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Thursday, 12 December 2013

Ng’arua Maarifa Centre relocates to a new site

By Bob Aston and Jane Kariuki
The Ng’arua Maarifa Centre has finally relocated to its new premise near the Sipili District Officer’s compound. The centre was allocated a temporary land by the provincial administration and has now placed a fabricated container at the site. Relocation which started on Monday is now complete and normal work has now resumed at the centre.
The old Maarifa premise
Ng’arua Maarifa Centre was founded in 2006 by Arid Lands Information Network. The centre started as an access point for disseminating information and was run by the Ng’arua Focal group comprising of community development workers from the public and private sector.
The centre was found to be very helpful to the communities and other development workers and it was improved to become a Community Knowledge Centre.
“The land provided by the provincial administration will enable Arid Lands Information Network to start demo-gardens. The new site has a big compound hence enough space for expansion if need arises,” said Kibe Muthiora, ALIN representative during the relocation.
The centre serves more than 26,000 community members yearly on various services. More than 7200 have accessed E-government services; more than 1200 have been trained on ICT skills while 31 groups have been reached with technical farming information.
The Maarifa has shared more than 160 best practices on agriculture and climate change adaptation as well as increasing partnerships with government, local CBO’s and NGO’s.
“We are glad to host the Maarifa Centre. The centre has been instrumental in improving the livelihoods of communities living in Sipili through delivery of practical information using modern technologies. This is an initiative which we fully support,” said Paul Nasky, Senior chief Wangwaci.
The new Maarifa Premise
The centre also oversaw the successful launch of Sokopepe where over 500 people attended and trained on Sokopepe SMS services. Six (6) champion farmers from other Maarifa Centres also participated.
Sokopepe has so far more than 2136 registered and active users. Ng’arua Maarifa centre alone has so far done more than 18 transactions. Tangaza money, a mobile payment solution has also been incorporated in Sokopepe as a means of payment.
“This new location is good. It is quite here thus it will provide a good place for studying,” said Reuben, one of the Maarifa users.
The centre has overseen the formation of Laikipia Produce and Marketing Cooperative Society which now has more than 200 registered members as well as training over 600 farmers and groups on value chain, farming practices and markets.
The Maarifa centre has also been offering free training on basic journalism skills. More than 80 youths have been trained. Through their blog Laikipia Rural Voices the citizen journalists from the Maarifa Centre have posted more than 190 articles.
Laikipia Rural Voices wishes Ng’arua Maarifa Centre and the ALIN family all the best as they start a new journey.

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