The idea is simple. In our information age we can share knowledge and expertise with a relatively low cost of resources. So we should support needy communities to do so. A CEC is a center in a small, mostly rural, community of say 1,000 people that functions as a link to the outside world. A CEC typically has a phone line and an Internet connection and offers the community a range of services, often for free. Education, microcredits, computer use, expertise in the field of cropping, food preservation, manufacturing, art, sport competition, everything that can be shared – you can go to your local CEC to find support if you have an idea and want to realize it.
If an ngo want to work with a community, the CEC will support and coordinate the initiative. A CEC is just the focus of excellence that is gathers from the community and puts together in a high concentration so that it catches fire with the soft flame of worthy creative development.
Our CEC Rainbow is a pilot project of Vision Alive, that will reach out to communities around Kenya. This deserves all the support it can get!
I like the idea of brining the internet directly to the people to get information out of the web to improive their circumstances. But I think there is a problem with this idea. Firms and people who want to make money now have easier access to people living in remote and can flood their “market” with their cheap products. This inhibits their own industries from growing and thus their economy from developing.