Carl Meyer

Keshia is a Head of News & Current Affairs at Capital FM Malawi and has had over 5 years experience in the Media industry. She is passionate about radio and believes that technology is key in developing nations.   She co-founded Shift IT with the vision that through technology and access to it, youth in disadvantaged communities will have a chance to educate and empower themselves and help develop their nation.   Working in a high pressure and demanding environment means she is able to coordinate, train, mentor and manage individuals.

Tombo completed an MEng Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London in 2008. Thereafter she worked with Prime Engineering for seven years, working in the building services, renewable energy and agro- processing sectors. She completed an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from Cambridge University in 2016.

Keshia-Zara Osman  

Tombo Banda

Meet The Team With The Vision

Carl Meyer is team leader and co-founder of Shift IT. He deployed Malawi’s first country wide public hotspot network, more than 10 years ago and has considerable expierence working in the Internet Service Provider space in Africa.

Anthony Behan has been in Malawi for 26 years. He is the Managing Director and Shareholder of Healix Medical ltd and has over 15 years’ experience in this field. 

Donna Mataya is currently pursuing a Masters of Business Administration at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Additionally, Donna has a B.B.A. in Process Management & Consulting with a concentration in Marketing from The College of William & Mary, USA. She also possesses a certificate in Project Management from the University of Cape Town. Currently Donna works as a Business Consultant and a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with Imani Development in Malawi, where she has been working for the last 3 years. Primarily her work revolves around projects which work with the private sector to achieve pro poor outcomes.

Donna Mataya

Advisor

Anthony Behan

Digital Projects Manager, University of Massachusetts Amherst Manages the Open Education program at UMass Amherst. Former archivist, resident of Holyoke, MA, member of the Flywheel Arts Collective in Easthampton, MA a volunteer-run community arts space.

Jeremy Smith UMASS Team

The best way to predict the Future is to invent it

2nd floor, Umoyo House, Victoria ave, Blantyre, Malawi

KEEPOD POINTS Keepod Points are places where you can gain access to Keepod devices and use your Keepod on a content connection

NORTH

Skyband Mzuzu - INTERNET Mzuzu University - OUTERNET & INTERNET

CENTRAL 

SOUTH

Sinthana Community Learning Centre - INTERNET Mwayi Trust - RACHEL The Cricket Academy - INTERNET Chilaweni School - INTERNET & RACHEL Oleens - INTERNET Guthrie Bible Taining Centre - INTERNET Pa Nthunzi - INTERNET Blantyre National Library Service - RACHEL & OUTERNET Green Malata Children's Village - INTERNET Skyband Blantyre - INTERNET Partners In Health - Neno - INTERNET Mlambe Project & School Ulongwe - OUTERNET St Michaels Girls School Malindi - RACHEL CISER Maldeco Mangochi - INTERNET Computech Hands Makawa Mangochi - INTERNET

Kachokolo Community Day School - INTERNET Mhub - INTERNET Mua School for Deaf Children - INTERNET Wimbe Library & Primary School - RACHEL & OUTERNET Ram Tech Mthunthama - INTERNET Bishop Mackenzie International School - INTERNET Skyband Lilongwe - INTERNET Mass Media Centre Limited - INTERNET

Africa Wild Truck, Mulanje - INTERNET

SUCCESS STORY

Everlasting Life Orphan Care Centre - Zomba - INTERNET

          JP2LITI Beehive Chilimoni - INTERNET

The World Librarian Project An     estimated     fifty-three     percent     of     the     world’s population     do     not     have     Internet     access.     As     a consequence,   they   lack   information   capital   that   could be    key    toward    bettering    their    lives    in    the    way    they themselves    want    it    to    be    improved.    In    the    World Librarian   project,   teams   of   UMass   students   and   staff provide   offline   schools   and   libraries   in   rural   Malawi with   digital   content   –   text,   video,   audio   –   on   subjects that    the    schools    and    libraries    request,    rather    than having   us   choose   the   content   subjects   that   we   think they should see. We do this through: The   deployment   of   offline   WiFi   hotspots   called   RACHEL (Remote   Area   Community   Hotspot   for   Education   and Learning.   In   these   rural   offline   locations   with   the   help of    an    Information    Technology    specialist    Non    Profit organization     called     ShiftIT.     In     these     rural     school instances,   ShiftIT   is   establishing   laptop   computer   labs using    recycled    and        refurbished    machines    without hard   drives   and   small,   low   cost   USB   Google   Chrome based    operating    systems    called    “Keepod”    that    the students    can    keep    and    use    as    their    own    personal computing devices. The    creation    of    a    communication    flow    between    the Malawi     “requester”     organizations,     and     the     “World Librarian”      information      search      teams      at      UMass Amherst.     Communication     between     the     Malawian requesters    and    the    UMass    search    teams    are    done using   either   Twitter   or   a   new   email-technology   called “eMule.” Once    the    World    Librarian    team    at    UMass    Amherst receives   an   information   request,   they   search   for   open access   licensed   information   that   fits   their   needs,   and then   transfer   those   digital   files   to   ShiftIT   via   Google Drive   for   delivery   and   installation   on   the   requester’s RACHEL    device    by    a    ShiftIT    courier    or    via    eMule directly. Videos    of    ShiftIT    in    Malawi    and    examples    of    the libraries    and    schools    we    are    serving    can    be    found below as well as 2017 presentation links:

Prof. Charlie Schweik UMASS Team Leader

Professor, Environmental Conservation, Interim Director UMass Amherst School of Public Policy Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government His research focus is on public sector information technology, environmental management and policy, and the intersection of these domains.  

David Baliles  

David is a Malawi-born Technology Advisor to Shift IT, having worked in Fortune 500 to Non-Profit organizations alike. His experience in the technologies behind the likes of Salesforce, Microsoft, Centers for Disease Control and Internet providers is a welcome addition to Shift IT’s projects. David has recently led the development efforts behind our Salesforce and Heroku-based software applications & services that will help expand our influence and footprint in Malawi and other African countries.

JONATHAN CAMEROON

Read Jonathan’s story here

OpenEd17:    The    14th    Annual    Open    Education Conference October 11 – 13, 2017  ::  Anaheim, CA

Shift   IT   was   honored   and   presented   the   Award   in   Education   & Training    at    the    2016    ICT    Association    of    Malawi    -    ICTAM Innovation     Awards.     Shift     IT     is     a     Non     Profit     Company registered   in   Malawi,   providing   education   to   technical   trainers and   teachers   in   Malawi.   We   teach   how   low   cost,   sustainable education     solutions     can     change     communities,     schools, libraries     and     health     facilities     by     providing     access     to technology and open Ed information. Malawi      is      among      the      world's      least      developed      countries,     ranked      173      out      of      188      on      the      2015      Human      Development     Index.      About      74   percent      of      the      population      still      lives      below     the      income      poverty      line      of      US$1.25      a      day      and      90     percent  below  the  US$2  a  day  threshold.  Access      to      goods,      services      and      economic      opportunities      is     profoundly      unequal      across      the      population.      Lack      of      access     to      essential      foundations,      such      as      education,   to      uplift     households      out      of      poverty      is      also      inequitable.      That      being     said,        access        to        technology        for        rural        or        low-income      communities          is          expectedly          almost          non-existent.       Consequently,      the      discussions      and      interventions      on      the     digital        divide        regarding        local        ICT        development        have      resulted      in      high      level      top-down      discussions   and      strategies     by        the        ‘elite’,        failing        to        accommodate        the        critical      contribution          of          the          less          privileged          beneficiaries,       inadvertently      pushing      the      divide      between      the      elite   and     the      rural      masses      further.      If      the      introduction      and      inclusion     of      rural      or      low      income      communities      into      the      ICT      sector     continues      not      to      be      seen      as      a      priority,      we   will      not      only     realise      an      even      greater      digital      divide      but      the      potential      for     economic      growth      and      the      potential      impact      and      benefits     that  ICT  can  have  on  peoples  lives will go unrealised.

Malawi Partners