Nakaseke has figured in a lot of stories about using ICTs in Africa. One of the original flagship UNESCO community multimedia centres, supported by IDRC and several other donors and now deriving most of its income from its own activities, Nakaseke illustrates how hard it is for even a well resourced telecentre to survive and thrive. Peter Balaba has been the coordinator for five years.

During this time the Radio station at the heart of the centre has continued to thrive and he has built up the computing resources, earning revenue through access charges and training programmes. Peter established the cost sharing scheme with local institutions for expensive internet bandwidth and invested heavily in solar power. Nakaseke is also branching out into self-sustaining agricultural demonstration schemes such as a small piggery and organic farming methods.

Peter and his team have been engaging directly with the farming community around Nakaseke. Local Content is central to the work of the radio team. In this video Peter and his colleague, Jimmy Ssenabulya describe how they work with local farmers to gather relevant content and share it through the radio. They also confirm how difficult it is to use some external content and how information from trusted sources has greater impact.