Centers to Demystify Technologies

Seeing yourself as a creator of technology is the first step to controlling technology instead of letting it control you

Technology is meant to make the world more accessible to more people. But we have seen that most recent technologies give advantage to those who already have it, leaving many behind.

We cannot stop technology.

But we can ensure the creators of technology are more diverse.

We at Twende have created a community innovation center in peri-urban Tanzania, in order to empower people to design and make technologies to solve community challenges in Tanzania. We frequently run outreach programs, and over the past few years, we've worked with 1,400+ people in 30+ local primary & secondary schools, women's organizations, farmers' groups, and youth organizations. We have seen people transformed into creative problem solvers after they participate in our workshops and create a technology made from local materials with local trainers to solve their (local) challenges.

We propose a network of these innovation centers across the world. This network works together to create, improve, and disseminate curricula, while also sharing specific technical expertise needed to improve the grassroots technologies. It is hard to find literature or previous examples of, for example, bicycle-powered water pumps made from the specific bicycle parts available in a rural village in Botswana, but if the innovator could connect to others like her, she could get relevant, practical, actionable advice she could never find elsewhere.

We need to ensure diverse people have the environments to innovate and see themselves as solution-makers. 

Most innovation centers (or makerspaces) are located in more urbanized areas of the world, with more dense populations, more access to universities & research, and more potential for (more) easily scaling business models.

We propose innovation centers in more difficult-to-reach locales, with less access to general resources, and with people who have less access to opportunities. In fact, many people in these locations will be planning to leave. We don't want that to be their only option.

Technology is at the heart of what we're doing. We empower people to understand, appreciate, and create technologies that can improve their lives. We push appropriate technologies, relevant to specific contexts, to add value to day-to-day life.

We are working with partners to explore set up of a new innovation center outside our original space in Arusha, Tanzania, and we are setting up a consortium with similar organizations in Botswana & Zambia.

We will be part of a greater network of global innovation centers around the world, set up in diverse communities who seek this type of initiative.

We build relationships with innovation ecosystem players, such as 

local primary & secondary schools, women’s organizations, farmer’s groups, and youth organizations, as well as for-profit companies, iNGOs, and corporations.

We have trained 1,400+ people.

A handful come to Twende regularly to continue using our space and receiving advice from our trainers/staff to build their innovations.

We have started scaling our trainings by running more programs and are planning a training of trainers in the next 12 months. We expect to serve an additional 1,000 people in the next 12 month and in 3 years, 4,000 people, as we set up another innovation center.

We're a diverse team with a shared passion for grassroots innovation. Half of us have had limited formal education, and we have all learned more from doing than from the classroom. We have concrete mechanical and design skills and the technical people are in leadership roles. Most of us are Tanzanian, with direct experience and understanding of the challenges & gaps in our system.

We have built a significant network of supporters and partners around Tanzania (and abroad), and we have been able to attract the resources we need, in terms of funding and capacity building for our team.

Our revenue model is mixed:

• Right now, most comes from funders who support educational initiatives
• We also charge for workshops for participants who can pay (either participants themselves OR organizations that support them)
• We charge a small fee for people to use our tools/space as well

For longer-term sustainability:

• We are building a consortium of innovation centers like us and seeking funding from local & regional government support bodies, such as the Southern African Innovation Support fund
• We are partnering with capacity building organizations so all on-the-ground staff have the skills needed to grow and so they can train new team members who can be part of new innovation centers
• We are developing an online presence for Tanzanian technologies, to connect innovators with potential users & stakeholders

We are excited by how Solve approaches problems with a very open perspective. We agree with the emphasis on how technology can be transformative, and we want to be part of ensuring those technologies are as inclusive as possible. We'd love to be part of your growing community, to share and hear lessons learned from all over the world and from many different types of people and to build partnerships with people with similar goals.

We are keen to start growing our work, and we seek assistance to connect to resources to help. This is not just funding, but also capacity building teams of people with less formal work experience, connecting with technical experts with a range of backgrounds, and examples of how digital media can help bring people together.