{"id":1581,"date":"2012-07-25T15:39:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T15:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/php7.innershed.com:10000\/virtual-server\/link.cgi\/212.71.245.84\/http:\/\/www.connectafrica\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2012-11-03T12:57:13","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T12:57:13","slug":"knowledge-is-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/?p=1581","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge is power"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big smiles that greeted us when we entered the classroom were coupled with a warm welcome: \u201cGood morning sir, and how are you?\u201d Their text books covered in dust-proof \"children<\/a>plastic bags sitting neatly on their desks, the rows of students stared wide-eyed at the bunch of strangers who had just entered their classroom. Sitting as quietly as they could in the background, we interviewed head teacher Edward Haachipola on camera.<\/p>\n

He explained how communication can improve education at the school by seeing how other communities learn, as the children squirmed in the background trying not to make more noise. \u201cWe don\u2019t have nice classrooms, our school is very poor,\u201d said the head teacher escorting us back to our crew vehicles. But from what we have seen on our trip so far, it\u2019s not so much about the way schools \u2013 and the other structures we have visited like the Chief\u2019s palace this morning \u2013 look. It\u2019s about what happens in them that matters.<\/p>\n

The doctor at the clinic summed it up. \u201cKnowledge is power,\u201d he said. If the clinic is empowered with information through the internet or simply over the telephone about the latest drugs available, the community will \u201ctrust\u201d them more. Communication technology is about giving communities in small villages the chance to pick up the phone and make a phone call \u2013 to make decisions and effect outcomes.<\/p>\n

That will hopefully be there for the next generation \u2013 and it doesn\u2019t matter what the outside of a building looks like, it\u2019s empowering people to bring about changes in their own future that makes the difference.<\/p>\n

Written by Georgina Smith \/ Magic of Zambia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big smiles that greeted us when we entered the classroom were coupled with a warm welcome: \u201cGood morning sir, and how are you?\u201d Their text books covered in dust-proof plastic bags sitting neatly on their desks, the rows of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[10,49,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1581"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1585,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}