Longo, Building Social Networks, page 20
Remy’s responses (on left in photo)
1. These circles are a marvel for the people who are a part
of them. They work in the groups to fight poverty through
microfinance, which is a new idea in DRC. These groups
help to give the women courage because they know
someone else is willing to help them and to help push
them forward.
2. I work with 4 different circles and they each meet on a
weekly basis. They stay in touch mostly face to face. As
the groups grow and get further into the outskirts of
Lubumbashi, it would be nice to be able to communicate more by phone. This would make it
easier to stay in touch, because it’s difficult to be in contact only once a week.
3. Right now I have a cell phone but rarely use it because it’s a challenge to get the minutes.
4. I would like to use the cell phone for messages, video, photos, any option I could use. If I
had an iPhone, this would be so powerful. I would need time to understand everything about
it, but then I could teach others how to use them. These would be powerful phones in DRC,
but they are expensive. It would be great to connect to MSN [hotmail, news, etc.]. Right now
we are using Nokia phones.
5. I would like to have seamless transportation with the rural areas where people there could
bring stuff into the urban areas. This would help merchandise move with lower expense.
Telephones would improve the communication and make this situation better. I would like to
work with our microfinance groups to spend time and understand more about how we could
use cell phones so we can include funds to buy minutes in their budgets to use for business
purposes. Right now the minutes are holding them back, but they are much needed. I’m
speaking as a loan officer now.
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Convention