Mtaa, a village off the Kenyan coast without electricity, running water or telephone connectivity, AfriAfya?s partner, the Aga Khan Health Services selected a rural dispensary for its pilot center. The equipment was powered using solar power. A World Space receiver enabled the health center staff to download selected content (in this case the local daily newspaper as well as health and agricultural information) from the Internet via satellite connectivity.

The information was printed out, translated into Kiswahili and displayed on the notice board for people to read. Another area where ICTs were applied was in generating graphical representations of patient attendance and cases attended. The graphs and pie charts produced would be shown to the dispensary management committee to illustrate the key points for action. There were amazing results from this center where rural women with a very basic level of formal education were able to learn how to use the computer to access information. In a developing nation like ours where the modern ICTs are considered largely the preserve of those in cities, having such equipment in a rural setting and having ?normal rural women? operating was in itself quite an achievement.