Development

What a smartphone can do

Hopeson Chatala, 25, from Chipakuza Village in Chikwawa District, coveted a smartphone, but only got one in 2020.

Before  then, he could not afford it.

Hopeson feeds his goats. | Suzgo Chitete

“Connecting with people 24/7 opens numerous opportunities in my life,” he says.

The portable gadget allows  him to  capture vital photos and data about his communities’ struggle with climate-related shocks, including floods and drought. 

The data informs his communities’ interventions to mitigate the effects of climate change, which are conducted in partnership with government agencies and partners such as the Catholic Relief Services ( CRS).

In the rural community in Paramount Chief Lundu’s  area , Hopeson is the go-to person for information about weather and climate change.

With the phone, he follows and shares news and early warnings of impending disasters for the benefit of his community.

“I’m glad to be useful to my community,” he says. “With high illiteracy, you need someone who can translate the information to a language many people understand.”

Hopeson is among 300 enumerators working in 13 districts where CRS  is implementing  the Rapid Feedback Monitoring System project with funding from USAid.

Each enumerator received a smartphone for capturing real-time data about communities’ resilience to climate change.

The initiative promotes engagement with existing community and district structures so that they understand the data they can use to lessen the frequency and severity of climate-related disasters.

Hopeson visits some 25 households in his neighbourhood to document how they cope with different shocks, including hunger worsened by El Nino-induced drought in the past growing season.

As he captures the situation on the ground, the data is automatically uploaded from the smartphone to the cloud, called Microsoft Azure, enabling near-real-time data visualisation and analysis.

The collected data helps make the community aware of how to prepare for and respond to climate-related disasters.

Hopeson says: “This is the primary use of this smartphone; it gives my community the information we need the most to survive, but the benefits go beyond the project.

“It has transformed my life and skills. Thanks to my experience and skills as an enumerator, I got a six-month contract with Illovo Sugar Malawi plc as a data entry clerk.”

The enumerators gained valuable research skills that continue to help them even off the job.

They were trained on how to capture data using a phone connected to a centralised server.

In 2022, Hopeson graduated with a certificate from the Malawi University of Science and Technology after completing an online course on processing and adding value to agricultural produce.

The smartphone proved handy when he had to attend the course from his remote locality in Chikwawa, about 100 kilometres to the university at former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s Ndata Farm in Thyolo District.

Apart from the smartphone, each enumerator received a monthly stipend of about K60 000 for an assignment that takes just about 10 percent of Hopeson’s time.

With this stipend, his family was able to bounce back after a series of disasters that devastated the Lower Shire. His homestead looks clean, yet it buzzes with chickens and goats.

“I no longer live with my mother. I graduated from that,” he brags.

His house is plastered with cement. It is complete with a smooth concrete floor and iron sheets.

Hopeson personifies a growing resilience to disasters. The livestock give him milk, meant, money and manure that help him beat hunger.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button