a report from the field

As I blogged a few weeks back, after months of hard work and coordinating with our ISP and installers, the Internet was finally connected at the Seed Effect compound in South Sudan! One of the drawbacks, however, of high-speed Internet in an area with little to no infrastructure is the monthly cost. In order to offset this cost, Seed Effect has launched the only Internet Café in Kajo Keji county, providing access for close to 200,000 people this week!

Below is a report from the field written by our Program Development Supervisor, Heather Sumner:

This week marked a huge milestone for Team Seed Effect: SUDAN. As you know, the Internet was finally connected a few weeks ago. Since then we have still had some problems configuring our Internet Café software. This week, however, we resolved these issues and were finally able to open to the public! Upon our launch, we advertised in the community by hanging up flyers, making announcements over the loud speaker in the main market and on the local radio station, Grace FM.

Here was our announcement:

SEED EFFECT INTERNET CAFÉ IS NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN!!! COME AND USE THE FASTEST INTERNET CONNECTION IN KAJO KEJI! SEED EFFECT INTERNET CAFÉ IS LOCATED ON THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF WUDU COMPOUND. CHECK YOUR EMAIL AND EXPLORE THE WEB IN THE QUICKEST TIME FOR ONLY 130 SHILLINGS PER MINUTE! COME AND BE CONNECTED TO THE WORLD!

This is an exciting time for the team because of the impact that this Café could have on the community of Kajo Keji. Who knew that a small, isolate village in South Sudan would have access to high speed Internet?

- Heather Sumner, Program Development Supervisor