Its somewhere around 2021 a five members from Swecha AP and KLGLUG (KLU GNU/Linux Users Group) went on a journey to a tribal interior and a scenic area called Maredumilli in Andhra Pradesh to understand the cultures and living style of people. In that process we went deep inside the the villages and spoke with few people. While we kept going we never had a mobile signal deep in the forest interiors to village called Ivampalli Bhimavaram.
It kept a bit uncomfortable to me where we are used to check for an update on my mobile every once in a while :)…… I just asked the people about the mobile connectivity and to my astonishment they said they have to travel 20 kms to make a phone call and they never had access to mobile or landphone connectivity till date. I couldnt imagine my life without scrolling reels, accessing youtube videos and without sharing updates to my friends? I thought wow! they are leading a peaceful and a real life with very close to nature. You too think the same right!!!!!!!!!
Out of that excitement i asked the same how they manage their lives without network, and things became more interesting when they shared about
– A situation where they had to travel 20 kms to make an emergency phone call
– Travel a lot of distance to call ambulance
– Pregnancy deaths and miscarriages happened due to the delays
– People effected due to snake bites
– Deaths in their villages due to heart strokes and many other medical emergencies as they couldnt message during an emergency
I got hugely impacted and their stories echoed inside me and our team were discussing the same throughout our journey.
Our moods changed
Our discussions changed for the next few hours
During our dinner break we all set to do something about it. The next few days were about charting plans, gathering people, applying our knowledge, using technology, tools and equipment. In a month we went to build community networks in that village, using Linux servers, Free Software, Network equipment and a local fiber connection and enabled digital infrastructure where peope were connected to the world from their home and also able to access learning materials and tutorials over offline streaming service.
This project changed my life completely, where I transformed to a whole new person, becoming conscious about society, understood how technology and education can solve real life problems and create impact in the lives of the marginalized.
I felt, we all with our knowledge, our experience can create a huge impact in the society. Just start looking around the world, talk to people, understand their lives and with whatever LITTLE we know we can do a LOT to make this world a better place