November 19, 2012
We're proud to announce that Kiva lenders can now support our high-impact Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) program!
Through our AppLab initiative, we've spent more than a decade successfully exploring ways to use mobile phones to improve people's lives through information sharing about such areas as healthcare, business opportunities, finances and agriculture. In Uganda, where we're focusing on agriculture, we do this through a network of "farmer leaders" nominated by their local communities to become Community Knowledge Workers.
Each CKW is equipped with a smartphone that enables them to access and share agricultural information with their neighbors — most of whom live on less than $2 a day. This info includes weather forecasts, tips for how to fight crop diseases, how-to's for new agricultural practices, market-price tracking and more. The result: better crop yields and more income for farmers.
Kiva lenders should check out the full post on Kiva's blog, with information on how your loans can fund the start-up costs of individual CKWs in Uganda .
Donors can also contribute to the Community Knowledge Worker initiative as a whole on Global Giving, or can support all of our innovative programs directly through our website.