Today we launched a SMS service* called PamojaConnect: http://covalentglobal.org/pamoja

It connects on the web and through mobile-sms allowing everyone to be part of the conversation. One of the cool things is that with just a low-end mobile phone someone in a remote village I can send a text message to PamojaConnect. For instance, that message could tell about the work their Self-Help Group is doing to improve their native habitat — telling how it brings jobs to uneducated youth and helps prevent flooding in the area and improves the crops.

Now someone in the who lives in a remote village in Kenya has never used a computer or the internet, but they have access to a mobile phone. With PamojaConnect that message is integrated as if they used a computer. It is posted live to Pamoja where it shows up on the Google Map and is broadcast on Twitter. The message is now public and people from all over can respond.

The most important comments from people online are sent back to the mobile phone. Now the responses are visible in that village and by that specific user. This 2-way communication is truly awesome. It allows everyone to be part of the conversation: listening, learning, and responding.

With this 2-way communication it puts Covalent Global in its proper place. We are an intermediary. Here we are allowing communication to flow to foster better cultural understanding and giving decisions. The typical NGO or person from America may go to somewhere in Africa, find out about the conditions, and advocate its cause.** They raise money and often try to carryout the work themselves.

What we are doing is quite different. Covalent Global is in Africa, saw the conditions, and the opportunity for improvement. But we also saw that it is local self-help groups (SHGs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) and not foriegn NGOs that take care of most public service needs in the the communities. These groups respond to their community needs and help keep it functioning despite great adversity.

With PamojaConnect, we at Covalent Global get to step aside and let the SHGs and CBOs share their own work, ask their own questions, and let learning take place in America, in Kenya, and anywhere else.

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*Or as Demetri Martin has suggested with ATMs, we launched a ‘SMS-ervice’ since the last ‘S’ in SMS already stands for ’service’.

**This is actually quite rare. Most NGO’s and people doing charity work are not from America. Often they are European.