The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted June 27, 2009, 4:27 am by Jameson Gadzirai

Connecting Sudan's displaced

Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

Imagine yourself in a dry and dusty environment, where temperatures soar to a staggering 107 degrees Fahrenheit and your only hope is a petrol-powered air conditioning system.

Imagine yourself waking up each day to a constant chime of diesel powered generators, all synchronized in a constant whir of progress seeping across southern Sudan. Imagine yourself cut off from basic land line telephone communications, covering vast tracts of land with satellite phones that charge anywhere between $1 and $2 a minute, depending on the time you make a call.

Imagine, amidst all this, the burning desire of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to get in touch with loved ones in order to tell them that all is well. Imagine, amidst all this, how wireless phones could be a miraculous solution to reaching those loved ones — and communicating with the outside world that must seem so far away.

Communities riveted by war and internal conflict are finding a voice in the most unlikely of places, thanks to Mercy Corps' introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across southern Sudan.

In this region, oral communication is as ancient as the most established communities. Strangers are welcomed to a land that is as robust as the gentle, smiling hearts of the people. What better place to promote free and efficient information and communication technology? Unsecured wireless access has meant instant access to friends far away, as well as long-hoped-for communication with those lost boys and girls of Sudan, now based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other places.

An old Pentium III computer can do more here than it ever would in any other environment. For example, commercial Internet cafes in Central Equatoria — one of Sudan's southernmost states — are teeming with community members eager to access computers in order to learn more about subject areas they pursued in school, and also create their own voice in what has become an increasingly globalized environment.

I felt a touch of hope the other day when I turned on my computer in the center of Juba, Central Equatoria's largest city, and was instantly logged on to an unsecured wireless feed from one of the many institutions fostering development in the community. I thought of how lost boys and girls have sent Toshiba computers to beloved siblings, and how they have maintained contact through email and Skype, straddling great distances and defying space and time.

I feel that Mercy Corps Sudan Resource Centers are rightly placed. Located in some of the most remote areas of southern Sudan, they have become so important that family members separated from their loved ones can brave three to four hours of walking through rugged terrain just to gain access to communication facilities freely offered at the resource centers.

Their potential has only been half explored.