Zain implementing millenium villages

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zain (fin)

Telecommunications giant Zain Ghana is implementing a mobile communications and internet connectivity to the Millennium Village of Bonsaaso in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region to help improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of this cluster of villages and lift them out of extreme poverty.
The project is being implemented through its partnership with Ericsson and the Earth Institute.
The project, after completion, would help the people to access health and education services through their mobile phones.
The initiative, which Zain, Ericsson and the Earth Institute first outlined in September 2007 at Columbia University in New York City, has already had a positive impact on health, education, social well-being and livelihoods in Dertu, Kenya
The villagers of Dertu, who are mainly pastorialists, can now access health and education services through their mobile phones.
Mobile communications have also helped them to identify safe sources of water, mobilise emergency transportation, find employment and get accurate information on the prices of goods and services before taking their livestock and other produce to the market.
For its customers, the benefits include improved access to health and education services, direct access to livestock and employment markets, and increased social contact with family, friends and the outside world.
The project has enabled villagers to be closer to their social network.
By putting the community in touch with and closer to their friends and family, it is integrating the village into the broader environment, which is all part of Zain's theme of creating a wonderful world.
The Dertu Millennium Village is located in north-eastern Kenya, a mainly rural and nomadic area approximately 140 km from the Kenya-Somali border.
Zain has a temporary network with a 20m, diesel-run tower that covers up to 20km and brings mobile communications, enabled by EDGE, to Dertu's estimated 5200 people.
Call volumes as of July 2008 increased by 30 per cent from June, with more than 1000 individual customers using the service so far. In June alone, 22,000 calls were placed.
By the end of 2008, a permanent “green” network will be up, with a 60m tower covering 50km. The permanent site will leverage renewable power sources and will reduce reliance on the diesel generator by up to 80 per cent.
For Zain, the benefits of supporting this cause include positive public relations, improved customer relations, closer community ties, positive stakeholder engagement, and additional marketing opportunities. In the long term, it's still a recipe for a profitable business.