Presented by Neelley Hicks, Director ICT4D Church Initiatives, United Methodist Communications

1. #INFOPOVERTY
It is a privilege to speak here today at the 14th InfoPoverty World Conference. My name is
Neelley Hicks, and I am the Director of ICT4D Church Initiatives at United Methodist
Communications which is the global communications agency of The United Methodist Church.
I invite you to engage this presentation on Twitter with the hashtag #INFOPOVERTY.

2. "Send me a desktop computer that I have no way to power
& I will have a nice stool to sit or prop my feet. Send
appropriate technology & I will transform my community."
P Chabata
#INFOPOVERTY
On Wednesday, I heard perhaps the best quote of the week, from a Zimbabwean gentleman
Phillip Chabata: "Send me a desktop computer that I have no way to power & I will have a nice
stool to sit or prop my feet. Send appropriate technology & I will transform my community." We
can understand why information poverty is still so prevalent, when we all are trying to eradicate
it using tools not exactly made for their context.

3. Cost for ruggedized laptop with modem and FrontlineSMS? $450
Impact: Means of sending group text messages for health, education,
wellbeing (without need for Internet)
#INFOPOVERTY
Yet, United Methodist Communications has found affordable, appropriate and accessible tools
that do work – when coupled of course with intentional human interaction! This simple
ruggedized laptop when equipped with an open source software called FrontlineSMS can send
group text messages without the need of Internet. Rev. Betty Kazadi Musau calls this laptop her
magical rural instrument because its battery runs up to 9 hrs, and she uses it to send messages
to her community telling them to boil water when there is a cholera outbreak.

4. Cost for solar light with cellphone charger? $40
Impact: Better health, more income to spend on things that matter
#INFOPOVERTY
We have found that simple solar lights like this one which also has cellphone charger can
reappropriate the wages of someone living in poverty – away from kerosene purchases and into
simply making life better and healthier.

5. #INFOPOVERTY
We have found that solar powered computer labs can educate girls like Angeline by day, and her
mother at night. Program Manager James Lazarre said that Angeline’s mother came to the lab to
see what her daughter would not stop talking about, then she said she wanted to know what her
daughter knows, so she too is taking classes there. And even in the poorest of schools that do
not have space for labs, a solar power computer cart with water filtration can quench the thirst
for knowledge, and clean drinking water. This summer, we will focus on monitoring and
evaluation through Matthew Kam of American Institutes for Research, in collaboration with
Emory University, and will release a report in the Fall.

6. #INFOPOVERTY
We have found that community health workers like Karen in Malawi can put more money back in
her own pocket if we not only set up Internet access for computers, but also through phones on
a network. This means that her mobile minutes are for her own use, not for her work.
ICT villages like this one can be created not through Americans going in and building the ICT
infrastructure, but by using local capacity who are trained to implement, repair and maintain
systems.

7. #INFOPOVERTY
Don't reinvent the wheel! There is already amazing technology out
there that is working in extreme settings!
We have found that by partnering with others like the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster,
we can connect those working to respond in disaster situations like Typhoon Haiyan so those
providing water, food and shelter reach those who need it most.

8. Ultimately, United Methodist Communications as a faith-based organization operates on a moral
imperative to focus not on those who already have access but the many who do not. We are
striving together with partners to do this work well, so that we do not lose time which is the
most precious commodity available.
#INFOPOVERTY

9. Introducing Bruce Baikie, CEO of Inveneo;
#INFOPOVERTY

10. Introduction: Sean McDonald, CEO of FrontlineSMS
#INFOPOVERTY

11. and Marc Abbyad – program manager at MedicMobile.
#INFOPOVERTY

12. #INFOPOVERTY
and Firdaus Kharas, multi-award winning animator of behavior change communications
developed to address issues such as domestic violence, malaria, HIV/AIDS and adoption of solar
power to eliminate the need for kerosene.

13. Go to www.umcom.org/gamechangers to register.
The workshops we've been giving this week are a sneak peek into our conference September 3-
5, 2014, which I hope you will attend. Thank you.