“Bosco - Uganda” (Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach) connects war-torn and isolated camps that were formerly for internally displaced persons (IDPs) (now village trading centers) to a network of communication stations. We connect these rural locations in northern Uganda to solar-powered PCs, connected to long-range WiFi Internet with access to VoIP telephony and a digital camera.
The idea behind “Bosco” is to draw people together in a collaborative, community effort. We call this ICCT Training (Information, Communication, and Collaboration Technology). “Bosco” has scaled up and doubled its presence in the region over the last year. We are now located at 22 sites in northern Uganda. We have put our communication systems in rural schools, health clinics, CBO/NGO offices and outposts, local government offices, and community centers. We provide direct Web 2.0 training to volunteer-trainer user groups in these areas. In turn, these users follow our training of trainers Web 2.0 curriculum to pass on valuable ICT skills to their fellow community members. This is leading to the development of productive livelihood skills: people gain literacy, draft development proposals and engage in other collaborative community activities within their communities.
In sum, the “Bosco” technical solution is able to help communities in five main ways: 1) Education: equipping schools with appropriate technology and community centers with a tool that allows people to become their own self-advocates in a time of great need; 2) Communication and collaboration: VoIP phones and Internet allow service providers (local CBOs/NGOs) to get in touch with their beneficiaries. Our Wikispaces site and Intranet forum also allow local users to express themselves and design local solutions to local problems, all in the public eye; 3) Development: our network connects major social service providers in the area, including the Catholic Church, Caritas International, War Child Holland and local governments; 4) Cultural enrichment: culture in northern Uganda has been scourged by 20 years of war and isolation. People are now using the web and our Wikispaces site to pass on cultural practices; 5) Information access: there were no newspapers in the IDP camps and cell phones were rare.

Links: www.bosco-uganda.org www.bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net

"Bosco" founders first traveled to Uganda in 2004 and connected with local leaders in the Archdiocese of Gulu in northern Uganda. The first pilot phase of “Bosco” in seven IDP camps near Gulu, Uganda, began in April 2007. Local leadership for the project was developed and local technical assistance to maintain the project was established. In 2008 “Bosco” hired its first full-time staff to run the project and implement its training and expansion. Today we have seven full-time staff locally and have expanded our network to 22 site locations in rural community centers, schools, local government offices and CBO/NGO outposts among others.