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So far so good at Elebele STAND centre

Despite being host to one of SDN's STAND centres, Elebele still suffers from underdevelopment as this child farmworker testifies.

Watch the slideshow on life in Elebele community.

Elebele community in Bayelsa State has been home to one of SDN's STAND centres for the past two years. The centres are community run internet hubs where local people can learn new skills, organise themselves and connect to the outside world.

SDN's STAND project (Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in the Niger Delta) is aimed at reducing poverty and bringing improvements to the quality of life of communities by addressing underdevelopment, a root cause of the conflict in the region.

On 1 November 2010 SDN's staff visited Elebele community and spoke to local people about how they felt about the centre and the effect it has had on their lives.

The Chairman of the Community Development Committee (CDC) for Elebele Mr. David Osene-Osene has played an active role in the STAND centre: “It has created an unprecedented medium of sharing and disseminating information. The centre makes my community people computer literate [and] has also been used as an advocacy point.”

However the Chairman also accused officials of ignoring community voices and not allowing them to perform an active role in local governance issues.

Mr. Ebuleke Christopher, the Advocacy and Management Committee chairman explained that progress is being made, despite some of the challenges facing the centre: “Staff of the hospital have started coming because of the advocacy [carried out] by STAND Project,” he said.

It appears that, through the community advocacy initiatives, some progress has been made in Elebele and they are starting to see results including: “ICT, employment generation through internet application and it has sold the Community to the government of Bayelsa State,” says Mr. Christopher.

Unlike many communities in the Niger Delta Elebele has an electric power supply and the economic benefits of this are starting to show. Up and down the town there are small businesses springing up.

The community also has a well attended secondary school but sources of water are still something to be desired. Peoples main water supply still comes from the stream, rainwater, costly private bore-holes and 'pure water' sachets sold by street vendors – none of which are particularly safe.

A visit to the Elebele hospital by SDN staff revealed that there was, in fact, nobody there that day. The hospital was empty with all the rooms open with no medical personnel on duty and beds stripped bare.

Despite this and some of the other testimonies to the chronic underdevelopment and mismanagement that plagues the region there is a feeling in Elebele that things are changing:

“The [various local] communities are united as they now come together for their progress,” the Chairman explained.

Others interviewed were very thankful to SDN for their work at the STAND centre. Vivian Iti is grateful of the opportunity she has been given: "With the help of STAND Centre, I am now able to use the computer effectively. During the computer classes we were taught the philosophy of STAND and how to engage our local government in a non-violent manner."

With the STAND project now drawing to a close there are questions around the sustainability of the project and who will manage and run the centre once it is handed over to the community permanently. The hope is that with the new skills and opportunities they have gained, local people will be able to manage this resource and keep it functioning into the foreseeable future.