To solve this dilemma, the Village Scribe is once again the interface to the service in the Internet that can generate income for the villagers. There are several eCommerce models that will be explored in this domain. An obvious one, which is also used by projects such as the Drishtee Kiosks in India, is the B2C (or Business to Client) model in which businesses attempt to sell their services or goods via the Internet to clients. Feasible are financial services such as sales of cell phone credit (airtime), funeral insurance (for cultural reasons, funerals are very important and funeral insurance is a popular commodity), etc. Another model is the C2C (Client to Client) or direct selling model, such as employed by eBay. This model is being investigated by the University of Fort Hare and ESTIMA (Reed House Systems) as well. Not only crafts should be traded, but also the rural environment and its rolling hills and proud natural heritage are a valuable resource that can be marketed for environmentally friendly tourism and other purposes. Such low impact industry is also an important part of protecting the environment, especially against invasive industries such as surface mining of titanium in the dunes at Xolobeni.

The eCommerce software is currently developed by eKhaya ICT and will soon be tested for the first time by the Village Scribes in Nkwalini and Rhini-Grahamstown. It will broaden the horizons of trading, enhance income and finally create and maintain jobs. The Village Scribes will in this case help the crafters and traders with their Internet presence and get a provision for their work to finance themselves.

As with the eGovernment Project, the three Columns of sustainability supported primarily are the social, economic and leadership Columns. Additionally, this activity strengthens the environmental Column of sustainability.

The eCommerce Project: Feeding the people

Closely related to the eGovernment Project and also led by the Village Scribe, the eCommerce Project allows various models of electronic commerce to take place, bringing the community squarely into a global marketplace. Previously, this marketplace dictated affairs to the community. With the eCommerce software the community should gain the ability to take part in and benefit from the global marketplace.

Background and context: Scarcity of jobs is an enormous problem in MRAs. It leads to migration of working age persons to the cities, leaving behind the aged and the youth. This leads to a breakdown of society in these areas because families are split up. Typically the brightest and most promising members of the society leave, robbing the areas of an important resource – its people. Indeed, the system of grants (state subsidies) for aged, i.e. pensions, and for child welfare, ensures that the young and old community members have some money to get by. This money is a blessing and a curse. It finally brings tax money to the real grass roots. However it also stifles creativity in the MRAs. Typical African cultural work is vegetable and livestock farming, freelance crafting and trading. Such work seems to have become too cumbrous with the introduction of the grants. But a life dependent on grants seems to lead to lower self-confidence, morale and self-image in the MRAs as it does elsewhere in the world too.

Project Description    eGovernment    eCommerce    Our Assignment