is becoming active in other countries besides Laos. How is that going? Has the expansion brought new challenges? People in 60 countries have expressed interest in the JhaiPC. India plans to use it in rural clinics to practice telemedicine, and we’re discussing similar projects in Vietnam and Cambodia. In Ghana, we’ll partner with the Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in Information and Computer Technology. In some cases we manage the entire project, and in others we provide the PCs and serve as consultants. We try to ensure that, as much as possible, the assembly and other work is done by local workers. The most important challenge is just staying focused on the villagers. If you can stay in conversation with them, then it’s worth all the hassles; and if you can see things through their eyes, it’s really not that hard. How is your work funded? About 25 percent of our funding comes from individual donors, and the rest from foundations and corporations. We’re always looking for volunteers with computer and administrative skills. Any parting thoughts? When you’re worried about your own economic well-being, as so many people in the world are right now, it’s difficult to focus outward—especially way out there in the little towns and villages off the main roads. People are feeling broke or afraid of becoming broke. But the fact is that we’re all in this world together, and the only way we’re going to solve it is if we take everyone into account. If you let people choose their own path, in conversation with outside experts, they will create lessons that we all can use to help us live more sustainably. We’re not going back to how things were before the economic crisis; we’re going to have to live differently. And we can learn a lot about how to do it from the people in Phonkham and places like it. Learn more about the Jhai Foundation at www.jhai.org. Want to lend a hand to Heifer's mission? Why not become a volunteer? |
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