Clients

BACKGROUND

Trócaire, one of Ireland’s largest NGOs, approached Heraghty Internet Consultants in the planning stage of a project named Pamoja.

The project was a partnership with the Kenyan Human Rights Commission and selected schools in Ireland and Kenya. Pamoja aimed to connect students in both countries, to promote mutual cultural understanding and discussion relating to the UN Millennium’s Development goals.

While Pamoja was intended as an ongoing project, its initial focus was a summer school involving around 100 students, held simultaneously in Ireland and Kenya in August 2004.

CHALLENGE

Trócaire wanted to use internet technology to:

• Connect the students in both countries
• Record the activities of the summer school
• Create a private educational resource for the students, teachers and other partners involved in the project
• Build a system that would be reusable for future summer schools and related projects

Trócaire asked Heraghty Internet Consultants to design and build a technology solution that would meet these requirements, while mindful of the following constraints:

• The Trócaire students, teachers and partners had basic computer and internet skills, but no specific IT expertise
• A significant gap in technology, access and bandwidth existed between Ireland and Kenya
• The success of the summer school and the live use of the technology was vital to the Pamoja project

SOLUTION

We designed and created a dedicated, standalone website, which was both usable and low in file size, making it accessible both in Kenya and in Ireland.

The Pamoja website had three main components:

• A factual, informative section for the general public
• A private weblog for the students
• A private area for teachers/partners, providing access to a Content Management System

We chose blogging over more sophisticated technologies such as videoconferencing or webcasting, since blogging is a low-bandwidth solution that nevertheless created a sense of community among the students, who were able to comment and chat on individual posts.

The CMS allowed teachers to make posts and thereby guide the student discussions. We provided training and support for selected teachers and partners from Ireland and Kenya, so that they were comfortable with the system.

RESULTS

The Pamoja Summer School 2005 was a resounding success, and students continued to chat on the weblog system long after the school had finished.

Trocaire re-used the website and related weblogs for its Pamoja summer schools of 2006 and 2007.