In 4 villages in Sud Kivu we have 3 people who send us textmessages about what happens in their village. After five months these 12 so-called phoneholders have amazed us; they have send over a 1,000 messages giving a detailed and real-time picture of what happens on the ground. This information can then be used by the development community for action, it provides high-quality data for academics, and people in rural villages are finally given a voice.
Last week we were in the field for several days to talk to each of our phoneholders. In brief, they are really enthousiastic about Voix des Kivus. In addition, yesterday we gave a presentation at the weekly United Nation's OCHA meeting where the whole development community of Bukavu is present, and from them we obtained similar reactions. Consequently, the number of Voix des Kivus will be increased in upcoming months.
Tuesday
On Tuesday we left very early so we could visit both our villages in Sud Kivu’s territoire Walungu. The first village is located on top of a mountain and after a 2.5 hour drive we reached the mountain’s foot. Because we knew that even our 4x4 could not drive up the mountain, the phoneholders walked for 3 hours down the mountain to meet us. After talking with them for several hours we left for our second village where we had another several-hour talk with the 3 phoneholders there. These meetings with the phoneholders were very informative as we discussed many issues. Importantly, the phoneholders are proud to be part of the project.
Shortly before it got dark we arrived in Walungu Centre where we had a Primus in the local pub, and after that we had dinner and slept in the village’s church. Macartan, shortly before all this, got himself a haircut in Walungu Centre’s beauty salon (the house in the middle of the picture below):
This picture is taken while standing in the door of that same beauty salon:
That Primus is hell. In Burundi we all got serious headaches after the first one. So I hope you didn't abuse ;)
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