Dear Rafiki (Friend in Kiswahili),

Jambo (Hello) and karibu (welcome) to Kenya.org.uk! An educational and informative (not-for-profit) world wide web initiative which will give you the opportunity to confront the issues facing the world using Kenya as a case study and also narrow the digital divide we face in the world today!

I began working on this project in 1997, with some of my students, Zine Boukili, Rob Stokes, Matt Long and Chris Gardiner, in our spare time and using my own funds (you could call it a labour of love)!

Wherever I go a lot of people continue to ask me about Kenya, Africa and the developing world, sharing their happy or sad memories, their love for the people and animals, or just out of their sheer curiosity or to confirm or to dispel their prejudices. I have found that the best way to teach each other is to develop the important attributes and skills in becoming independent learners of the world that we live in, by exploring, experiencing each other's cultures, reading, travelling and talking to people (even if you do not agree with them).

We live in a world gathering pace on the information superhighway, transforming lives and culture for the better and for worse. The world wide web offers us the opportunity of doing this without leaving our bed (if you have one)!, home, workplace, university or college.

I see the internet not as a substitute but part of the total communication strategy we need in the world today. Nothing should ever replace our face-to-face interaction and the joy of touch and hugs (I am a very huggable person)!

From my attempts at learning about the web and the opportunities that it offers, there were certain issues, concerns and facts that brought to me great anguish and pain. It is a sad fact of life that the world is divided not only between the "haves" and "haves not", but also between the "switched on" and switched off" communities. Did you know that people living in Manhattan, New York have a greater access to telephones and the internet than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa?

The attempt by the G8 in Okinawa 2000 to address this and other development issues is great but as someone said " You cannot eat a laptop computer" and writing off the world debt of poor nations will not be as easy until we get certain things right! Whatever the answer is, be part of the solution and not the problem!

Kenya.org.uk is here to act as a catalyst between communities or simply to inform people, whether they be the family of a warrior on the sun parched African plain or the high flyer working for the World Bank in Washington DC. Although we may live worlds apart, our day-to-mday decisions may have dire consequences, now and for generations to come.

My belief is that to promote greater global understanding, we must learn, listen, laugh, cry, play and pray together.

Education through the use of the internet will be an important tool in bridging the gap and raising awareness of the difficult challenges facing Kenya and the world.

I hope that, wherever you are, you will begin a journey, a dream, or have the opportunity to visit or revisit a place which God created for all to enjoy, a place called KENYA...

Asante sana (Thank you)

William Ang'awa.