by Dr. Christelle Scharff
Happy new year!
2013 marks the 5th anniversary of MobileSenegal. It seemed like it wasn’t so long ago that I visited Senegal in 2008 and, thanks to a unique contact on the ground at that time, met with professors in Thiès. It was my third visit to Senegal and I’ve always wanted to spend more time here to work with faculty and students of local universities. The original purpose of my trip was to expand the global software development (GSD) project that I had already done with schools in Cambodia, India and Thailand by adding a country in Africa. I was already very interested in mobile for a while and it just seems right to combine all my interests into one thing — GSD, mobile, software engineering — which led to the creation of MobileSenegal, established under the umbrella of Pace University, USA later that year. In 2008 we already heard a lot about mobile for development initiatives taking place in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya, but very few projects could be associated to francophone countries of Africa including Senegal. It was a good opportunity to raise awareness of the vast potentials of mobile technology and build a community eager to embrace mobile as the next big thing.
Then, as they say, the rest is history! Please watch and share this video on our achievements of the past 5 years in capacity and community in Senegal (and beyond).
We are still a growing organization and we would love to have you take part in any of our activities. A big thank you to everyone who made MobileSenegal possible! We’ll have much more for you this year. Stay tuned!